I am a born again vegetarian?!
So, I guess I'm asking wether I should become a permanet Vegetarian (Vegan) or not. I do love a good burger once in a while, and vegan food is so expensive...your thoughts please.
Answers: I saw the way those cows were treated on the news, and it was disgraceful! I have just recently become a vegetarian (only for weight loss reasons). But the food is so expensive. And, will corporations ever really, slaughter animals humanely?
So, I guess I'm asking wether I should become a permanet Vegetarian (Vegan) or not. I do love a good burger once in a while, and vegan food is so expensive...your thoughts please.
Go buy those products at walmart...they are only like $3 each there...it's your decision as to whether or not you stay a veg...I love living my life that way...read this and watch the video I'm attaching and decide for yourself. Good luck!!
What is a Vegan?
A vegan is someone who, for various reasons, chooses to avoid using or consuming animal products. While vegetarians choose not to use flesh foods, vegans also avoid dairy and eggs, as well as fur, leather, wool, down, and cosmetics or chemical products tested on animals.
Veganism, the natural extension of vegetarianism, is an integral component of a cruelty-free lifestyle. Living vegan provides numerous benefits to animals' lives, to the environment, and to our own health–through a healthy diet and lifestyle.
For The Animals
Despite the common belief that drinking milk or eating eggs does not kill animals, commercially-raised dairy cows and egg-laying chickens, whether factory-farmed or "free range", are slaughtered when their production rates decline. The same factory farm methods that are used to produce most meats are also used to produce most milk and eggs. These cows and chickens live their short lives caged, drugged, mutilated, and deprived of their most basic freedoms.
On U.S. farms, egg-laying hens spend their entire lives in a battery cage with a floor area the size of a vinyl record cover. Living on wire floors that deform their feet, in cages so tiny they cannot stretch their wings, and covered with excrement from cages above them, these chickens suffer lameness, bone disease, and obsessive pecking, which is curbed by searing the beaks off young chicks. Although chickens can live up to 15 years, they are usually slaughtered when their egg production rates decline after two years. Hatcheries have no use for male chicks, so they are killed by suffocation, decapitation, gassing, or crushing.
As with any mammal, cows produce milk only when pregnant and stop after their calves have been weaned. When a dairy cow delivers a female calf, the calf becomes a dairy cow herself, born to live in the same conditions as her mother. But when a dairy cow delivers a male calf, the calf is sold to a veal farm within days of birth, where he is tethered to a stall, deprived of food and exercise, and soon slaughtered for meat. Life is only a few years longer for the mother. Because it is unprofitable to keep cows alive once their milk production declines, dairy cows are usually slaughtered at 5 years of age. Thus, a cow's normal lifespan of 25 years is cut 20 years short just to cut costs and maximize production.
Today's farms are not like the ones most of us learned about in school; they are mechanized factories where an animal's welfare is of little concern compared to profit. Veganism emerges as the lifestyle most consistent with the philosophy that animals are not ours to use.
For The Environment
Animal agriculture takes a devastating toll on the earth. It is an inefficient way of producing food, since feed for farm animals requires land, water, fertilizer, and other resources that could otherwise have been used directly for producing human food.
Animal agriculture's dependence on higher yields accelerates topsoil erosion on our farmlands, rendering land less productive for crop cultivation, and forcing the conversion of wilderness to grazing and farm lands. Animal waste from massive feedlots and factory farms is a leading cause of pollution in our groundwater and rivers. The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization has linked animal agriculture to a number of other environmental problems, including: contamination of aquatic ecosystems, soil, and drinking water by manure, pesticides, and fertilizers; acid rain from ammonia emissions; greenhouse gas production; and depletion of aquifers for irrigation.
In a time when population pressures have become an increasing stress on the environment, there are additional arguments for a vegan diet. The United Nations has reported that a vegan diet can feed many more people than an animal-based diet. For instance, projections have estimated that the 1992 food supply could have fed about 6.3 billion people on a purely vegetarian diet.
For Your Health
The consumption of animal fats and proteins has been linked to heart disease, colon and lung cancer, osteoporosis, diabetes, kidney disease, hypertension, obesity, and a number of other debilitating conditions. Cows' milk contains ideal amounts of fat and protein for young calves, but far too much for humans. And eggs are higher in cholesterol than any other food, making them a leading contributor to cardiovascular disease. The American Dietetic Association reports that vegetarian/vegan diets are associated with reduced risks for all of these conditions.
