Vegetarians

[sir pacman]

Full respect to vegetarians but i am impartial to a bit of meat. Although i do try to limit how much meat i eat.

 

[astrosmurf]

Alas all that said each to their own, I commend vegetarians and their discipline. I too love animals and hate the way they suffer for our appetities however admittedly I don't think I could stick it out being vego...

Ethically, sustainably farmed meat is becoming a much, much easier option these days. Sure, the price is still much higher but the quality of the meat, along with beingconfident that it's free of nasties and the animal has been raised in much nicer conditions more than justifies the price.
I'm not sure of an equivalent in Melbourne but in Sydney, Feather and Bone is one of, if not the best. They liaise directly with their farmers and in most cases, visit the farms too. They hold open days at their warehouse where customers and farmers are welcome to attend and talk and learn more about sustainable farming and a
whole bunch of stuff. I can't speak highly enough of these guys

still, much easier to just buy whatever's wrapped in plastic at Coles and shed a tear for the animals, ey?

 

[VomitKitten]

Been vegan since I was 13, it's been 9 years now.
Started with an interest in animal welfare when I was very young, started researching online and soon realised I didn't agree with what was going on. My dad is a butcher so I've grown up with us having calves and then them disappearing suddenly to "go to another farm". Wasn't until I was that little bit older I actually wised up as to what actually went on.
Probably fucked up a few times. Once I went to a friend's house to dinner and he cooked a 3 course meal "especially with my dietry needs in mind". Turns out he thought I was vego, so there was goat's cheese and cream in the courses. I felt so bad that I ate it anyway, then threw it up when I went home. The thought that I'd consumed something from a living animal really grossed me out but I was too shy to tell him I was vegan and couldn't eat it.
I don't have a problem if people consume animal products, as long as they know about the industry and what they're doing to animals/the environment/their bodies etc. It's a personal choice for me, and while I'm extremely passionate about it, I don't like to preach to others. It's all about doing your own little bit.

 

[LilbabiC]

I've been a vegetarian for 22 years. I have no desire to eat anything that once had a heart beat or eyes. I just can't do it but, I am in no way upset with people who consume meat.

 

[kittymeow]

I have a lot more respect for vegetarians than those kinds of omnivores that cringe at the sight of a whole dead pig or chicken.

IMHO you need to be aware of where your food comes from and then make an informed choice. I love eating meat but I think the animal needs to have a happy life and we need to use as much of it as we can. Nose to tail eating FTW It's not fair to kill a creature just for it's tender breast meat

Such large scale animal 'production' is only a modern thing. In the 50's when the world changed and our middle class grew, so did our consumption of meat as it became more affordable. I haven't looked into the statistics of this but I know before the war we did not eat as much meat. The more we are aware of the real cost of killing so many animals the better I think. If we have more educated omnivores making the right decisions then the industry will change.

 

[Busty St Clare]

I've been a vegetarian for 22 years. I have no desire to eat anything that once had a heart beat or eyes. I just can't do it but, I am in no way upset with people who consume meat.

Our Xmas eve tradition is Oysters and French champagne.... you are invited any time

It have stopped throwing the pickle away on my cheeseburgers. From little things big things grow as they say, by this time next year I might be vegan :D

 

[sir pacman]

Ethically, sustainably farmed meat is becoming a much, much easier option these days. Sure, the price is still much higher but the quality of the meat, along with beingconfident that it's free of nasties and the animal has been raised in much nicer conditions more than justifies the price.
I'm not sure of an equivalent in Melbourne but in Sydney, Feather and Bone is one of, if not the best. They liaise directly with their farmers and in most cases, visit the farms too. They hold open days at their warehouse where customers and farmers are welcome to attend and talk and learn more about sustainable farming and a
whole bunch of stuff. I can't speak highly enough of these guys

still, much easier to just buy whatever's wrapped in plastic at Coles and shed a tear for the animals, ey?

I am luckly in that I live in the country and have access to a one man butcher shop who sources his meat from local farmers. He knows how the animals have been raised and by who.

Free range meat products are well worth the extra expense.

 

[mostly-human]

How long have you been vego/vegan for?

I'm 28 now

I've been vegetarian since I was about 10 and vegan since I was around 19

What prompted you to be vego/vegan?

Vegetarian - I guess I was an ethically forward thinking child - also, my brother, a couple years older than me, became vegetarian too so I had some insights from him. Our parents weren't exactly supportive, but they didn't try and stop us either.

Was there a transition from vego to vegan or did you go vegan straight away?

Transition - reason being a lot of the factors; environmental, ethical, health, etc really weren't being addressed very adequately by being vegetarian. In many ways, regarding the environment and ethical treatment of animals- if you don't eat meat but choose to ignore the dairy/egg industry, then you're ignoring in many ways the bulk of the problem(s).

Are you ok with just being vego or is the goal vegan and its a process?

N/A

Have you ever "fucked up" since you turned v/v?

