comments about vegetarianism

The “I like meat, so I could never eat vegetarian” thread spurred me into making this one. There are a lot of non-meat eaters I’m just curious as to why us made the choice.

Personally, I’ve always heard about the negative health consequences of eating a lot of meat, so I decided to see if I could cut it out and to my surprise I found that I just FEEL a whole lot better when I don’t eat meat. It’s hard to explain it objectively, I just feel better. I still eat a small piece of broiled fish once or twice a week to get my protein because I don’t like soy protein yet, but otherwise, that’s it. No hamburgers, no steaks, no chicken breasts, no pepperoni pizza, no bacon or scrambled eggs.

So once I noticed how good I felt (and how my cholesterol dropped from 190 to 135 in the space of about a year), I also began to better be able to understand and appreciate a lot of the physiological aspects to eating less meat. Another point - I’m not a radical environmentalist - I don’t think that cows are going to ruin the world, but I can better understand those arguments now that I’ve seen that my life isn’t going to end because I can’t eat a big steak.

I don’t know - I have a lot of reasons. Anyone else?

Oh - and I don’t call myself a “vegetarian” because I’m not. When people ask, I just say that meat is not a regular part of my daily diet.

johnnyharvard said

What started me on the road was a report I did in high school on battery farming. Poor little fellas! It took me a few years to ween myself off it. After 5 years of no meat, I still have “meat dreams”, (no, get your mind out of the gutter).

me neither. I usually say if people ask, I don’t eat meat, but I do eggs and dairy. I once heard someone say “I’m vegetarian, but I eat bacon”. heh!

pweetman

I realized one day when I was 14 that meat wasn’t a requirement. I love animals …um… a LOT. And that day I just reached a sort of epiphany… that meat was killing animals, and it was totally unneccessary. That day I decided I wouldn’t participate in that anymore, and I stopped eating meat. I haven’t had meat in 14 years (this year was the magical “half my life” year).



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Oh boy, coming out stories!

I was in college and pretty much a vegetarian friend slowly possessed the brains of each of our circle in turn and turned us veg. That was ten years ago this month. Hey, happy anniversary to me! I had tried the year before to go veg but I wasn’t really committed to it, plus living in the dorms made it difficult. Once I was out of the dorms and doing my own shopping it was a lot easier.

In college, I rarely ate meat at all, primarily because I am a terrible chef, and had no idea how to prepare it. When I went to Israel (1998-1999), I became exposed to kosher dairy food (basically, if there’s a dairy product used, you can’t even bring meat in the premises - finding a pepperoni pizza in Jerusalem is NOT easy), and I almost never ate meat, except on the rare occasions I ate at someone’s house, in which case chicken was usually served. Shortly after returning to the U.S., I rented a room for the summer in a vegetarian co-op. After not eating meat for just that short time, I couldn’t bring myself to eat it again. I’m just happier this way. I haven’t been veggie for long - only eight months - but I can’t foresee ever going back to meat.

After having a heated discussion in my philosophy class in high school about the mistreatment of all animals in the meat-producing business, I had an attack of morality and went completely veg. I had stopped eating red meat for about a year at that point, but cut out fish, poltry and pork at that point, too. I still eat dairy and eggs because I don’t have the time or energy to commit to vegan. I’m 4 years vegetarian in May.

I don’t know if it’s me, but I find that if I eat something that has beef stock in it by mistake my body feels it. I once heard that your body becomes acclimated to not producing meat proteins, and it is difficult to go back. Anyone actually know if this is true?

Riddles, I agree with you. People laugh at me sometimes, but I can honestly feel the difference in my body after I’ve eaten meat or even eaten anything with beef or chicken stock in it. The best description I have is that it’s kind of an oily or sluggish feeling… Kind of a bloated feeling.

It’s not pleasant and it’s really become a big deterrent to me to eat any meat at all. Cool. At least I can see that I’m probably not making this up!

I’ve never liked the taste of red meat, and I don’t think I ever ate any beyond a taste my mother forced upon me when I was younger. When I was about 15, I slowly just started getting rid of meat from my diet, altough I did eat seafood until about two years ago.


“I was born in this town, I was raised in this town, and I’ll probably die in this town. Hell, I’ve already been hit by a car on this street, twice!”–if you recognize where this quote is from or who said it, please tell me.

I’ve never liked the taste of red meat, and I don’t think I ever ate any beyond a taste my mother forced upon me when I was younger. When I was about 15, I slowly just started getting rid of meat from my diet, altough I did eat seafood until about two years ago. I really don’t know why I started, mainly for health reasons I think.


“I was born in this town, I was raised in this town, and I’ll probably die in this town. Hell, I’ve already been hit by a car on this street, twice!”–if you recognize where this quote is from or who said it, please tell me.

