Veganism/Vegetarianism

[ShadyPaws]

I am not a vegan nor vegetarian. I am not against people who are; I understand the reasons they may be. I do sometimes think about trying being a vegetarian but there are certain meats that I would miss and I am not always keen on vegetarian-style meat.

One question I've always wanted to know is do vegetarians eat fish? It is not really considered meat but it is from an animal.

[BBkat]

1: Are you vegetarian or vegan?
Nope, omnivore and proud.

2: If yes WHY did you decide to become vegetarian/vegan.
N/A

3:If you are, how long have you been vegetarian/vegan.
N/A

4: Would you ever consider going back to eating meat (if vegan/vegetarian)
Would you ever consider becoming vegan/vegetarian (if a meat eater)
No I wouldn't. I don't think I could vegetarian because (well I really like meat) but I'm finiky about things like veggies and I despite the taste of tofu. Vegan even less because then I wouldn't be able to have milk, cheese, ice cream (any dairy really) or eggs and gosh darn it I like those things.
Also it is really, really expensive. Like, a lot. Sure meat is costly, but lots of fresh produce can be just as, if not more so. We ain't that rich.

5: Do you feel healthier/less healthy since going vegetarian/vegan (if vegetarian/vegan)
N/A

6: How are your energy levels/iron levels etc (i guess both could answer this)
I don't know my iron levels, but I would assume fine. Same with my energy levels(if they are low it's because I keep staying up late)

7: Do you take a vitamin suppliment. (i guess both could answer that too)
No. But I probably should. I was taking taking vitamin D vitamins at one point.

[IllusionQueen]

1) Are you vegetarian or vegan?
Vegetarian, and SUPER proud. I actually hate people who eat animals, but as long as I don't get too close to them, I'm fine... I think...

2) If yes WHY did you decide to become vegetarian/vegan?
'Cause of my love for animals. I also don't like the thought of something that used to run around so happily ending up in my stomach.

3) If you are, how long have you been vegetarian/vegan?
Dunno, a few years or so I think...? Five years? Six? I really have no memory of when...

4) Would you ever consider going back to eating meat?
HELL NO!! A nutritionist actually suggested me to go back to eating some meat because of how weak and unhealthy I am. -_-" At that time, I was thinking, Hmm, maybe dying would be easier

Even though I really love and miss the taste of chicken wings... my love for animals has succeeded in pulling me away from my desire for chicken wings. When you truly love something, you can control yourself no matter how difficult it is. Just like how a vampire is able to drive himself away from the craving of human blood once he's fallen in love with a human... BUT let's not go too far

5) Do you feel healthier/less healthy since going vegetarian/vegan?
About the same...? Maybe a little less healthier? I've always been an unhealthy person so... xP

6) How are your energy levels/iron levels etc.?
Low.

7) Do you take a vitamin supplement?
I take a vitamin regularly in the morning.

8) What are your views on the dairy/veal industry?
...uhh... It's too hard for me to stop having dairy products, especially since I absolutely love ice cream. I heard that humans take away a mother cow's milk so the baby calf won't be able to drink it? Then... why do we still have so many adult cows??

9) What are your views on battery hens/cage eggs?
...I don't agree with them. At all. Enough said.

10) What are your views on factory farming?
I don't know what that is and I don't really want to know.

11) What are your views on animal testing?
If it will harm the animal in any way, then I won't agree with it.

[truffles123]

1: Are you vegetarian or vegan?
Vegetarian.

2: If yes WHY did you decide to become vegetarian/vegan.
You live longer...and it's a healthier lifestyle...also because i'm starting to notice how gross meat really is...

3:If you are, how long have you been vegetarian/vegan.
1 year

4: Would you ever consider going back to eating meat (if vegan/vegetarian)
Would you ever consider becoming vegan/vegetarian (if a meat eater)
Never Meat is greasy...

5: Do you feel healthier/less healthy since going vegetarian/vegan (if vegetarian/vegan)
I feel better being vegetarian.I noticed I've lost weight too.

