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madmaxine
02-08-2007, 12:57 PM
I became vegetarian for health reasons..now when I look at cuts of meat & poultry I want to vomit...no kidding....Never thought that would happen.

Magdalena_666
02-08-2007, 03:01 PM
I've been a Vegetarian for over 10 years. Even the thought of eating meat makes me sick. I never really liked it in the first place though so even if I didn't love animals, I still wouldn't eat it. I'm a really picky eater and the thought of eating the flesh of something that was once alive just grosses me out.
It's hard for me to even eat Yogurt. I eat things with milk but the thought of drinking a glass of milk sickens me. Knowing how there's pus in it...yuck ..I'm just really weird about food.

I really wish I had the discipline to be Vegan.

obeythegir
02-09-2007, 10:22 AM
Ive been mostly raw (uncooked foods) for about 3 years now. I made the switch for health and ecological reasons.
I eat cooked food for social reasons, though I avoid refined sugar, flour, fried foods, unhealthy oils etc.
Every now and them I have seafood (I :heart: sushi)

Paris
02-09-2007, 10:56 AM
I am a newbie almost vegetarian....I still eat seafood. I don't think I can give up fish, shrimp, lobster, etc... mmmmm, I LOVE Sushi :) Hard to find really good vegetarian recipes....

Ditto. Everyone I know calls me a vegetarian, even though I still enjoy fish and seafood.

No moral reasons for becoming mostly vegetarian, though. I just want to be healthier, and my recent cholestorol tests show that it has been good for me.

Emily
02-09-2007, 11:44 AM
"almost vegan"

I eat things with trace amounts of dairy or egg in it, but won't have pizza or cake. Absolutely no flesh. I do eat honey though, but again, in trace amounts.

beauty21queen
02-09-2007, 12:41 PM
I love every kind of food there is!! unless im not sure where it came from.Like me and my Bf went to a restuarant and he ordered calamari didn't know what it was then found out it was squid.I didn't like it felt too Fear Factor to me .:P

Dottie Rebel
02-09-2007, 03:04 PM
Vegan five years and loving it! I am SOOOOO looking forward to not dying of a heart attack, cancer, or stroke before my time!

Emily
02-09-2007, 03:41 PM
Dottie....have you read The China Study? I'm reading it now. Fascinating.

Dottie Rebel
02-10-2007, 10:55 AM
Dottie....have you read The China Study? I'm reading it now. Fascinating.

No, but it's been recommended. I'll definitely have to pick it up now. I recently watched a documentary called "Eating" that was really amazing. It calls cancer, heart disease, stroke, diabetes, etc. "the animals' revenge," due to the fact that our Western diet of affluence is killing us. Well, and everyone around the world as they begin to adopt it.

ahmeerah
02-10-2007, 03:43 PM
Total vegan here... mainly raw. Started out slowly when I was about 9 and progressed from there.

I could've made this exact same post. It all started at the age of nine and now at the age of 30 I'm mostly raw and totally vegan.

GoldCoastGirl
02-10-2007, 05:11 PM
Whilst we ARE built to eat meat. I fully believe that we were only meant to eat sporadically not in the amounts that we do these-days! Hence the reason our diets are killing us. Not just the fact that there is a lot of processed foods in there and the nutritional value of even "fresh" food is low (due to poor farming practices etc).

I only eat chicken sporadically. Seafood even less. Tuna three times a week (from a can) if possible. Mainly alot of sandwiches and pasta with vegies sort of meals for me.

I definately couldn't go without my cheese for too long! I have it with everything. :laughing:

Aine
02-10-2007, 09:02 PM
I eat meat, very little red meat though, mostly white meats and not a whole lot of them. My diet consist mostly of fresh fruits and vegatables, tuna and things like oatmeal. My hubby is a meat & potatoes kind of guy however. My two youngest prefer white meats over red meats and eat a lot of fruits and vegatables too. My oldest daughter came to me one day and said she wanted to be vegetarian. I support her in her decision. She's been vegetarian for almost 6 months now. I make sure she has things she can eat, be it veggie burgers, lots of salads, beans, etc. She knows my only concern is that if this is the personal choice she wants to make, to make sure she is still getting the nutirients her body needs. I help to make sure she is getting a well rounded balance of them. She's not vegan mind you, but very much vegetarian and I'm actually proud of her for making her own choice and sticking to it. She's done really good!

lopaw
02-10-2007, 09:09 PM
Question:
Are vegetarians animal lovers.......or plant haters???

