maybe a can of worms but...
Posted by arabella5c on Dec 16, 2008 · Member since Dec 2008 · 8 posts
...i am curious...i am wondering (if anyone wants to share) why you all have chosen to eat vegan.....or vegan rather than vegetarian....
concern for animals, health benefits, combo of the above? just curious?!
me personally, i'm trying to replace a lot of unhealthy food choices by stocking up on lots of wonderful, cancer-fighting yummy veggies. and also, i have recently become more concerned about the very sad practices of the meat industry. i have known about it for years, but never really had the wherewithall to really make a choice about it until recently. i guess maybe i've just finally developed a little discipline. food has always been my "drug" of choice.
This has gotten brought up before and never really ended well. I hope this thread can remain above the belt.
To answer your question: I am a vegetarian because it suits me. I've been one for 12 or so years and it has agreed with my body, my politics and my lifestyle and I see no reason to alter it. I am not a vegan. I eat eggs. My mother has an organic garden and raises chickens. I've met each one and know them by name. I know their diet and I talk to them when I visit. She also keeps two bee hives. Some years there is enough honey to harvest, some years (like this one) there isn't. I have no ethical issues with this, nor am I willing to have a discussion about it either way in this forum. I understand and accept that this is a (fairly) strict vegan forum and I am here for that input.
I have found, for me, this to be the best way to live my life. I think that's what we all have to do, for what ever reasons we may have.
I haven't eaten meat since I was eleven, and even then it was mostly chicken or turkey, which is something easily veganized to replicate.
I was an anti-social type of child I guess, and animals were always my closest companions.. so I realized the murder type of situation meat has.
For me, its for the animals more than my health... though that developed. I guess when you care so much for animals, you learn to care alot for yourself and you're well being.
I, too, will eat eggs if and only if they come from a farm I know. I have a very hard time trusting the 'free range' stamp. I have went completely vegan, then brought the eggs back.
I feel sooo much better without milk and dairy that I don't think I will ever re-corporate that into my diet.
But yea, I believe all people have their reasons why they do what they do, and no one can really judge someone's decision... especially if they've put thought into it before coming to their own conclusion.
i was a vegetarian for about 6 years.....but not a strict one....but i always thought, "what good is it really doing me to not eat meat if i'm still eating dairy/eggs"? but i still ate them anyway...and then i read Skinny Bitch, and the facts that were presented in that book helped me to permanently switch to being vegan...that and the support of my sweet Fred! :)>>>
i am always trying to inform my friends and family of the health and ethic reasons to cut out animal products all together, but none of them have (yet!) but that's ok. i understand what it is like to be a meat/egg/dairy eater. there are some foods that i didn't think that i could EVER give up... but i guess the timing was just right for me.
what you eat is a personal choice. but i believe that it should always be an informed choice. if you know what is really going on with the food industry and you are comfortable with it, then that is ok! OR if you are like nutdragon and you know where the food is coming from and you feel ok with it, then i think that is totally fine too!
i LOVE being vegan, and i won't ever go back. but i don't think any less of anyone who does eat meat, etc....
I :)>>> anyone who tries and does their best.
I went L/O Veg 10.5 years ago because a neighbor made a comment about digestive issues that cleared up for her husband when he didnt eat meat. While I said nothing to her, a light bulb went off over my head. I first gave up all but fish, dairy and eggs with great intestinal results. When I did eat beef at my then husband's insistence I was ill for days afterward. I also had a fish reaction and gave that up as well.
Five years after that, much education, practice and experience and I started trying veganism out because while my bowels were happier than they had been they were not (as I had come to find out) normal. I did a two weeks on, two weeks off trial of veganism and found it worked wonders for me. I had a horrible diary reaction and gave it up.
I have food sensitivities and IBS. My life is much easier without animal byproducts. If I knew at 10, what I know now, I would have gone vegan then. Read the China Study. Research nutrition online. Do not take anyone's personal opinion on things when you can form your own by reading studies and findings from a dozen different sources.
I do want to say that there is no such thing as a perfect vegan. The only perfect vegan is a dead vegan. Do the best you can for yourself and accept that everyone will do the same. We are all on a journey and no one should cast aspersions on anyone due to where they are on their own trip.
My one note is that my sister just recently gave up gluten due to her son's minor autism symptoms. She is losing weight, feeling fantastic and her boy is improving dramatically. We are what we eat. Put good things in, and good things happen. Put bad things in, and the results are just not that great.
I'm vegetarian because my vegan friend asked me "With the compassion you have for animals, why aren't you vegetarian?"
I didn't have a good enough answer... so I stopped eating meat about a week later. I seriously thought hard about that question for an entire week, because I felt that it deserved an answer. It was a heartfelt, genuine question. I didn't have an answer that seemed to explain.
Makes sense not to eat meat. That makes it easy. I consider it a personal, private choice of my own.
I am vegan for the big 3--health, animal rights and the environment. Animal rights is one of my passions--I love working with animals of all kinds--especially cows and goats (baaa!!!).
IMO--I think anyone who even considers cutting back on their intake of animal products is awesome! It is my hopes that as people learn about animal issues and what not that they will cut out more and more--but I think it is a highly personal choice to be veg, vegan, etc. No one should feel bullied or prostylized into making lifestyle changes!!
