I'm considering becoming a vegetarian...?!
I'm considering becoming a vegetarian...?
I love love love animals. And when I read up some on all the pain they have to go through when they're made into burgers, I nearly cried. =[[
Vegan recipes seem pretty healthy, too. For the most part. I'm seriously considering trying the vegetarian lifestyle for a while. But my family thinks it's the funniest idea in the world. Any ideas I can use to prove to them that it's perfectly reasonable?
thanks =]
7 months ago
I know I might get tired of it after awhile.
I'd just be giving it a try. Couldn't hurt, right? And I wouldn't be like strict vegan or whatever. Just basic meat stuff... which I really don't like anyways. I mean, it's some creature's muscle. That sounds awful nasty to me.
Answers:
7 months ago
I know I might get tired of it after awhile.
I'd just be giving it a try. Couldn't hurt, right? And I wouldn't be like strict vegan or whatever. Just basic meat stuff... which I really don't like anyways. I mean, it's some creature's muscle. That sounds awful nasty to me.
Wow. There is SO much ignorance about.
Vegetarianism will improve your health greatly! I've been a vegetarian for 3.5 years and havent eaten red meat since a few years before that.
Vegetarianism reduces & CURES heart disease. Also, it reduces obesity and many other illnesses. Nearly all forms of cancer could be prevented by not eating meat - that's not from me, that's from scientists who have done studies.
Also, it is really easy to get your iron & protein.
Dried beans and dark green leafy vegetables are especially good sources of iron, even better on a per calorie basis than meat. Iron absorption is increased markedly by eating foods containing vitamin C along with foods containing iron. Vegetarians DO NOT have a higher incidence of iron deficiency than do meat eaters.
Beans (eg. red kidney, soy, chickpeas) , mushrooms and lentils are good sources of protein.
You can keep up your omega-3 through having olive oil & flaxseed/linseed oil (cold, heat damages the omega-3 & it's then less benificial.
Having canines does not mean you are supposed to eat meat. If you can rip into an animals hide with those teeth, go ahead. They're just not strong enough.
http://goveg.com/ has some great info & recipe links.
Don't become a veggie. Just eat Kosher meat. Yay!
How could you want to give up the wonderful taste of well cooked meat? To have to feast and dine on leafs and twigs. DOn't do it! Veggies are okay in moderation but they are nothing like linking your teeth into a wonderful T bone steak. If you were meant to be a vegetarian is all you would have were molars in your mouth.
NOO dont be a vegitarian it just isnt worth it in a while you will want meat so bad follo my advice dont do it!!!!!!!!
I love love love cows in my stomach.
A healthy meal includes meat too.
Let them think it's funny. That way, in addition to making a good choice for yourself, animals, and the environment, you'll be contributing to your family's joy. Laughing is good for the mind and body.
They'll eventually get over it. Vegan food can be awesome I recommend How It All Vegan and Garden of Vegan (both by Tanya Barnard and Sarah Kramer) as good starter cookbooks.
Eat kosher foods, they are raised organically & killed humanely (i guess that's possible) but so the animals feel no fear & this keeps the animals body chemicals lower in the meat, tastes better too!
I ate vegetarian for awhile and slowly reintroduced white meat, then red meat back in, but it has to be kosher, it helps that it tastes better too!
You shouldn't become a veggie. Why do you think you have canine teeth in your mouth? They are not for grinding veggies! They are for ripping meat! There are many essential nutrients in meats and poultry that cannot be gained by plants. Like it or not, the human species in in fact an animal. an omnivorous animal. and just like every other omnivore, we eat veggies and MEAT. our eyes are on the front of our heads because we are mostly carnivores. if we were meant to be vegatarians, we wouldn't have such large brains, sharp teeth, front faced eyes, etc. Don't go veggie! Animals are meant to live and to die. every animal feeds something, whether it be another animal or a plant. Think about it!
If you become a vegetarian do it as a comfortable pace....a vegetarian and a vegan are different....as is lacto ovo vegetarian....and many others. PETA gives you a free vegetarian starter kit go to this sitehttp://www.goveg.com/order.asp
Well, I dont really know if you could say something to ur family that would make them understand. I have heard before a few people thinking the same way as u. And well, u could tell ur family, that they should respect ur feelings, even if it may be different than most others. I dont think its funny, u are just sensitive towards animals, and that is also normal.
