Vegetarians ( and Vegans ) Thread!!!

[cassie]

Different people have different metabolisms. A diet one person thrives on may make another person sick. The only really good reason to go vegetarian or vegan is because you really like the food. If you don't, you will just be miserable.

 

[veganloraine]

There are a billion reasons to go vegan. It's infinately better for the environemnt (less use of land, water, energy and fewer CO2 emissisions). It's better for our health (fewer incidences of heart disease, diabetes, cancer - especially breast, ovarian, prostate and colon cancers) and for our health care system that has to pay for all of these sick people. It's kind of ironic that all the animals we're kiling is killing us. It's better for the people who have to work in the slaughterhouse. Seriously, can you imagine a worse job? It's better for women and children. Every time a slaughthouse comes to town, domestic abuse calls rise. Killing animals destroys a person's inner peace. It's better for the people starving in third world countries. All the food we grow to feed cows, pigs and chickens could actually be used to feed them. All the water we use to feed cows, pigs and chickens could be stored and used during droughts. Factory farming is out of control. Rape racks, veal crates, battery cages, gestration crates, PAC, tail docking, dehorning, castration without anesthetics. It's seriously messed up. Can you imagine being a battery hen? For me there's the most important reason: we wouldn't be slaughtering billions and billions of farmed animals for no other reason than we enjoy the taste of their bodies covered in a sweet sauce.

 

[dolphinlvr4]

Ouch, you do make many valid points yet I have never heard any vegan or vegetarian mention if they do or do not eat fish. The oceans of this planet are totally overfished n full of chemicals. I do eat meat but not veal and I don't wear fur. I also don't eat any seafood due to personal convictions and most around me feel I'm crazy cuz I was born n raised on the cal coast and now live on the coast in Ga. Do vegans and or vegetarians eat fish?

 

[cassie]

As I understand it, vegans do not eat anything that contains any animal products at all, and that includes honey. People that call themselves vegetarians eat a larger variety of foods, but they do not eat red meat. Some people who call themselves vegetarians will, on occasion, consume chicken and/or fish. Others will not eat these, but will eat eggs and dairy products.

 

[cassie]

There are a billion reasons to go vegan. It's infinately better for the environemnt (less use of land, water, energy and fewer CO2 emissisions). It's better for our health (fewer incidences of heart disease, diabetes, cancer - especially breast, ovarian, prostate and colon cancers) and for our health care system that has to pay for all of these sick people. It's kind of ironic that all the animals we're kiling is killing us. It's better for the people who have to work in the slaughterhouse. Seriously, can you imagine a worse job? It's better for women and children. Every time a slaughthouse comes to town, domestic abuse calls rise. Killing animals destroys a person's inner peace. It's better for the people starving in third world countries. All the food we grow to feed cows, pigs and chickens could actually be used to feed them. All the water we use to feed cows, pigs and chickens could be stored and used during droughts. Factory farming is out of control. Rape racks, veal crates, battery cages, gestration crates, PAC, tail docking, dehorning, castration without anesthetics. It's seriously messed up. Can you imagine being a battery hen? For me there's the most important reason: we wouldn't be slaughtering billions and billions of farmed animals for no other reason than we enjoy the taste of their bodies covered in a sweet sauce.

You are comparing apples and oranges. If what you say was accurate my whole family for generations back would have all died in their twenties rather than their late nineties. The most health food conscious person I ever knew, vegan from the time he first learned about veganism, and who would never eat anything that was not organic died in his mid thirties of pancreatic cancer.
He didn't drink alcohol, either. Much of what is fed to livestock are by products. I am thinking of beet pulp, brewers grains, almond hulls, cottonseed, and waste fruits and vegetables from packing houses. And most the starvation in third world countries is due not so much to a lack of food, as it is to a lack of a distribution system for the food there is. Food production and distribution is interruped by war, and much of the things that are causing starvation in places like Somalia are a deliberate ploy on the part of the various warlords.

I think the health ills you are attributing to diet is caused less by what people eat and more by what people are not doing, which is exercise. It wasn't that long ago that kids walked to school. Now they either take the bus or their parents drive them. Kids used to play outside after school and on weekends. Now they sit on their rears in front of the television and the video screen. Eating potato chips and drinking soda pop (both of which you can consume and still be on a vegan diet) while they do so doesn't help. In times past, people used to walk a lot more and drive a lot less. I think you would also find, if you would care to get information from an unbiased source, is that the increased consumption of sugar and refined flour in our modern society has a much greater impact on health issues than the consumption of animal products.

 

[kuntrygirl]

Why are eggs considered dairy? Eggs are not from milk or cheese?

 

[dolphinlvr4]

I think being a vegan or vegetarian takes more self disapline than I'll ever have. Lol. I think that all the preservatives, refined sugars and all the other junk we eat is probably far worse for the human body than a grilled chicken breast but that's just opinion. If eating all veggies makes u feel better I say go for it. As for me, I will continue to enjoy a thick filet once in a while. ;-).

 

[dolphinlvr4]

Why are eggs considered dairy? Eggs are not from milk or cheese?

. I thought eggs were considered a protien?

 

[veganloraine]

The China Study is the biggest, most comprehensive nutritional study ever conducted. The study spans over twenty years and compare the standard American diet, or SAD (do you know how much I love that, haha) with the diets of those living in 65 counties in China (where they consume very little animal protein). Coronary heart disease, diabetes, leukemia, and cancers of the colon, lung, breast, brain, stomach and liver are actually considered Western diseases. Yikes! It's an amazing book and has absolutely nothing to do with animal rights. They just want people to stop dying from something so preventable. That some people eat crap and live to be 90 is amazing. Some people may smoke 2 packs of cigarettes a day and die of something completely unrelated, but we would never, ever, advocate for smoking. It's the same with food. Just because some dodged a bullet doesn't mean we should be placing others in the firing line.

 

[dolphinlvr4]

That would be an interesting study to read, thanks for the info. Sounds like an intensive sociological look worth reading