I dated a girl many moons ago who was a vegetarian. The first time I ordered a steak in a restaurant with her, medium rare of course, she just stared at me while I ate it. My response, “Moo”
Later on, though, she would come to my place for burgers. Last I heard she is still a vegetarian.
Never try to change a girls mind - change her emotions.
X hit the nail right on and drove it in all the way in one shot. Opinion and preferences are based on complex psychological interactions and should not be simply argued against.
On to the meat of the topic…
Arguments against meat are lame ethical stances based on opinion and no decent research. Any research touted as showning meat as bad has protein intake at 15% of calories tops, with wheat intake around 25% of total calories (80% of that wheat is refined), refined sugars at around 15% and refined vegetable oils at around 18%. And from these figures of average intakes, they try to find a correlation between long term health issues and a dietary survey that estimates intakes instead of meticulously recording intake.
These diets that are supposedly high meat are held up as cases of poor health which is obviously related to the poor micronutrient density of 50-60% of the diet which comes from empty calories. Most vegetarian diets are really breadatarian diets with the already low protein intake taken from different sources. The actual performance of these diets is worse than the standard western diet as macro and micronutrient intake does not change much.
Now there are some people who follow a balanced vegetarian diet and are able to get all the nutrients they require and them some, but this is a very small part of the population. This is usually also lacto-ovo-pesco styles as opposed to vegan.
As for people clinging to beliefs about diet, realize that this is a matter of faith, not science. Food and taboos surrounding it is one of the largest differentiators of cultural behavior. Often a person who is drawn to these beliefs and actions has had their emotions toyed with and those on the veggie side are some of the most heinous in using the same types of mind tricks and power moves previously used by cults and religions to control people.
I have known 3 people who were veggies. One a male friend was a vegan complaining of feeling like shit. I told him he needed meat. The best argument he had was economic. I sent him pictures of New Zealand cows and sheep grazing on mountains were no crop could be reasonably grown, yet meat production represented an environmentally sound and economically optimal resource extraction. When I saw him a few months later, he looked far healthier and had put on 20 pounds of muscle without lifting and was full of energy. Simply showing him that the worst case scenario was not representative of reality was enough to get him to stop feeling guilty about being a spoiled upper-middle class kid using vegetarianism as a social/status tool.
The second case is another male friend who has an inborn genetic condition that is exacerbated by certain amino acids. He is on a very carefully controlled and monitored diet that works for him. He eats animal protein as often as he can get away with, but it is almost never. I would never dream of trying to influence his intake.
The third is a female friend. I know that the reasons she has is somewhat similar to the first case, but she eats dairy and sometimes fish. Instead of launching the full press as I did with my male friend, I try to emphasize what she does well (dairy, vegetable, fruits, healthy fats) rather than what is wrong, because then she wouldn’t talk at all.
With such choices, it is important to realize that there is often a spiritual/yearning to follow a path to enlightenment component that if you cannot provide as part of your pro-meat rant, they will dismiss all you say even though they may agree with more than they disagree with. This combined with the psychological aspects of who may be influencing these ideas in the first place may allow you to see why a person is prone to following such a plan that seems to offer nothing to its adherents.
[quote]CthruPants wrote:
Himora22 wrote:
Isn’t taking up weighlifting for the first time going off on a whim without any real reason/knowledge?[/quote]
Not for me it wasnt. My Moms husband at the time was a Body builder and my Dad is one. Plus I was playing football at the time.
[quote]Chickenmcnug wrote:
Himora22 wrote:
Chickenmcnug wrote:
You don’t need to eat meat to be healthy. You just have to come up with ways to get your nutrients elsewhere. Technically a lacto-ovo-vegetarian diet is one of the most healthy diets ever.
Maybe the problem is not her, but your preconcieved notions of what is right.
First I just want to say that ppl as a whole are stupid
Maybe the problem is that the VAST MAJORTIY of ppl go off on a wim without any real reason/knowleg of what they are really doing and how to get the “nutrients elsewhere”. Im sry but it just iratates me.
Very true. Eating for substanance should be the last thing that should be turned into a science. But without a little forthought problems can arise going both ways. The guy eating the meat might not have the knowledge/reasoning to control his intakes. I constantly see diet logs of people eating meat with every meal.
How the average person eats has a lot to do with morals, ethics, their upbringing, location, etc. There is more to it that “you are stupid for being vege”. And does she really need a legitimate reason to try it? Its not like this is a tattoo or something irreversable.[/quote]
I see where your going and I fallow. But I just think doing most anything on a whim is never a good idea, not something so drastic anyway. As for Tattoos I have several and put alot of though and time into them. My best friend works at a tattoo shop and it drives us up the wall to see ppl walk in and pull something off the wall.
It seems to me that that is what she is doing pulling something off the wall with out any real thought. i could be wrong though, wouldnt be the first time.
want her to not be a vego?
Hypospadias
Hypospadias is a birth defect of the urethra in the male that involves an abnormally placed urinary meatus (opening). Instead of opening at the tip of the glans of the penis, a hypospadic urethra opens anywhere along a line (the urethral groove) running from the tip along the underside (ventral aspect) of the shaft to the junction of the penis and scrotum or perineum. A distal hypospadias may be suspected even in an uncircumcised boy from an abnormally formed foreskin and downward tilt of the glans.
So here it is in English:
Your male child is going to be born a transsexual, have to go through painful and often unsuccessful gender re-assignment surgery, is going to piss out their ass, wont grow up to be “manly” and will have to be on HRT from a young age, and have a small dick to boot.
and it occurs 10 times more often in children with a vegetarian parent. Even higher if both are vegos.
[quote]Jin wrote:
Tell her no.
But really, it might just be a phase…[/quote]
I would bet that it mostly likely IS a phase. I’ve known a lot of people that cut meat out of their diets for whatever reason. It never lasts. However, if she’s consciously making a decision concerning her health, then let her be. Just don’t let her go vegan.
PS-> Jin, I’ve seen the video your avatar is from. Good stuff.
As long as she still sucks your sausage don’t worrry about it.
As long as she still swallows who cares?
But seriously,
She will probably snap out of it like most people that attempt a vegetarian lifestyle.
Ultimately if it doesnt interfere with you let her make her own mistakes
ProfX is correct, it is an exercise in futility. So think of it this way, you get to eat her would be portion of steak
After she’s been on it a couple weeks, cook a glorious steak in front of her.
Actually, why does it bother you? Who gives a shit, do you buy her food for her? And as long as she doesn’t get too didactic, I see no problem here.
Tell her she will get fat or look like this. Seems to be most of women’s fears when discussing diet’s or workouts. lol 
Don’t tell her to stop 99% of the people who try vegan/vegetarian diets quit it any way. I’m a lacto-ovo-vegetarian ( i eat fish too so i guess you could add pesco) soooo please tell her NOT to bitch and preach to others about how shes saving the world/animals/what ever else. It gives us a bad name and its annoying.