Vegetarians with vegan tendencies...?!
Vegetarians with vegan tendencies...?
how do you decide what animal products you do eat and which you don't? is it for health reasons? is it determined based on the industry? taste? convenience?
do you only allow certain products and avoid others completely, or just generally have a bit of anything?
and why have you chosen this lifestyle? do you aspire to be vegan eventually?
i'm sorry that's alot of questions! i'm just curious :)
Answers:
For about a year, I was a vegetarian with increasingly vegan tendencies (before that, I was a very dairy-heavy vegeterian). I wasn't really aspiring to be vegan, and in fact thought it was too much for me to handle. But I replaced milk with soy milk because hey, it was healthier and the taste had grown on me (it tasted gross the first couple of times until I appreciated its natural taste instead of thinking it should taste just like milk), and no need to support the dairy industry unnecessarily, right?
But then I read about how it takes a chicken 22 hours on average to lay an egg, and read about/saw pictures of the kind of torture battery hens typically go through (I guess there's both worse and better, but these were from major suppliers), and everytime I ate an egg after that I thought "22 hours of that...geez..." and quickly lost my taste for eggs. (And recently I read a study about severe emotional distress in chickens when their eggs are taken away, so I don't think I could eat a "humane" egg ever again, either.)
Anyway, it got to the point where I was very rarely eating dairy anyway, had already replaced my toiletries since that's no trouble at all, didn't eat eggs, and honey was no big loss with the 20+ sweeteners I already have around my house, so I decided to go vegan.
Since Jains follow a strictly vegetarian diet, they do not need "Kosher" standards. However, to observe a compassionate diet to the maximum possible level, Jainism offers some guidelines to observe, as described below.
First of all, Meat, Alcohol, eggs , honey, Fish, etc. are not allowed in Jain diet. Many Jains consume Milk even though it is an animal product, because it is not a direct animal product as meat would be. Traditionally, in the Indian society, cows were part of the family. They were treated humanely, taken care of until natural death in sanctuaries, and the baby calf was allowed to suckle all the milk until its needs were satisfied. Only the surplus Milk was used for human consumption, so the principle of nonviolence was upheld. Neither calf was deprived of its need nor the cow had to undergo any tortuous life. But in the modern world cows are kept in factory farms and the milk has become a product of violence. Upon learning this, more and more Jains are now turning vegan. We support and promote veganism. The first Jain criteria, therefore, would be to avoid any food which involves violence.
The main base of Jain diets is grains like wheat, rice, and barley. In America, we have also adopted corn and oats. We also have adopted a variety of foods like pasta, bread, pizza, pita, tostadas, etc. into Jain households. As with many other Asian countries, the traditional Indian diet was healthy, but affluence and modernization has led to high fat diets and unhealthy lifestyles.
However, our traditions revolve around control of the senses. For example, many people voluntarily give up sweets, or other items for a certain time period.
Jain traditions observe certain restrictions for fruits and vegetables. Although all Jains do not practice, many avoid taking roots, such as potatoes, onions, garlic, carrots, etc. If you wonder why, here is the answer: to minimize violence. Because even if you pluck hundreds of oranges from a tree, you are not destroying the whole tree. However, when you pluck one single carrot, you uproot the whole plant. When so many vegetables are available without destroying a whole plant, why destroy some? Then there is one more reason. All roots have countless (Anantkay) souls under one body (skin). Our need that can be satisfied with one cupful of underground roots (which would have countless souls) could also easily be satisfied with countable peas or beans. So why kill so many more souls? Therefore, the second Jain criteria is not to eat root vegetables.
You may observe that some fruits and vegetables have only one or few seeds, while some have many seeds. We believe that each seed represents a potential life. True, we have to eat something in order to survive, but we want to minimize violence by taking as few as possible of those multi-seeded fruits and vegetables. So that is the third Jain criteria of food choices.
Dry beans are considered acceptable for Jains. They are a good source of proteins, vitamins, and other nutrients. Although there are no restrictions on beans, the process of sprouting can be an issue. Sprouting is a process in which life is activated in a seed that had otherwise become inactive. This is viewed as violence by some Jains. So they accept as the fourth Jain food criteria: no sprouted beans.
There are many more minute criteria which are contained in the scriptures. However, very few Jains follow them. But, very few Jains would ever resort to eating meat.