Vegan foods, such as whole grains, vegetables, fruits, and beans, are low in fat, contain no cholesterol, and are rich in fiber and nutrients. Vegans can get all the protein they need from legumes (e.g., beans, tofu, peanuts) and grains (e.g., rice, corn, whole wheat breads and pastas); calcium from broccoli, kale, collard greens, tofu, fortified juices and soymilks; iron from chickpeas, spinach, pinto beans, and soy products; and B12 from fortified foods or supplements.
With planning, a vegan diet can provide all the nutrients we were taught as schoolchildren came only from animal products.
Veg/vegan food is not expensive unless all you're eating is fake burgers and stuff. Eat your fruit and veg.
Have you ever considered going kosher then. Thats part of what kosher meat is. Basically when the animal is slaughtered is done praying and thanking god, but also in the most humanly way possible (the animal will feel the least amount of pain possible). I think it could be a good alternative for you, if you still like meat.
I don't know where you're shopping, but at my grocery store tofu is WAY CHEAPER than chicken, or any meat for that matter. When I went vegan, I cut my grocery bill by at least 25%.
Whether you feel your palette is worthy of the torture and murder of an innocent animal is completely up to you.
Give this a watch: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=...
(This documentary also features a segment on kosher meat - you can see for yourself how "humane" it actually is.)
Are you going vegetarian or vegan? Vegans don't eat dairy and eggs, some vegetarians do.
Do it do it do it :)
I feel so good, I can't imagine why everyone isn't a veggie. I don't find it more expensive, but I don't buy lots of fake meat. I use tofu....and make my own veggie burgers and stuff.
And you can make some mean grilled veggie sandwiches.
:)
Come back to the light side of the force brotha (or sista)!
Vegan food is expensive?
Last time I checked, the produce department was the cheapest section of the store! Eat some fruit and vegetables.
Not to mention dried beans, peas and lentils- a pot of which will feed my husband for a week- and they only cost a few cents!
Corporations so rarely treat humans humanely, they will never extend that courtesy to animals. They are trained to think of them as things.
I have been a vegetarian since birth (due to religious reasons) but yes you are right, the animals are treated with cruelty and this is a very good reason to become a vegetarian. You do not have to be a vegan (unless you choose to). You can still consume dairy products (milk, cheese etc.) since these are derived from cows and are not dead meat. Vegetarian food is not expensive at all. Obviously you would need to know what to buy. If you only look for vegan food, it might be expensive.
You can get all sorts of beans for real cheap (kidney beans, split yellow beans, lima beans etc.), for less than $1 a pound. These can be cooked as the main course of a meal. Also, you should invest in a pressure cooker and you can cook these in 10-15 mins. Other than that you can try recipes with cauliflowers, chick peas, eggplant, zuchinni etc. Check out this link that has some vegetarian recipes
http://www.harekrsna.com/sun/recipes/rec...
omg
be a veggie!
its sooooo cool
and super funn
i ahve found food
(qourn nuggets and moring star dogs)
DO it YAY
i agree with miniz1988 u should become kosher because the animals are slaughtered in the quickest way possible and its done humanely.
Vegetarian is not synonymous with vegan. Vegans are vegetarians but not all vegetarians are vegan.
Either way, it's a personal choice. Nobody can decide for you.
I would like to know how vegan food is "so expensive" considering you should be eating everything a vegetarian eats, AND eating animal products on top of that, thus your omnivorous diet is more expensive.
Mock meats and dairies are not necessities in a vegetarian diet. They are luxuries. If you cannot afford them, don't buy them.
You should be eating mostly fresh fruits, vegetables, and greens. If you aren't eating those now, you're an unhealthy omnivore.
Do what ever makes you comfortable... but if your gona do it... do it right. I suggest vegan or veg. BTW kosher/halal is not a better way of slaughter. Lots of kosher/halal slaughter houses have had to keep up with increasing demands. This means they don't necessarily kill the animal quickly or any less painfully. slaughter is slaughter... they still end up dead =(
As the top of the food chain, I eat as I please. This usually includes some sort of dead, cooked meat. I visited a slaughter house once and the cows were treated alright; well right up until they shot them in the head. Even then, it seemed to effectively kill the cow! I am not knocking your preference of food, but a juicy steak suits me fine.
Butters? Hamburgers? LOL
I get the Morningstar Farms veggie burgers and portabella mushroom burgers at Super Walmart for less than $3 per box (of 4).