I’m Vegetarian and I Don’t Live In A Dorm

The Assumption I Eat Nothing But Processed Foods

Very recently I posted on an online forum asking for help with a weight loss plateau. I gave the relevant information -and answered any further questions asked of me- so that trainers and fellow work-out buddies alike could give me some much needed insight. At first I was getting some good suggestions about different variables to look at (e.g., water consumption) as well as making sure that I eat enough food considering that i’m a vegetarian. As I continued to ask different questions for clarification (e.g., how much is too little protein) so that I could test these recommendations in the upcoming weeks the thread suddenly turned into a ‘clean eating’ platform. More specifically, several people came on and started to tell me how “just because you’re a vegetarian doesn’t mean you will lose weight” and “vegetarians can be fat too since you’re eating nothing but processed foods.” I politely ignored these comments and filtered to the more useful ones but it still got me thinking: why the assumption that I eat nothing but processed foods? I said I was vegetarian, not that I lived in a dorm.

I decided to clarify that I totally agree with the concept of cooking with raw and/or in season ingredients and practice that every day….and still the comments came. Suddenly I realized that I wasn’t being told about proper diet or how to lose weight, I was being told about a fashion-trend. These people weren’t giving me advice on how to make sure I have a balanced diet, they were telling me what Gwenyth Paltrow was saying in her book, or what their intagram/tumblr/twitter friends were posting online. I was getting buzz words thrown at me that were all intended for the fast food nation audience. If I said McDonalds’ new pink slime burger was ‘clean’ some of them might have jumped on whole heartedly to be the first to post the tumblr ‘selfie’ complete with #cleaneating hashtags all over the place.

I just wanted to get that off of my chest.