Thanks for the comment. It certainly is a complex issue and I think I have yet to settle with it,

Example 1 had little to no respect for my decision. I became vegetarian midway through our relationship, and whenever the topic of food was bought up, the mocking began. She then went vegetarian as a fad diet, but quickly gave up. Needless to say, I saw her true colours around that time.
Example 2 tried becoming vegetarian, but I dont think she did it for any of her own moral reasons. She stopped immediately after we broke up.
Example 3 is vegetarian. We share similar views on food and animal rights, and it’s fantastic. It’s something we have a real connection over, and I think after her I would find it hard to have a relationship with someone that ate meat.

I do not mean to say you cannot be happy with someone who eats differently, but you definately cannot be happy with someone that doesn’t respect your decision. I don’t want anybody to do it just because I do, or because its the ‘hip’ thing, i want them to examine the evidence and make their own decision about it.

Having said that, I didn’t live with any of them, but I have lived with a friend that eats a lot of red meat and he drove me completely insane. He didn’t show any kind of remorse, his food stank out the entire flat, he would leave meat all over the fridge… It became quite hard to stop myself from becoming the zealous veggie crusader that lies within all of us.

Perhaps if i was in a relationship with somebody that ate meat and I lived with them, it would aggrovate me a lot more. In the end, it is a decision that can tell you a lot about the character of the person.

Thanks for the kind comment, I hope things work out for you. I actually need to update my story, I just don’t want her reading it !

If you find yourself strangely attracted to an omnivore, you’ve got a lot more chance of educating them by respecting their choices, than by making them feel like they’ve got a choice between “me or your stomach”. I imagine it’s an ultimatum (whether real or imagined) that would turn most people off.

When I first met my partner, I was insistent on him graduating to vegetarianism. It caused a few arguments, and we quite easily could have gone our separate ways over it, but when I made the conscious decision to ‘let go’, all that tension drained away.

Nearly four years later and he still loves his chicken and beef, but he’s developed a respect that he never had before, which – for me – is the better outcome.

It all comes down to personal choice in the end, I suppose. Like religious people vowing to only ever marry someone of the same faith; or white supremacists refusing to date anyone not Caucasian (I don’t intend to associate the negative stigmas with you, of course).

If you want people to follow your beliefs, then so be it. However it would be a shame to let an otherwise healthy relationship fall apart because of it.

-mike