I have a friend who became a vegetarian because she just felt it was a more healthy lifestyle. Reading some information in the back of a yoga book of mine about this style really nearly makes me want to ‘convert’ over.
So, did you become a vegetarian for moral, health or political reasons?
Initially, I decided to become a veggie lover only for the health concerns…
However, I switched back to being carniverous for the flavour of healful lamb and venison and grilled fish, and chicken prepared in seemingly unendless varieties!
It was never for political, religious, or moral reasons. All creatures have a place and purpose in the food chain. I intend to help maintain the proper level of balance in the food chain and eat me some meat!
I became a vegetarian because I don’t trust the US meat industry. I have issues with the way they treat the animals, their workers and the consumers. I don’t think it’s wrong to eat animals and have nothing against those who do. I still salivate at the smell of hamburgers on the grill, but it’s just not for me anymore.
My study of biology and my practice of the Soto Zen school of Buddhism led me to become a vegetarian. I simply felt too close a kinship with other living things to eat them; it feels like cannibalism to me. Add to this the horror stories about the US meat industry, my fear of food-born pathogens, and the basic belief that no creature has the right to use another for its own ends, and I was converted. Now, I have no problem with people who eat meat- I realize that being a vegan is not desirable or even possible for everyone. It’s solely a personal choice based on my own beliefs, which I realize not many share.
I never really liked certain kinds of meat, and got sick of others in the college dorms. Plus what I learned in my college zoology courses about farming methods in the US, slaughterhouses, inspections (or lack thereof), overuse of antibiotics, and so forth, not to mention the environmental impact of mass cattle ranching and other animal raising, compared to growing crops, did the trick and I stopped entirely.
Now I eat dairy and eggs (though I try to buy eggs from free range and grain-fed hens only), in addition to a balanced diet. I eat tofu on occasion (hint: go for the stuff in the tub of water, not the kind in the juice box), but mostly do fine with extra beans, peanuts, whole grains, and some dairy and eggs. A nurse at my last job had dragged me to our clinic and ran a check on the level of iron in my blood, but it turned out normal. She was surprised that this was the case, that being a vegetarian won’t suddenly turn you anemic.
Vegetarian Times is a good magazine for recipes, though they tend to emphasize other “New Age” things like acupressure, aromatherapy, and so on as well. There are some wonderful cookbooks out there - E-mail me if you want a list of my recommendations.
Personally, I think if most Americans would simply cut back slightly on their meat intake, it would be healthier for them and the environment. Vegetarianism is something that I do not proselytize on, as I feel it is a personal choice and not necessarily an easy one to make in this country. However, you may enjoy the variety of cooking with sometimes unusual ingredients that many vegetarian recipes, especially ones from cultures with a strong tendency towards vegetarian cooking (China, Japan, India, among others), can provide.
I cook meat nearly every night for my husband, which he loves, but he enjoys the variety and flavor of the vegetarian dishes that I make as well.
It is possible to be an unhealthy vegetarian, however - fettucine alfredo is vegetarian, as are potato chips and soda. There are vegetarian diet versions of the USDA’s food pyramid available - if you want to give the diet a shot, print out one of those and the original version, and compare. See where you can get protein from that you might not have realized.
I’m not a vegetarian because I love animals; I just freakin’ hate plants.
(I’ve always loved that bumper sticker. But no, I’m not a vegetarian)
I’m a vegetarian because (as this thread illustrates) there are so, so many good reasons to be one (political, ethical, spiritual, health, micro- and macro-economic, convenience, etc). The only reason not to be (in a city like this one, where veggie food is plentiful and where you can’t grow or hunt your own food) is ‘Because meat just tastes so good!.’
I just don’t think it tastes good enough to justify all of the bad things about it.
I have eaten fish, rather than starve, when I’ve been in seaside towns where veggie food is nearly impossible to find. And if I go through with my plan to go live on a farm somewhere, I will raise free-range chickens and eat them. I believe eating animals should be a choice that you consciously make for reasons important to you, rather than the other way around.
Some one, whom I really do not trust anything ‘factual’ they state, told me that most vegetarians are athiests. Instead of getting into " Name your source" debate, I just totally ignored this statement.
What is your opinion on this ?
Off the top of my head … and although anecdotal evidence isn’t worth much, it can at least combat generalized claims of ‘most’:
Many vegetarians are Hindu, and many are Buddhist. Jainists not only don’t eat meat but they go out of their way to not kill anything. I personally know agnostic, Jewish, Rastafarian, and Baha’i vegetarians.
I would be curious to see this person’s source. Tell them to have a look at this if they remain confused.
Shirley: It’s probably true that most vegetarians are not Christian - As cowgirl says, many are Hindu or Buddhist. Could it be that your friend doesn’t know the difference between a non-Christian and an athiest?
Religious. I am Seventh Day Adventist. The church recommends vegetarianism for it’s health benefits.
