My Cousin Mocked My Diet—Until Karma Taught Him a Lesson

We all have our dietary preferences, be it for health, longevity, budget, or taste. What we eat is a personal choice, and while others may offer advice on our eating habits, no one has the right to infringe upon another person’s habits or mock them. This is exactly what happened to one Redditor who shared his story, torn between feeling bad about his cousin and laughing at the whole situation.

This is what happened:

Over the past few years, I’ve been cleaning up my diet and trying to live a healthier life. While I’m not a vegetarian, I have a preference for vegetarian food, and I have completely cut out pork and only have steak on my birthday and on vacation. Other than that, I eat white meat and a lot of vegetables. It’s gotten to the point that many of my favorite meals are vegetarian.

About two years ago, my wife and I met up with a cousin that I used to be close with, but have drifted apart from over the past couple of years. We went to a restaurant, and I ordered a vegetarian dish. You might think, “so what?” and so did I. I literally just ordered it because it looked good. But apparently, to my cousin, this was basically an assault on his entire belief system.

He made several comments about it during dinner, and the whole mood just shifted. After that, he went out of his way to avoid vegetables just to spite me. Like, the dude would send me pictures of nothing but meat on a plate just to... I don’t even know, get a rise out of me or something?

He also brought it up to several other family members, saying that college has changed me. The whole thing really didn’t make sense to me, since again, I’m not a vegetarian... I just eat a lot of vegetables. I only talked to him maybe once or twice after the incident because it was really weird, and both times he made sure to bring up how he doesn’t eat any vegetables at all.

Well, we’re now at about the two-year anniversary of this incident, and I just heard through the grapevine that my cousin has gout. The worst part is that he works in a warehouse, so he’s completely unable to work while dealing with this.

I do feel genuinely bad for the man, but also, this whole thing is a bit ridiculous. I haven’t even talked to him in over a year at this point, other than the occasional Snapchat he sends me of his all-meat dinners.

Many people on Reddit agreed with the OP (original poster), saying they had encountered people like this in their friends and family circle before, supporting the OP and standing by his meal choices.

• I’ve seen this kind of thing before. I’m guessing he felt that your choice was an attack on him and his lifestyle—totally nonsensical, but people and their feelings don’t always make sense. © W**shok / Reddit
• If you ever go to the vegan sub, you’ll see trolls pop in there all the time saying “I’m going to eat twice as much bacon to make up for you” and I genuinely believe they take it as a challenge. Not sure why other people’s way of eating is such a point of conflict for some. © mezasu123 / Reddit
• That was always so weird for me. I’m a guy and have been a vegetarian since I was a teenager, and it’s still so perplexing how many people think that because I don’t eat meat I’m suddenly a completely different person than the one they knew 5 minutes before I ordered a veggie burger, lol. I originally went veggie to support my sister when she did it, but it solved a lot of health issues I had and just decided to stay with it even though she eventually did quit. © Ghosty412 / Reddit
• I’m a proud meat eater, but there are plenty of vegetarian/vegan dishes that are just objectively tasty. I often find vegans in particular very preachy, but there’s nothing offensive to me about the act of eating a meal with no meat in it. Does this guy also lose his temper when someone eats a PB&J sandwich? © bionicjoey / Reddit

Others offered advice and empathy, given they had experience with gout.

• I ate very poorly when I was in college—no kitchen in my dorm to cook, dorm food was gross—and got gout as a result. My big toe and whole forefoot was SO painful for days, I could barely hobble around. I wouldn’t wish gout on anyone. © More_Flat_Tigers / Reddit
• Gout is a metabolic disorder. I have an atypical presentation. He really needs to drink a lot of water. Think gallon/day plus! I drink straight lemon juice. Sometimes, a teaspoon of baking soda in water. When it gets bad, you have to drink lots of water after.
  Avoiding purines helps, asparagus and turkey are just as bad, although I miss asparagus. Oh, and forget any cold cuts, the nitrates really seem to spike purine production. I used to love salami! © null640 / Reddit
• I was diagnosed with gout recently, and I was talking about it yesterday with a cousin because it’s genetic, so I wanted them to be aware. I told her most cases nowadays are genetic, but I guess your cousin wanted to prove that wrong, lol. He’s in for a bumpy ride, once you have gout it has no cure. You can manage it with medication and live a good life, though. © LauraZaid11 / Reddit

There was also some practical advice for the Redditor to simply forget about it, and move on.

• Does your cousin blame you for his condition? If not, I wouldn’t think much of it. You didn’t preach to him about your eating choices or try to convince him to do what you’re doing. You weren’t taking away access to vegetables, nor were you forcing him to eat the way he did. He made a choice, and while he did it to spite you, you can’t accept responsibility for it. © RandomCoffeeThoughts / Reddit
• He did this to himself. Next time you’re around him, give him a book of vegetarian/gout recipes. Snapchat photos with meat? He will have to change his diet; stubbornness is dumb. Remind him some cases of gout get so bad without a change in diet, amputation is the only answer. My husband has gout, and he does just fine after adjusting/changing his diet. © prpslydistracted / Reddit

The OP did the right thing by not listening to his cousin and sticking to what he thought was best for him. Meanwhile, here’s how to pay attention to subtle cues your body gives about your health.