How many of you are vegetarians?

Edit: Post Removed
Kratos there is such a thing as respecting other peoples beliefs and opinions and if you cannot do that do not post at all.

I'm a vegetarian, but the sort that eats dairy products. I.e. I just prefer not to eat meat.

Same, I like cheese too much to be a vegan. >/

I'm Vegan no dairy no meat, I'm also studying Macrobiotics, the yin yang philosophy of eating. I have been Vegan for almost three years and so are my children and husband My husband is a Lacto OVo which means he eats dairy. I'm very into the Vegan and organic life style for the betterment of me and the planet, the interesting thing is the reason I went Vegetarian was a friend suggested that for every day that I cut back on meat I would make 10,000 lbs of grain available to feed others it takes that much for one pound of meat, it made sense and i am very involved with the homeless and I saw this as a way to use my life to do something, what I found was that (I'm38) i had a few health issues asthma was one skin problems a few extra pounds I was always battling after the fourth month I had a major healing crisis and came out of it with no asthma again 4 months later another healing crisis skin cleared up sinus issues gone these were problems that I was told I would have the rest of my life. So I know there is definitley something to eating lots of vegtables, my son who was raised vegan is so healthy and very smart compared to most kids his age, Ashley Star Child what have you found be vegatarian? i'd love to know. I didn't mean to go on and on Namaste Sheri

Sorry....

I tried to be a veggie for a whole week. I lasted a whole week so I kind of understand. I do respect your choice of lifestyle, my post before was just stating I do not choose that lifestyle for myself. I do wish slaughter houses would act better and I wish for conditions to get better... Sorry, if I misunderstood the question before... Wasn't trying to offend anybody...

Well, my reasons go back to 1st grade when a Sth African teacher told us we shouln't eat animals, and I avoided meat from that time on and became a full vegetarian at 14.

But, that aside, 1. I don't really have a taste for meat. 2. I don't like the idea of eating something that was alive, and 3. the general treatment and mass slaughter of animals is appaling to me, as is people who decide that everything which does not fit into the Homo Spaien category is theirs free to slaughter and consume... It's about respect for life.

However, since I did become severly anemic at around 14, every now and then my family comes along and forces me to eat a bit of meat, but I just generally don't like doing it.

vegan + no gmo (this includes canola!) + no sugars + alkaline diet + minimal processing of foods (prefer raw) + only organic

Moe is a vegetarian but only on wednesdays. this is when the aliens abduct Moe. A diet of veggies sure makes the probing easier, tell you what!!

Lol. Wow...You're weird Moe. >/

There seems like a lot of extreme animal-lovers here so I thought I'd ask.

Anytime I eat meat I get really sick, same with anything really fatty or sugary. Like soda or potato chips. >/

Perhaps this is an ulcer. Such foods do not help Moe in times of great worry. This is when we eat corn and avoid leathery snacks. Also try milk. It does a body good.

Oh what did poor celery do to us..... It suffers silently while we devour it and pillage its community..... What does it ask? Nothing.....

Vegetarians should be ashamed.....

Now cows.... they moo loud and bug me, so hamburgers it is lol

If they like veggies better... more power to them.

Subby was joking, and is quite sure everyone else can see that.

Well, explaining in a topic for vegetarians that you simply love to devour the flesh of animals is a little different from making a wisecrack.

Edit Evidently, i had no need to explain that since he beat me.

I'm a level 5 vegan; I don't eat anything that casts a shadow.

J/K

I was a vegetarian for about two years but I did not go vegan. I ate fish and dairy but no read meat or poultry. No matter how many supplements I took my protein and iron levels just kept going down. I finally decided to start eating meat again after a couple of trips to the hospital.

My best friend, however, has been a vegetarian for seven years and her only health issue is her weight. Poor thing; she can't stand to eat anything that ever had "a face or a mother" but the girl hates veggies unless they are deep fried. She eats lots of meatless meat, bread and vegetarian soups. She also had a baby recently and plans to raise her child vegetarian as well. The father disagrees but I think my friend is going to win this battle.

I will never understand the distinction between 'meat' and 'fish'.
They are both the same thing.

yes
but red meat is diffrent from fish and pultry because it's a mammal.

