Vegetarianism: Do you care?

[makesawkwardfaces]

If you are (a vegan/ vegetarian) please tell me why :)

If you aren't please tell me why :)

I want to save the planet with my non meat ness

Screw that I like the piggys/cows/birds that belong in my TUMMY

I just don't like meat (it's gross/gorey/sick)

I support the people who do it but am not one myself

[bitesizedonut]

I originally became a vegetarian as a new years resolution... just sort of a personal challenge, then I started to read some books on vegetarianism to learn how to meet my nutritional needs without animal product. These books had information on why one would become a vegetarian, and I sympathized with some of them. It's hard to know where your meat comes from unless it is "organic" and even then it doesn't always mean anything. I like to know where it comes from and how it was raised, if that makes sense. In any case, that was a factor (some cows are pumped with steroid and antibiotic cocktails to help them grow bigger faster, better, stronger *breaks into song* and I just don't think that seems all that healthy to me... not for the cows or us... and some animals are just kept in unsanitary and really cruel living conditions. It's one thing to go out and hunt your food and prepare it, but another to grow them and farm them like they weren't a living creature... I also read that the stress some animals suffer releases chemicals that actually downgrade meat... so lots of those sorts of reasons I sympathized with). After four years I was diagnosed with anemia and told that I needed to start eating meat again... it was hard at first, and really for the most part I find meat to be rather repulsive. About the only meat I can tolerate is fish (cooked or uncooked). Eventually I want to try going back to being a vegetarian again, but right now I don't have the time or money to invest in that lifestyle right now. While being a vegetarian makes for inexpensive eating out, to eat in requires a lot of money for fresh food and a lot of time for preparation if you don't want to chug protein drinks and eat peanut butter and a couple cups of cottage cheese.

I don't judge others for eating or not eating meat. In the end, like most things, it is all about personal preference... I think it is a personal decision and can't be made for other people. Different people have different nutritional needs, different moral sets, and different ideas on the role food plays in their lives. So long as they remain healthy, I typically don't say anything about a person's eating habits.

[Splash13]

I'm a vegetarian because of the greenhouse issues associated with eating meat, one vegetarian can live off a 10th of the land an omnivorous person does. I also feel it helps me remain healthier as a lot of the worst foods for you contain meat. In addition it also makes you feel better as meat is more difficult for your stomach to digest. I personally love the taste of meat and before I became vegetarian I was an absolute carnivore but now I find that even though I crave it occaisionally I don't really need it anymore, infact it makes me sick if I have too much (I break my vegetarianism for Christmas dinner every year). I've also found that since becoming vegetarian (3yrs ago) I have been more adventurous with my food choices and have begun to try a wide variety of things I wouldn't have tried before. People say people who become vegetarian have iron deficiencies and I can confirm that that is false in almost all cases, you only become iron deficient if you were already lacking in iron before you became vegetarian. It also will not affect you if you are particuarly athletic. I trained for state swimming whilst maintaining a vegetarian diet and I have to say it did not affect my performance at all (3yr in the finals, my best year ever!). Finally I'd just like to dispell one last myth, vegetarians do not eat only tofu, lentils and vegetables. There are plent more things out there (ever heard of eggs before?) than lettice, I personally hate the stuff. There are also suedo meat products out there made from nuts and vegetable gums that taste just like the real stuff, the vegetarian bacon and the mince are particularly good.

[Snorkledorf]

I have tendencies in that direction. That is, given a choice between food with meat and food without, I'll almost always choose without. But if someone invites me to some meat-based meal like a barbeque, I'll happily accept. For me, meat is a strange combination: "Feels yucky (in that I'm gnawing on the corpse of some dead critter) but generally tastes good."

An important factor to me is that although I can feel myself getting grossed out if I imaging eating various meat-based dishes (mmm, haggis! :) but the whole gross-out reflex simply never comes up if it's a vegetarian dish. No matter how you mix it or what weird ingredients you choose, they're all just plants. There's nothing to feel yucky about, so if I know it's vegetarian or vegan I can just dive into anything with impunity without asking further. Very freeing!

And when I cook, I don't use meat at all. Having dead chicken muscle tissue moistly flopping around in my frying pan somehow disables my appetite... It's like, "Mmm, bet there are some tasty lymph nodes in there!" :D

Basically if all meat somehow disappeared from the world today, although I'd have periodic cravings for e.g. spare ribs (but mostly the BBQ sauce) or KFC (but mostly the spices), I'd be pretty much adjusted within a month or two.

