Vegetarianism

[Alg]

The joys of selective quoting!

 

And lets just clarify how this works in the animal kindom.

 

The slug is a vegatarian, does not require packs, does not develop sentience and stays stupid

 

Hyena's travel in packs, will slowly become more intellegant through evolution and have evolved 'better'

 

And the fact that carnivores tend to be mroe intelligent is irrelevant. Humans have reached a point where how we evolve is different that how other animals do. Our evolution is steered by our own society, so being a vegetarians won't make your children stupider.

Hyenas aren't necessarily "better" evolved. They're adapted to hunting herbivores. They travel in packs so that they could kill prey that is more than powerful enough to win a one-on-one fight. Likewise, a well-adapted herbivore has techniques to avoid predators, such as the stripe pattern and herd behavior of zebras (Which I'm pretty sure hyenas prey on).

 

Also, slugs aren't herbivores, they're decomposers (Or detrivores). Some slugs are even carnivores.

[Skull]

Vegetarianism is pretty goddamn ridiculous. Plants are living things just as much as anything else.

They don't have brains :lol:

 

I'm a guilty carnivore. I like the taste of meat, but I really love animals (I even catch bugs and put them outside instead of killing them(Except mosquitoes and some flies)) and feel really weird when my food resembles the animal it comes from. I'll probably eat a lot less meat than I do now once I get to college, I just don't want to put a strain on my family now. I probably won't become a vegetarian though. Certainly not a vegan, I don't want to not have dairy, I think that's just dumb.

[Zierro]

I remember once being told off by a eprson for beign a vegetarian. When I asked him why he cared, as I never asked him to be a vegetarian he said "By being one you're rpessuring us to become them, too."** Now, may I ask why one would feel pressured to become a vegetarian just by me being one? Can people really be that unsure of themselves, and feel that guitly about/ uncomfortable with their dietary choices?

 

He probably assumed you were a moral vegetarian. Got to say, I think you're a rarity. Most vegetarians I met (in real life) do so because it's "the better thing to do" - and in that context, it is sort of like pressuring meat-eaters to stop eating meat.

[Skull]

I've honestly never met a pushy vegetarian/vegan in real life. Plenty online, but all the vegetarians I've met don't even mention it. I didn't even know a pretty good friend of mine was a vegetarian until one of my other friends mentioned it a few months back.

[TTanT]

I remember once being told off by a eprson for beign a vegetarian. When I asked him why he cared, as I never asked him to be a vegetarian he said "By being one you're rpessuring us to become them, too."** Now, may I ask why one would feel pressured to become a vegetarian just by me being one? Can people really be that unsure of themselves, and feel that guitly about/ uncomfortable with their dietary choices?

 

He probably assumed you were a moral vegetarian. Got to say, I think you're a rarity. Most vegetarians I met (in real life) do so because it's "the better thing to do" - and in that context, it is sort of like pressuring meat-eaters to stop eating meat.

A Christian is a Christian because they believe it's "the better thing to do." Yet if you watch a Christian enter a church, you don't call him out for pressuring you to become Christian yourself, do you?

Disliking vegetarians of any type because how they eat "pressures you" is blunt discrimination, in my opinion. Are some of us discrimiantory against everyone else? Yes. Do some black people rob people? Yes. That doesn't mean every member of either category does.

 

I went a bit off-topic there, but I'm enjoying finally having a topic to rant about this in. :oops:

[KittyKat]

I try to be a vegetarian because I care about the environment and my health but I eat meat every once in a while.

[Dupin]

I love animals. I love eating animals.

 

I do not have a problem with vegetarians. I do not have a problem with vegetarians talking to me about vegetarianism. Picky eating can be annoying though.

[Alg]

I love animals. I love eating animals.

 

I do not have a problem with vegetarians. I do not have a problem with vegetarians talking to me about vegetarianism. Picky eating can be annoying though.

You, sir, have the right idea.

[Zierro]

A Christian is a Christian because they believe it's "the better thing to do." Yet if you watch a Christian enter a church, you don't call him out for pressuring you to become Christian yourself, do you?

 

What I meant by "better thing to do" is that not going through with it would be considered immoral or wrong. I should have worded that more carefully. Obviously I take no problem with people doing things because they believe there are good reasons. But when they believe, "I'm going to be a Christian because it's wrong/immoral if I don't," then how do you think a non-Christian would take that?

 

Christianity isn't a good example to use because a lot of times they do [directly] pressure their religion onto people.

 

Are some of us discrimiantory against everyone else? Yes. Do some black people rob people? Yes. That doesn't mean every member of either category does.

 

Oh by no means was I trying to justify it. I was just making an observation on why I think he did that.

[sees_all1]

Animals have the right... to be tasty.

:lol:

[Serpent Eye]

To start a new subtopic; How many days can you last (per week) on a Vegan/Vegetarian diet? No sneak bacon sandwiches, no hotdogs for a snack.

I've been a vegetarian for a little over six years. :thumbup:

 

 

IMO, when a person checks a pack of bloody haribo's to see if there is pork fat in there, this sums up up the 'its dead' reason and you making a stand by not eating these (already bought) haribo's isn't going to do a thing.

As a person who IS picky about what they eat or buy (if I'm buying a new product from the grocery store, I always read the entire list of ingredients -- if it contains any animal fat, powder, broth, etc., I don't buy it) I can comment a little on this point.

