Vegetarians

Joey · Post by **Joey** » 6/15/2003, 1:29 pm

Is anyone Vegan or Vegetarian here and have any tips for someone very interested in becoming a vegetarian?

8-)

Axtech · Post by **Axtech** » 6/15/2003, 1:30 pm

Quick question... Are you in it because you don't like meat, or because of the animals?

Joey · Post by **Joey** » 6/15/2003, 1:32 pm

Why does that matter?

Axtech · Post by **Axtech** » 6/15/2003, 1:37 pm

Just curious.

superboots · Post by **superboots** » 6/15/2003, 1:38 pm

i want to become a vegetarian, because 1. i really don't like meat, 2. I don't think meat is very healthy, and 3. because when i think about it, eating the muscle of dead animals just sounds completely gross.

but it's really hard, because being a vegetarian is expensive.

and the only meat i really like are chicken nuggets...and i just can't let that go. grr.

Axtech · Post by **Axtech** » 6/15/2003, 1:39 pm

You don't have to have the title "vegitarian". Just eat what you want. If you don't like meat, don't eat it. If you still like McNuggets, chow down.

Joey · Post by **Joey** » 6/15/2003, 1:39 pm

Oh I like meat .. but I watched a video that disgusted me to no end and scarred me for life .. so I'm very interested in becoming a vegetarian .. so it's for the animals

superboots · Post by **superboots** » 6/15/2003, 1:41 pm

Axtech wrote:You don't have to have the title "vegitarian". Just eat what you want. If you don't like meat, don't eat it. If you still like McNuggets, chow down.

that's what i do
but i would like to give up the chicken nuggets.

sandsleeper · Post by **sandsleeper** » 6/15/2003, 2:01 pm

< life long ovo-lacto vegetarian.

not many hints to give. just give it up and buy some veggie burgers if you wanna. of course you have to eat semi-healthily but that doesn't necessarily entail gourmet veggie platters or anything.

and it's not necessarily expensive either. i find that being a vegetarian is actually cheaper most of the time. usually stuff with meat on it is more expensive than stuff with no meat.

hell, you don't even need the veggie burgers or tofu or any of that. i don't eat it regularly. there really is tons of stuff you can eat being a vegetarian. i couldn't list it because there's tons.

Joey · Post by **Joey** » 6/15/2003, 2:03 pm

For me, I don't think giving up meat will be that hard .. milk and cheese may be hard for me .. I've tried soy milk and don't like it and I love cheese .. I know you can get soy cheeses and soy sour cream though .. so I can do it but that's probably gonna be the hardest for me.

sandsleeper · Post by **sandsleeper** » 6/15/2003, 2:05 pm

you want to go vegan?

Soozy · Post by **Soozy** » 6/15/2003, 2:06 pm

I've been veggie since I was about 13 or 14. I don't like the taste of meat any more, but my friends do so they buy this fake meat stuff that's made out of tofu or mushrooms or something and is meant to taste like meat. If you're havign problems going veggie that might be a good way to start. Then go out and buy some veggie cook books

And I don't undestand why you're saying that being veggie's expensive Bethany - it's definitely much cheaper over here - meat's expensive.

nelison · Post by **nelison** » 6/15/2003, 2:07 pm

umm... so you want to be a vegan? or vegetarian? cause I think it may be extremely difficult for someone to go vegan right away. I think milk and cheese are fine. I admit that the machines they use for cows aren't always the most humane contraptions, but their milk still needs to be drained, unless I've been horribly educated about cows which is a possibility

sandsleeper · Post by **sandsleeper** » 6/15/2003, 2:08 pm

but yeah you don't have to give up dairy products to go vegetarian. there are different types of vegetarianism. i'm pretty sure veganism is the only one that also excludes dairy products.

Axtech · Post by **Axtech** » 6/15/2003, 2:10 pm

Once again, what's with the titles? Of course you don't have to give up certain things to be something. Just be yourself and eat what you want to eat. If you find it hard to give up some foods, either don't give them up, or find some supliments for them.