The only time I deliberately "fucked up" was about 3-4 years ago. I had completely fucked up a lot of things, my living arrangement + personal relationships, my employment and any other finances. I was literally living on the street (in Melbourne) for a little while in the middle of winter. It was pretty horrible and I was dealing with my own personal issues (problem gambling, IV drugs and lying to those around me). I was in a terrible way and I wanted to utterly dissolve my sense of self - for so many years I had held on to the reasoning that not matter what else I did or who I fucked over, at least I had stuck by being a vegetarian/vegan. It was always a life-rope for me, a sense of self and of self-worth. I needed to destroy that. I wanted to face my "demons" so to speak and I could cling to any more BS philosophy. So I ate some chicken, just to completely dissolve any sense of self I had remaining. It helped.

Apart from that, there has been times when I've been served things that weren't vegan that I've eaten as they were otherwise going to be thrown out. And plenty of accidents as well - it is near-on impossible to be "absolutely" vegan. For example, regardless of the ingredients list, all margarine in Australia are NOT vegan - except for one brand; Nuttelex. This is because we have a law that they must be fortified with Vitamin D and the most common source of that is an animal source. There is literally tonnes of shit like this.

However - for all intents and purposes, I would definitely be considered a fairly strict vegan - with one vice; I do regularly make exceptions regarding alcohol (not much beer/wine is vegan).

I would say to put a figure on it, 99.9% of what I eat is completely vegan. Regarding alcohol, probably 90% of what I drink is vegan.

How did you feel about it and what did you do if you did?

I've never beaten myself up over this sort of thing. This way lies only madness. If you start thinking about everything in absolutes, you'll get a little crazy.

Have you been v/v and gone back to meat eating permanantly?

NO - But my fiance was vegan for a year and has been a meat eater again for the past year. This is not a source of conflict at all and generally speaking her diet is still largely (80%) vegan.

Do you feel that someone who claims to be an animal lover but still eats meat is a hyporite?

No and I generally don't get along with other vegans that feel that way. Peoples thoughts and actions are not the same thing. We all aspire to be much more than what we are. And we all contribute to society/the world in so many different ways. I'm not conceited about being a vegan and I don't ever judge others on their choices. Anyone who does needs to take a good look at themselves.

 

[Stonefish]

Central Coast represent! I'm vegan; have been for just over a year now. Was a pretty swift switch but I'd slowly been cutting stuff out throughout the latter half of 2010. It's for ethical reasoning; the diet choices of certain friends lead me to question my own, and I came to the conclusion that it was ethically unsound to contribute to harming animals were it not absolutely mandatory for my survival.

 

[spacejunk]

i went vegetarian at 15. that was 1999.
i'm pretty much pescatarian these days - i eat a little fish.
while i felt like a bit of a sell-out (or something) when i first started eating fish, i feel a little healthier for eating it occasionally.
i have a very active life, sometimes a very low income, and i needed to increase my nutrient intake cheaply.
some people find it really hard to go vegetarian - i found it hard to learn how to eat fish meat again! it took months!

unlike a lot of people,i never stopped eating meat for ethical reasons particularly, just that eating flesh repulses me. my awareness of this increased when i started smoking cannabis - i just couldn't ignore those thoughts any more.
each to their own, i suppose. i think if you're going to stop eating meat for ethical reasons, you should probably go vegan. the exploitation of animals for milk, eggs etc is all a part of the same industry.
it is quite hard to be truly vegan - or even vegetarian - in australia. practically all processed food on the supermarket shelves has dairy, gelatine, eggs or some bullshit added to it.
this is actually one of the great plusses of going veg (vegan especially) - you just eat less processed rubbish food.
my girl is vegan, and we eat wholesome homecooked food all the time. i love it - in a way, i think her influence makes me eat better. some ignorant people say to me "it must be such a drag having a vegan girlfriend"
to which i reply "no, it's a drag talking to people who are too narrow-minded to understand"
i don't know if i'd have the commitment to go vegan, but it is certainly having a good influence on my diet.

some people scoff at vegetarians, like some beefcake guy on the first page - i'm prejudiced against carnies. meat eating fat cunts.

 

[spacejunk]

Apart from that, there has been times when I've been served things that weren't vegan that I've eaten as they were otherwise going to be thrown out.

i really like this comment. i'm fortunate not to have been put in this position, but i've seen vegos pick all the meat out of a meal and throw it in the bin - to me this seems quite disgusting as the animals killed to make the meat died for nothing. in principle i would prefer to eat it, though i don't know how i'd go in reality.
after not having consumed it for so long, i assume that eating a plate of red meat now would probably make me sick, but i'm not sure. perhaps that's all in my head?

 

[webbykevin]

Every time I meet a vegan I get this overwhelming desire to bite a live pigs arse.

(Billy Connolly)

 

[NickyJ]

Some drunk guy: "Mate, why the fuck are you a vegetarian? I'll stop eating meat when lions stop eating zebras"

Wil Anderson: "So you make all your life decisions based on what lions do? Is that why you weigh 250kg and have a mullet?"


I LOL'd :D

 

[psycosynthesis]

I decided to go vegan on the tail end of a very enlightening acid trip at Rainbow a few years back, unfourtunately that trip left me psychotic but them's the proverbial breaks.

I lasted three weeks then broke down and ate some Lindt chocolate.

