I am vegetarian and people always ask me why i eat plants?!
I am vegetarian and people always ask me why i eat plants?
i am vegetarian and people always ask me why i eat plants because plants are a living thing like anmials are. ( i dont eat meat because i think its wrong to kill something just to it eat). and they always say that animal is the same thing as a plant because you have to kill it also, what can i say to defend myself. because yes they may be the same but its different and i always get it. also what should i say when people ask me why i eat eggs and drink milk. i try to tell them things but what i say never comes out like a smart answer and just some bs answer.
Answers:
Defend yourself why? Tell them they eat plants and animals...if you're a hypocrite for eating plants alone what does that make them? By using this argument they are by default settling unannounced that they agree that harming a living organism is wrong.
But you're not a hypocrite, they are. Tell them also that plants are the backbone of our world..the only photosynthetic organisms around and the only ones who can produce oxygen because during photosynthesis water is split and oxygen is expelled.
In this way they provide and develop for us edible energy and nutrients, as well they leech up dietary minerals for our bodies.
Without plants we'd have no air.
Without plants we'd have no energy.
Without plants we'd have no vitamins and other nutrients.
Without plants we'd have no dietary vitamins.
Without plants we'd have no natural medicines.
Without plants we'd have no spices.
Without plants we'd have no good food.
Without plants we'd have no homes!
Food for 100 cows could feed 2,000 humans.
After you explain this to your friends..ask them to explain "Why is eating animals more important for human diet then plants, when all the necessities for biological survival are from plant life?" See if they can come up with anything. If they say protein explain to them that plant protein isn't tainted with parasites, hormones, blood, cholesterol, saturated fats, and often times urine and sweat. Why would any knowledgeable person choose flesh?
People argue that without eating meat we'd have never got to where we are today. The fact is without plant life developing our entire world would never have manifested.
"Photosynthesizing plants would later evolve and convert more carbon dioxide into oxygen. Over time, excess carbon became locked in fossil fuels, sedimentary rocks (notably limestone), and animal shells. As oxygen was released, it reacted with ammonia to release nitrogen; in addition, bacteria would also convert ammonia into nitrogen. But most of the nitrogen currently present in the atmosphere results from sunlight-powered photolysis of ammonia released steadily over the aeons from volcanoes.
As more plants appeared, the levels of oxygen increased significantly, while carbon dioxide levels dropped. At first the oxygen combined with various elements (such as iron), but eventually oxygen accumulated in the atmosphere, resulting in mass extinctions and further evolution. With the appearance of an ozone layer (ozone is an allotrope of oxygen) lifeforms were better protected from ultraviolet radiation. This oxygen-nitrogen atmosphere is the "third atmosphere". 200 - 250 million years ago, up to 35 percent of the atmosphere was oxygen (bubbles of ancient atmosphere were found in an amber)."
In the beginning we were foragers and our first tools were developed to help with scavenging dead animals. It wasn't till much later we started developing spears and throwing spears to satisfy our lust for meat. The understanding of fire isn't a biological trait and in this way excludes humans as being naturally omnivorous because our ancestors likely got sick a lot from eating raw meat. We don't have the metabolisms and short intestines like most carnivorous animals.
A lot of people will argue that after the flood in the bible that we God gave up on us and told Noah he could eat animals. Consider that after a global flood most plant life would have been killed off and would have left a ton of dead animals laying around everywhere. The entire point of the ark was to keep 2 of every animal from where Noah came from, so its unlikely God meant for these animals to be saved for Noah's family to 'eat' after they landed. It's very obvious indeed with a pair of each male/female that they were intended to breed and repopulate the land. So with this in mind consider that Noah settles the ark somewhere..there is little to no plant life and tons of drowned animals laying around. It sounds like God was temporarily giving Noah the ok to eat dead animal flesh..animals that died by God's hand. Perhaps God meant that animals of any type that die naturally and are found could be used as crude nutrition if no other plant, fruit or seed/nut was to be found. I don't see anywhere where it says otherwise. see below..
9:3 Every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you; even as the green herb have I given you all things.
9:4 But flesh with the life thereof, which is the blood thereof, shall ye not eat.
Every creature with life that lives shall be food for you; even as the plants have I given you all things.
But animals that contain life which is flowing blood, you will not eat.
I'm agnostic and don't follow any religion, but I do appreciate the wisdom in a lot of ancient texts who were likely written by very intelligent men and women. I as well don't dispute that greater truths could be held in these.. but as it stands I read such documents and use pure logic to decide what I see.
I don't know exactly how versed the people who attack you are, but hopefully the information I've listed above will help you. If you need more help or have any other questions please email or IM me..I'm easier to keep in touch with over IM though.
