Pretty much everyone knows that Mormons don't drink alcohol, use tobacco, or drink coffee/tea
But most people DON'T know that the Word of Wisdom (Mormon health code) actually has a bunch of other stuff in it, including "eat mostly grain and in-season fruit and vegetables" and "try not to eat meat unless it's winter or otherwise a time of scarcity" and "mild grain-based drinks are fine" and "consume all things with prudence and thanksgiving"
I once read a blog post speculating that if it hadn't been for Prohibition, Mormons today would be vegetarians who drank beer, and I think there is something to that. The whole history of Mormonism after Utah statehood and the end of polygamy is a narrative of "please love us, we'll be just like you, we love following your rules in addition to some of our own, we are Perfect Clean-Cut Americans™️ who are not counterculture in any way"
So copious meat consumption, along with sugar (Our Favorite Vice), became ways that Mormons show(ed) that they were Good Americans Who Consumed Things Just Like Other Good Americans, whether they realized it or not
Vegetarianism exists within Mormonism (one of my uncles is a vegetarian for religious reasons), but it's pretty rare and viewed with suspicion. And people come up with their own non-textual rules about soft drinks and herbal tea to show their Personal Holiness
So the ways that contemporary Mormons treat the Word of Wisdom is kind of a microcosm of my issues with the way Mormons often trade their "wholesome weirdness" for societal acceptance. Thank you for coming to my TED talk
