Poll: Reasons you became a vegetarian.

In My Humble Opinion
21

That;s perfectly fair, Ferret Herder. I guess that’s sort of what I was wondering about…how much of the “true” story do people know if they cite it as a decision? My sister is a vegetairan, but she is really naive about the farming industry. Honestly, her motivation was that she didn’t want animals to “feel” pain - in a very anthropomorphic way (does that make sense?) She is quite ignorant of the truth, and does repeat “slogan” reasons when asked.

I guess I was kind of thinking of that damn “Does your food have a face” protest group that was out in front of the cafeteria AGAIN, showing 1970’s video of lab rats being tested and video of farms where abuse WAS occuring, but claiming that this is what happens everywhere, all the time. I know many people who are part of the OAC who are very offended at their claims, seeing as they are sitting in the centre of the provinces larges agricultural research school, and they are spouting off ignorant information.

I guess that’s all I have to say about it…I came back a little worried that I’d get flamed for that post, but I’m glad you took it well. I guess I should know that Dopers will be informed :slight_smile:

Oh, and Ruby, for a minute I thought your name was RubySteak, and I had a bit of trouble reconsiling that with you being vegetarian :smiley:

22

I became one to prove to myself I could go without meat.(self Control and a friend was one) Now it’s just a habit. I don’t miss it so I don’t eat it.
BTW My friend is now a bloody meat eater.:eek:

23

Health reasons and weight loss, mostly, and I also had several friends who got food poisoning from meat served at fast food places. But mostly it was various friends and family members who told me that eating less meat, or avoiding it entirely, would help me exercise regularly and lose weight.

24

I have a hilarious story that nobody believes. I will now tell it.

A few years ago, Kenny Rogers started a chain of chicken restaurants that are, I assume, now out of business. My Girl Scout troop leader’s family really liked this chicken. I was at their house a lot, because my troop did a lot of activities together and whatnot, and they had that chicken every time. I found it absolutely disgusting, and one day came up with the bright idea to say that I was vegetarian so I could get out of eating it.

My dad is vegetarian, so I wasn’t eating meat at home anyway. My only carnivorous experiences were with Girl Scouts and at school (where I ate lunch with, among others, girls from my troop). I didn’t want to admit to lying so I could get out of eating Kenny Rogers’ chicken, and eventually I just got used to not eating meat. When I finally tried it again I found that it made me sick. I’ve been vegetarian ever since…it’ll be eight years this May.

25

I gave up eating pork/chicken/beef/lamb around 10 years ago while in college trying to lose weight and get more healthy. It was pretty easy for me to give up meat because I never liked it all that much in the first place. I liked steak and hamburger but never liked chicken or pork, so it really wasn’t that difficult to give up.

I don’t like the meat industry in the US at all (I heard that they cut off chicken beaks so they won’t peck each other in their tiny cages) and that has been an extra incentive to not eat meat.

After awhile, the thought of eating flesh (muscles and veins) just got more and more gross. I still love fish, so haven’t been able to give it up. I really don’t like eggs, but I’ve been trying to eat more protein and less carbs, so I’ve been eating scrambled eggs lately. It’s hard for me to give up cheese too, since it’s something I really love.

I’m still tempted by meat occasionally and since I’m really not a vegetarian for any true moral purposes, sometimes I give in just to reassure myself that it’s not something I really want. I was really craving a corn dog at the Fair a couple of years ago. Got one, slathered it in yellow mustard and ate about half before figuring out that I just really liked the idea of eating a corn dog at the Fair more than eating the actual corn dog.

I definitely don’t want to get all preachy about the health benefits, but my cholesterol and blood pressure are fantastic, I have perfect teeth (possibly unrelated but hey, I’m tooting my own horn here), great skin and I’m hardly ever ill.

Plus, buying fresh produce is more incentive to actually cook every night (don’t want the stuff to go bad) as well as being much cheaper than purchasing meat.

PS I prefer the tofu in really firm “cutlet” style as opposed to the stuff in water!

26

Yet another hijack: I just wanted to chime in and say how much I, too, prefer the “cutlet” style tofu. It holds its shape through cooking, and won’t crumble apart in salads like the watered tofu sometimes does. I find that a lot of people scorn tofu, but if it’s prepared well, it’s really great. The cutlet style seems a lot easier for non-veg people to deal with- makes it look more like food. :smiley: I’ve made ‘tofu burgers’ for hardcore meat-eating friends, and while of course they all said no tofu could ever hold a candle to real meat, they did say it wasn’t as bad as they expected, and some actually enjoyed it. I count this as a tofu victory. But you have to beware of crappy tofu. It’s really an all-or-nothing type of food. If it’s good, it’s really good, but if it’s bad, it’s just abominable.

