Any vegetarians/vegans on FFR?

[Chrissi]

I was vegetarian for 10 years. Here's how it goes down.

I never liked meat that much so I kinda just slipped into being vegetarian. It felt nice because I knew I wasn't ****ting on animal rights and I got to eat whatever I wanted pretty much. I like animals and don't like the idea of having them die so that I can eat, when it isn't necessary.

I had gotten sick a few times as a kid, doctors weren't sure what it was, so when I mentioned I was vegetarian, they made sure to check my blood levels every year to ensure that I wasn't deficient in anything veg-related. I never was.... until a few years ago. At that point I guess my body had had enough, and I became deficient in B12 and Iron. Pretty low blood levels. It wasn't good.

So they put me on like 10 vitamin pills a day for a couple weeks to try to get my blood levels back up. They sorta came back up to normal but were always low. I decided "**** it, if it's between my health or animals, I choose my health" and started eating all the meat I could tolerate. I never really liked beef or pork and still don't usually eat those. Sometimes I eat chicken and turkey. And I actually ****in' love fish. So I eat them now.

What bugs me is when people are not respectful of their food and where it comes from, or laugh at vegetarians for being so sensitive, or think it's okay for them to taunt vegans/vegetarians because they don't understand their food choices. Hey. Dudes. It's just food. Calm down and let people eat what they want. As a vegetarian I never bugged you, why would you bug vegetarians.

[ahsya]

i'm a vegetarian. i never really liked meat much anyways, so it was an easy transition. animals are held in awful conditions and then killed to be eaten, i just don't find myself enjoying food like that. i get all the nutrients i need though, since i have a friend that tells me other ways of getting protein and etc rather than with meat. i don't think i could ever go vegan though.

i don't get mad at people for eating meat, and i'm not annoying about it. it's all about our own personal preferences.

[Silvuh]

Lowering unnecessary cholesterol and calorie intake...
Not hard for me to remove red meat from my diet. Never was much of a fan, anyway ... with the exception of barbecue sausage, but I can manage without it. Tofu is much easier to eat. Yay for soy.
The fat in fish oils and stuff helps balance the other kind of fat we get from other sources... Fish also has less cholesterol than red meat.

I'm not really interested in all that animal cruelty stuff ... I just don't want to die of heart disease at some early age.

La la la .... Not like I can take advantage much of any research I've done, with my choices being dictated by the cafeteria menus and how they prepare the food.

I found it amusing that the cafeterias have a "Protein: More Than Just Chicken" poster, even though they serve chicken multiple times every day, and fish only a few times a week. But I guess some stuff is just more expensive to prepare.

[Aldentron]

Originally Posted by Chrissi

What bugs me is when people are not respectful of their food and where it comes from, or laugh at vegetarians for being so sensitive, or think it's okay for them to taunt vegans/vegetarians because they don't understand their food choices. Hey. Dudes. It's just food. Calm down and let people eat what they want. As a vegetarian I never bugged you, why would you bug vegetarians.

I think people get that sort of attitude when they feel like they're inferior, like, "What, my food isn't healthy enough for you, health nut?"

And when I was a vegetarian for 4 years, that's pretty much how it was. I was really a picky eater, and I would go to friends houses and their parents would always cook pork and beef and chicken full of gristle and fat, which I couldn't stand. So, I started telling my parents and all my friends/friends parents I was a vegetarian, so I wouldn't feel bad for them to go through the trouble of cooking meat for me.

After a while, I gave in to some bacon. It took me a while to "trust" some meats again; I still don't trust pork, unless it's like sandwich meat ham, beef has to be cooked well-done unless it's a steak, then I'm fine with some red. Chicken has to be cut at the ends where fat are, unless it's mystery fast food chicken. NOTHING with bone.

But being a typical bike-riding punk, a lot of my friends are vegans, and Fort Worth as a city is somewhat big on it, our Spiral Diner is rated highly nationwide as a vegan restaurant.

http://www.spiraldiner.com/

[Plan_Bsk81127]

I love mah meat. I dont think I could go vegetarian or vegan, too tough.

I just lol at the whole animal cruelty deal of choosing this eating style. Choosing to eat this way isnt going to stop it. Its the way of life, you need to kill others for ones living, just how it works. Thats just my opinion. lol.

[AsphyxZero]

I had a cheeseburger tonight for dinner.

I tried being a vegetarian when I was younger but never really fell into the habit because I love sushi.

[Chrissi]

Originally Posted by Plan_Bsk81127

I love mah meat. I dont think I could go vegetarian or vegan, too tough.