Sorry. Couldn't resist! ;D ;D ;D

Nicolina
02-10-2007, 09:24 PM
I was vegetarian for awhile (a year or two, maybe). It was for ecological, save-the-planet kind of reasons, not ethical, save-the-animal reasons. I think humans were built to eat a moderate amount of wild game that we hunt ourselves, and if I knew how to hunt, that's what I'd like to do. But I don't, and I live in L.A. so that's sort of outta the question...

Ultimately, I'm too curious about food to restrict my diet that much. I like to avoid processed food, refined sugars, high-fructose corn syrup, artificial sweeteners, trans-fatty acids, and other molecules that don't exist in nature.

When I can afford it, I try to buy "good" meat: wild-caught salmon, sustainable fish and seafood, high-quality poultry and beef raised on smaller farms that claim to use organic feed and don't treat animals with hormones, antibiotics and the like.

Absolutely adore a good bloody steak, tho. ;D

Zabrina
02-11-2007, 12:53 AM
I've been a Vegetarian for over 10 years. Even the thought of eating meat makes me sick. I never really liked it in the first place though so even if I didn't love animals, I still wouldn't eat it. I'm a really picky eater and the thought of eating the flesh of something that was once alive just grosses me out.
It's hard for me to even eat Yogurt. I eat things with milk but the thought of drinking a glass of milk sickens me. Knowing how there's pus in it...yuck ..I'm just really weird about food.

I really wish I had the discipline to be Vegan.

This old thread made me realize that I've been vegetarian for about 4 years now. I'm on the same page as you, Magdalena. I just can't drink milk anymore, just thinking of the pus and bio-material in it makes me ill. I'd been eating organic yogurt, but the last time I bought it I just kept staring at the texture and thinking the same thing.

I don't have the discipline to go full-on vegan either, but the options of what I'll eat keep creeping in that direction.

Vegans, is this the way you started your diet, by going from veggie to vegan over the years, or did you give up all animal products cold-turkey(pardon the pun)?

short skirts
02-11-2007, 02:02 AM
I tried vegetarian when I was 12 for a few years but decided I really do enjoy eating meat.

In fact I had a bloody Porterhouse for dinner yesterday and loved every bite.

My cousin was a strict Vegan. She was driving one day and smelled the char-broil scent coming from the nearby Burger King. She'd never had it before and for some strange reason it appealed so she pulled in and ordered a Whopper of all things. Is that crazy or what? She liked it!!!

Dottie Rebel
02-11-2007, 02:30 PM
I tried vegetarian when I was 12 for a few years but decided I really do enjoy eating meat.

In fact I had a bloody Porterhouse for dinner yesterday and loved every bite.

My cousin was a strict Vegan. She was driving one day and smelled the char-broil scent coming from the nearby Burger King. She'd never had it before and for some strange reason it appealed so she pulled in and ordered a Whopper of all things. Is that crazy or what? She liked it!!!

Of course she did. Meat tastes great to most people, myself included. That's no surprise at all.

It always surprises me that meat-eaters think vegans and vegetarians don't like the taste of meat. If only it were that easy! I love the nasty shit. I mean LOVE. My two favortie foods growing up were steak and ribs. But I have more respect for my fellow creatures who have emotions and suffer pain than to torture, slaughter and consume them because their flesh pleases my fancy. Nor will I pay someone else to do all of the above.

I often smell the delightful waftings of the rib joint down the street and think "Mmmmm." But I immediately remember that is someone's charred body I am smelling--someone whose opportunity to exist and experience life in this world was violently stolen from them.

I don't allow myself to undulge in every little whim and fancy because sometimes it isn't right. Like, I have a violent streak and would take GREAT pleasure in slapping the fuck out of every person who wrongs me. But I can't, because it's not right. Serial killers love to kill people, but they aren't allowed to because it isn't right.

Please keep in mind that I am not the judgemental type and am only sharing my perspective in what I consider to be an appropriate forum. Never, not once in my life, have I hated on someone for meat-eating and preached to them about where it comes from. Most vegans and vegetarians do not do that.

Dottie Rebel
02-11-2007, 02:38 PM
Vegans, is this the way you started your diet, by going from veggie to vegan over the years, or did you give up all animal products cold-turkey(pardon the pun)?

Haha! Cold turkey :)

It just ocurred to me one day that all of the information I had been reading about how meat is produced in the modern age really was true and wasn't some hippie conspiracy--which I had tried to convince myself. Over 98% of our meat comes from a factory setting where animals are denied even the most basic rights of life---like being abloe to turn around or spread a wing. If you major in animal husbandry at a major agricultural school like Purdue (where many of my friends have gone) this is what you learn. It's all about units of production and the bottom line. This ain't grandpa's farm.

So I said, "Fuck this...I can't be complicit anymore" and gave up meat.

