I might just add baggy you might think some of us "keep blethering on about how brilliant and morally superior vegetarianism is." Put yourself in my place, having been a vegetarian since I was fourteen years old in 1966. OMG how many times over all those years have I heard "where do you get your protein from, you must be one of those crazy vegetarians, or what do you eat?"
I believe I have earned the right to stand up and say, hey I am healthy and I have not eaten meat for forty seven years and don't tell me eating meat is necessary.
I do understand the defensive feeling people get when they are questioned about what they eat. I felt the same when a friend said to me that I didn't need to eat dairy. I told him that was one of the things I always ate, how could I replace cheese. I have since found there are so many foods that replace dairy. It's really what you get used to!