Vegetarians

[Classic Beauty]

Is anyone here a vegetarian?

I am. I dont eat any meat, just eggs and dairy. I started in June of 2005.

 

[beyondhope1024]

I am! I've been a complete vegetarian for almost two years now...I started when I was 14 years old. No meat, just eggs and dairy.

 

[moonrevel]

I am as well! I've been a vegetarian for almost ten years: no meat or fish, just eggs and dairy also.

 

[pucci]

Yes, I'm a vegetarian, have been for 4 years. i don't eat any meat.

 

[bozica]

I am, have been for 11 years or so. I don't see myself eating meat ever again.

 

[Pushpa]

i admire all of u i am a horrible hindu i eat it all...i tried it for a year but

i couldn't do it i am weak

 

[msthrope]

i've been a complete vegetarian since 1994. i was actually a vegan from 1994 until early last year when i decided i should start eating some dairy now and again because i had two breaks in a very short time and my mom has osteo. even with lactaid though, dairy makes me crazy sick still; so i'm pretty close to vegan even now.

 

[jeannette]

I'm an aspiring vegetarian; though I no longer eat red meat, I still eat seafood. I'm trying to gradually cut down the amount of meat I eat.

 

[cyens]

im not LOL

 

[Chelly]

im probably the furthest thing from a vegetarian lol BuT i am curious - why is it that those who are vegitarians - are so? is it for health reason? religious beliefs?

 

[GreekChick]

I am...I dont eat red meat or chicken...i do eat fish though and dairy products..which would make me a pesco-lacto vegetarian..

 

[orodwen]

there are some great calcium sources in vegetables, msthrope. were you not getting enough from them?

btw, i'm an omnivore & am using all my teeth.

i follow what my body tells me to eat. i go through stints of eating a vegetarian diet but i'm don't consider myself one at all. for example, when i broke my ankle, i lived off of cauliflower & milk. i craved it & it tasted like the best stuff in the world to me. in a nutshell, that's what my body told me to eat. on the flip side, when i was in bed for a month due to pneumonia i craved beef so that's what i ate. the thing is, normally, i don't eat beef & have difficulty digesting it but when i had pneumonia i had none of those issues. apparently, there were things in beef i needed that i couldn't get elsewhere. am i rambling again? 8^) anyway, right now i have a cold or flu or something like that at the moment & i have no particular cravings but i've been eating a lot less. i made a pot of chicken soup (prepared for this being a cold) & lived off it if, morning & night, for 2 days.

IF i were to go completely vegetarian i'd definitely focus on all asian cuisines for creating meals (from india, through SE asia, across china & into japan.)

 

[macaddictgirlie]

I've been one since 1986 and im still going strong

 

[SonRisa]

I was born a vegetarian. Actually, a vegan. I only started eating dairy when I was around 4 or 5. I'm now 25 and have still never really eaten meat. (by accident twice - and i got REALLY sick from it)

 

[SonRisa]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chelly im probably the furthest thing from a vegetarian lol BuT i am curious - why is it that those who are vegitarians - are so? is it for health reason? religious beliefs?

Well, my mom (and dad) were hippies. So I attribute them raising me as a vegan/vegatarian to that. But now that I'm old enough to make my own choices, I don't because IMO it's cruel. I don't judge other people for eating it, but when I see a steak, or even little bits of chicken, all I see is the animal, not food. I realize that it is completely natural for animals to eat each other for survival and I understand that cave people did that way back when to survive. However, now, I feel it's unnecessary for human beings to do so, especially with the way our society functions and feeds itself. If you live in a remote part of the world and that's how you feed your family - by hunting the animal yourself, I have no problem with it. But we raise animals to then kill for food without a second thought about the quality of their lives. Most cows/pigs/chickens do NOT live a very happy, or healthy life. Take Veal. Baby calves are caged up in crates not much bigger than they are to limit their movement so their meat, when eaten is tender. And they're killed when they're just babies. That's just one example. And dairy too. Unless you buy free range, non-fertalized eggs, you can be sure that the chickens are given hormones to mass produce eggs and that's their entire life. They're forced to lay egg after egg after egg and eventually are killed for their own meat.