What do you call a vegetarian with diahhrea?

Salad-shooter.


“We are here for this – to make mistakes and to correct ourselves, to withstand the blows and to hand them out.” Primo Levi

I’m not vegetarian, but my diet doesn’t include much meat. I eat broiled fish about 3-4 times per week. I also eat eggs, but very little dairy because I react to it pretty easily - mucous producing as it is.
I was not eating any meat for a short time, but found that when I was running a lot - 30-35 miles per week - I felt better when I was eating fish. I quit eating red meat completely several years ago, but rarely had it since I left my parents house at 18. Looking back, I can say I never really felt ‘good’ after finishing off a red meat meal. All I can remember is feeling stuffed and heavy. Now, I’ve felt this way since then, but only on the rare occassion that I will just eat a huge meal.
Plus, I think it’s helped me stay fairly fit even though I’m not running like I used to. I work nights so I can be with my son during the day. I don’t get much sleep and don’t have the energy to run 30 miles per week. I’m lucky to get in 10. I’ve only gained a few pounds instead of many and I feel it’s mostly due to my diet.

My SO was a vegetarian for about 20 years. She also has a Master’s Degree in Nutrition. She tried veganism for a short time in college, but couldn’t stick to it. She felt wasted often. She started eating fish again after our son was born about a year and a half ago. She wasn’t recovering to her normal self after the birth and her Dr. and her DOM recommended that she try flesh again. It seems to have helped her get her energy and strength back that the veg. proteins just couldn’t do. The DOM wanted her to eat red meat, but she couldn’t do it. She tried, but almost vomited.
Now, we also eat a lot of soy products. My son and I split a soy and spirulina-based shake every morning. He also eats eggs and fish, but he loves vegetables as much or more (spinach, brocolli, asparagus, kale, carrots).
I’d consider going back to not even eating fish if I can train and still feel just as strong.

To johnnyharvard, you’ve posted some things in here that I’ve completely disagreed with, and was expecting to read a slam on vegetarianism. Thanks for the surprise.


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I’m not a vegetarian. I don’t really like the taste of red meat though. (I do eat it. I just don’t enjoy it.) I hate fish. And I’m severely allergic to pork. Since I only like white meat chicken, I feel wasteful if I eat it. My family only likes white meat too. I’ve learned to appreciate soy protein because of this.

Anyway, there are quite a few vegetarians in my family on my mother’s side and also one of my nieces. My sister (the niece’s mother) does not eat red meat but serves it to her family if they like it. Anyway, I’m wondering if it’s kind of like that for everyone or are most vegetarians the black sheep in the family. :wink:

I think my oldest is going to be a vegetarian. She mentions that she doesn’t like the idea of animals dying so that she can eat. She has been off of dairy for 7 months (her father and my choice) and recently she said to me, “Mom, we’ve got to DO something about this milk thing. They are taking milk from baby cows!” I’ve never discussed farming issues with her. Only the health benefits of her not having dairy products. She has spent time on a friend of ours dairy farm, and she came up with that on her own. Do you think she’ll be a vegetarian when she grows up?

The decision to not eat meat is a very personal one, and I’ve never been interesting in converting anyone. The bottom line is, it just feels wrong for me to eat meat. I know that may sound lame, but it’s the same reason I don’t do a lot of things.

I noticed that there are some things that the more you think about it, the less you like doing it. Eating animals was one of those for me. I could eat fish-sticks and enjoy them because fish-sticks don’t come from the ocean, they come from Krogers! But when I’d get a fish at a fancy restaurant with its eyes looking at me, I couldn’t do it. That convinced me. I don’t want to use ignorance to help me do something when, if I really understood what I was doing, I wouldn’t enjoy it.

Honestly, I would eat beef if I killed the cow myself. Then I couldn’t help but face what I was eating, so I’d be morally free to eat it. But of course, if I killed a cow myself, I’d lose my appetite and I wouldn’t want to eat it.

Also, I’m not a health nut, and I don’t like to pay too close attention to the latest health fads or cancer news. But I notice a general trend that’s true across the board, time and time again. If you lower your saturated fat and colesteral, and increase your intake of a variety of veggies (especially leafy greens), you decrease your risk of practically everything. Heart disease, cancer, stroke, all of it. The way I see it, if I want to be healthy, I have 2 basic choices. I can eat the American Way (McDonalds), but count my fat and colesterol, take my vitamins through a pill, worry about getting fiber, worry about getting enough C, etc. Or I could just eat a variety of veggies and no meat, and not worry about any of it. When you do that, you take care of all the little things without having to pay attention. Sign me up!

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