So I'll vote C? With a touch of D.

[iknowstuff]

vegetarians are attention seeking douche bags. no one in their right mind would actually think meat doesn't taste delicious, there are so many kinds of meat. people don't want to save the planet and animals they just want to make themselves stand out as a unique individual. it's called the food chain, animals eat animals, it's how this world works. people need to get over it. have you ever noticed that most vegetarians are like hipsters and indie kids. I'll tell you why, because their friends are vegetarians and they are just doing it as the new fad, just like straight edge and all that bullsh*t. "i'm original" no their not, if they were original they wouldn't all dress the same, act the same, have the same beliefs. they hate on preps and jocks but at the end of the day, at least the preps and the jocks KNOW they are all the same. they aren't nearly as oblivious. I like to stay neutral and not waste my time trying to "find myself" cause at the end of the day no one cares and you're a lot harder to make fun of if you're not an idiot.

[bersaba]

I have a problem with what I consider the underlying hypocrisy of vegetarians / vegans (at least, those that do it for morals).

Case and point, I have a friend who doesn't eat chicken/beef/eggs/pork etc (he does still eat fish) because it's cruel to the animals. He says "look at battery hens, it's cruel. Look how they treat the cattle."

The problem (hypocrisy) is two fold. Firstly, he doesn't look at the source of his food. He'll watch an expose doco on the "worst battery farm" then judge all farmers alike. Or he'll hear about a farm keeping the cattle in confined conditions and then won't eat beef.

I, however, did things different. I went to the abattoir. I was curious to see how they were killed, how they were treated before hand, and so on. After seeing the abattoir that supplies the meat to the butcher I buy from, I have no concerns about the ethical nature of the kills.

Now, of course, you could then argue that the killing itself is not ethical. But the return arguement to that is, what about insects? More animals die to create a bowl of weetbix then a piece of steak. Instead of it being one cow, it's a host of insects. But a cow has big brown eyes, right?

Even if you take food out of the equation, you're still left with the ethical debate on clothing choices, industry as a whole, and so on and so forth.

At the end of the day, it comes down to what you can sleep with. As long as I don't get a lecture about my steak, I don't care if they want to eat a lettuce sandwich.

[Anonymous]

I was a vegetarian for around 4 years because I thought meat was disgusting and I actually couldn't physically eat it, I would get sick if I did.

I was never preachy about it and honestly I could care less if the people around me ate meat, it was a personal choice and I wasn't going to force it on anyone else.

Although I will admit that if you don't do it right being a Vegetarian is terrible for your body. At the time I was struggling to overcome an eating disorder so I would hardly eat and I didn't take any vitamin supplements. In the long run I didn't get proper nutrition my body needed and I became severely anemic. On top of that my body had a terrible reaction to the pills and injections they were giving me to help with the anemia. I was pretty much told that I could deal with the pain and the reactions caused by the pills and injections or could I go back to eating meat.

I did start eating meat again but only white meats like chicken and fish since my body can't handle things like pork and beef. I'm feeling a lot better now.

Even though I had a rough go the first time around I'm going to try being a vegetarian again but this time I'm going to do it properly.

[Anonymous]

I watched a video called 'Meet Your Meat'. Didn't really phase me. It's not like if you chose not to eat a meat product that is served to you, it will come back to life. You chose to throw it away, the animal was killed for no reason & you are hurting your own cause. And most vegetarians still have eggs & milk or wear leather but it doesn't make much of a difference if you ate meat or not. Animal would still be killed. A big reason I am not vegetarian is probably because the PETA is not really a good orginization-they have violent/bullsh*t ways of advertising and they kill about 97% percent of the animals they "save". Humans are meant to eat animals, that why we have molars. And animals are meant for human survival, just like if we were alone in a desert we might have to resort to eating a foot or something. We can't get the whole world to stop killing animals-sorry, but it will never happen. They would be killed for other means. Eating meat doesn't make me a cruel person, it just makes me a normal person.

