I think some cultures are entirely unfamiliar with the idea of not eating meat at all.

Like that line from Big Fat Greek Wedding. “He doesn’t eat meat? Is okay, I make lamb.”

They treat it the same way we might treat the phrase “he doesn’t drink.” Which means no alcohol, not “no consuming liquid of any kind.”

No meat is just taken to mean no whole meats, like cuts of steak. So you get “no meat in the soup, just a bit of the chicken stock for flavour.”