6: How are your energy levels/iron levels etc (i guess both could answer this)
I've been really energetic lately.

7: Do you take a vitamin supplement. (i guess both could answer that too)
Nope.

[Nikanika]

Tell me if this is off topic but can I go out of my comfort zone to point out how crazy PETA is (creepy Pokemon spoofs, their founder, just their founder, and so much worse)

[platedlizard]

1: Are you vegetarian or vegan?

Not currently, although I have tried to convert to vegetarianism.

2: If yes WHY did you decide to become vegetarian/vegan.

I tried to convert for religious reasons. As a Buddhist it is ideal to be vegetarian, although not required. In the end I gave up because I was living out of a minifridge and it is very difficult to stay vegetarian if you don't have a lot of fridge space.

3:If you are, how long have you been vegetarian/vegan.

I think I lasted about six months, astonishingly enough.

4: Would you ever consider going back to eating meat (if vegan/vegetarian)
Would you ever consider becoming vegan/vegetarian (if a meat eater)

I'm thinking about doing it again since I have a real fridge now. I'm not sure though. I'll eat through my frozen meats and fish first though.

5: Do you feel healthier/less healthy since going vegetarian/vegan (if vegetarian/vegan)

Nope, I actually gained weight, and have been losing it again since I went back to eating meat.

6: How are your energy levels/iron levels etc (i guess both could answer this)

My energy levels are entirely based on how much I exercise, rather than diet. If I exercise every day its good, if I don't it goes down the toilet.

7: Do you take a vitamin suppliment. (i guess both could answer that too)

Nope.

[MinervaClay]

Are you vegetarian or vegan?
Nope and never.

Why not? It can be ethically responsible and stuff.
I guess with my answer it's more "why not".

The entry of meat into the human diet is what helped us advance as a culture. Our brains developed, our muscles developed, and we figured out that rubbing sticks together made fire. Some people say, "we're out of those dark ages now!" but I find that to be a meager argument at best. Anyone who doesn't think that the world could still stand to foster some mental growth has never worked customer service. And maybe never been in public.

Humans are made to be omnivorous. Some people's bodies don't get along with meat. This is not, however, necessarily due to the fact that it is meat. Big corporations have demolished the sanctity of our food, and meats bought at your average supermarket are raised on hormones, packed full of antibiotics, and fed things their bodies aren't intended to take. They wash meat in certain dangerous chemicals to kill bacteria, then rinse it off. They DYE the meat to give it a certain look. It's completely common for cows to have a permanent hole, almost like a valve, put in their side for "farmers" to open and dig around and make sure their stomachs are still working due to their diets and antibiotics. If these animals aren't healthy, how do you think eating them will be happy?

The answer isn't necessarily to "SEVER ALL MEAT FROM YOUR DIET!", because that doesn't really fix the issue, either. To the dismay of many vegans, our agriculture has become equally corrupted. Food is being genetically spliced. And while people claim "GMOs are perfectly safe!", does anyone remember that breed of potato that caused a bunch of toxicity deaths about fifteen years ago and production got cancelled? Yeah, oops. That was the start of GMOs being big. And the effects are starting to rattle the environment with toxified soil and worse.

China won't even take our corn, wheat, etc because of the genetic modifications. Actually, a lot of countries are starting to ban US shipments due to GM.

It doesn't stop at GMO; did you know that US food is allowed to be over a dozen times as RADIOACTIVE as oriental countries and the ilk? That's right.

And the thing is? All of the above issues are a major part of most western society diets. Do you get boxed dinners? Bagged treats? Candy? Soda? It's in that. Corn is something like 90% GMO in the US now, and is a primary staple in like... god, almost anything you can buy at a store in a box. If you feel safe avoiding corn, there's still things to worry about like wheat, rice, soy, and more. Much less the whole radioactive thing, and over-treated meat.

So... what do we do? Do we stop eating EVERYTHING? Well, obviously that won't work.