I think its more of a health issue than a moral issue. One of the reasons I would not eat red meat at the time (besides the fact I was 13) was that my dad was a beef farmer and I did not like the idea of eating the animals I played with as a child.

I guess in the end it all stems down to what you learned and what you percieved as a child. I didn't have much contact with animals at all, which is probably why i grew up a meat eater.
It's getting harder and harder for me to sheild myself of the reality to eating meat though. If only it didn't taste so good.


Alot of people don't seem to make a connection with fish as they do birds, simply because fish are so much more detached from us than air breathing animals are. In the end though, a fish still dies painfully by suffocation when you hook it's mouth and puck it from it's source of oxygen.

Well actually... you'd think that wouldn't you...

So i take it you've never seen a fish on a deck of a boat, starving of oxygen? The way it flaps around, terrified, desperately trying to get back into water so it can stop it's suffering.

I bet if a tiny bird was placed underwater and left to drown that would be considered cruel. No, starving of oxygen is not pain, agreed. It's slow and horrible death though.

But who an i to argue this, when i eat fish too. Oh what a moral dilema.

Yes Burnside, and chickens run around without a head... therefor not feeling pain, but responding to stimuli.....

why do vegetarians say that fish isnt meat. Meat is muscle, and fish is fish muscles, or fish meat! and why do they eat veggie burgers?? if you want to give up meat do it the REAL way. Anyhow, all i know is i love vegetables, i dont really think i can get enough, but i'll never be a complete vegetarian.

Not all vegetarians consider fish meat but most of them do and don't eat is because it's an animal. I was the one that brought up the fish issue initially. When I did not eat red meat or poultry I still ate fish but that was just me.

I don't think people should be able to call themselves vegetarians if they eat fish.

I consider fish, shellfish, birds, anything considered an 'animal' to be meat. So, I don't like eating those either. As a child my family used to go fishing, and I caught fish a few times and threw it back....always wondered if they live....

About fish not feeling pain, I find that a little hard to believe. At one time it was believed babies didn't feel pain, and they of course do.

Another thing that contributed to be vegetarianism is that my uncle worked at a chicken, what I'd call, slaughterhouse that distributes to KFC and I saw, with my own eyes what happens to them which was enough to make me puke. If most people saw that, they'd never eat KFC again....

I eat artificial meat because I need protien, a veggie burger tastes nothing like a regular hamburger.

As for the fish issue, I usually don't eat any thing that seems like an animal to me, I feel guilty when I drink milk and stuff because dairy products are connected to the veal industry. I've been a vegitarian for 3 years and I'm 14, during that time I ate fish twice, it wasn't really fish it was like crab or something, but it was because we were at a special dinner and they were pressuring me to eat it, afterward it made me want to trow up though. >/

Certian foods just make me sick, somehow after I finish eating I just remind myself of the garbage I just ate and I end up feeling really sick. I blame Supersize Me. Lol.

I don't eat any animals, because I love them and don't like them being killed for me. People may say that is a stupid reason, but its true. I cannot bring myself to eat something that was once running around in a field with its family. I don't eat fish, as they have as much feelings as any other animal. I do eat dairy products, I am lacto-ovo. I don't eat many eggs, but I can use them in cooking or what ever I need them for.

I eat vegetarians. Does that count

On a serious note, as a carnivore it doesn't really bother me, but I consider the flesh of living animals to be the same thing: so I don't see how those who are vegetarian on principle (as opposed to health reasons) can eat fish.

It's like being a teetotaller who drinks red wine.....

On the one hand I sometimes think that I'd like to try to be vegetarian as I love animals..On the other hand; as somebody who's been truly starving to death at several points in my life so far, if it tastes good and fills me up, I don't turn it down..
I think my natural human urge to eat omnivorously will always overwhelm any compassion I might feel. I also think that as a Father, I have to give my son the best nutrition he can get, which includes all food groups. I wouldn't push any personal philosophical crusades on the little guy at 2 years old. That includes everything from religion to eating..I don't want to limit anything he might think or feel at that age, but rather give him access to everything so that he can decide what he likes on his own..
And since children often mimic thier parents, I live according to that until such time as he's aware enough to go his own way on any issue..
Therefore a vegetarian Falco won't be happening anytime soon..