Source(s):
personal experience and research
If you don't know why you are a vegetarian and need other peoples opinions, you could be doing it for the wrong reason. Figure out why you really don't eat meat, ivestigate on your own and form your own opinion. Don't let others tell you why you don't eat meat... I do eat meat because I need it to stay healthy, amongst other reasons. Find your truth!
Well some people aren't very nice and pressure u to answer stupid questions that when you answer, it never sounds like what you wanted to come out of your mouth! I would just ignore them or ask why they eat meat!
The next time someone asks you why you only eat vegetables tell them it's cause you've never once heard a horror story of vegetables screaming bloody murder before they were made into your salad.
i have a girl friend... she is vegetarian since she was born and she has a pretty pretty very pretty skin and a beautyfull breast... and she smealt like roses... evreything of her taste delicious...
Well usually meat eaters use why do you kill plants as a come back line for being attacked for eating meat. I doubt that someone just happened by and noticed you eating an innocent veggy, and attacked you for eating it. I am a meat eater and I love my vegis. If people ask you this question totally unprovoked, one good response is::: mind your f'ing business. or I have a right to my opinion, and if they ask why you eat eggs and milk, tell them that they didnt slit an animals throat to get them.
Don't even bother to answer those questions. People are gonna believe whatever they want especially when their minds are made up. Word of advice.....don't try to push your views on them... Everybody has a right to their own opinons.
Plants are the most essential part of the food chain, all animals (land animals at least) rely on plants...so...plants are necessary in your diet, meat is not necessary in any human diet, and with milk, you don't need to kill a cow to get it...your on your own with the whole egg thing...hope this helps!!!
they are not sentient beings. Plus, we don't know for sure that plants feel pain, but we do know that animals do. Besides, people are animals also, so eating a cow or a pig is just like cannibalism. I usually don't say anything smart either. I usually say something stupid like "fine. I'll just be anorexic, then. Happy?" or "it's better than eating a cow" and then think of something better later...you can also say something like it's my life and I can eat whatever I want. I don't bug you for eating ANIMALS, so you shouldn't bug me for eating plants or milk or whatever. I don't know...I hope I helped. Good luck.
Plants don't have souls and they don't feel pain. Tell them to do there research and read about it.
Tell them, I don't eat rotting, decomposing animal flesh into my body.
Tell them that your body is not a graveyard for animal flesh.
As for eggs, you're eating an embryo, ick!
And milk has pus in it..... double ick!
Just tell them it's for health or religion.
I totally agree with katcho792! Very good answer!
Unlike plants, animals have feelings and their on personality. I have seen dogs and cats cry. Have you ever seen a tomato cry.
To the milk question it is because the milk is being stolen from the babies, the girls are turned into milk cows, and the boys are made into veal.
Why wouldn't you eat eggs. They cut off the becks of the chickens because they don't want them to injury on another,(they live in such crowded conditions.) Also their is so much chicken poo that the amnonia level in the chicken houses is so high chickens have large re spots of thier skin that is burned.
Plants are MEANT to be eaten . That's why they have seeds (to be eaten and distributed in poop!) and taste delicious and provide the things we need to survive (nutrients and water!). Nothing else has the same kind of vitamins and minerals that plants do NATURALLY - yes, meat has nutrients, but only because the animals being eaten eat PLANTS. In fact, did you know when carnivores make a kill they go for the intestines because that's where the PLANTS are still being digested in the animal? And did you also know carnivores don't eat other carnivores? It's because they need the life giving properties of PLANTS and they get them by eating animals that eat the plants. Vegetarians cut out the middleman and just go straight for the plants.
As for eggs and milk, that one is trickier. There really is no good argument for drinking milk, especially in today's world (if you only knew what dairy cows and their calves go through just to give people a fatty, dirty fluid to drink - yuck!). We are the only animal that continues to drink mother's milk once we're grown - doesn't that seem weird? And it's even weirder when you consider we drink the mother's milk of OTHER animals! Milk contains animal proteins and fats which studies have shown are just not good for us. Milk does have a high concentration of calcium, but it is hardly the only place to get it (despite what the dairy industry wants you to believe!). Almonds, broccoli, and soy milk are good sources of calcium, to name only a few.
It's also hard to argue for eggs. I personally don't have too much of a problem with consuming eggs once in a great while (certainly not daily or even every few days - they are full of cholesterol!) except that the horrors chickens have to go through from nearly all chicken farms is just terribly sad, so I don't eat eggs anymore either. I would feel too guilty because chickens are really neat animals!
wel come to the worl of vegetarian because of you more and more animals will save their lives thanks read the following regarding plants and tell all of them why you eat plants.
