Vegetarian or Vegan?

[purplebunny]

There is a lot of horsemeat being found in processed meat products/ready meals over here, even in products that state "100% beef", they have been 100% horsemeat. Horsemeat can be dangerous for humans, but am sure all you meat eaters know that already

Makes me glad am a vegetarian!

[Menhir]

I became a vegetarian around the year 2001 and a vegan after another 7 years in 2008. Seeing this -> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=52zWRtyhQNM

was additional. I became a vegetarian after finding out that there is no need in eating animal products and that we are just hurting ourselfs and the animals while doing so. Simple as that until today. It is already a long journey with many more interesting and useful extensions. Just found out something even more important but that should not be part of this topic.

[Shadowseeker]

[quote name='Menhir' timestamp='1360416071' post='132344']
I became a vegetarian after finding out that there is no need in eating animal products and that we are just hurting ourselfs and the animals while doing so.
[/quote]

I was under the impression while we can substitute the protein, it it generally speaking better to eat some (not as extreme as we are used to though) proteins that come from animals? Though I have to admit fully adhering to a balanced diet would leave me with a diet that I'd have to get accustomed to..especially the proportions and effort in cooking sometimes, since I can be picky with food.

[purplebunny]

Shadowseeker, personally I had no problems adjusting to my strict vegetarian diet. The other additionals to my diet are no problem either, now that I've got used to them. "[...]The proportions[...]" what do you mean by this? Have you ever ordered a vegetarian meal in a restuarant? They give you that much food sometimes I dunno whethere to climb it or eat it!

[Shadowseeker]

Oh, by proportions I meant the different amounts of things you ought to eat every day. Problem is, it's much easier to just cook one or two dishes, say noodles with sauce, instead of going to lengths to balance it every day by adding enough vegetables too. Or I just eat vegetables and main dish, without enough carbohydrates.

It can cut down a lot of cooking time, but it's not very healthy either.

[Magistra]

I always wanted to become a vegetarian because I love animals very much and like Princ Rhaegar says: the way we "use" them is very wrong. So January 1, 2009 I stopped eating meat. After 2,5 month I was so weak and sick that I spend whole days on the couch.

I had a check-up and my vitamin B12 level was very low. Although B12 is in eggs, cheese and nuts too, meat contains much more of this vitamin. It turned out that I was unable to take the necessary amounts of B12 from a vegetarian diet.

So I started to eat meat again and my weariness disappeared almost immediately. (This disease is called Addison-Biermer disease.) There is a cure for it with lifelong injections, but B12 is called cobalamine in Latin (meaning cobalt), and I am allergic to cobalt, which means nobody dares to give me the injections.

So although I still want to be a vegetarian, I simply can't.

[Change]

Do you mean you need more B12 than the standard 2.4 micrograms a day? 2.4 micrograms isn't that much, really. Lots of soy milk is fortified with B12. I get 1.2 mcg (micrograms) from a cup of it alone. 50 grams of swiss cheese gives 1.7 mcg, while Red Star T6635+ Yeast (nicknamed the Vegetarian Support Formula) gives 1 mcg per two teaspoons, and it's quite tasty actually. I'm suspecting that you might already know this, and despite this you can't go vegetarian? If not, you've tried, which is all you can do, and it's not your fault that you can't. There are obviously other ways of supporting the ethical treatment of animals.

What I don't like are the people who do care about not killing animals, but refuse to try going vegetarian/vegan (even though they can) because they 'can't live a day without bacon'. I know that eating meat is normal (though there are questions of how good omnivores are humans really), therefore everyone should do what's natural! Please ignore the fact that I'm typing this on a computer. Obviously quite a few animals eat other animals for food. What they don't do is raise animals in hostile conditions who don't ever get to experience the world in any meaningful way. Yes, some animals are arguably too stupid to appreciate the world, however I seem to recall something about pigs being surprisingly smart?

I'll be the first to eat bugs (which are far easier to catch than mammals) if I'm in a survival situation, however I just think that I'd rather not be eaten, therefore I won't eat other creatures for food if I don't have to. If you disagree, that's fine with me.

Oh, on the what to eat subject. I find it ironic that vegetarians and vegans tend to have a more varied diet than the meat eaters who ask, 'What do you eat?!' Food limitations forces one to get creative.

[Princess Katt]

I am not vegetarian, though I fully sympathize with the idea that animals should not be slaughtered to be eaten. I try not to think about what happens in the farms and know that I could not slaughter my own food, thus, if left to my own, I almost certainly would become vegetarian by default. In addition, when I think about being eaten alive, as does sometimes happen with animals and humans (remember, there are parts of the world where tigers, lions and sharks are the top of the food chain), it really makes me have nightmares. I don't encourage my cats to eat live bugs anymore.

For a while, I ate a diet that was about half veggie with chicken as the main source of protein. I was happy and was thinner. Then I fell in love. My mate LOVES red meat and shell fish, so I do eat them more often now. The happy part is that he now eats chicken, fish, and non-meat meals more now than he used to. So, baby steps.

[Magistra]

@ Change: everybody is born with a certain amount of B12 stored in the liver. People who can't take it from food, will use up that amount and have nothing left. Since they can't store new B12, they will be short on B12 for the rest of their life.

[purplebunny]

[quote name='Change' timestamp='1360538183' post='132400']

Oh, on the what to eat subject. I find it ironic that vegetarians and vegans tend to have a more varied diet than the meat eaters who ask, 'What do you eat?!' Food limitations forces one to get creative.
[/quote]

I agree with you, when you break it down and explain to them excatly what you eat they get the idea.

[Menhir]

It´s a very hard topic to DISCUSS ... we are all unique and everyone needs to find his/her own way by using information (and there are many) and testing. I blame not a single human being eating like he wants but I would love to be free to eat what I would like to eat. The first part is easy for me to do but the second part is much harder because humans tend to feel attacked if another human is doing something different as he/she thinks/feels. All I try since I realized this, is that I do not discuss or even talk about it any longer except people are very open minded and ask well thought questions with a research (made by the asking person) background.

Hope you´re all doing fine.

Edited February 14, 2013 by Menhir