I became a vegetarian to impress a girl–it didn’t work. The other reasons came later–respect to God, convenience, a reason not to attend barbeques with people I don’t like, a reason to cook my own food and my health. I can’t stand meat now–even the smell makes my stomach do flips. Icky icky icky.
I went vegetarian for five years because I really thought red meat was making me ill.
In my case, it’s mostly because I don’t want to eat the damn stuff.
Anyone who looks at my ample form would figure out that I’m not a “picky eater”, but when it came to meat, I was. “It’s too pink in the middle” “It’s too chewy” “I can see the individual muscles”. Blah blah blah. I was getting pickier and picker—so, to be totally off the hook and become veggie was a huge weight off my mind.
When I became veggie, there were also a few semi-vague political, moral and religious (yes, religious) reasons for it. Those motivations still exist (well, not so much the political), but I don’t usually harp on it. I’ll even prepare meat for others (though sometimes I’ll wear gloves) if duty requires it. But I’ll privately be eternally grateful that I don’t have to eat it, and that I don’t have to worry about it being tainted, spoiled, etc.
By the way, I am Christian, and at least one other lady at my congregation (an elderly, very conservative woman) is veggie.
Well I am not really a vegetarian, I eat fish. I got food poisoned with beef, after that the idea of eating it gave me the same sensation in my stomach that I had when I was sick. Meat in general just followed after beef.
I don’t think there is something inherently wrong with eating meat, but I don’t see the advantage for me at the moment.
I am not a vegetarian, but concerning the stories of “horros” in the food industry that people mentioned before; I have heard SOME horror stories, but I also took part in a course (Animal Produnction Systems and Industry) which showed, quite truthfully (IMHO) how regulated and controlled the meat industry is. We even visited dairy, beef, and chicken farms, and would have visited a pig farm but the extent to which we would have had to wear protective clothing to prevent ANY possible human-porcine disease spreading was just an inconvenience for us as visitors. I was actually very much impressed with how things are run (at least in Ontario/Canada), and, although I have NEVER considered becoming vegetarian (so maybe my opinion doesn’t count), I didn’t see/hear anything which would incline me to consider it. In fact, the course debunked a lot of common myths, and was just generally truthful.
On the other hand (and I REALLY don’t want to start a fight here, please!) I have seen people protesting at my school about “animal rights abuse, and cruelty in the food industry”, etc. The information I’ve seen presented is often a half-truth, or out-dated. Then again, the university I go to is home to the Ontario Agricultural College, and good farming/food production practises are considered to be important to those students and the history of the OAC, as well as the OVC (Veterinary College).
Maybe things are different in the States, or perhaps the course I took was only accurate for the farms related to my school, or maybe my impression of out-dated/inaccurate information is true…I don’t know. But I DO know that there are regulatory bodies, and accoding to everything I’ve ever seen, animal welfare abuses are NOT tolerated, and they are an extreme minority…it’s just that they are the ones we hear about.
Sorry about the hijack…I didn’t mean to go on so long, but I think it IS something to think about, in the event that it may have had a strong influence on decisions to become a vegetarian. I respect you and your choices, and I do not want to sound like I’m trying to influence anyone…I’m just making a comment.
I don’t mean to hijack either - I learned about modern farming at the University of Wisconsin - Madison, which is a big agricultural school, in a zoology class that I took as part of my zoology major. The professor raised sheep and trained sheep-herding dogs, in addition to teaching at the university. It wasn’t a PETA platform or anything, I assure you. I still found modern farming methods (not family farms, for the most part - but those are a minority for food production in the US) distasteful enough to at least consider it in my switch. Also, a good bit of it wasn’t the “cruelty” portion of farming, but the ecological impact of raising large amounts of animals, the use/overuse of antibiotics in farming in the US, the very limited inspecting being done by the USDA, and so on.
I’m not against hunting when the species is overpopulated and the meat is eaten, and I easily cut up meat and so forth. I’m not squeamish about dead animals and don’t particularly romanticize the ‘cute widdle farm critters’; I’m particular about how humans use animals for their own ends.
I don’t want to start an argument, but it’s just incorrect to say that “because meat tastes so good” is the only reason not to be a vegetarian. Whatever your personal religious, ethical, moral, political, or even health beliefs may be, human beings are omnivores; it is natural for us to eat meat as well as fruits and vegatables. Quite the opposite of your contention, I eat meat because there is no reason not to. It is the right and natural thing for humans to eat both meat and vegetables. That’s the way we were designed, whether you believe we were designed by God or by natural selection.
Environmental reasons. ‘Modern’ cattle operations are too hard on the environment. Can’t support 'em.
I don’t eat meat b/c I could never kill another animal unless it were trying to kill me, and I don’t think it’s right to let someone else do my dirty work. That, on top of the environmental issues, the health concerns (e. coli, mad cow, not to mention blocked arteries and cholesterol problems, which run in my family) makes it a good decision for me.