There's an additional
factor to those mentioned above that applies to this topic, as least as far as I and some of my
vegetarian friends are concerned: even if I tried to eat
meat, I would probably
vomit if I knowingly did so. This isn't from some overwhelming, arrogant
moral principle... it's just that I made the choice to become a
vegetarian back when I was four years old, and eating meat now seems (subconsciously) to me like eating (for instance)
soap, or
iron filings.
I've not eaten meat for so long that the notion of it now repulses me. I don't object to friends eating meat right next to me; I'd be a bigot if I did. I regularly eat meat substitutes. Hell, I even sometimes feel incredibly tempted (and hungry) when passing hotdog stands and fried chicken restaurants. But it still feels oddly wrong, somehow, for meat to pass my lips. On those occasions where I've eaten a dish only to find out half way through that it contains meat, I've normally had to rush to the toilet, to stop myself being sick. I'm sure it's massively rude to do so, but despite the best of intentions, I can't help myself.