Joey · Post by **Joey** » 6/15/2003, 2:11 pm

Heh ... there's way more to it then just simply draining their milk. What’s wrong with drinking milk? Don’t dairy cows need to be milked?

In order for a cow to produce milk, she must have a calf. "Dairy" cows are impregnated every year in order to keep up a steady supply of milk. In the natural order of things, the cow’s calf would drink her milk (eliminating her need to be milked by humans). But dairy cows’ babies are taken away within a day or two of birth so that humans can have the milk that nature intended for their calves. Female dairy calves may be slaughtered immediately or raised to be future dairy cows. Male dairy calves are confined for 16 weeks to tiny veal crates too small for them even to turn around in so that their flesh, sold as veal, will be atrophied and nonmuscular. Then these weak, 4-month-old youngsters are sent to the slaughterhouse.

The current high demand for dairy products requires that cows be pushed far beyond their natural physical limits, genetically engineered and fed growth hormones in order to produce huge quantities of milk. Even the few farmers who choose not to raise animals intensively must both eliminate the calf (who would otherwise drink the milk) and send the mother to an early death when her milk production wanes.

Why shouldn’t people drink milk and eat dairy products? Cows don’t need to be killed to produce milk, right?

At least 5 million cows raised for milk in the United States live on factory farms under conditions that cause them tremendous suffering. They do not graze contentedly in fields; they live in cramped, concrete-floored milking pens where they are milked by machines that often cause cuts and injuries that would not occur if people did the milking.

In addition, while many consumers have heard about the cruelty of the veal industry, most people don’t know that the dairy and veal industries are inextricably linked. Cows, like humans, only give milk after they’ve had a baby. Thus, in the eyes of the farmer, the cows’ offspring are simply a byproduct of this milk-production cycle. Perhaps the greatest pain suffered by cows in the dairy industry is the repeated loss of their young, which is quite traumatic to these extremely maternal animals. Female calves may join the ranks of the milk producers, but the males are generally taken from their mothers within 24 hours of birth and sold at auction either for the notorious veal industry or to beef producers.

Within 60 days, the cow will be impregnated again. For about seven months of her next nine-month pregnancy, the cow will continue to be milked for the fluid meant for her older calf—and this cycle is repeated until her milk production wanes, at which time she is sent to slaughter, most likely to be ground up into fast-food burgers. Calves will continue to suffer as long as there is a market for dairy products

nelison · Post by **nelison** » 6/15/2003, 2:13 pm

well then...

Joey · Post by **Joey** » 6/15/2003, 2:17 pm

Axtech wrote:Once again, what's with the titles? Of course you don't have to give up certain things to be something. Just be yourself and eat what you want to eat. If you find it hard to give up some foods, either don't give them up, or find some supliments for them.

Of course it's going to be hard to give up certain foods/things, but just because something is hard or requires a bit more effort, I'm not just gonna give up on it and "eat what I want." Especially not something that's important to me. A little hard work is worth it.

sandsleeper · Post by **sandsleeper** » 6/15/2003, 2:29 pm

see the reasons for my vegetarianism are: 1, i was raised that way 2. the idea of eating carcass disgusts me 3. we've gotten to the point where taking lives for a meal has become just another aspect of mass production. life is worth more than that to me.

happening fish · Post by **happening fish** » 6/15/2003, 3:53 pm

i dunno... if you eat no meat then you eat more grains and such, and a huge number of small animals are killed in the process of wheat harvesting. also, i don't understand where you could get a reliable source of protein, especially if you don't like tofu. I just think people are meant to eat meat, otherwise we wouldn't, and that although you think you are helping little animals by not eating meat, you are just really switching to the killling of OTHER little animals. Murder is the way of nature. Humans are the only animals who have a conscience, and if you ask me, we're the only ones that need one, since we do most of the unnecessarily cruel things on this earth. But my point remains... in order to eat anything, including plants, you are killing something. It's simply the way things work.

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Vegetarians

Vegetarians