Meat

I have heard that you should be careful with eating meat in India, that a lot of tourists are veggies while they are there.
Is this true?

Yes you should be careful when eating/drinking anything in India or anywhere else too especially when you are in a warm climate.
As for meat, yes it doesn't exactly look mouth watering when you see it in it's butchered state with swarms of flies around it, so it's quite easy to imagine people turning into veggies for the duration of their stay

I'm always careful, fry it, boil it, peal it or forget it.
But is it worse in India then other countries?

Yes,
Well they do say India is a country of extremes,,,,,,,,,,,,

It's worse than Norway, but I don't think you should be too worried. On my first trip I didn't have meat at all, but now I eat whatever I want. (And I was more often sick on my first trip.) The only place I've gotten food poisoning is still in Oslo. As long as the meat is thoroughly cooked and it tastes good, there shouldn't be a problem.

(In my grandmother's school cook book from the 50ies there are instructions on how to scrape away the green parts of the meat to avoid getting sick... We're too worried these days.)

But, when all this is said: the vegetarian food in India is really, really good. And much cheaper.

IMHO, no.. most indian meats are cooked well. That's what makes meat safe anyways.

yes it is true. One major reason for this is that in India there are frequent power outages which can last several hours and nobody can say for sure how long the meat could have been sitting in a refigerator which had no power.

I'm usually not scared of eating anything when I travel, but I've heard som much about this meat in India.

But knowing my self I'll probably eat everything anyways.

In a recent thread some one pointed out that vegetarian dishes too can harbour disease-causing microbes, so it is just not true to say, don't eat meat and you won't get ill

I still find that, even having been told this, I worry more about meat.

Food poisoning connected with meat is usually far far worse as compared to food poisoning associated with vegetarian food.

All of the stuff above is also true. But another truth: some of the yummiest food in India is non-veg, and I'd rather risk food poisoning than miss out :P

I'm still sensible about where I eat it, if the place looks particularly dodgy I might skip the meat, but when it looks good and smells good it's hard to pass up!

meat can be as harmful in India as anywhere else in the world if its not prepared or cooked properly but it is not recommended to have too much of meat because of the warm climate unless you a have a very strong digestive system.
Having said that India has one if the tastiest non veg delicacies in the world, so don’t hesitate to gorge into your pork voindaloo ,meen moilee, chicken tikka, biryani etc. etc. etc. but just see to it that you have it from good hygienic places…(you can start a thread for good non veg restaurants in India)…..a journey is never complete without tasting the local cuisine

Depends upon how much you want to risk it.
If you havent eaten meats anywhere in a tropical climeat err .. i mean climate, then hang on to that carrot stick.

See,

Put a lot of masala on the meat, deep fry it, or have it in tandoor style...with onions, lime and mint chutney....

U will enjoy the taste...and don't worry too much about hygiene when in India..u will fine at the end of it.

Chances are its gonna be fine in the posh restaurants. The problem arises with the cross contamination issue.

If you can watch it beeing cooked, eat it. Most of the time you cant and meat can give you some serious food poisoning, like samonella and e-coli if cross contaminated, the latter has no cure and can cause kidney failure.

Veg can cause food poisioning due to poor hygene, just its unlikley that its gonna be a bad case.

India, people are not big meat eaters, you don't need to be, unlike say thailand where all the veg is boiled 1st so you need to eat the meat. Fab veg food in india.