I don't like feeling snobby and superior to people, but there are times when that is my natural reaction. There are few choices/opinions/beliefs in my life in which I have total confidence ...the love and devotion I have for my family is one. Another is the way I choose to eat. I don't eat meat and I know it's right for me. I also love to try new things to eat, to learn about new cultures of cooking. I'm not SOPHISTICATED in a general sense, unless you compare me to the people I work around. They annoy me when they give me a hard time about what I eat, about what I know about food. And I get indignant! The nerve! THEY have the gall to make fun of ME? They don't even know what an artichoke is, what feta cheese is, what paella or a frittata, or baba ganouj is!! They've never heard of it and they laugh at me and then go on about how they enjoy canned chicken breasts or hamburger in their macaroni and cheese. And I feel superior. And then I feel guilty for judging them so harshly.

And some people, so insensitive. Insisting something isn't really meat..."you can eat that!" What are you, my mother? Respect my decision! But then, on the other hand, if I expect people to accept my decisions, shouldn't I also respect their choices to eat what I think is garbage?

Just imagine two people eating lunch at the same table. Both looking in disgust and confusion at the others' meal. Like the Breakfast Club.

Claire - "can I eat?"

Bender - "I don't know. Give it a try."

well, you can accept others without accepting hteir abuse or harassment of you. make clear boundaries.

yeah sometimes I feel superior to people who don't know what eggplants or curry or sushi is (yes, I know someone who doesn't know what sushi is). I mean they think there is nothing for me to eat, but they are so picky and afraid to try new foods that they don't even know that there is other food in existence besides american cuisine? But then I tell myself, "ahh...they were just raised that way, it's not their fault." Then I feel sorry for them for not knowing what curry is, and I tell them they should try it. :lick:

Just cause you think what they eat is disgusting, doesn't mean you can't respect their choice. I find myself looking down on people when I see someone eating a smelly Big Mac or something, more so, i feel sorry for them, in a weird kinda way. But hey, I eat a lot of crap too, it's just not meat.

That happens to me sometimes too, where I'm living. I think that maybe a part of it is that people care about different things, so it seems to me that they know jack, but they may just have different knowledge than I do and it never came up. Examples:

One neighbour who appears to do nothing but yell and drink is actually a mechanical engineer with an impressive resume. My dad knows nothing but meat and potatoes when it comes to food, but he can run circles around "hot shot" business men and knows pretty much every classic novel ever written intimately. I'm also dismissed as a moron by most people, which would explain why they appear so openly baffled when their attempts to take advantage backfire.

I try to remember things like that when I start thinking that someone is a dumbass. Some of them really are dumbasses but it's best to give everyone the benefit of the doubt.

lol. This makes me think of when at a get-together, someone offers me something. I politely decline, and they immediately say "But there's no meat in it!" Like you can't just not want something. As well as the fact that nobody expects an omni to eat some of EVERYTHING on the table just because it's something they "can" eat.

When I was growing up, my mom was to most people,"weird,strange,quirky ect.." because of the things we ate and our activities, even the way we dressed. Examples-in the 70's I grew up eating Indian food,cooking in a solar oven and wearing birkinstocks and our family voluntered and had partys to help the homeless and mentally ill. I will always thank my mom for being so different and I am so proud of how she raised me, because I grew up just like her and I really don't care what other people say because I love that I am a little different too and when my friends call me a strange bird, and they call me that alot...I always get a smile on my face. :)
Alene