Buy organic. Rather than feeding into the corporations that shake together a Heinz 57 of mystery components and call it food, go to farmer markets. Ask to even take a look at the farms you're buying from and see if the animals are treated humanely in their time there; order from smaller online websites with confirmed handling of their sources, if you can't do that. If you're somehow forced to do otherwise, look for organic, and if for some reason you CAN'T do that, stop buying into boxed and bagged conformity and know exactly what's going into your every dish. Stop buying seasonings that hides MSG as "Other Spices". Stop accepting "Natural flavors with other natural flavors" (for the record, the secretions of beaver anus are often among those flavors; you think I'm joking, and I'm not, look it up).

Really? Moderation and vigilance in everything.



But... animals have feelings.

That's right. They do. But you know what happens to wild animals we don't cage? They get eaten by something too, or die of far more bitter elements. I'm not saying to be alright with slaughterhouse slum standards, but I don't know where this idea comes from that if we stopped this, the animals of the world would prance along merrily, leaping alongside the rainbow arcs left by unicorns. That isn't reality. Nature is and was and always will be a give and take of life for life.

Something most people don't want to touch with a ten foot pole, but it needs to be said:
Plants are a lot more "human" than people think, too.

Plants have been proven to react to sounds, both in minor shifts through the day and major arcs of growth. (Hearing, if on a different level. Not just "vibrations", because when it boils down to it, that's all hearing is anyway; vibrations on your eardrum)

Plants have been proven to react not only to light for how they grow, but color. The same breed of plant will regularly perform better and seem "happier" in planters and rooms/areas of different dominant colors. (Vision, preference in something with no logical affect on their immediate survival)

Plants have been proven to communicate through the secretion of scent, to mark season, or forecast dangers. (Scent, response, communication)

Plants have been proven to react to the idea of pain, slowly recoiling parts of themselves from something that it realizes is hurting it. (Feeling, self awareness)

Plants are proven to cooperate better with members of their own species or relative community, and have been known to network their roots. Some scientists are theorizing that this is actually parallel to a large neural network.


My little summary

Just because it isn't as cute doesn't mean it isn't alive. Just because you can't hear it cry doesn't mean it feels nothing. I've always said "maybe we're the people just too stupid to understand them." When we eat plants, we're eating living beings. Like, still living beings. Big media shows us the idea of werewolves not liking people in chains, but how would the tree in Pocahontas feel watching you chow down on a salad? So I tend to tell people who get on a soap box about eating meat making them inhumane to go speak to grandmother Willow.

You think I'm an ignorant savage; and you've been so many places I guess it must be so
but still I cannot see, if the savage one is me, how can there be so much that you don't know?

Balance. Respect. Harmony. That's what makes the world work. As humans -- especially western cultures -- we get comfortable living beyond our necessary boundaries. Know what you're eating, and be vigilant about it to maintain your health. Ultimately, do what works for you, but judge NOBODY for their willingness to eat meat. I love animals too. I once got in an argument over my husband throwing baby mice out into the cold to freeze when we found them in our house. Yes, I know they can carry disease, but handle them right and that can be fixed. I'm very pro-animal rights. The man went to stumble in the dark and find them again, only to discover something had eaten them. That actually lessened the blow to me--because then it falls into the cycle of nature, rather than pointless suffering.

Just... respect the world. It's simple, really. =)

[Grizz]

It's completely common for cows to have a permanent hole, almost like a valve, put in their side for "farmers" to open and dig around and make sure their stomachs are still working due to their diets and antibiotics. If these animals aren't healthy, how do you think eating them will be happy?

The hole in some cows is not to make sure their stomachs are still working and isn't done by farmers. It is a fistula that researchers use to check the contents of a cow's stomach to make sure that feed mixtures are doing what they need to be doing. It doesn't hurt the cow and these cows are never eaten. The research is used for dairy cows further down the line.

[MinervaClay]

It's completely common for cows to have a permanent hole, almost like a valve, put in their side for "farmers" to open and dig around and make sure their stomachs are still working due to their diets and antibiotics. If these animals aren't healthy, how do you think eating them will be happy?

