Trying to become vegetarian

[paulskateboards]

From what I am reading your body doesn't need meat and is actually unnatural as our bodies only evolved to accept meat into our diets. Then again I am just reading I don't actually know for sure

[Deleted]

Mmmm think I'll go make myself a bacon and sausage sandwich

Humans have eaten meat for thousands of years, so don't try and tell me that our bodies aren't designed for it.

[Cthulhu 2020]

Some african people have a few words with you..

Don't be so ignorant against the rest of the world, where 80 percent of the people in this world are living under 'Starvation' conditions.

So wait, there being a lot of starving people in the world has what to do with obese Americans/Europeans shoving their gullet full of highly processed meat products? I don't fault anyone who's living below starvation for eating ANYTHING, and if you were implying that, that's your own insinuation. Cows are viable calorie factories when they're eating prairie grass which our human stomachs take one look at and go "wtf is this?" but most beef in the developed world is fed corn and other grains and beans (mostly soy) which could be used for human consumption, since it's faster than raising free range cattle.

Since you're arguing the side of efficiency, we can grow an equal number of calories in grains in a tiny fraction of the time it takes to raise a cow to maturity.

I don't have anything against meat either, I enjoy it on occasion myself, and I used to enjoy it a lot more than I do now, but I decided to cut back when I realized the economic, health, and environmental benefits of eating as little as I could get by with.

[Kasierith]

Mmmm think I'll go make myself a bacon and sausage sandwich

Humans have eaten meat for thousands of years, so don't try and tell me that our bodies aren't designed for it.

Humans have also run around believing that literally the most dead cell type in our body was the essence of life, and that murdering and killing others was not only fine, but an acceptable way of life. I think the main vegetarian argument to this is that humans used to eat meat out of necessity, and the modern world has given us opportunities to circumvent this need.

[Mengucekli]

Except that an egg started out dead, and meat was once alive. You're using a false equivalency to prove a point.

A dead animal is still a dead animal. If you are pointing out that egg is dead from the start thus it is ok to eat it because you wont hurt anything to eat, that is correct.

While i gave that example for it being animal. I have no quarrel about vegeterian people going mental about animals being hurt for food. As i stated earlier in my post, it is totally understandable, but still a mental issue.

If vegeterian people care about animals being hurt, why not eat cows that are being seduced before killed? They dont feel anything, they sleep a sweet dream and end up on your table, no feeling of being cut down? And there are tons for meat providers that use this method, because it is far easier to cut down a cow as big as 1.5 tons while it is feinted, rather than struggling with the massive animal of that size. Problem?

[artemishunter1]

When lots of people change their eating habits, it has an impact, even though it may feel like you're not making a difference. Meat consmuption has actually been in decline in the US. http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com...less-meat-why/

Personally, I think of it like this: I vote with my money, and I don't want to support factory farming and animal abuse.

Sadly, not because of choice but more with economic reasons. Meat has become expansive over the years due to animal rights activists making new rules every year. They know people will not give up meat by choice. So, they force people through making meat more expansive. Sadly that had double edged sword, small time farmers who could actually provide some amount of comfort for the animals went out of business, but large scale corporate farmers simply consolidated those farms.

[Purlina]

just wanted to quote this because people seem to have that misconception about eggs.
most eggs produced for human consumption are not fertilized so they will never become a chicken.

Correct they are not fertilized. (Most of the time)

A chicken egg is the equivilant of a unfertilized human egg.

Kind of gross when you think about it in those terms...

[Cthulhu 2020]

I'm not quite sure what you can do to force yourself to go Vegetarian, I've never tried and I will never do it.

It's very unhealthy to be vegetarian, your body needs meat so I suggest you keep on eating meat and vegs.

The food pyramid lies. All you really need is calories as your body can produce nearly every protein you need to function properly, with the exception of DHA Omegas. Now don't get me wrong, eating a variety of carbs, lipids, proteins, etc is better for you, but you don't have to get your proteins from meat. Meat is actually very low when it comes to overall nutrition. It gives calories in the form of proteins and lipids and will give you a few minerals including the heavy metals that your body needs, but that is all easily gotten from plant sources as well.

