I need help?!?!
I need help?!?
ok, i decided to be a vegitarian. i just cannot eat meat. ive been a vegitarian for about a week now, and i need to tell my mom, but i just can't. once b4 i decided to be one and i told my mom and she was like "im not cooking vegitarian for you!" and im scared shes not going to ask me seriously. plus, i need her to buy me veg products. any tips on how to tell her?
Answers:
1.If you know how to surf that is hot.I find that really cool if you really know how to surf.
2.Maybe you should go grocery shopping with her and ask her if you can pick out certain stuff for yourself.Or you can offer to cook one dinner a week and that will be a vegetarian dinner.I don't think you should try to hide it,just tell her and convince her you aren't just going through a phase.Educate yourself about nutrition and vegetarianism.You can learn ALOT of stuff on the internet.
Why be vegetarian?
Improving Personal Health
It's no secret that compared to average meat-eaters, vegetarians generally live longer, are less likely to be overweight, suffer far fewer incidences of cancer and heart disease, and have more energy. These facts have been consistently borne out by decades of scientific research. The largest epidemiological study ever conducted (the China-Oxford-Cornell study) concluded that those eating the amount of animal foods in a typical American diet have seventeen times the death rate from heart disease, and, for women, five times the rate of breast cancer, than those who get 5% or less of their protein from animal foods. (See the references at the end of this article.)
Meat contains 14 times the amount of pesticides as plant foods, since pesticides get concentrated as they move up through the food chain, and since they're more easily stored in fatty tissues. In 1980, six years after the pesticide dieldrin was banned, the USDA destroyed two million packages of frozen turkey products contaminated with dieldrin. (And such contamination can routinely occur without detection.) In 1974, the FDA found dieldrin in 85% of all dairy products and 99.5% of the American people. The EPA discovered that the breast milk of vegetarian women contained far lower levels of pesticides than that of average Americans. A study reported in the New England Journal of Medicine found that "The highest levels of contamination in the breast milk of the vegetarians was lower than the lowest level of contamination…(in) non-vegetarian women… The mean vegetarian levels were only 1-2% as high as the average levels in the U.S."
Saving the Earth
All food animals consume several times more grain than they produce as meat. So several times as much land is needed to grow grain to feed animals, several times as much energy is used to harvest the grain and transport it, several times as much water is necessary, several times as much pesticides, etc. Worldwide petroleum reserves would be exhausted in 11 years if the rest of the world ate like the U.S. The least energy-efficient plant food is 10 times as efficient as the most efficient meat food. A nationwide switch to a pure vegetarian diet would allow us to cut our oil imports by 60%.
Over half of the water used in the U.S. is used to grow feed for livestock. It takes 100 times as much water to produce meat than to produce wheat. The water required to produce a day's diet for a typical American is 4,000 gallons. (It's 1,200 for vegetarians and 300 for vegans.) Compared to a vegan diet, three days of a typical American diet requires as much water as you use for showering all year (assuming you shower every day).
U.S. Livestock produce 250,000 pounds of waste per second -- 20 times as much as humans. A large feedlot produces as much waste as a large city, but without a sewage system. Animal waste washed into rivers and lakes causes increased nitrates, phosphates, ammonia, and bacteria, and decreases the oxygen content. This kills plant and animal life. The meat industry account for three times as much harmful organic waste as the rest of the industries in the U.S. combined.
It takes ten times as much land to produce food for an average American compared to a pure vegetarian. An acre of land can produce 20,000 pounds of potatoes, but only 165 pounds of beef. In the U.S., 260 million acres of forest have been destroyed for use as agricultural land to support our meat diet (over 1 acre per person). Since 1967, the rate of deforestation has been one acre every five seconds. For every acre cleared for urban development, seven acres are cleared to graze animals or grow feed for them.
Around 85% of topsoil loss is directly associated with raising livestock. We have lost 75% of our topsoil. The USDA says crop productivity is down 70% as a result of topsoil loss. It takes nature 500 years to build an inch of topsoil. Vegan diets make less than 5% of the demands on the soil as meat-based diets.
Caring for Animals
Around eight billion animals are killed for food every year in the U.S. alone -- a number greater than the entire human population of the planet. Each meat-eating American eats the equivalent of about 24 animals per year. What's worse, modern agricultural methods mean that animals are raised in cramped confinement operations instead of the pastures from childhood picture books -- a practice known as factory farming. Chickens are crammed into cages with no free space, and are debeaked to keep them from pecking each other to death. Animals are pumped full of various powerful drugs to kill diseases resulting from filthy living conditions, and to make them grow or produce faster than nature intended. When cows and chickens stop producing as much milk and eggs as the younger animals, they're unceremoniously slaughtered and made into low-grade meat (fast food and pet food). For some, vegetarianism and veganism are ways to refuse to participate in the commodification of animals.
MYTH: "Vegetarians get little protein."
FACT: Plant foods offer abundant protein. Vegetables are around 23% protein on average, beans 28%, grains 13%, and even fruit has 5.5%. For comparison, human breast milk is only 5% (designed for the time in our lives when our protein needs are as high as they'll ever be). The US Recommended Daily Allowance is 8%, and the World Health Organization recommends 4.5%.
MYTH: "Beans are a good source of protein."
FACT: There is no such thing as a special "source of protein" because all foods -- even plants -- have plentiful protein. You might as well say "Food is a good source of protein". In any event, beans (28%) don't average much more protein per calorie than common vegetables (23%).
MYTH: "Meat protein is better than plant protein. You have to combine plant foods to make the protein just as good."
FACT: This myth was popularized in the 1971 book Diet for a Small Planet and has no basis in fact. The author of the book admitted nearly twenty years ago that she made a mistake (in the 1982 edition of the same book).
Source(s):
http://michaelbluejay.com/veg/history.ht...
It depends on the kind of attitude your mom really has. Judging from what she said to you, she seems like she may have some problem with her attitude. But I'm sure she's also reasonable. I guess the best thing is communication. Talk with your mom, make her understand that your intentions for becoming a vegetarian are good, and that in no way are you trying to ensue that her cooking is objectionable. Assure her that it has nothing to do with her cooking (even though it may or may not be because of that). Appeal to her sense of concern for your well being. Make her feel proud that she has a daughter who's conscious about her well being and wants to better herself. Also, you may want to open up a dialogue with your mom, and discuss why she might oppose your decision. Ask her what her thoughts are on the subject. Basically, approach this situation like an adult, and hopefully you'll be treated as one. Good Luck!
SAME SITUATION HERE!
what i've done is fill in facts. lots and lots of facts. if you can order the vegetrian starter kit from peta. that is FULL with facts and diffrent recipies. tell her you are willing to cook your own things. that one worked for my mom. it's tooken me 3 yrs to become a vegetrian becuse my mom was the same way.
just relax, don't stress, and calmy aproach her. but make sure you are armed with facts!!!!!!!! facts make a big diffrence!
just tell her thats what you believe in and stand your ground. if she makes something with meat in it refuse to eat it. thats what i did and it worked.