About a year later I realized that I was contributing to possibly far greater suffering by eating dairy and eggs and gave that up in one day, too.

Honestly, once your mind is made up, it's not hard. I could no more bite into a chicken's leg than I could eat a baby's arm.

Emily
02-11-2007, 03:10 PM
it's been a process for me to go vegan, but it's actually a lot easier than I expected. I've been doing it since the beginning of the year (after being vegetarian) and I don't feel like I'm missing anything. There are so many substitutes out there that you don't even miss it. Plus I don't look at it like, "oh my god! I miss that!" I think, "I can't eat something that came from an abused/dead animal." The dairy industry is linked to the veal industry as well.

With that perspective, it's pretty easy. Plus if you read books like The China Study, you'll see that plant protein is sufficient to meet our protein needs and animal protein is strongly linked to a whole bunch of common medical problems in Americans.

So now it's like...why vegan? why not?

Nautilus
02-11-2007, 04:21 PM
i eat most animals bar pig. just never been down with swine. i don't like shellfish or crustacea either. blue steak, now, different story.

what's sucking about growing a baby Naut is the ban on raw meat and fish, cold meats and fridge leftovers! bah! torture!

my favourite meat dish is yukke from the jp place down the road... raw meat with raw egg, sesame seeds, soy sauce and few shallots. :drool: by the time the mini-naut pops out i'll be banging down their door!

was curious about the meat - disease link - it kinda discounts hereditary and genetic predisposition. i could eat vegies my whole life and still be a sitting duck for insulin-dependent diabetes and stroke. (didn't help my vego grandma from having 2 strokes??)

Emily
02-11-2007, 04:27 PM
was curious about the meat - disease link - it kinda discounts hereditary and genetic predisposition. i could eat vegies my whole life and still be a sitting duck for insulin-dependent diabetes and stroke. (didn't help my vego grandma from having 2 strokes??)

the studies show correlation, but that does not imply causation...kinda like smoking cigarettes and getting lung cancer. Not everyone that smokes gets it and not everyone that gets it smokes, but, smoke is still lung poison.

miabella
02-11-2007, 06:26 PM
no viable form of b-12 comes from plant sources, if one is a vegan. the 'analogues' do not supply b-12. that said, a lot of vegans can coast on what they stored up before going vegan.

interestingly, one can get all nutrients from raw or lightly seared meat. just eating that is a complete diet, particularly if one includes organ meats. takes a lot of guesswork out of dinner planning. :-)

all forms of life are capable of experiencing pain. i've never understood why plants are fit to eat solely because we can't currently hear their screams.

as for anything else, the ideal diet ecologically is derived from mixed farming of plants and food animals on the same ground. then they naturally fertilise and maintain the local ecology without resort to artificial means. but then, i'm a supar mega fan of mixed organic farming as an alternative to mega farms providing all plant and animal sustenance.

Zabrina
02-11-2007, 10:26 PM
all forms of life are capable of experiencing pain. i've never understood why plants are fit to eat solely because we can't currently hear their screams.



Why do people say this? What logical reason could there be to think that plants can feel pain? Plants do not have a nervous system. There is not a single shred of evidence to imply that plants feel pain. To think otherwise is pure superstition.

Emily
02-12-2007, 10:50 AM
You can watch a slaughterhouse video and I'll watch a strawberry harvest video, and we'll discuss.

Even if it were true that plants feel pain, it still doesn't change the fact that many plants were killed to produce that piece of meat....so you're multiplying the torture.

as for B12, this is a naturally occuring in bacteria in soil, but most vegans don't get enough because it's washed off before it gets to us, but it's also in the guts of animals because they eat food from the earth.

Dottie Rebel
02-12-2007, 11:43 AM
no viable form of b-12 comes from plant sources, if one is a vegan. the 'analogues' do not supply b-12. that said, a lot of vegans can coast on what they stored up before going vegan.

interestingly, one can get all nutrients from raw or lightly seared meat. just eating that is a complete diet, particularly if one includes organ meats. takes a lot of guesswork out of dinner planning. :-)

all forms of life are capable of experiencing pain. i've never understood why plants are fit to eat solely because we can't currently hear their screams.


Nutritional yeast is packed full of b-12. Plant-based and perfectly viable.

Can you support your claim that humans can get all of their required nutrition from eating meat? I'd love to see a scientific study that supports this notion.

There is absolutely no scientific evidence to suggest that plants have nervous systems or are capable of experiencing pain. Could you support this claim? Also, as Emily pointed out, funneling plant-based foods through animals is an incredibly inefficient method of producing food. One estimate is that meat eaters are responsible for to consumption of 10 times more plant-based foods than vegetarians.