[JackOslan]

Wow. Meat Your Meat is essentially the video that got me started seriously into becoming a vegetarian. I think you're totally missing the point. The point isn't that by not eating meat you'll stop animals from being killed. The point is that a ridiculously large percentage of meat in this country is harvested through unspeakably cruel methods under disgusting conditions. So even if I can't change things by myself, the least I can do is not take part in what I consider to be highly immoral.

[Opinion Owner]

Well good for you, but bad things happen to animals, and humans. It may inhumane, but they are only showing you what they want you to see. Not every animal is killed like that.

[t-a-l]

Or your just a stupid person...

[Opinion Owner]

Don't call me stupid just because I eat like a person should. I knew I would get crap from you vegetarians. Eating doesn't make me stupid. What makes you stupid is worrying about the life choices I make & just worry about your own.

[gotc147]

There is this thing called a food chain, and humans are pretty high on it.

There are other animals out there that will eat us without a second thought, they don't care about our rights, they eat us alive, tear us apart limb by limb while we're still breathing and feel every agnoizing minute. At least when we humans eat a cow or a pig we kill it quickly and painlessly.

The food chain is there for a reason, meat is an essential part of a diet like vegitables and fruit. I'm all for animal abusers getting what they deserve but eating them is not abuse, it's the way it goes.

[WeaponZero]

Human beings are, by nature, omnivores. We need nutrients that you can only get the proper balance/amount of by eating foods from all the different food groups. The proof is in our teeth as they combine characteristics of purely herbivore animals and purely carnivore animals.

As someone who is trying to lose weight and build muscle, I need to eat a low carbohydrate/high protein diet. The only way to achieve this is to eat lots of lean meats (such as fish and chicken breasts) and very little of anything else.

The fact that people who choose to eat vegetarian/vegan diets have to eat lots of vitamin supplements to give them the nutrients they're missing out on by not eating meat is enough information for me.

Besides, very few things are a bigger turnoff on a first date than taking the girl to a restaurant and watching her eat only the appetizer salad and be full after that.

[DeadKennedy]

Ya know what Ill be honest...I don't exactly enjoy eating the felsh of another conscious living being, and I kno dairy farms and the the meat industry are horrednous operations, But I've jsut been eating emat all my life, and I just feel like It would be too much to readjust my diet, not to mention dealing with family dinners etc...So basically I'm just too alzy but I've got a lot on my palte rite now, I know it sounds cruel to animals but I just am trying my best to work my life out and don't ahve time to concern myself about it...I respect those that do tho...

[Standingpretty]

I am not, because I see it this way: The animals are going to die wether or not I am a vegan because there will always be people who eat meat,. The animal is going to die either way, it's just going to be eaten by someone else if I don't eat it. Secondly, I do it to show respect for the animal, that animal died for a reason and by eating it you are honoring the fact that it died to keep you alive. I see it the way native americans do, if you kill an animal, you use every part of it and don't waste it.

[rdabby]

Am a vegetarian, soon to become a vegan hopefully, in the up coming years..

Why? I have my own religious views, my thoery and my dislikes.

because of so many reasons, which are:

i don't have to kill souls so I can eat., I don't like to eat something that has a head. I don't like to eat anything that has blood or a soul. I don't like to eat things that used to move.

its just unhuman to kill souls to eat when you can eat other stuff inorder to live, life isn't just about pleasure of your own. that's what I think.

I believe in reincarnation as well, I wonder what if I was a cow or a rabbit, would I want to be eaten?

even though am still a vegetarian but whenever I eat eggs, I start thinking of baby dead chicks and how great they must have been, if I haven't eaten them. which is weird but I think its something mental.

Plus I really hate the taste/ texture of meat whatsoever, its just too... Dead!

and most of all, am a vegetarian because I care about my health.

[blufrenzy93]

im not a veggie or a vegan,

although my mom is and tries to force me and my brother to live her lifestyle.

i like meat. I love animals.

i don't like how they are processed in this country.

i do think we need to have some kind of meat in our diets,

but the way animals are treated [ injections, cruelty, etc.] are horrible.

and the only reason is: more meat, more money.

now I won't eat full blown steak, or pork simply because they don't taste right,

but if its chicken, fish, or ground beef, then I'll eat it.