27

Partial vegetarian. I still eat lots of fish, cheese and eggs, and if a close relative has me over for dinner and cooks beef, I’ll eat some. I guess you could say I’m a vegetarian the same way Britney Spears is (was?) a virgin; I make lots of exceptions.

Still, instead of eating beef or chicken every day, I might have a little bit once a month. As the wrapper on some tofu chicken patties had written on it, “Being a vegetarian 50% of the time is 50% better than being a meat-eater all the time!”

Still, with my general eschewal of beef, pork, chicken, turkey and lamb, I feel healthier. No more sluggishness, chest pains or excess time perched on the crapper (I had my gallbladder out a couple years ago and can’t process large amounts of animal fat). I’m not too sentimental about critters, I’m just not too attached to burgers and steaks anymore.

And vegetarian chili rocks!

28

I was a vegetarian for almost five years. I became one when I couldn’t think of anything better to do one summer vacation. I stayed one for years because I was used to it. However, my desire for all things seafood overwhelmed my desire for stability.

29

I was a vegetarian for three years, mostly for environmental reasons. I found that I would get the most horrible cravings for Burger King Whoppers, so I would cheat now and then.

I gradually started cheating more and more, and am back to eating meat regularly. However I still cook vegetarian three or four times a week.

And I’m pagan, for those counting religions affilliation:vegetarianism.

30

i became a vegetarian because i dont like the idea of eating animals if i dont have to. i do not eat any meat or fish… actually, why is fish not counted as meat anyway? it’s still animal flesh, right? anyway, i do eat dairy products because it’s impossible for me to do that at this point (i’m 17, had enough trouble getting ‘permission’ to stop with the meat in the first place). someday, maybe. ethical for me. and i’m an agnostic.

31

A high school movie about how the animals are dispatched is what caused me to turn vegetarian for 5 years. No meat - beef, pork, or chicken - passed these lips.

So, what caused me to revert? I was asked out on a date in which the fella cooked for me. What did he do? A massive BBQd T-bone steak :eek:

Not wanting to be rude, I nibbled away, until my taste buds awoke and I yammed it down! Oh the shame :frowning:

Since moving to the UK, I can count on 1 hand still the number of times I’ve eaten beef. Chicken, pork and lamb (occasionally) are okay, but veggies are still my favourite foods.

32

One note pertaining to the atheist comment:

Although I do not follow it, one very prominent Independent Fundamental Baptist Texan Preacher, who ran a very popular orphanage also wrote at least two books on what he called the “Genesis diet”, which was a vegeterian diet. One note, most Christians believe that the Old Testament Laws no longer apply to them because they are not under the law but under Grace. Also, the Genesis diet was prior to the expuslion from the Garden of Eden. In Leviticus Chapter 10, I believe, God gives the Laws of Kashrut or Kosher Laws that very specifically include several meats.

So, being Christian or not does not really have very much to do with it.

Besides, as someone else has already mentioned, the human body is designed to consume meat.

33

Roadfood: your contention that eating meat is ‘the right and natural thing to do’ is highly debatable - I’m not saying you’re wrong, just that the I’m not convinced that you’re right, and I’ve heard the arguments. Furthermore, because something is ‘natural’ in no way makes it right.

I’ll stand by my assertion that the only good reason I’ve heard to eat it is because it tastes good. And that’s a perfectly good reason for some people - not me, though.

34

I was about 20 and living in the hippie section of town, and dabbled with it for reasons. I read the book Laurel’s Kitchen, and the foreward read something like…'Then I looked into the cow’s big black eyes as he looked back at me…". It really hit me. That little paragraph told me there is no reason to eat meat when there are so many other choices. So I went for moral reasons. The healthy reasons I’m aware of now don’t hurt either.

It’s been over 20 years and the only cravings I get are for burgers when I smell them roasting on the grill. I still eat cheese, milk and eggs, but no other products and I’m too lazy to go out and buy plastic shoes or whatever. I was Catholic, not sure what I am now.

35

I’m not vegetarian, but my husband is because of moral reasons. In college or grad school, he and his roommates had a problem with rats running around and they set traps (the old fashioned spring loaded neck snapping things), but rarely caught any. Evidentally one day they sat and watched a rat eat the peanut butter off the trap, having figured out a way to outsmart the trap. At that point, he decided that if a rat had enough reasoning ability to get around a trap, he’d feel too bad eating meat.

