Any vegans/vegetarians here besides me?

granville

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As you can tell from my topic title (and obviously, my sig), I'm a vegan. What that means is I am a very strict vegetarian. I eat no meat, dairy, or any animal produce. I've been a vegan since September of 2005 and have somehow never wanted to go back. My mother followed my lead and is also a vegan now.

Unlike some of the zealots on sites like PETA, though, I have absolutely no problem with other people's choice to eat meat. It's just the right thing for MY life, not necessarily other people's lives. I have several reasons for choosing this way of life:

1: Meat has required nutrients in it, but I choose to get these nutrients from plant sources. Meat has a history of being a disease carrier and has many other unhealthy qualities that you are forced to ingest as well as the nutrition. I simply choose to bypass this part and get it from cleaner plant sources. Some like Vitamin B12 and Omega-6 fatty acids are difficult to find in plant matter, but I manage well enough.

2: I'm an animal fanatic. Being thus, I can't eat something I love to appreciate alive. Like I said, it doesn't bother me that other people eat meat, but I don't have to take part in it.

3: I once visited a slaughterhouse. Anyone who has done this can probably understand my POV here. There are few places on earth as filthy, horrifying, and just overall unhealthy than a slaughterhouse. This brought the question "Where does my food come from?" into a whole new light for me. If I lost any other ideal I have on being a vegan, I would stay vegan solely based on this.

4: In all the weight loss madness and obesity crises, it's nice to have a comfortable lifestyle that automatically assures health and well-being. Before I was a vegan, I was above 300 pounds and had high blood pressure. Somehow I managed to get down to 235 pounds and lose my high blood pressure completely. I wasn't even trying to do these things and didn't become a vegan to accomplish these things. They just happened automatically after less than a year. I don't even eat religiously healthy foods. I only limit myself to plants and I eat whatever I want from there. I feel, look, and live better than I did.

5: I was ready to stop eating meat. I've never really been a health nut, but I never went on food binges either. When you're ready to become a vegan, that makes it 50% easier. When you find out that you don't have any dependency on animal produce AFTER you've tried it out, that takes the other 50% of the difficulty out.

Like I said, this is not for everyone. I've been a vegan for nearly 3 years and never had any motivation to return to the way I was. Most people wouldn't be like this. Many give up. But it helps when your body is ready and you find (to your surprise) that you don't have any cravings for meat.

I respect anyone who DOES eat animal produce as long as they respect MY choice. The only thing that has yet to piss me off in being a vegan is peoples' reaction to telling them. They tend think you're some kind of a cultist or weirdo. Does disliking broccoli make you strange? No. Does disliking milk make you weird? No. So why should disliking meat?

Is anyone here a vegan/vegetarian as well?
 

cris92x

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Im sorry i have to follow in the words of my history teacher:
"If it doesn't have meat its not a meal"
You know ever wonder what the sharp teeth in front of our mouths do?
We were meant to eat meat, of course not so we grow fat or unhealthy, but for survival.
It keeps the food chain from going into disorder, of course we screwed it up a lot but its still needed
 

bahamuta

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I understand you're a vegetarian, but I don't understand why you're vegan. What's wrong in drinking milk and eating cheese or even eating ice-cream (it's made of milk). Dammit, you can't even eat pancakes. That sucks.
 

Calafas

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I think Bonemonkey's a vegetarian...

huh.gif
 

Tanas

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rjbr2000 said:
Yes.

It's not as good as the Attitude era.

Pretty weird that I'm hating the guy who was the main reason I started watching it...John Cena. Not because I liked him, it's because my cousins talked about hi a lot.


QUOTE(bahamuta @ Jun 10 2008, 09:10 PM) I understand you're a vegetarian, but I don't understand why you're vegan. What's wrong in drinking milk and eating cheese or even eating ice-cream (it's made of milk). Dammit, you can't even eat pancakes. That sucks.

Probably boils down to animal cruelty or the exploitation of animals for human needs.
 
S

ScuberSteve

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It may sound disgusting, but I laughed a lot during a trip to a slaughterhouse...

Omnivore: EAT EVERYTHING.
 

moozxy

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Being vegan or a vegetarian is unnatural, we are meant to eat meat. I do feel sorry for the way some animals are treated at the slaughterhouse though. I watched a video of some cows being killed, it was like something out of a horror movie.
 

VmprHntrD

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Hate to come off mean, but I can't respect you at all as a vegan, but if you were a vegeterian of some degree it would be fine. As you well pointed out there in your first post, you need Vitamin B12 and Omegas...no pill or grown product can supply you the amount you need, and factory made doesn't work well and is documented. Mind you this can cause you some serious side effects as time goes on, and I'm not sure if this bit is not so gray area still but will shorten your life. Those 2 things you lack in hurt you in the ability to heal, process nutrients, can screw up your hair over time(fall apart/out/very thin) and in general will just harm your system because you're in essence doing pick and choose starvation of things the body in natural means requires.