And there is no harm taht u stop eating for a while, but it shouldnt be permanent, as meat is also neccessary.
Just think that is all part of it, I mean, in the wild also, lions, tigers etc etc, they eat other animals. That is how it just is. Enjoy ur vegy patch :)
It's a good thing man. Becoming a vegetarian is a wonderful thing to do. Most vegetarians are people full of love for other beings. (Non vegetarian food may be tasty and perhaps a little (a litttttle) more nutricious. But they carry way too much risks than vegetarian food. Did you know that meat could cause cancer?)
But of course, your taste buds will soon ask for meat. So to start, don't worry about anything. Just be a vegetarian as long as you can. Then again try. Then again try. After a few initial stumbles, you'll become a pure vegetarian.
Chinese doctors (those acupuncturists) say your mind will be calm and your body will be lighter if you are a vegetarian. The advantages of being a vegetarian are so many.
So go ahead. Your family will soon follow you. It "is" a bad thing to harm other animals for food.
I'm a vegetarian and have been exclusively vegetarian (no fish, etc.) for 6 years. My experience is that you can't convince others that being a vegetarian is reasonable (look at some of the answers you've gotten here already.)
If you're relying on others to cook for you, you're asking a lot, because that means that someone is cooking two meals instead of one. So if you really want to be a vegetarian, you need to take over shopping and cooking for yourself. If you're doing that, then it's not unreasonable of you to be a vegetarian or a vegan.
If you decide to go vegan, remember to use flaxseed oil regularly in your diet (or you can take flaxseed capsules.) You should also take B-12, especially if you're a teenager. If you haven't stopped growing yet, you need to watch your protein and calcium intakes more carefully than most adults, too.
If you decide to be a vegetarian (they eat dairy products and/or eggs--vegans don't) then try to purchase organic products from free-range animals and local farms.
Best of luck to you--I love being a vegetarian (and by the way, I don't crave meat.)
Good for you, you are helping animals and becoming healthier! but if you need the meat, dont do it. (PS. I think veggie burgers are GOOOOOOOOOOOOOD!)
Don't listen to these morons. I'm a vegetarian, and I love it all ready
Hi, Congradulations. Read this websites:
http://www.famousveggie.com/quotes.cfm...
http://www.soybean.com/50rea2.htm...
Good luck
Enjoy being unhealthy and having a sallow complexion!
*Happily goes back to eating my burger*
OK, I'm going to try and find you some links to help out! It IS perfectly reasonable - there are LOADS of vegetarians about! And if you do it right, I believe it to be healthier than an ordinary diet.. by "do it right" though, I mean you can't just eat potatoes and peas and stuff... you need to get some variety in there! My parents were raised as omnivores, but decided to become vegetarian, and raised me and my brother and sister as vegetarian right from birth! We are now 25, 24, 20 yrs old, and we're all perfectly healthy (brain-wise too.. I'm an A+ uni student so whatever people tell you about your brain not getting enough stuff without meat is crap!). So just make sure you get in some nuts, seeds, dried fruits, whole grains, greens.. nuts, corn and beans are good protein sources but if you're still eating milk and eggs, they're good protein sources too. And iron is in stuff like raisins, silverbeet, spinach...
OK, here's some links which might provide you with some more info on vegetarianism, and also might be good to help your family come to terms with it!:
http://www.vrg.org/
http://www.vegsoc.org.nz/v2_fctsht_nutri...
http://www.vegansociety.com/html/food/nu...
http://www.americanheart.org/presenter.j...
You may want to have a look around some of the sites (the link for the middle 2 just takes you directly to the nutritional info page, but there's lots more stuff on the site as well) - one of them is a vegan site, but some of the info may still apply.
Hope it all goes well! And have a nice weekend :)
"Don't become a veggie. Just eat Kosher meat. Yay! " and "Eat kosher foods, they are raised organically & killed humanely (i guess that's possible) but so the animals feel no fear & this keeps the animals body chemicals lower in the meat, tastes better too! "
Actually, Kosher meat is not any better than other types of meat. Recently there was a video of a 'Kosher' butcher attempting to slaughter a cow by slitting it's throat and instead just rips out his windpipe through the gash. The cow is fully conscious and feels every bit of it's "Kosher" killing.