[Purlina]

Oh my god, the mental images! I think you meant to say sedated, not seduced

I think the answer was said on the first page, a lot of vegetarians chose to be that way because they disliked the taste/texture/whatnot of meat, and as Everything Nice said, being a vegetarian doesn't make you an animal rights activist.

It doesn't bother me how the animals are killed - I dislike the taste and thus refuse to eat it.


True but it's better than getting a half developed chick when you crack the egg open to make a cake!

Hehe imagine someone cracking open a Balut, when trying to make a cake... :O

[Serraphis]

I did not misunderstand, if you read my previous posts you will see that i agree with you. Of course a person can have his/her choice of food, reason of this being either mental or pysical. I disagree that egg is not animal (LoL even saying that makes me laugh).

I am no expert thus i have no idea about fibre being good or bad for health. I take your word on it. I mentioned digestive system as an argument for consuming meat being more efficient than vegetable (methabolically energywise) for a human. That was all i said.

Lastly, i did not exactly say that. I actually responded to an earlier claim over my post. If we stop making ranches, we will still need more food for people to cover up the portion meat had on people's tables, thus we will need more land for said vegetables. It is only logical that if you remove something from the equation, you need to put something else on the table. I am not sure about your question, but i believe meat (by being a more efficient nutrient, please take calory values into consideration while reading this statement) requires less land than vegetables overall. I cannot give you exact numbers, but i have compared it with a graphical response someone gave me in the topic. You can check the numbers there, and put calory comparison in the picture yourself.

My point about the egg was that it is irrelevant whether or not it is considered an animal/alive/never alive/potentially alive to a vegetarian. Its the act of inhumanity (read: suffering in the form of pain, death, stress etc) that repulse the vegetarian community with regards to consuming meat (for the most part). Seeing as an egg can't experience any of these, its just not an issue.

Regarding your argument that if we remove meat from the table then it needs to be replaced with something else, I understand what you are saying. But if you were to remove meat from the equation what do you think happens to all that space that once was needed for the cattle? Build some veggie farms instead! Some of those areas are not fit to grow some crops sure, but that space could be used to build something that would otherwise be built over fertile land.

Finally with regards to meat being a high calorie food, that's defiantly true. Did you know how ever, that most nuts are also very high in calories (some are also high in protein too incidentally). Macadamia nuts especially. Further more avocados are very high in calories, one avocado has around 320 calories, a 3.8oz steak has something like 330.

The vegetarian world is very diverse

[Mengucekli]

So wait, there being a lot of starving people in the world has what to do with obese Americans/Europeans shoving their gullet full of highly processed meat products? I don't fault anyone who's living below starvation for eating ANYTHING, and if you were implying that, that's your own insinuation. Cows are viable calorie factories when they're eating prairie grass which our human stomachs take one look at and go "wtf is this?" but most beef in the developed world is fed corn and other grains and beans (mostly soy) which could be used for human consumption, since it's faster than raising free range cattle.

Since you're arguing the side of efficiency, we can grow an equal number of calories in grains in a tiny fraction of the time it takes to raise a cow to maturity.

I don't have anything against meat either, I enjoy it on occasion myself, and I used to enjoy it a lot more than I do now, but I decided to cut back when I realized the economic, health, and environmental benefits of eating as little as I could get by with.

As i stated earlier, there are many factors involving in 'efficiency'. Livestock has many uses, fertilisers, leather, bones.. Also i want to point out again to the calory factor. Livestock is continious, while grain and most of the mass produces vegetables are season bound and also highly dependent to weather conditions (a flood, and there goes your food) while livestock is kicking 7/24 365 days. There are some reasons this industry is so big and spread, as you can see. It's like using natural gas to provide electricity, its costly compared to solar power, but far more efficient. There are some situations that you cant wait for the sun to get out of those clouds.

So it would be injustice to state "Most of the developed world (which is %10 of the actual world) is obese and fed up, so lets make a change and stop meat production all over the world.". That was what i was trying to tell, that's all.

