Vegetarians

A lot of people seem to think I am a vegetarian. When I was at school my boyfriends Mum was so convinced that she kindly bought me some vegetarian cookbooks to take to uni with me. Maybe I look like a vegetarian, if there is such a look, though most likely, it is because I have a slight phobia of processed meat and so don't really eat any meat that often.

I am known though, sometimes, to have a bit of a rant about vegetarians. Whilst I think it's very admirable to be a vegetarian and certainly much better for the environment, I get very annoyed by vegetarians who aren't really. Most vegetarians I know eat fish.

The definition of a vegetarian is: "Noun: A person who does not eat meat, and sometimes other animal products, esp. for moral, religious, or health reasons."

The definition of meat is: "Noun:The flesh of an animal as food."

The definition of an animal is: "Noun: A living organism that feeds on organic matter, typically having specialized sense organs and nervous system and able to respond rapidly to stimuli."

Therefore, they are not vegetarians if they eat fish. Luckily, my closest "vegetarian" friend has accepted my rants about this and calls herself a ovolactopescatarian, although probably only to me. I call her pesky, but that doesn't have much to do with her eating habits.

Similarly, it also annoys me when vegetarians eat sweets containing gelatin, especially when they're my Haribo. I will only accept that if they admit that they are not really vegetarians.

One of the 'most' read BBC news articles today was 'The Unusual Uses for Body Parts'. When I initially read the heading I wondered if it was something to do with the boy in China who sold his kidney to buy an ipad but no, just some other things to do with a cow once you've had your tasty steak!

I never realised that Bone China was actually made from bones!! I know, I know, it is in the name but I thought that was because bone china looks slightly translucent and fragile - like bones. I didn't realise that it actually had bone in it!!

We've been discussing this at work today and it turns out that I am not alone and most people did not realise this either. One of the directors did though as a while ago Boden sold some cups and mugs. For these to be sent to America, the warehouse had a list of ingredients, for the customs declarations and this included cow bones. Apparently, this shocked some of our Hindu warehouse staff, who had never put the link together. As Hindu's consider cows to be sacred animals, it's not really the done thing to drink your tea out of one of their legs.

So should vegetarians drink out of bone china cups? And eating of bone china plates? Essentially, it's like licking a cow. I wonder if vegetarians are allowed to lick cows?