Vegans, a new study has found, are grossed out by sex with meat eaters, and some so-called "vegansexuals" only want to roll in the alfalfa with other super strict vegetarians.
A recent study conducted in New Zealand found that vegans — notoriously finicky eaters who don't eat meat or animal byproducts, like eggs and dairy — don't like the idea of swapping spit (or anything else) with those who have been dining on flesh.
Annie Potts, a researcher at the University of Canterbury's Centre for Human-Animal Studies, noted that vegans, particularly women, found sex with meat eaters disgusting.
Vegans, she told ABC News.com from New Zealand, don't like sex with carnivores, for personal reasons: "They're attracted to people with similar interests;" ideological reasons: "they see meat eaters' bodies as being composed of the lives of others;" and sexual reasons: "they didn't want to engage in intimate sex ... because of the smells and tastes of their body fluids."
Potts sampled 157 vegans, 120 of whom were female.
All of the women, according to Potts, fell along a continuum. Some expressed discontent with being with meat-eating men, while others would sleep only with other vegans.
"It is totally, totally true," said Janna Cunnigham, a 46-year-old Brooklyn, N.Y., native, about the smells and tastes of carnivores.
"Their body odor is pungent. Their sweat is extremely smelly. Their spit, and all their body fluids, are strong and stinky. Vegetarian people are not so smelly," Cunningham, who has been a vegetarian for 32 years, and a vegan for 10, told ABC News.com.
Cunningham added that she has dated both meat eaters and vegetarians, but would stick to seeing only vegetarians in the future.
While PETA, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, has long advocated people give up meat and go vegetarian, the animal rights group has its misgivings about vegans only sleeping with other vegans.
"Sex is a very effective form of outreach and activism," said Dan Shannon, a PETA spokesman, and 10-year veteran vegan, who thought meat eaters could be converted by their partners.
Shannon said he knew vegans who dated vegans exclusively, but suggested that acting repulsed by the scent of your date probably wasn't the best way to change his or her mind about veganism.
Potts said PETA's attitude differed from what was a very personal sentiment on the part of vegans who participated in the survey.
"PETA is taking a political position by using the bedroom to recruit vegans — this is about intimate relationships."
Potts added that more women responded to her survey than men, but those men who did respond were less likely to be disgusted about having sex with meat eaters.
"As far as I'm concerned, it doesn't matter too much to me," said Mike Hartikka, a 20-year-old vegan from San Diego, who has been in relationships with meat eaters and vegetarians.
But, he says, when it comes to long-term relationships, he would rather be with vegetarians or vegans.
That sentiment is borne out by Potts' research.
"It is really not that unusual that people want to be in relationships with those who they have things in common," she said.
I mean, why wouldn't we, or at least anyone with integrity? Being Vegan says a lot about who you are and how you perceive and think about the world around you, and the planet, so hell yeah it makes sense that we'd rather be with people of like minds.
I'm going to put it out there Glen, as a species we are without doubt omniverous, we are cetainly not vegetarian nor only carniverous but shit, I love burnt, dead animal flesh, cow, lamb, pig, and sashimi, continental sausages, offal, game, no to whale, dolphin, turtle and shark fin . . . I'd die of culinary boredom if I was forced to eat against the nature of the general physiological makeup of being a human being. On this one mate, we're poles apart.
ReplyDeleteI'm going to just put it out there WLP, one word explains your comment, ignorance. Not to be crude or harsh, it's just obvious your stating a personal opinion from personal experience, which is fine, it's just not the reality of the situation. Read on, speak to vegans get some more information, you'll see everything is not always as it seems.
DeletepeacE.
Glen, at further risk of sounding ignorant, isn't it all about a personal preference ? However, in the scientific/genetic, anthropological, biological and historical sense, is man as a species not still generally and naturally predisposed to being omniverous by nature ? I'm certainly not sledging an individual's choice to be a vegan or even a vegatarian, my point is that they make that choice almost against their body's genetic eating code, does that make sense ? Apologies for being deliberately inflammatory with my rave on the delights of fleshy pleasures, peace and respect back at you, as always.
DeleteSure if you prefer to contribute to the suffering of the animals, the destruction of the planet, and increasing the chances of cancers in your own body, indeed you can see as a personal preference. But may i correct you or instruct you to do a little more research into the anthropological and biological history area where i believe you have been mistaken. People can not eat raw meat without getting deathly ill, so what did we do before fire to cook it? do humans teeth look like those of carnivores? not at all, look at cows and horses, look at our digestive systems , even after millions of years of evolution they look way way more like that of herbivores than carnivores, we have the capacity to eat cooked meat, but look at how it destroys our bodies and causes disease, all you need to do is read a few unbiased towards the meat and dairy , agricultural industrial complex systems, and you will clearly and obviously learn some things that you may be misunderstanding at the moment. thanks for your honest and polite queries.
DeleteThere is more research to do before assuming that people aren't capable of eating raw meat with out getting sick. In fact, it's the only healthy way to eat meat. When you cook fats and oils, they turn into cancer-causing free radicals in the body. If you're going to eat animals, they must be treated with love, free-ranged, and organically raised. It's quite different from the conventional, waste-producing, large-scale way that is actually destroying the planet. Things aren't just black or white, good or evil. On a side note, veganism is not exempt from the destruction of the planet if the motive does not also include avoidance of genetically modified foods, which also distort nature.
DeleteHello, I'm new here. First and foremost, I love this blog. (Fun fact: I stumbled upon it after Googling the word "inconsolable".)
ReplyDeleteThat said, I often think about the vegan/vegetarian vs. omnivore argument. Yes -- man, as a species, has always eaten meat, but that was the case "back in the caveman days" because there really were no other options -- obtaining nutrients from widely diverse sources wasn't really possible. Nowadays, we have access to a plethora of wonderful food from around the world, so naturally, we have more options when it comes to getting the proper nutrients we need as human beings. Early humans needed the proteins found in meat to compensate for the energy expended during hunting and their active lifestyles in general, and obviously, humans today are not running for their lives from predators or killing beasts on the regular. So ... is veganism/vegetarianism really going against "the laws of nature"? What exactly are the laws of nature?
Also, I find it ironic that the vitamin B12 deficiency commonly found in vegans leads to an increased risk of coronary heart disease. (Waldmann, 2005).