[Zenadox]

I have been a lacto-ovo vegetarian my entire life. never eaten meat and never want to. I personally don't think that animals should have to die just so that I can eat something that I don't really need. Vegetarians prove that you don't need meat to live and more people should recognize that. animals like cows have been mutated with so many toxins that people put in them to make then bigger or more meaty that they are no longer natural creatures and I just find that wrong. it's bad enough eating an animal but eating an animal along with steroids and other nasty toxins is just plain disgusting. people don't often agree with my ways of thinking but if you do or don't please let me know why.

[PatrickRory]

i think meat tastes really good. its satisfying and is a great source of protein which your body tissue and organs are majorly composed of. being a vegetarian is not unhealthy whoever said that, and vegetarian/vegan meals taste amazing as well...i just personally wouldn't choose that lifestyle. there is something to eating a steak that is fulfulling in a way.

oh by the way I think its hallarious how all the guys who posted are not vegetarians while all the girls who posted are...weird gender difference

[shf84]

I actually like fruit and vegetables and have to remind my self to eat enough protean. When I gave up junk food, vegetable products became like my new junk food and I suffered form anxiety at times which went away when I upped my protein intake. I am not a "vegan" because I also like meat but more than that I find the movement disgusting. The self righteous garbage these people spew about meat , leather, and fur makes me sick, I could punch them in the face. Animals are animals they are not sentient and the idea that they are little people in fur coats is not only silly it's shocking. I wonder what would go through a "vegan's" head if he fell and broke something on a hike, couldn't move and a coyote or one of those wonderful majestic wolves their always talking about started eating his asshole out while he was still alive.

I am meat, leather and fur positive, any one who thinks I'm scum for that can kiss my ass, your my enemy to.

[A_Guy]

I like meat, so I eat it. I also know how healthy meat is for you, which is another reason I eat it. In order to make up for the nutrients that are in meat if you do not eat meat, you have to go through a lot of work. Also I feel that its science that proves why we should eat meat. I by no means am against creating better environments for cattle/chickens/pigs/etc that we raise to eat, I actually am totally for that, I feel that it is our responsibility as meat eaters to find better ways to raise these animals in more humane ways.

[Anonymous]

I chose D. I'm a very picky eater, and the meat substitutes out there don't cut it for me. I have my moments when I find meat completely disgusting, mostly because of the hormones and other extra stuff that probably went into preparing it for packaging. But on the other end I really do like my bacon for breakfast and my grilled chicken sandwiches. I've tried it a couple of times, but it's hard for me to enjoy the alternatives. So I've settled with cutting down my meat intake. For example, I only have bacon once in awhile. And when I eat a sub I never put any meat in it and would choose a regular salad over one with meat in it.

[And-Once-I-Was-Human]

i am not a vegetarian because I do enjoy eating steaks and the like and I have nothing against people who are vegetarians/vegans... unless they're the annoying type trying to push their way of thinking on others (which goes for anyone who does that kind of thing)

[tongakid]

I am not a vegetarian. And that's by condition and by choice. I like meat. Carnivorism isn't any more uncommon than herbavorism as far as the animal kingdom goes.

I've been thankful to never have that ideological debate of vegetarians/vegans tend to arm themselves (well, many do anyways).

Like everything else, I really detest having someone's viewpoint imposed upon me since I would never do it. So all power to you all who are vegetarians and all power to those who aren't.

[t-a-l]

I'm a vegan, have been for years,

healthy as a whistle,

anyone who challenges the ability to meet ones full nutritional requirements with such a diet,

I invite you to enter the bright-shiny world I know as Vega.

I voted A, what's with being so modest about the sustainability of our lifestyles?

[flukedflautist]

I'm a vegetarian, but not for the reasons that a lot of people are; I simply don't like the texture of meat (weird, right?). Personally, I believe that some animals were meant to provide sustenance, therefore it is ok for them to be eaten. But hey, that's just me.

[vocalheiress]

over the years I have slowly stopeed eating certain types of meat. at one point I ate averything, and now I have cut off veal, rabbit and (almost!) pork. it takes a lot to become a vegan/vegetarian and I repect those that have achieved the life style. besides I totally <3 animals and feel bad sometimes lol =)

[gymnastdontneedballs]

i don't eat meat for multiple reasons

I think its disgusting that I am eating something that was once alive and is now dead sitting on a plate its terrible!

Also I love animals and literally can't eat them

honestly I'm not trying to save the world because no matter what people are going to eat meat and I can't stop it and I'm not trying. I just feel I can't eat animals its gross!