[Himora]

Lol.. how do you "TRY" become vegetarian? seriously.. if you enjoy eating flesh then go for it, if not then you wouldnt be "trying".

[paulskateboards]

Thanks! I read the whole website. It seems overwhelming but I think I can do it

[Deleted]

If vegeterian people care about animals being hurt, why not eat cows that are being seduced before killed? They dont feel anything, they sleep a sweet dream and end up on your table, no feeling of being cut down? And there are tons for meat providers that use this method, because it is far easier to cut down a cow as big as 1.5 tons while it is feinted, rather than struggling with the massive animal of that size. Problem?

Sadly, mistakes happen in slaughterhouses. If you have to eat meat, a humane, painless death would be best. But it happens that captive bolt guns miss (not rendering the animals unconscious properly). It's required that most animals be uncoscious as they are bled to death, with the exception of Halal meat. Chickens, however, are not protected by the Humane Slaughter Act in the US, so anything goes there.
Slaughterhouses are far from ideal, and abusing the animals (beating them, shocking them with cattle prods, etc) are a regular occurence. I suggest you watch Earthlings ( http://earthlings.com/ ) or other undercover footages of slaughterhouses. It's not pretty.

[Mengucekli]

And i am sorry for the idiotic 'seduced' statements. Silly of me. I am sorry, i am not native english speaker. Stuff gets mixed up sometimes.

[Serraphis]

If vegeterian people care about animals being hurt, why not eat cows that are being seduced before killed? They dont feel anything, they sleep a sweet dream and end up on your table, no feeling of being cut down? And there are tons for meat providers that use this method, because it is far easier to cut down a cow as big as 1.5 tons while it is feinted, rather than struggling with the massive animal of that size. Problem?

Ever seen a cage chicken farm? Or know much about live exports? Also a lot of 3rd world or..developing countries (by this i mean, not 3rd world but not 1st world either...is 2nd world a term?) simply don't slaughter animals in humane ways, nor do they keep animals humanly before they are slaughtered.

[artemishunter1]

Ok good questions

#1 I'm willing to cook it for him, but he said that he doesn't want me to cook it since it's unpleasant for me. In return, I don't make him cook me mushrooms
#2 sometimes, but it's pretty thoughtful and brushes most of the time
#3 No children, but we were going to start with a meat diet, and educate them about the reasons for vegetarianism, and allow them to make up their minds.

And yes, he cooks his meat separately out of respect for me, but I also put up with annoyances out of respect for him too, so it goes both ways. If you love someone, you respect their moral beliefs. That's pretty basic in my view.

I believe in making your own moral decisions, and not trying to push my own on anyone. I do not want to be that person who tells her husband what to eat. I'll argue my point if questioned, but I try to avoid the vegetarian argument. It gets old, and I'm tired of feeling so defensive to be honest.

A tip, don't mentally scar your children with a video of animal treatment in the meat industry. Let them grow older or else you would be cheating by influencing their free will. At young age, children are all fluff and unicorns and animals are friends stage, if you show them before they become jaded enough to not be affected too much, that will provide understanding of the problem and choice. Don't take free will away from your kids.

[Serraphis]

And i am sorry for the idiotic 'seduced' statements. Silly of me. I am sorry, i am not native english speaker. Stuff gets mixed up sometimes.

You're english is fine . Your points are getting across (though I disagree with them).

[bals]

As i stated earlier, there are many factors involving in 'efficiency'. Livestock has many uses, fertilisers, leather, bones.. Also i want to point out again to the calory factor. Livestock is continious, while grain and most of the mass produces vegetables are season bound and also highly dependent to weather conditions (a flood, and there goes your food) while livestock is kicking 7/24 365 days. There are some reasons this industry is so big and spread, as you can see. It's like using natural gas to provide electricity, its costly compared to solar power, but far more efficient. There are some situations that you cant wait for the sun to get out of those clouds.

you do realize the entire livestock industry is built upon the grain and other plant industries, right?

[Deleted]

Humans have eaten meat for thousands of years, so don't try and tell me that our bodies aren't designed for it.

Scatophagy wants a word with you.

And him too