The real pain is when they try to convince people it tastes just like meat. Sorry you haven't eaten meat in 10 years and obviously have no idea what it tastes like. So stop trying. You aren't fooling anyone.

Maybe it's like protective coloration.

I was reading something about people who are big meat-eaters smelling bad or different to vegans. It made me envision giving a big toothy grin to a vegan who said that, and replying "Is that so? You smell really, really goooodddd to me!"

Unless they try to disguise the herbivore smell from the carnivore with patchouli. That would drive me off like garlic to a vampire!

I'm a pizza and (real) cheeseburger connisseur, but for you vegetarians and meat eaters alike here is the best damn meatless cheeseburger recipe I've ever found:

http://wedonthaveone.com/anasazi_recipe.htm

I bet even you would like it Amy!

It's an unpleasant shock, texture and taste-wise, to bite into something that looks hearty and tasty, and feels like *&^)$%.

herbivore smell from the carnivore with patchouli. That would drive me off like garlic to a vampire!

Patchouli smells like b.o.

I vaguely remembering a journal article I read once that had looked at diet and the taste of semen and vaginal fluids (I know, I have unusual research interests, but it's always good to have interesting tidbits when you teach sexuality classes at college :-)) and if I remember correctly meateaters have stronger tasting/less appealing bodily fluids.

Catherine- my wife used to go crazy when I would drink 7 & 7's or pina coladas. Jesus, that was a long time ago.

Well I definitely know food effects body odor. I was stationed in Korea and was living downtown with a Korean lady and eating their diet (very heavy in garlic, onions, and other spices).

I worked in a zone that had Korean/USAF mixed areas and USAF only zones. After a few months, I walked into the USAF only area. A guy sniffed and then said, without looking up, "Who left the Korean in here?"

It was me. ;-)

Oh come ON, if you're going to veggie-bait, be original!!! Like we've never heard this one before.

It isn't the texture or look of meat that vegetarians have a problem with.

Amy, if you post the old "So if you were on a desert island with nothing but a steak, would you eat it?" I swear I will shoot someone*.

Come on. Get creative with your veggie-baiting. Make me scream because you've come up with something brilliant, not because you're making the same comments we've heard a thousand times.

Although, one time, when I was eating some seitan, a coworker made the same comment and said "If they made seitan in the shape of babies, would you eat it?" To which I replied... "Absolutely."

* This is hyperbole, not a terroristic threat. Please don't sue me.

To add to the previous post, tell Gregg I expect more creativity from him.

NicoleK: But will you eat what you shoot? ;)

(That one ok?) :)

I have been a vegetarian/vegan off and on since I was 13. I am now 43. Veggies eat stuff that looks like "meat" for variety, something different that didnt have a mother. I am not the PETA type who throws paint on women who wear fur coats. I like the Tofurky slices; I dont like the loaf with the dressing inside (its nasty). I eat veggie hot dogs (no they dont taste like meat)which are ok (its kind of hard to roast tofu on a stick over a fire or BBQ hot dogs....and having white tofu on a bun with relish, mustard and ketchup doesnt sound appealling). Besides Seventh Day Adventists living 10 years on average longer than others, I dont eat meat because of the following reasons:

cows still have mad cow disease going thru herds...which in humans mimicks alzheimers.
I worked as a meat cutters assistant...so I KNOW what they do with meat that would turn your stomach....stinky whole chickens that should be thrown away are soaked in bleach water to get the smell out and lots of BBQ thrown on and placed in the rotisserie.

meat packers cut cancerous tumors off and let the animal pass through to your table.

Chickens are soaked in chemicals and water which includes all kinds of nasty stuff including feces.

hot dogs and bologna are the scrap heaps of meat packing plants, lips, eyes, ears, skin, whatever they can use is thrown in to make hotdogs....so, I would have a veggie dog ANYTIME.

eating pigs is like eating a rat, dog, a vulture or other scavengers.

Meat is actually tasteless, what gives it the taste is blood and uric acid (which is urine essentially) The Bible gives the manner in which meat was to be prepared....the blood fully drained and the meat boiled in water...

chicken farmers have a higher leukemia rate than the general population.

At this point in time, I eat a little chicken and eggs once in a while. I eat salmon.. but for the most part, I eat a vegetarian diet...soy milk, morning star farms stuff most of which is not bad (i have had worse).

cows still have mad cow disease going thru herds...

Seeing as how BSE is a natural ailment - though extremely rare - that would stand to reason.

Soy beans are prone to soybean rust, any of a hundred varieties, which is a fungus, and toxic. Kills the plant and it's not much better for you. [Crop farmers are even less picky about what they run through their harvesters than slaughterhouses are about what runs through their lines; if every fourth soybean plant is infected with rust, ain't a farmer on the planet going to pluck them out before harvesting.]

Does that put you off soy? You're far more likely to get fungal eating soy products than you are to get holes in your brain from eating beef. There's been 3 whole cases of BSE in the US between 93 and 08. Of the millions of cattle...? you can do math.

Vegetarians have a few good points - but only a few. They choose what they choose, and that's fine. The problems come in when they try to explain their choice - as if they have to justify it - for typically they will load up on rationalizations such as you did.

"Meat packing turns stomachs". So does septic system cleaning. So what? Are we going to see a new cult of The Shitless because human poop is disgusting? Your veggie and that's fine. Leave the rationalizations out of it.

Realizing how little I know about vegetarianism, I did a little research. Not a whole lot, just enough to learn I'm quite content to be an omnivore, and can eat almost anything, bwahahahaha!

Sorry. Anyway, after reading about semi- lacto- and ova- vegetarians, as opposed to vegans, and on top of that the ones who argue over Raw vegies over Cooked, I got hungry and had a veggie omelet with a side of bacon.

Eat what I shoot! If I ever shot someone in self-defense, I'd have to become a cannibal! Eek!

Tho I've always said, if I'm ever gonna fall off the wagon... might as well fall hard!!!

Smells we get from our food: It ain't just meat that makes our, uh, exudations smell peculiar. Don't eat asparagus, for example, if you think you might be scoring a blowjob later on. Or even if you expect to pee in company.

Some years back I was doing Weight Watchers and they had a meatless "chili" recipe that was so delicious I ended up pretty much living on it (and lost 50 pounds, too!). The only change I made to their recipe was that I kept adding garlic to it, and by the time it was "perfected" I was using about 30 cloves per batch. Boy was that good! And the garlic was sauteed first, then cooked in the chili for a couple hours, so it was pretty mellow.
Well. One day I was in a car accident (damfool bimbo on cell phone turned across three lanes of traffic, without signaling, to get into a Starbuck's, totaling my Honda along the way) and had to go to the emergency room. Of course the experience had opened every pore of my body in a cold sweat, so the nurse comes into the examining room, gasps "Garlic!!" and rushes out. Later she returned, much abashed, and explained that she was three months pregnant and her sense of smell was particularly acute. And THAT, dear children, was the first time I realized that I was packin' enough garlic in my body to clear Transylvania of vampires in an afternoon's stroll.