;)b
I became vegan so I can feel superior pronouncing it correctly. Also, it's an efficiency thing - "vegan" is two syllables; whereas, "vegetarian" is five syllables.
eta: Would a can of worms be insecitarian?
I became vegan so I can feel superior pronouncing it correctly. Also, it's an efficiency thing - "vegan" is two syllables; whereas, "vegetarian" is five syllables.
eta: Would a can of worms be insecitarian?
((hh))
I like animals, so I am not going to abuse them to stay alive any more. I don't have too, been vegan 18 months or so now and I am still alive.
also maybe to even out some of the wrongs I have done in my life (to people not animals)
also maybe to even out some of the wrongs I have done in my life (to people not animals)
You have a lot more to account for, buddy. You'll get bonus karma points for taking us with you on your next visit home. Just saying. If you really mean it.
also maybe to even out some of the wrongs I have done in my life (to people not animals)
You have a lot more to account for, buddy. You'll get bonus karma points for taking us with you on your next visit home. Just saying. If you really mean it.
HH (or M) your welcome on any of my travels. In the US you have to put up with my dog, in the UK, my parents! (I don't know which is worse)!!!!
I'm up for the UK parent challenge.
The worst thing a dog can do to me is snub me. The question is, is your dog ready to put up with me? Cat would warn your dog that I pet and forehead kiss way too often, but maybe dogs are more into that.
I like animals, so I am not going to abuse them to stay alive any more. I don't have too, been vegan 18 months or so now and I am still alive.
also maybe to even out some of the wrongs I have done in my life (to people not animals)
Right on! ;)b
I was brought up very strict vegetarian, lapsed a little when I got to university (eggs and occasionally fish) then began feeling sick after eating dairy...which raised some interesting questions for me about my health and my diet and led on to bigger questions about my beliefs, my morals, the person I would like to be...which all led to me deciding to try this vegan thing. It's been a couple of months-ish, I'm trying. I'm by no means perfect, I've found bits difficult, I've lapsed and I've compromised...but I am trying, and I've also found bits fun, rewarding, exciting. And I think I'm improving, in health, attitude, and proudness of myself. One day I will be a fully-fledged vegan. Until then, I'm on my own personal journey towards being one, and I'm cool with that. It's quite fun :)
I became vegetarian somewhere around 1970 after reading Francis Moore Lappe's "Diet for a Small Planet". I've sort of become obcessed with ending world hunger. Becoming vegan was just an extention on that...I think. I spent a few years not vegan but am back to being vegan again. I developed a lot of health problems when I stopped eating vegan (diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, etc..) so now I am reading Dr. Campbell's "The China Study" and being vegan again.
Well that is all a blather isn't it? Ok to summerize:
1. Being vegan is better for the planet.
2. Beign vegan is better for my health.
I've been vegetarian for uummm maybe 8 years now? I was never really into eating meat as a kid; never liked it or understood how eating an animal was in any way good for myself , the animal, or the earth. I simply will not eat meat again in my life.
When I went to my first year of college, I decided to try veganism. I was 18, poor and uneducated vegan-wise. It was a poor decision on my part and I ended up sick both physically and mentally. I ended up going back to vegetarianism.
I still struggle with wondering why I'm not eating meat but continuing to consume dairy and eggs; it doesn't really make sense to me. I'm worried about getting sick again...hhmmm, but maybe for 2009 I will start to make a plan to start cutting out dairy and eggs again. YES!! That's what I will do. And I need to get my hands on a copy of Skinny Bitch, I hear it's great.
Ha, sorry, this was a bit rambly. Good luck to everyone and their animal/life-loving endeavours :)
thanks everybody for sharing....i think i need to read that china study book....sounds like a good read. i did skim through a few pages of skinny bitch at target a while back and found it a bit vulgar but interesting information.
i was most impressed by her/their exposing the fda as being run by lobbiest and whatnot...i can't remember now exactly what she said.
If you can get past the profanities (which I personally enjoy; shocking, I know) it contains a lot of useful information, such as what you are talking about above. It's all about the dairy industry perpetuating the belief that we need milk for calcium and strong bones, etc. Basically, the people who want us to buy their products are the ones who are telling us that we need the products for our health. I was most impressed by the fact that because something is labeled "organic" (by the FDA?! or who was it?) it does not necessarily mean it is organic! You should always look for another "certification" that it's organic. I'm at a loss for words here; I can't put sentences together and It's been months since I read the book. Help me, people.
:)>>>
i was most impressed by her/their exposing the fda as being run by lobbiest and whatnot...i can't remember now exactly what she said.
You get that with all regulated industries, because people move back and forth between working for the government and working in private industry. They make contacts in the private sector that then have instant access to the people on the "inside".
Also, the top industry people make contributions to political figures and if their candidate succeeds they get choice appointments. Bush appointed industry people to top regulatory spots. It's not just him. It happens all the time.
Fast Food Nation was the book that played a large part in convincing me to go vegetarian. It probably seems tame next to other books that reveal the horrors of the meat/food industry but it really opened my eyes. The other major factor was my dad having a heart attack and my family drastically changing the way we ate. Before his heart attack, we mostly ate processed, largely meat-based meals. Afterwards we cooked a lot more of our own meals and ate a lot more veggies and grains. It didn't take me long to realize that I felt a lot better when I wasn't eating meat and that meals that didn't revolve around meat were a lot more interesting.
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