When you hear the word “vegetarian,” what comes to mind? To my sister, it means not being able to split chicken Parmesan with me at her favorite Italian restaurant – therefore, I’m just a burden, taking up space at the dinner table. To others, it means a liberal hippie who preaches about “saving the animals” and “protecting the environment.” To me, however, it means not eating meat because fillers and additives don’t sound quite as appetizing as a salad with fresh veggies. Who wants to eat animal trimmings and chemicals anyway?

Contrary to popular belief, this is not a photo of me. I would never walk out of the house in a green and black stripped shirt.

I know what you’re thinking, "This girl doesn’t know what she’s missing out on." Actually, yes, I do know what I’m missing out on — and that would be obesity and heart disease (ouch).

Once upon a time, I too ate steak, chicken fingers, cheeseburgers — you name it. That all changed one day during my senior year of high school. To set the scene, my social studies class and I were reading an article about how my once-favorite delicacies were made. As soon as I realized that bacon cheeseburgers were made with fillers and excess animal parts (along with a sprinkle of commercialism), I was turned off from meat faster than you can say, “BLT.”

Again, I know what you’re thinking, "If she doesn’t eat meat, then what does she eat?" The answer is simple — everything (OK, maybe not everything, but you know what I mean). I love a toasted everything bagel with cream cheese just as much as the next 20-some odd girl from Long Island does. Speaking of Long Island, nothing beats an everything bagel with iced coffee for breakfast, especially after a night out in the city, just saying.

Now that I’ve established my love for bagels, I’ll get a little more into my distaste for meat. There have been many times where I not only debated ordering a bacon cheeseburger for dinner, but also salivated at the thought of it. Next thing I know, I picture myself biting into the burger and question how it was made and where it was before entering my mouth. Immediately, I’m turned off by the thought of ingesting processed meats via emulsifiers and artificial flavorings. For these exact reasons, I stick to bean and veggie burgers, which happen to be delicious — for all you nonbelievers out there.

This is what your hot dog looks like before it's in dog form. Just let that sink in.

Don’t get me wrong — I’m not trying to persuade you to never eat meat again. All I’m saying is that when the next person asks me if I miss it, I can happily tell them that no, I do not miss eating foods that are processed and packaged to resemble male genitalia – there I said it. On that note, hot dogs are mine (and probably many other vegetarians) mortal enemy. Why anyone would want to eat pork, chicken and other questionable ingredients is beyond me, especially after being emulsified and stuffed into a cellulose casing.

Now that you’ve (maybe) taken the time to read why I can’t stand to eat meat, I can only hope that you learned at least one thing — as annoying as us vegetarians are, vegans are still the absolute worst.