Now I'm just vegetarian. I always check that the cheese I buy contains non-animal rennet, that the jam I buy has fruit pectin in in, and that the yoghurt I eat is gelatine free.

I feel healthier, my weight hasn't changed and I don't get those sloppy jaloppy meat turds anymore. Win.

 

[CrayZ]

...Don't they attribute the development of the human brain over the ages to meat eating?
...

Ironically, i thought it was psilocybe mushrooms...

 

[Foreigner]

Sorry for the long post but I know a LOT about this subject.

I was a complete vegetarian for 8 years. I didn't even eat fish, which some self-proclaimed vegs do. I managed my diet really well, I ate all the right things. Couldn't stand soy though or tofu so I never ate that crap. I ended up needing some supplements. Most people who are veg and don't supplement start to get weak and show deficiency signs. The problem with a vegetarian diet in the modern world is that most vegetables are now grown on depleted soil so they are lacking in major nutrition, so you end up having to supplement a lot. This would be true regardless if you ate meat or not, but meat gives you a lot of the B vitamins, iron, protein (especially the sulfur containing amino acids methionine and cysteine which veggies tend to lack), vitamin A, etc. the list goes on. If you ate a steak every few weeks or liver every few months, you'd stock up on these, but as a veg you need constant supplying. Given the state of modern food it's hard, and to be honest it requires money or access to good farm food. Even then, there are so many marketing gimmicks that it's hard to know what is genuinely nutritious sometimes.

I eventually moved to China (long story) and while I was there meat was unavoidable where I was. People had no concept of vegetarianism. The default word for meat in china (肉 rou) means pork. So when I said I didn't eat meat (rou), they thought I meant pork so they brought me other meat. Then I'd have to explain that I don't eat ANIMALS, and they just didn't comprehend. So, long story short, I started eating meat again, and HOLY COW my energy levels went way up and I felt a lot healthier again!! I decided then that meat should obviously be part of my diet, but in the beginning I thought more was better so I started having meat every day until I started to feel heavy, bloated, and disgusting.

I'm an alternative health practitioner now with the title of Doctor in my region, and I've come to understand that everyone's constitution is different. I need animal protein in my diet. I don't need it every day, I just need a bit every few days and I'm good to go - but I can't live without it. Some people need a bit of it daily, others virtually never need it. My mother almost never eats meat and her iron and hemoglobin levels are normal. My father, sister and I share the same constitution in that we need meat, but my sister is a stubborn vegetarian and she is incredibly unhealthy.

Vegetarianism, as a political movement, and ominvorism as a political movement, are both fraught with propaganda. Most people in North America can do with less meat. If you're eating it every meal then something is not right. In the wild, animal protein was a rare commodity for the hunter gatherers. Humans ate meat but mostly subsisted off of vegetation, with animal protein supplemented. Of course, in the more tropical climates where vegetation is abundant, people can avoid meat no problem. In my opinion, if you live in a cold northern climate, most people need meat, and it needs to be served warm.

Another important thing I've learned is that people eat way too much cold food in the western world. Your body doesn't absorb food properly when it's right from the fridge. It doesn't undergo complete fermentation because once that cold food hits your gut, the blood vessels contract and digestion slows down. Muscle contraction moves the food along and warms it up but it comes out the other end as loose stool or even diarrhea, which means incomplete absorption. Whatever it is you eat, make sure it's warm, unless you live in a climate that's an inferno then usually some cold food is okay. If you're a veg and eat a lot of raw food, you can warm it up by adding warming spices like ginger, garlic, etc. Chemical warming still produces heat exothermically which helps digestion. If you eat cold food then your body expends energy to warm it up and this leads to digestive deficiency, and you lose nutrients. In places like Asia, eating cold food like ice cream is a relatively new thing and most of the old people frown upon it. Virtually all food there is cooked except in the really hot weather when they serve cold and vinegared vegetables. But now, because they have gotten ideas from the west, a lot more people have digestive deficiencies from eating refrigerated food.

I could go on all day about this. The digestion system is my specialty in medicine. Short story is... there is no one-size-fits-all solution to diet. You have to eat according to your own constitution and not what someone else tells you to eat, and this takes experimentation and self-awareness. If you're eating something just because it makes you feel good (like a lot of meat eaters) then you aren't eating according to your constitution but are emotional-eating. Likewise, if you feel like you are suffering through vegetarianism then you're either not doing it right or you shouldn't be doing it at all.

 

[Divine Moments]

I'd be interested to hear what people have to say on this too. I'm considering going vego starting next year - I've heard plenty of good reasons to

Just noticed this thread again - I followed through with my change to complete vegetarianism from the start of this year. No slip-ups yet afaik. I've actually been surprised at how easily I made the change given I for most of the last 5 years I was eating red meat for an average of 5 days per week (damn it tastes good).

I feel excellent. I'm sure some differences I've noticed are unrelated as I have made several other life changes this year.. but my mood is good, energy is at least as good as previously, and in general I feel healthier. Very glad I'm giving it a go! Now to see how long it lasts :D

I don't want to give advice regarding the ethics of eating meat, but I strongly encourage anyone considering vegetarianism for health and wellbeing benefits to give it a go!