Vegans /vegetarians

The Fear

The Fear

A Wise Man (once sat next to him)
Just an aside thread really after people touched on it in the nutrition thread.

Just wondered what made you turn away from meats and/or fish based diets and become a vegetarian or vegan.

Vegan especially fascinates me, unless it was a demand of my body health wise, I'd not WANT to do either.
 
Turned Veggie 23 yrs ago when I was 20. Me and the wife did it the same time.

I did it for ethical reasons. I was into the Smiths, when I was 15 I watched the South Bank Show special and saw a clip of the video to Meat is Murder. I thought it was the most distressing thing I had ever seen (watch it on YouTube and you will feel the same !). Then met my wife who couldn't eat chicken as it made her ill. At 21, every time she ate meat she became ill so she asked me did I still want to go Veggie. I said yes and that was Oct. 6th 1991. We emptied the fridge / freezer, took it all to the in-laws and that was that.

We brought our kids up to eat meat, my daughter turned veggie of her own accord about 6 yrs ago, my son still eats meat (in fact he eats anything, he eats snails / frogs legs - if it is edible, he will shove it in his mouth).

Do I miss it - yes , still to this day, thats who I never preach it. I miss lamb especially, and I am at my weakest on holiday as I would love to try the local food, but would I ever lapse, I would very much doubt it.

Seriously, whether you are veggie or a total carnivor, watch the meat is murder video. I would very much hope abatoirs are different now-a-days.

 
Have to say I'm surprised you brought your children up 'differently'. What was the thinking there?

And surprised in an impressed way btw, let them decide not have it imposed seems a very reasonable and mature attitude.

Lamb is my least favourite, very rich and am not keen on the smell when I've cooked it. Cooked pink in a good restaurant mind you...!
 
Turned veggie about 20 yrs ago, prior to that I used to love meat especially steak and beef. What made me become one was I used to catch the bus to work outside a butchers and used to see the carcasses delivered and smell them boiling hams or whatever it was. There's nothing more rank than the smell of boiling meat, and seeing my food no longer as one of the items on my plate, but hanging in the back of a van as a dead carcass repulsed me when I actually thought about it. The longer I've been veggie, the more compassion I've had towards animals of all kinds, and the more I respect theIr right to life, and the more disgusted I am with the way humans treat them

I don't miss meat, but then again I cook meat type meals with substitutes. Today I had kebab meat and salad (Sainsburys veggie burgers sliced thin, mint sauce etc as good as the real thing,), Quorn chunks are an excellent replacement for chicken etc......... But like an idiot I looked into the egg and dairy industry and that's even more cruel to the animals than the meat industry, so now I'm getting closer and closer to vegan. Milk is easily replaced by almond milk, soya and other alternatives, I've cut out almost all cheese apart from the odd lapse for Halloumi or Paneer, but it's things like chocolate and quorn, vege burgers etc that are going to be hard to replace.
I think Juan is vegan, and I'd be interested to know from any other vegans what kind of dishes they make as for me, cutting out meat limits the variety of meals you can have, but from that position once you cut out all ingredients with egg and milk, then not only do your options reduce a lot further, but to make anything half decent you have to put in a lot more effort.
 
I remember Paul McCartney saying in an interview they were stigma a lamb Sunday dinner, looked out their window at the lambs frolicking about in the field and that was that.

For me, the animals wouldn't be bred unless we were consuming them, however I agree the push for cheap meat has led to all sorts of horrors.
 
..... As per Holtelower, my step daughter eats meat as does my cat which does open up moral issues, but I personally no longer buy leather shoes, belts or any by product of the meat industry, (gutted about the shoes).
 
That is another thing I can't get, those who won't eat meat but use leather, to me you use as much of an animal as is possible IF they animal has to be slaughtered.

 
Other than the top quality stuff, leather is in such a surpluss that large quantities of animal hyde are destroyed before the tanning process. It's a bi-product of the meat industry and if not used in cloathing, etc, it is destroyed. Obviously this does not apply to all types of leather but standard cattle hyde leather.

As a veggie I look at the waste and think that I will use a bi-product but never a product where the animal is killed specifically for the product. As a moral issue I liken it to ivory products, I would never accept a modern ivory product but I would have no problems buying an antique piano with ivory lamminated keys (I'd have a problem playing one mind) Leather shoes? No problem but snake skin shoes? No way!

Perhaps some see it as me just justifying what I want to do but it makes sense to me.

 
Interestingly I am a veggie for ethical reasons, farming methods etc but I'm no real animal lover, not had any pets since I was a kid and not really interested in having any. I actually don't have a problem with eating meat from certain sources, wild game for example. I don't eat it but have tried reindeer meat......it was crap!
 
Great thread..I have 2 questions to all the vegetarians.

1. Do you eat fish or eggs?
2. Does the killing of plants also bother you?
 
Hopefully the second question will be ignored as ridiculous and we can keep this thread at least half sensible.
 
LOL GT post has just reminded me of a picture going round FB last year I think it was. I will try and find it and post it up here, if I do.

Me! Yeah I eat meat. Favorite is lamb. I could give up meat, if I chose to, had too, though I would struggle over lamb. Fish I would struggle to give up.

I love fruit, salad & veg anyway so it wouldn't be as hard for me as others. Don't plan on giving it up anyway so no matter
 
Yeah it will seem ridiculous, maybe im too far ahead. Sometimes I have pinch myself and realise im only in the year 2014. You see in the future I guess we will understand that all life forms wont be classed as weaker/stronger or higher/lower - we just understand that life is life and should be respected as such.

Everything is trying to survive and breed! But I understand if you want to judge and classify.

However my original question still stands(as certain branches of Buddhists would understand). As a vegetarian do you feel bothered about the plants dying? (based that you stopped eating meat for ethical reasons).
 
kefkat - 28/6/2014 23:31

LOL GT post has just reminded me of a picture going round FB last year I think it was. I will try and find it and post it up here, if I do.

Me! Yeah I eat meat. Favorite is lamb. I could give up meat, if I chose to, had too, though I would struggle over lamb. Fish I would struggle to give up.

I love fruit, salad & veg anyway so it wouldn't be as hard for me as others. Don't plan on giving it up anyway so no matter
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My wife bought one of those herb plants for cooking(the ones in the plant pot). She cut all the herb off it and then threw ii in the bin. I picked it out and put it on the window sill and its still alive. What's going on? Why are plants getting such a raw deal, do you realise how intelligent plants are? Some of their design is better than animals - did you know humans took the design from the sycamore to make helicopters(we ourselves even called our 1st helicopter "the sycamore")..Plants have amazing intelligence NEVER throw them away or abuse them.
 
Stupid as it sounds, scientists have discovered that plants communicate with each other over long distances. Type into Google 'plants communicating with each other'. But I'll drive myself mad if I start thinking about plants in the same way, and as I'm doing a lot of gardening at the moment my conscience will be going into overdrive.
 
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