I don't know. I could go on and on and on with this topic. All I know is that I was raised to respect every living thing - whether it be an ant, a tree or a cow and if I was ever going to eat meat, I would have to kill the animal myself - so that it's "fair" in my eyes. And even then, I could never bring myself to take another's life.

 

[macaddictgirlie]

Quote:

Originally Posted by SonRisa Well, my mom (and dad) were hippies. So I attribute them raising me as a vegan/vegatarian to that. But now that I'm old enough to make my own choices, I don't because IMO it's cruel. I don't judge other people for eating it, but when I see a steak, or even little bits of chicken, all I see is the animal, not food. I realize that it is completely natural for animals to eat each other for survival and I understand that cave people did that way back when to survive. However, now, I feel it's unnecessary for human beings to do so, especially with the way our society functions and feeds itself. If you live in a remote part of the world and that's how you feed your family - by hunting the animal yourself, I have no problem with it. But we raise animals to then kill for food without a second thought about the quality of their lives. Most cows/pigs/chickens do NOT live a very happy, or healthy life. Take Veal. Baby calves are caged up in crates not much bigger than they are to limit their movement so their meat, when eaten is tender. And they're killed when they're just babies. That's just one example. And dairy too. Unless you buy free range, non-fertalized eggs, you can be sure that the chickens are given hormones to mass produce eggs and that's their entire life. They're forced to lay egg after egg after egg and eventually are killed for their own meat. I don't know. I could go on and on and on with this topic. All I know is that I was raised to respect every living thing - whether it be an ant, a tree or a cow and if I was ever going to eat meat, I would have to kill the animal myself - so that it's "fair" in my eyes. And even then, I could never bring myself to take another's life.

I agree %100 with you. That's my reason too.

 

[naynaykilla]

I was considering it but people tell me that you can have serious vitamin definiciencies esp in vitamin k and iron, is that true?

 

[macaddictgirlie]

As I stated I have been one for over 20 years and feel great. I'm sure if you ate only dougnuts and french fries (both vegetarian) you wouldn't feel all that great and could miss out on some important vitamin but if you eat well you will be just fine. If you think about it millions of people die every year from eating bad foods from things like heartattacks and strokes and that should be a bigger concern than anything else. Check out some of these sites for more info on going veggie.

http://www.famousveggie.com
http://www.vrg.org/index.htm

This is if you are interested in veganism (no dairy or eggs)
http://www.veganhealth.org/articles/meals

And feel free to ask me if you have any more questions. I'm sure SonRisa can help you as well

 

[jeannette]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chelly im probably the furthest thing from a vegetarian lol BuT i am curious - why is it that those who are vegitarians - are so? is it for health reason? religious beliefs?

I love animals.

Being with my pet (or rather, animal companion!) made me appreciate animals a lot better...I was very surprised by the level of emotions they actually have.

 

[moonrevel]

My reason is along the lines of what Risa said, which is that since I can survive and eat a healthy diet without killing a living being, I don't eat meat. It is partially a religious reason as well, because I believe if it's possible to survive without hurting another, human or animal, it's my responsibility to do so. I find much of the meat industry cruel and wasteful, in that many animals are killed for certain parts of them for consumption, and the rest is thrown away. In Tibet, for instance, food is scarce, and the Tibetan Buddhists are very much against killing of any kind, however one of the few food sources available to them is yak meat. As a result, they do eat yak, but they don't waste any of the animal, they use all the meat, the skin, even the bones so that nothing goes to waste (many other indigenous cultures do this as well, but Tibet was the first place that came to mind). I have a profound respect for that, and since I do have a multitude of non-meat sources of food available to me, I eat those.