I don't know how vegetarians do it. For the last couple of months I've been gradually eating more and more vegetables (and LIKING them... I can already hear the gasping from my mother). And for that matter, so has my husband. We've discovered the joy of seasonings and herbs and vegetables... and even eggplant. I had never made an eggplant before; afterall, it is a rather weird-looking food. I checked out a few of my cookbooks and they barely had anything in them using this strange fruit (and yes, it is a fruit I found out, not a vegetable... put THAT in your trivia box). But I was able to find a lovely recipe for Cheesy Eggplant (pretty much eggplant parmesan without the pasta). It turned out so good, amazingly enough! And then I realized why eggplant will not be a part of my weekly diet.
About an hour past ingestion, my stomach began to alert my backside that there was an intruder, and that intruder was trying to escape in the form of a gas. And said intruder successfully retreated (for the next 24 hours). Seriously, vegetarians are just crazy! First the broccoli, then the cauliflower, and now the eggplant... how do these people keep any friends? Do they eat Beano or GasX for dessert after each meal, trying to catch it before it all comes back out? All I know is that if I continue on in this "healthy lifestyle", public places (and bon fires) are no longer an option.