Traditionally vegetarianism is practiced by most cultures for reasons of compassion and reverence for life and non-violence, and the Jains are no exception to this. However, the definition and understanding of non-violence by Jains goes much deeper than others that this author has come across. The medical reasons for being a vegetarian are relatively a modern phenomenon mostly during the past half a century or so, during which period developments in the modern medicine have established links between certain ailments and the non-vegetarian diet. The very fundamental question that is often asked of a vegetarians is, "If non-violence is the basis of vegetarianism, why eat plant based foods?
Don't plants have life?" In this respects Jains perhaps were the very first ones to acknowledge that plants are a life form, long before it was established by the modern day biological sciences. Jains recognize five physical senses namely touch, taste, smell, sight, and hearing as the principal attributes of living beings. All life forms in the universe are then classified in terms of the senses found in various creatures. Here as a word of caution, the senses should not be confused with other attributes of life, such as breathing, circulatory and nervous systems, heart and brain etc. that are dealt with as a separate topic in Jainism. The lowest life forms are those with only one sense, the sense of touch, such as the plant life, the highest life forms have all the fives senses such as human beings, mammals and most of the animal kingdom. The other intermediary life forms are the living beings with: two senses - touch and taste such as an earth worm, three senses - touch, taste and smell such as lice, and four senses- touch, taste, smell and sight for example mosquitoes. Senses appear in various living beings strictly in the order specified, i.e., touch is the most primitive of all senses, and hearing is the last sense found at the most advanced stage of development. No other combinations of these senses are known to exist. This in itself may be the most remarkable contribution of ancient Jains to the modern life sciences on the evolution of living beings.
Having classified all life forms in this manner, and realizing that human beings must eat to derive their nutrition and to survive, life with only one sense, that is basically plant life, is the only permitted food for human consumption. To reconcile the principle of non-violence with the consumption of plant based diet, and to preserve plant-life as best as possible, there are strict dietary codes of practice recommended for day to day living. These include prohibition on the consumption of some vegetables and fruits, restrictions on procurement of produce, restrictions of times and timings, fasting, recommended occupations etc. Such codes, with their feasible interpretations follow.
Vegetables and fruits that grow underground (roots of plants) are prohibited as a general rule. Clearly enough, to procure such vegetables and fruits, one must pull out the plant from the root, thus destroying the entire plant, and with it all the other micro organisms around the root. Fresh fruits and vegetables should be plucked only when ripe and ready to fall off, or ideally after they have fallen off the plant. In case they are plucked from the plants, only as much as required should be procured and consumed without waste. Grains, such as wheat, rice, maize, beans are obtained when the plants or the pods are dry and dead. Cutting down of green trees for wood or any other use is strictly prohibited. This is indeed a shining example of "conservation" in ancient times, which modern civilization is still trying to find ways for.
An orthodox Jain fasts twice a fortnight, on the eighth and the fourteenth day of the full and the new moon cycles of the lunar calendar Some fast even thrice, including the fifth day of the two lunar cycles. During fasting only food prepared from grains is consumed and no green vegetables or fruits are eaten.
In context of "root vegetables and fruits," most modern day Jains have devised self-imposed restrictions, not sanctioned by the religion. The majority of Jains with the exception of the orthodox, traditional ones, eat most of the underground vegetables such as potatoes, carrots, turnips etc. for reasons of social convenience (after all they fall within the regime of a vegetarian diet). Even amongst these exceptions, a large percentage still do not eat onions and garlic. The reasons advanced is their strong odor and that they are Tamsik, food that leads to lethargic action.
It is a common saying that "One is what one eats". But Jains go much farther in defining the character of an individual. According to them "One is what one thinks", a fact that any criminal and social psychologist shall confirm. Violence in thought is as detrimental to the development of character as violence in action. To this extent, candies and chocolates shaped as animals are generally not consumed in Jain families. Imagine a child going around eating the "head of a rabbit" or "leg of a man". What will be his/ her psychology and personality? If you want to eat chocolate, just do that, why lace it with an unappetizing thought of cruelty to animals and/ or cannibalism. Orthodox Jains do not even eat cooked/ prepared food from the shops. All food should be prepared within the house under the most hygienic conditions
If you dont attack someone for eating meat like peta does, than dont worry about it...but if you do than you have to accept that it's the same thing every thing has to kill something to eat and survive. cattle have to kill grass to live and grass has to eat the microbes in dirt to live. So just relax and survive the way your body feels best.
As for the idiot that said something about bloody murder...you dont know what communication plants have...can you under stand a cow or a pig? If you can than i'm sorry. & as for milk that doesnt make sense when that people stress not to drink that it's for baby cows, but it has vitamins and nutrients we need & we cant get from other items & milk isnt a living being that i've learned well i guess you can milk breastfeeding women.
eggs well unless fertilized they're not going to be chickens when they are you cant eat them.