"If you were meant to be a vegetarian is all you would have were molars in your mouth. " and " Why do you think you have canine teeth in your mouth?"
If you were meant to eat meat, you would have a mouth set up like a cat. Our teeth are as they are because we *don't* have to eat meat.
"There are many essential nutrients in meats and poultry that cannot be gained by plants. " While this is kind of true, it's more along the line of 'weasel words'. Meaning, it's rhetoric. The only thing that you really can't get from veggies are unenriched grains is b-12. However, this is regularly included in cerals and breads and in multi-vitamins. So, another myth busted.
"our eyes are on the front of our heads because we are mostly carnivores." Actually, if you want to start an evolutionary discussion, we are NOT mostly carnivores. Early humans were 90% vegetarians (gatherers). They rarely made a kill, and when they did, it would only last a matter of days. If you are for the evolutionary concept of omnivorism, then you would only eat fresh kill, killed by you or your husband, once a month. Gorillas also have front facing eyes, yet they are mostly vegetarian. . .
"I'm just smart " Serpents, while I can't comment on your IQ, your arguments have been completely fallacious. A "smart" person would back up their "facts" with proof, not just folklore given to people from old wives tales and the beef council. A "smart" person would read studies by the AMA and the ADA that clearly state that a vegetarian diet reduces all types of cancer and medical conditions (like diabetes).
"And I wouldn't be like strict vegan or whatever. Just basic meat stuff... which I really don't like anyways." Cherie, just understand that the 'basic meat stuff' is in all kinds of things - from 'vegetable' soups to yogurt to jello to some mashed potatoes and so on. There may not be chunks of meat, but it all comes from a slaughtered animal. But, that may come later as you become more endeared with vegetarianism. As far as your family, let them laugh. Lots of people laugh about things, but it doesn't make them right. Just tell your family that if they love you, they'll let you make your own choice. Do the research on being a healthy vegetarian and let them know that you know how to remain healthy. Those who rebel the most about vegetarians are usually covering their own guilty feelings and inadequacies. Do a search for "going vegetarian" and read all that you can so that you know how to be healthy.
Remember, the best argument you can give a meat-eater who tells you that humans can't survive without meat is to ask them how vegetarians are still alive then. Ask how Alyssa Milano, Joaquin Phoenix, and Pink are alive and kicking. After all, if you couldn't get all your protein and all your nutrients being a vegetarian, how could they possibly still be alive???
Good luck to you. : )
I would argue that if we were meant to be vegetarians, we would have herbivores' teeth, guts and biochemistry. The human gut is not designed for an herbivorous diet, and our biochemistry is such that there are some vitamins (particularly in the B group) which we have to eat: and that means eating meat. [These days, there are supplements, but the fact remains, we are designed to be omnivores.]
Like it or not, you also have the psychology of a carnivore.
If you are going to be a vegetarian + non red meat eater, ie you include chicken &/or fish &/or shellfish in your diet, there is still the question of cruelty to animals. People happily catch & eat fish, and say, "Cold blooded animals don't have feelings." Rubbish. They do: it's just that they can't yell in air to let us know that they are suffering.
If you are going to become a vegetarian, you will really need to study human nutritional needs carefully, and work out a diet plus supplements that will give you all your requirements. It's more than just looking at some vegetarian recipes & thinking, "Oh, yes, these look healthy."
If you are concerned about animal welfare, I would suggest that you become involved in lobbying for the better treatment of the animals that we use for food, and for the least inhumane ways of killing them.
To be honest if my family thought it was funny that I was a vegetarian I wouldn't worry and I would gnore the,. I feel that it is up to each individual what they eat and I certainly wouldn't try to convince anyone to be a vegetarian and I wouldn't expect them to try to convince me to eat meat.
My husbands family are from a framing background and found it difficult to undertstand why I wanted to be a vegan, but they respected my choice and we just don't talk about the issues surrounding it as we know we would not agree.
when you say "Just basic meat stuff" remember that to call yourself a veggie you need to exclude all meat, including fish, poultry and any product that use by-products in the contents or processing.
Its easy, adn so good for you.
Of course meateaters are going to say its bad for you, they are so narrow minded. How can they possibly know, many of them have never tried it.
Ignore all this "Kosher" advice, the animal does care, its still dead.