He’s been vegetarian for 11 years or so now, but is very open minded about what I or anyone else eats. I’ve never heard him protesting anyone else’s choices, but he just quietly sticks to his own beliefs. Works well for the both of us.

36

I’m a vegetarian largely out of habit. I had already cut non-kosher meats out of my diet when I lived in a vegetarian co-op for a summer in college. After that, meat just seemed…gross. It’s been three and a half years now, and I’m never even tempted to eat meat again. I doubt I’ll ever be an omnivore again, although I would never criticize someone else’s diet. I find that the height of rudeness, and hate it when it happens to me (a LOT).

37

I’m fully reconciled to my omnivorousness now, but “Meat is Murder” by the Smiths sent a few of us to the rabbit food back in the 80’s.

38

I became a vegetarian out of soft-hearted sympathy. I’ve always had a love and connection with animals, even the ones without big sweet eyes–my mom said she used to find me, at two years old, “petting” and sweet-talking to spiders on the wall… At four, I would gather toads in the backyard and ride 'em around in a little red wagon, singing to them. At 11, I made the connection between killing critters and food, oddly enough through my biologist dad’s fish-hauling. I saw the fish gasping for breath, and it struck me as sad to take another life. I wouldn’t eat them after that.

With six kids to feed, that bonus of food with research was a good thing for my parents, but they respected my decision, and let me cook my own hotdogs when we had fish. Yeah, I know, but I didn’t make the other connections until later. The whole understanding of killing other creatures =food happened in my late teens. Along with all the usual consequent realization of hardship for animals in the course of being raised for food, and the ecological impact of those industries. I had a good balance in being raised by biologist parents, and understanding the food chain, but, that wasn’t the choice for me.

My college years were spent in Chapel Hill, NC, a very veg-friendly town, so it was easy to educate oneself and find nutritious food. I spent 13 years in Mississippi, where it was much more difficult, but doable with some planning, and trips to Memphis to get bulk grains, etc. Looking back, I never really had anyone accosting me for my choice of diet, most folks who said anything said it made sense according to my personality. I eat eggs and milk, if I can get it from a good source, and, luckily, usually can!

Buddhism has always resonated with me, since age 12, and I followed that path more intensely 7 years ago. Trying to cause the least amount of suffering is important to me, and I see all creatures as worthy of consideration. As to the old"plants are beings, too" shout out, I think about that often. Really. I love plants, and just try to do the least damage possible. I don’t eat too much, and make the best choices I can. I have a soft heart, seems to have been there from the git-go, and that includes respecting every one else’s choices. I’m also very grateful for having the luxury of that choice.

39

i ate a vegetarian diet for a few years(noticed i didn’t claim the label vegetarian- why grope for a label). partly for health and animal rights, but mostly because i wanted to test my will power…i’m not trying to be a jerk but i really cannot stand when someone stops eating animals and begins that old tired shit like this"ohh, i just cant stand the sight and smell of meat, yuck". bullshit. ok maybe it’s true because of a certain situation or happening, but give me a break…cooking meat on a grill smells great, even when i didn’t partake…
also to those of you who distrust the meat industry, look at the fruits and veges you eat…if you don’t wash 'em good enough you could be inviting trouble into your body…
basically if you aren’t growing your own food and haven’t somehow saved seeds from way back you can forget it and join the rest of us in the frakenfood way of life…
i honestly have been thinking of cutting meat completly out of my diet, my daughter and i have talked about it as well…she loves soy milk, but i can’t get her to really ask for the tofu creations i cook…oh well, her loss… come on folks, it’s a diet, drop the label…(my post sounds harsh, i just want people to think of themselves as individuals, not a plastic label that leads to sheep like conformity and eventually the feeling of cheating)

40

I started my vegetarianism about 4 months ago.

There are a lot of reasons that I choose to be a vegetarian, and all of them have been mentioned previously on this thread. I’d say the big deciding factor was health, though. I see my parents take their blood pressure and cholesterol medicine every day and my family has a history of heart disease, so I decided I didn’t want to deal with that.

I definately have moral reasons for it, too, but they’re playing second fiddle to health. On a different note, I am absolutely terrified of cows (and I live in WV! They are everywhere!), so maybe I’m just trying to not piss them off in my own little way.

All in all, since becoming a vegetarian I enjoy eating a lot more while eating less. My diet is much more varied and interesting than when I ate meat and would just grill a hamburger.