The hole in some cows is not to make sure their stomachs are still working and isn't done by farmers. It is a fistula that researchers use to check the contents of a cow's stomach to make sure that feed mixtures are doing what they need to be doing. It doesn't hurt the cow and these cows are never eaten. The research is used for dairy cows further down the line.

The exact reason for the fistula is that cows aren't evolved to digest corn, it just causes problems for them. The rumen is designed for grass, and corn is too starchy. They have to be taught how to eat corn. Cows normally belch--a lot; unfistulated cows that are fed cow feed are unable to release their gas pressure due to their new stomach balances. Their stomachs swell up, put pressure on other major organs, and they self-suffocate. Yes, it is in fact to watch how they react to feeds. Fistulation began sheerly as a method to watch the chemical balance in their stomach. Because they don't eat what they're supposed to because of us anymore. People dig out the undigested corn. Yes, some universities use it for other reasons. That's not the only reason FOR Fistulas.

Alone, the argument that "they aren't used on food/milk cows" is kind of feeble. That implies that nobody IS regulating the stomach of the animal, and usually results in more antibiotics shoved down the throat, which involves more imbalanced cows. A good deal of cows are self-smothering because of their diets, rather than being free grazing animals.

And for the record, this is a dairy cow. The herd is a dairy herd. You CAN find fistulated cows at dairy farms, for example, Conklin Dairy Sales in Plain City, Ohio.

And for anyone who thinks it's to better the environment and develop better and more wholesome milk, these people are who tend to give out awards for any documents or reports made about it. Many of the forwardly-pressed online articles that don't come straight from a university were actually written y grade-schoolers.

Watch out, cap'n, I think she sprung a leak! Mmmmm.

The IACUC Guideline for Long Term care and Maintenance of Animals with Permanent Rumen Fistulas at Penn State clearly reads,
"Animals with rumen fistulas must be monitored (observed) frequently for: Appetite, Behavior, and Presence and fitting of cannulae.

"For cows participating in research or required to be milked, daily observations will be necessary. Non-lactating cows on pasture should be monitored a minimum of every three days."

And

"Unless permission is specifically granted otherwise, any animal surgical prepared with a permanent fistula will be disposed of by one of two ways: 1) euthanized by a veterinarian and submitted directly to the State Diagnostic Laboratory (University Park) for necropsy; or2) send directly to a Federally approved slaughter facility."


Why yes, you doeat those cows!


We tend to accept quiet confirmation from people saying "oh, no, we don't feed you that" or "oh, no, it's safe." far too early. Sixty years ago doctors were prescribing cigarettes.

We are told it is safe, normal, and regulated and we believe it. Looking into it past vague reinforcement, however, is a much deeper and more difficult endeavor.

[Chleio]

1: Are you vegetarian or vegan?

Strict vegetarian.

2: If yes WHY did you decide to become vegetarian/vegan.

Ethical reasons.

3:If you are, how long have you been vegetarian/vegan.

About 15 years.

4: Would you ever consider going back to eating meat (if vegan/vegetarian)
Would you ever consider becoming vegan/vegetarian (if a meat eater)

Never ever. I have never been meat-lover anyway.

5: Do you feel healthier/less healthy since going vegetarian/vegan (if vegetarian/vegan)

It depends totally on what & how one eats. Being vegetarian suits me and I feel myself quite healthy but vegetarianism doesn´t automatically mean healthier food. It´s important to give a thought on what one eats, whether one eats meat or not.

6: How are your energy levels/iron levels etc (i guess both could answer this) &
7: Do you take a vitamin suppliment. (i guess both could answer that too)

I should be more careful with these. I don´t pay enough attention to vitamin suppliments etc. But generally I feel really healthy, only that my iron levels are sometimes bit low.

One thing that I would like to make clear is that a real vegetarian doesn´t eat any living creature (or a creature that once has lived), including fish. I can´t understand why some doesn´t count fish as animal