Veggie diet is not problem, no suppliments needed. I'm an arable farmer and been veggie for 26 years. There is no problem with energy or health.
Good luck, you'll feel 10 times better and add 15 years to your life
You need to learn from people who have been veggie for thousands of years. e.g. Hindu Veggies. Find out what they really eat - there is alot of protien (lentils/chick peas/paneer/yogurt) and many other very healthy options (of course there are unhealthy options and obese people too). Most people never find out about all of this. Maybe you could go to a Temple for lunch to find out for yourself.
I try just giving up red meat first. Try adding meat substitutes. Once you give it up it is hard to go back. I went over a year with out red meat. When I went to a party and figured why not have just some steak like every one else, I got so sick. I lost my tolerance to red meat. So I can never go back, now.
Also try to find Hormone free milk. Those poor cows are milked 4 time a day. That is unnatural. They cramp up, and in pain.
If a vegan diet is very carefully planned, and that requires either fortified foods or supplements, it can be AS healthy as a good meat eating diet. I think there are a couple of benefits, but they come from eating a wide range of fruit and veg and being health conscious as vegans have to be, not omitting meat, and thus those benefits can be go without actually going veggie. Needless to say a uncarefully planned vegetarian, or especially vegan, diet can lack many essential nutrients and be very bad for your health.
There are many benefits to a diet containing meat. Many vegetarians claim that meat is unhealthy. This is a blatant fallacy.
It is well established that eating meat improves the quality of nutrition, strengthens the immune system, promotes normal growth and development, is beneficial for day-to-day health, energy and well-being, and helps ensure optimal learning and academic performance.
A long term study found that children who eat more meat are less likely to have deficiencies than those who eat little or no meat. Kids who don’t eat meat ― and especially if they restrict other foods, as many girls are doing ― are more likely to feel tired, apathetic, unable to concentrate, are sick more often, more frequently depressed, and are the most likely to be malnourished and have stunted growth. Meat and other animal-source foods are the building blocks of healthy growth that have made America’s and Europe's youngsters the tallest, strongest and healthiest in the world.
Meat is an important source of quality nutrients, heme iron, protein, zinc and B-complex vitamins. It provides high-quality protein important for kids’ healthy growth and development.
The iron in meat (heme iron) is of high quality and well absorbed by the body, unlike nonheme iron from plants which is not well absorbed. More than 90 percent of iron consumed may be wasted when taken without some heme iron from animal sources. Substances found to inhibit nonheme iron absorption include phytates in cereals, nuts and legumes, and polyphenolics in vegetables. Symptoms of iron deficiency include fatigue, headache, irritability and decreased work performance. For young children, it can lead to impairment in general intelligence, language, motor performance and school readiness. Girls especially need iron after puberty due to blood losses, or if pregnant. Yet studies show 75 percent of teenage girls get less iron than recommended.
Meat, poultry and eggs are also good sources of absorbable zinc, a trace mineral vital for strengthening the immune system and normal growth. Deficiencies link to decreased attention, poorer problem solving and short-term memory, weakened immune system, and the inability to fight infection. While nuts and legumes contain zinc, plant fibre contains phytates that bind it into a nonabsorbable compound.
Found almost exclusively in animal products, Vitamin B12 is necessary for forming new cells. A deficiency can cause anaemia and permanent nerve damage and paralysis. The Vitimin B12 in plants isn't even bioavailable, meaning our body can't use it.
Why not buy food supplements to replace missing vitamins and minerals? Some people believe they can fill those gaps with pills, but they may be fooling themselves. Research consistently shows that real foods in a balanced diet are far superior to trying to make up deficiencies with supplements.
Lets not forget either that protein, while it is found in plants, is better quality in animal products.
Some people claim that meat is unhealthy because it contains saturated fat. So does margarine and olive oil, and they're vegan suitable (in fact the hydrogenated fats in Marge can be very bad, but that's another story). Besides, any excess calories in your diet, any excess sugar, starch or carbohydrates are stored in your body for later use. This is done by turning them into saturated fats.