Another criteria about foods is that one must strive to eat before sunset. That gives plenty of time for the digestive system to do it its work. We are the creatures of day, so our systems want to shut down theirs functions after dark. So it would be good for our health also, to eat before sunset. Besides, many visible and invisible lives thrive at night times. By eating after sunset, we are at danger of consuming them. So the Jains try to eat early in the day. But this does not go very well with the modern industrialization. In northern hemisphere, away from equator, the days during winter are very short, and the sun sets very early. Even under these circumstances, many Jains would attempt to eat as early as possible, after sunset.
I eat all meat products I love plants there most wonderful living things in the world why would anyone wanna kill them you sick aliens go back to your planet and leave us alone.
My husband and I are vegetarians with vegan tendencies. We don't eat eggs hardly ever unless it's in a recipe that calls for eggs, which is maybe...three times a year at most? In that case I pick up eggs that are "certified humane." We're getting ready to move to a more rural area and I hope to find someone locally that will trade eggs for veggies or crafts or something. I typically don't buy processed foods that contain egg because I can't be certain that the eggs aren't coming from one of those awful caged chicken farms and I don't want to support that sort of thing. We don't really use milk much anymore. Soy and almond milk work great for us. Almond milk on cereal is delicious. I mostly just use milk substitutes for baking or cooking. Again, I don't want to support the industry that would treat cows the way most dairy farms do. We rarely eat cheese, but if we do I try to make sure its oganic and rennet free. Certified organic stuff has stricter standards and when it comes to animal products it is a sure bet the animals get the spend some time outdoors and that's important to me. Milk isn't really supposed to be consumed by humans - we're not baby cows; we're not babies at all! No other animals drink milk their whole lives - it's just weird. But cheese is hard to give up! We no longer put cheese on sandwiches or atop chili or anything like that. We save a ton of calories by giving up (for the most part) dairy products. Also, I swear my husband stopped snoring as much when he cut out dairy! As for honey, I love honey and have no problem with it whatsoever. The man we get our honey from places his bees in different orchards and on farms to get very strongly flavored honeys (grapefruit, cherry, blackberry, and desert, yes, DESERT are my favorites) - the bees get all the nectar they could ever want and he takes some of the honey (half, I believe). It's like a business arrangement. Speaking of bees, did you know that no organic bee colonies have been harmed by this big bee scare that the news keeps talking about? Anyway, as for leather, wool, and silk, I try to stick to cotton for just about everything. We only use all-natural and vegan beauty products and toiletries because what you put on your skin is absorbed and I don't eat chemicals and animals, so...I think that should about cover it. Drastically reducing our intake of dairy and eggs definitely is a healthier choice - I don't know if we'll ever go hardcore vegan, but it's possible (except for the honey part - I will never give up honey). My main motivation for this lifestyle is to be a better person who is more in harmony with nature and contributing to the harming of animals doesn't fit in with that. If we "accidently" consume something that doesn't fit our little guidelines it's not the end of the world, but we really do try to stick to our convictions. Hope this very lengthy answer helps you with some insight!
I'm a vegetarian, I'll eat eggs but not all the time I think I'm a tiny bit allergic since I get nauseus easily from it(wont go into details lol). I love soy milk, I can't drink just regular milk it has to be in something otherwise I don't. Um I'll basically eat anything non-meat(including seafood, they aren't vegetables.), but if I found out they use animal products in it or anything along those lines I'll stop eating it. I chose to be one because I feel bad for the animals, I don't have to worry about getting mad-cows disease. No Peta didn't make this descion for me, infact I hate peta they are such hypocrites! Also I think vegetarian food taste alot better in some cases, I always loved their veggie burgers and veggie bacon(Morningstar Farms) when I was really young till I became a full vegetarian at 13 I believe... I might become a vegan one day, I think anyone who is a vegan or vegetarian is awesome, people may think it's easy when you begin to become one but it isnt (well for me and my sis it was a bit hard.)
I'm a vegetarian and do have vegan tendencies. I try not to eat gelatin or drink milk when there are other options.
This is not for my health, but for the welfare of animals.
As for becoming a vegan, I don't know. It seems terribly hard to not consume any animals products at all, but I am thinking about it.