I can't obviously make you change your mind, but I would implore you if you're going to go vegan and stick to it, perhaps backoff just slightly and deal with fairly obtained animal produce (say a diehard veggie as at least that has some common sense to it.) This will get you all you need except if I recall right the Omegas...that you need to eat fish for. If you could bother with fish ever again just an occasional $1 can of basic bumblebee(or whatever one) tuna that's 100% not dolphin kibble would fix that up. Personally I very well minimize red meat and pig as it's not some huge treasure for me, but I do value chicken and fish.
 

WildWon

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Meat is murder.

Tasty, tasty murder.

I enjoy me some meat.
smile.gif

However the lifestyle of the vegan is an impressive one. I wouldn't be able to read all the ingredients to find out if i could/couldn't eat something due to it having meat.

Hats off to those that do though.

SLIGHT TOPIC SHIFT:
I had a friend who was a punk. He was a vegetarian punk. He was a vegetarian punk for 12 years (from about 12-24 years old) because he hated the governments control of the meat industry.

Right or wrong, he stood by his guns and is the epitome of a punk mother-fucker.
 

Beware

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I've been a vegetarian for 6+ years. Two years as a pescetarian and 4 as a strict vegetarian. No gelatin, no fish, no Master Foods products. As far as being a vegan goes, I simply cannot understand it. A cow MUST be milked. A lactating cow that isn't milk is in pain. Chickens ALWAYS lay eggs. A chicken laying an unfertilized is the chicken equivalent of a woman's menstrual cycle. The eggs we eat are not fertilized, therefore no baby chicken is being killed. If the treatment of the animals is an issue, there are farms that only sell eggs from free-range chickens and milk from free-range cows and etc.

As for my vegetarianism, I say, if you can't watch your food get hunted, slaughtered and served to you on a silver platter, you shouldn't eat it at all. And also, "Who the fuck are you to decide what lives and what dies just so you can get fat?" There's a difference between eating meat to survive and just eating it for the Hell of it.
 

granville

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The thing with being a vegan/vegetarian is that you need to enjoy it to truly embrace the lifestyle. This is the case with me. Some people do it for health or to torment themselves. I do it because I love being one (just as much as some people love meat). It's not a torture, but a reward for me.

I really wasn't making fun of anyone here or anything, but I certainly don't agree with the statement that humans are required to eat meat or that it's unnatural to be a vegan. Only the nutrients in meat are required, all of which can be found in plant sources (where'd you think the animals got them?). Our evolution (if you believe in it) as humans reveals that we were once only herbivorous. Humans adapted themselves to accept meat and such. True carnivores have pointed teeth throughout, but humans can go whichever way we choose.

Omega-6 fatty acids can be found in flax seed. Flax works as an amazing egg substitute for baking when it's ground up into a powder and mixed with water. It is ideal as a bonding agent for breads and other such bakery-style foods.

Vitamin B12 is a bit harder to get, but there are many ways to get it vegan nonetheless. Here's a good link to many vegan sources of B12:

http://www.vrg.org/nutrition/b12.htm

Protein of course is found in MANY vegetables that need not be listed.

The reason why i'm a vegan and not just a vegetarian is a health reason, not an animal reason. Eggs are a tremendous source of high cholesterol. Milk causes a bunch of bad effects that the dairy industry fails to mention in all their "Got Milk" ads. The calcium is great as are some of the other things in it, but there are some extremely bad things in it that outweigh the benefits. Here's some info on that:

http://www.rense.com/general67/milk.htm

I choose an all-plant lifestyle because I can get all my nutrition in plant matter WITHOUT the harmful effects that are found in animal produce. How can you be against that? Like I said, I don't have a problem with YOUR lifestyles, so why can't you accept mine? I'm not hurting you nor indeed myself. I just wanted to know if there were any other vegans here.
 

Jack-Of-Trades

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Can't say I am since i like meat...
But i do like a lot of the vegetarian items such as
Vegi Burgers
Soy Milk (godly need to try it)
and some others
 

granville

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You'd definitely be surprised how many veggie products come off equal or better than the things they're trying to substitute. Vegan Boca Burgers taste EXACTLY the same as hamburgers (yes EXACTLY). Rice Dream chocolate rice milk is incredible chocolate milk. Tokurky (I know it's stupid) Thanksgiving feasts are great. There's a frozen dinner brand called Amy's that makes some killer vegan meals (enchiladas rock).

There's really not much of a reason to feel you're being tormented by going vegan anymore. There are some incredible vegan foods out there. I guess it doesn't hurt that I'm a pretty good cook and am good with meals. I'm more qualified to be the parent of my house than my own mother.
 

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