Cholesterol too. Your body on average creates four to five times more cholesterol than the average person consumes, and compensates by creating more when less is consumed. Cholesterol isn't evil, it is essential; it makes up the waterproof linings of all our cells and without it we would die. Too much can be bad, but as with saturated fats there are more healthy ways of disposing of it, like regular exercise. Anyway, it isn't so much how much cholesterol you eat, but how well yur body handles it. A person who eats loads of dietary cholesterol and leads an unhealthy lifestyle can still have low cholesterol, and vice versa. Most people's bodies are able to take a large amount of cholesterol without getting atherosclerosis. For this reason that eating meat gives you heart disease is very misleading, and for the most part untrue. Of course, if you do have a problem eating loads isn't a good idea, but for most people there is nothing at all to worry about.
Yes, there are things in meat that there is some evidence can cause cancer in some people, but there are as many in plants too. Soy especially has some very potent carcinogens. Processing of soy protein results in the formation of toxic lysinoalanine and highly carcinogenic nitrosamines.
Soy phytoestrogens disrupt endocrine function and have the potential to cause infertility and to promote breast cancer in adult women. Also they are potent antithyroid agents that cause hypothyroidism and may cause thyroid cancer. In infants, consumption of soy formula has been linked to autoimmune thyroid disease.
Soy is bad for numerous other reasons, but that isn't the point, I'm just using it as a quick example relating to cancer not being exclusive to some animal products. The evidence that claims meat does cause cancer is patchy anyway.
Some people also claim that we aren't designed by evolution, to eat meat. They claim that our digestive system is quite long and that we produce amylase, a starch splitting catabolic enzyme, akin to herbivores and unlike carnivores. Apparently this clearly shows that we were designed to eat plants. Such people should go and look up 'omnivore' in a dictionary. They have also been known to cite other reasons we are like herbivores and unlike carnivores: that we suck water instead of lapping it, and that we perspire through our skin, such things have nothing at all to do with whether or not we were designed to eat meat, and nothing to do with how our body handles food. I might as well say that because we, like most carnivores and unlike most herbivores, have eyes that face forwards, we must be carnivorous. Of course, that's not true for precisely the same reason.
In contrast, there are many reasons we aren't naturally herbivores. We cannot naturally get all the nutrients we need without animal products naturally. Vitamin B12 cannot be got, even now, without animal products or supplements, and a lack of it can cause anaemia and impending death. 60% of vegans even now have some level of B12 deficiency, as opposed to no meat eaters, which says something about how well adapted we are to a vegan diet.
All other nutriets can be got natually. That owes to that vegtables can now be sold all year round, even out of season, and can be flown into the country from all over the world. In bygone times people could only eat the relatively small range of plants that grew in their ecosytem, and only when they were in season. Thus many more nutrients would have been unavailable and still more unavaillable for most of he year. Until very recently it would have been impossible for a vegan human to live naturally without dying very quickly.
The fact is Humans are omnivores, with the ability to eat nearly everything. By preference, prehistoric people ate a high-protein, high-mineral diet based on meat and animal sources, whenever available. Their foods came mainly from three of the five food groups: meat, vegetables and fruits. As a result, big game mammoth hunters were tall and strong with massive bones. They grew six inches taller than their farming descendants in Europe, who ate mostly plant foods, and only in recent times regained most of this height upon again eating more meat, eggs and dairy foods. We are adapted to eat meat, and it is just as natural as eating plants.
Some also claim that the digestion of meat releases harmful byproducts into our system. This is true, however such are our adaptations to eating meat that our bodies are quite able to dispose of said products without any adverse effects.
So, in summary: it isn't healthier to avoid meat. You can be healthy without meat, but likely not as healthy as if you did, assuming you kept things like the wide range of fruit and veg that a veggie diet usually entails. Too much meat can be bad, but normal amounts are no problem at all. Any health benefits that come from a veggie diet come from a wide range of fruit and veg, and being health conscious, as veggies often are; that doesn't require you to not eat meat."
I don't think a vegan diet benefits anyone in any way better than a better meat eating diet could at all. If you have no ethical qualms, it's quite pointless. PETA will tell you otherwise, but they have very strong ethical opinions, and mould their 'evidence' around it. There is, for example, some evidence that vegans live longer and are at less risk from cancer and heart disease; however those studies show only a very marginal and insignificant difference and none of those studies have yet managed to identify meat as the only variable. Veggies are less likely to smoke, drink or eat junk food, and eat a wider range of fruit and veg, making the test results inaccurate and unreliable.