I said to my friend the other day who asked me what Quorn was 'It was origonally a chicken alternative'.

Then he says 'How are you a vegeterian if you eat chicken alternatives?'

...Erm....What the....?

People seem to be under the illusion that if you love animals, you can't eat meat. Thats not true! I don't preach about being vegetarian to others, it is their own choice. But people ask me for advice about it, and I give it to them.

I'm allergic to sea-food and don't like the taste of red-meat. That leaves chicken and ham as my staple diet. Sorry, tried vegetarianism for a while. It just didn't work.

As a humorous aside, It's funny how many vegan's I've spoken to who say they don't eat animal products at all - all the while munching on a pack of gummi bears

All the best,

Oh, I hate that too. I read the back of everything before I eat it. I don't eat many sweets, in fact it is a rare occasion if I do, so i know all my 'safe' foods. And its usually vegetables that I like to eat, or I cook loads from raw ingredients.

I love animals too. I just can't take an all or nothing side to the issue of eating them. I am so much a fan of animals that I have to support programs that protect the over-all ecosystem as well as the individual creatures. I love that people who live a vegan lifestyle can get satisfaction knowing they did not harm an animal through their diet. At this point, there are enough omnivorous and carnivorous animals to keep the planet's ecosystem in check, for now.

Thats a good thing then, girty.

I was at a farm yesterday, out in the fields with the animals, and they live a brilliant life, until they are killed. The farmers care so much about them. But I am still not going to eat meat!

I don't want anyone to eat meat if they don't want to.

that is in line with vegitarians that eat dairy and fish!

it really comes down to why you are following a particualar way of eating.

for me it is for optimal health and as such i don't eat nutritionally deficient foods, acid forming foods, etc. some do it becuase of the way animals are treated commercially. to those people i say eat "organic free range" animals (one can debate the merits of minimal meats in the diet depending on physiology, but there dairy is deadly in all cases).

sugars are a poison and it is funny if anybody that says they are vegitarian for health reasons still eats chocolate, caffiene, coffee, sugar, corn, white bread, processed foods, alcohol, white rice, most processed foods....

I don't see why everyone can't think like that. I don't understand some peoples problems with vegetarianism anyway.

it is the same problem with why we have religious wars. people see things "their way" and do not accept or comprehend other ways as just as valid. binary thoughts like "my way or the highway" run rampant. people can come around though if given a chance to understand (and they are willing to listen). i once met a man who had never in his life heard of or contemplated the idea of not eating meat who after me explaining it to him (which took some time, he was loaded with questions) he became quite accepting of the idea).

Thats true, people are so self-centred sometimes.

I had to explain to a cow farmer why I didn't eat meat, he thought I was going to put him out of business and I think I offended him actually.

I do not like enough veggies to give up meat...sorry guys...but I get on with everyone and would never bash someone for not eating meat.

I'm not a vegetarian. My sister-in-law is a Vegan and every time I see her she lectures me on the morality of meat-eating and asks me questions like "how would you like it if someone slaughtered and ate Bridgitte? (that's my baby) I can't get involved in these converstaions with her because it always turns ugly, so it's nice to see a thread on the topic that's so civil.

I can't believe she says that!

I would never lecture someone like that, I know how annoying it is being preached to about not eating meat, but saying something like that is awful. Sorry, but thats what I think.

"I'm not vegetarian because I love animals. I'm vegetarian because I hate plants." - unknown



Just wondering about this, how do vegetarians get their daily nutrients that are in meat? Is there some sort of vegetarian drink or something?

I don't take anything. Extremely unhealthy, I know. Low iron levels are not good, especially for females, but I am not aware of anything that I could take. I know there are some things, but I don't quite know what...

you are aware that all the "meat nutrients" originated in plants and got into the meat by the animals eating the plants....

Yes, but I would have to eat a wheelbarrow full of spinach or something, because the vegetables today are crappy.

All these are very iron-rich:

Brown rice, Whole wheat bread, Wheat germ, English Muffin,
Oatmeal, Total cereal,Cream of Wheat, Spaghetti, Raisin bran cereal,
Tofu, Broccoli, Green beans,Watermelon, and any leafy green vegetable.

Iron deficiency is bad!!