I just lol at the whole animal cruelty deal of choosing this eating style. Choosing to eat this way isnt going to stop it. Its the way of life, you need to kill others for ones living, just how it works. Thats just my opinion. lol.

But the thing is, you DON'T... if you make your food choices wisely, you don't need to kill animals to survive. So what about that? You can't just say "That's the way of life!" when there are plenty of people living this way, not dying, happy and healthy.

[leonid]

Why do we need to care about animal rights? Animals don't care about human rights :/

[AsphyxZero]

According to history and stuff called natural selection, I would say that animals dying by the hand (paw, hoof, whatever) of other animals is the way of life but ok.

[Chrissi]

Originally Posted by AsphyxZero

According to history and stuff called natural selection, I would say that animals dying by the hand (paw, hoof, whatever) of other animals is the way of life but ok.

You're funny. You really think most of what we do these days has anything to do with natural selection? Why are you on this computer, does it improve your chance of living long enough to reproduce plentifully?

[MrRubix]

Originally Posted by Chrissi

You're funny. You really think most of what we do these days has anything to do with natural selection? Why are you on this computer, does it improve your chance of living long enough to reproduce plentifully?

The point of what others were saying was that killing animals for food has been an inevitable and necessary condition for our propagation and survival. Besides, a lot of the products vegetarians/vegans eat still come from processes that inevitably kill small creatures anyway. I've always found the "I don't want to hurt animals" excuse a bit silly.

The best we can really hope for is the humane killing of animals such that they do not suffer.

[EnR]

If you're a vegetarian, will you buy a car that has leather seats? Or by leather shoes?

I dislike many different meats but I quite enjoy other kids, I don't like chicken that much or turkey but I'll munch on a teen burger any day of the week.

[LythincaMan]

I'm a pollo-vegetarian. The only meat I'll eat is chicken, and thats rare.

[scientific]

good luck living as a vegan once your mother isnt buying all your food!!

ps it Aint ****ing Happening

[scientific]

Ya i only eat chicken cause Red Meat KIlls ya **** it yo onyl chicken

[trumaestro]

related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GKTsWjbjQ8E

[RB_IcePh0enix]

Originally Posted by Plan_Bsk81127

I just lol at the whole animal cruelty deal of choosing this eating style. Choosing to eat this way isnt going to stop it. Its the way of life, you need to kill others for ones living, just how it works. Thats just my opinion. lol.

It doesn't stop factory farming from happening, but it decreases the amount of animals slaughtered due to a smaller demand. Think of it this way, if all vegetarians started eating meat again, there would be an immediate increase of the amount of animals slaughtered. If another 10% of the population went vegetarian, roughly 10% less animals would be killed.

Originally Posted by MrRubix

The point of what others were saying was that killing animals for food has been an inevitable and necessary condition for our propagation and survival. Besides, a lot of the products vegetarians/vegans eat still come from processes that inevitably kill small creatures anyway. I've always found the "I don't want to hurt animals" excuse a bit silly.

Most vegetarians acknowledge that we are all omnivores, and the ones that don't are generally stupid. I've actually done a lot of research on human evolution and dietary habits, and although it's definitely true that we needed meat at a certain point in our evolutionary time-line, eating meat is not currently a necessary condition for our propagation and survival.

The best we can really hope for is the humane killing of animals such that they do not suffer.

And this simply is not viable without the abolishment of factory farming and a massive reconstruction of the agrarian economy.

Originally Posted by EnR

If you're a vegetarian, will you buy a car that has leather seats? Or by leather shoes?

I definitely won't buy leather or fur clothing. As far as cars, I would try to avoid it, but I wouldn't be opposed to buying a used car with leather seats.

[EnR]

I'm sure some leather seats are that fake leather, unless you go german.

But if you bought a car with leather seats you're sitting on a cow that's given it's life for comfort, wouldn't that be the same as eating a cow that's given it's life to feed us?

[RB_IcePh0enix]

Originally Posted by EnR

But if you bought a car with leather seats you're sitting on a cow that's given it's life for comfort, wouldn't that be the same as eating a cow that's given it's life to feed us?

Pretty much. Most vegans are very mindful of making sure non-edible products are vegan (clothes, make-up, furniture etc.).

[Aldentron]

Originally Posted by RB_IcePh0enix

Pretty much. Most vegans are very mindful of making sure non-edible products are vegan (clothes, make-up, furniture etc.).

At the Diner I mentioned earlier in this thread, they have a shelf in the front full of completely vegan household-products, but the only one that comes to mind was a razor.