 

I am FULLY aware that by not eating meat, huge corporations like McDonald's and Burger King AREN'T going to suffer. The $2.99 I refuse to spend there will just be provided by another customer, and they'll still make billions of dollars a year in sales. It's the principle BEHIND the action that counts: by not buying products that contain meat or animal by-products, by refusing to give money to an industry that I think is harmful, I am taking a stand, and that makes me feel good about myself.

 

 

I've honestly never met a pushy vegetarian/vegan in real life. Plenty online, but all the vegetarians I've met don't even mention it. I didn't even know a pretty good friend of mine was a vegetarian until one of my other friends mentioned it a few months back.

I think a lot of us like to keep quiet about our vegetarianism. I know that if I mention it or bring it up, people are going to want to debate and argue with me, something I'd much rather avoid, so I keep it to myself. It's not that I'm ashamed or anything of my lifestyle, I just like to avoid a debate that I've had a million times before.

 

- - -

 

It also boggles my mind how people find it appropriate or amusing to say things like "MMMM STEAK, STILL BLOODY AND JUICY" to a vegetarian. If you have a problem with vegetarians seemingly having a "holier-than-thou" attitude, try approaching them with a little respect first. :thumbup:

[Assume Nothing]

Animals have the right... to be tasty.

:lol:

 

I agree, but to be a preachy meat-eater is a bit hypocritical if you dislike preachy vegetarians :|

[Assume Nothing]

I try to be a vegetarian because I care about the environment and my health but I eat meat every once in a while.

 

How does caring about the environment relate to being a meat eater? Unless you're referring to the greenhouse gases impact of raising cattle...

 

Implying that eating meat is bad to your health is just plain wrong. Feel free to prove me wrong

[Alg]

I try to be a vegetarian because I care about the environment and my health but I eat meat every once in a while.

 

How does caring about the environment relate to being a meat eater? Unless you're referring to the greenhouse gases impact of raising cattle...

It's been brought up before, but there's the whole thing about the amount of food that the meat eats, which is fairly inefficient in its own way, and that takes a lot of water to grow, which leads to the problems that overuse of water and irrigation have. And there's also that it's impossible to grow that amount of crops without more or less destroying the soil.

 

I am reminded of a Monty Python quote about eating meat though... "If God didn't want us to eat animals he wouldn't have made them out of meat". Not to offend anyone, I just love mixing serious posts with jokes. :razz:

[The Dark Lord]

I don't eat plants or animals because they are living beings. Consuming them for the nourishment of my body and my own personal survival is immoral, so I refrain from devouring them because I'm a hippy.

 

I think I'm slowly starving though.

[Serpent Eye]

Implying that eating meat is bad to your health is just plain wrong. Feel free to prove me wrong

Don't get me wrong, there are tons of vegetarian dishes that aren't strictly healthy for you, but on the whole, meat-eaters tend to consume more unhealthy fats in their diet.

 

There is also the issue of all the unhealthy chemicals, pesticides, and hormones that you (maybe unknowingly) are ingesting into your body when you eat meat. What the cows/chickens/pigs eat, you are essentially eating as well. They pump animals full of hormones to get them to grow as fat and large as possible, in the shortest amount of time possible -- and then you turn around and ingest this all at the dinner table.

 

However, and even though it may be odd to say this, there are times when someone has to eat meat, or risk their health. For example, a mentor of mine used to be a vegetarian and she eventually was later diagnosed with cancer (diagnosis not caused from her being a vegetarian.) In order to keep her body in as healthy a state as possible as she went through chemotherapy, etc., she had to start eating meat again.

[Assume Nothing]

Implying that eating meat is bad to your health is just plain wrong. Feel free to prove me wrong

Don't get me wrong, there are tons of vegetarian dishes that aren't strictly healthy for you, but on the whole, meat-eaters tend to consume more unhealthy fats in their diet.

 

There is also the issue of all the unhealthy chemicals, pesticides, and hormones that you (maybe unknowingly) are ingesting into your body when you eat meat. What the cows/chickens/pigs eat, you are essentially eating as well. They pump animals full of hormones to get them to grow as fat and large as possible, in the shortest amount of time possible -- and then you turn around and ingest this all at the dinner table.

 

However, and even though it may be odd to say this, there are times when someone has to eat meat, or risk their health. For example, a mentor of mine used to be a vegetarian and she eventually was later diagnosed with cancer (diagnosis not caused from her being a vegetarian.) In order to keep her body in as healthy a state as possible as she went through chemotherapy, etc., she had to start eating meat again.

 

Well, to find traces of pesticide on a carrot is hardly worth not eating vegetables. Whilst it's true that certain meat industries would overuse hormones and antibiotics, not everyone does so. It's kind of biased how people would try to imply that these problems don't exist in a vegetarian diet, when in reality, they do.

[Alg]

In both cases that's probably caused by mass production. Hormones in meat production serve more or less the same purpose as pesticides in farming, they make it so that one can get more food out of their crop/animal.

I'm not sure if there is an effect caused by eating meat that has added hormones. It sounds too much like the kind of scare tactic that people have used in the past. Like genetic engineering in plants that will carry over to the humans that eat them.

 

If anyone needs me, I have a comic book to write... :razz:

[Assume Nothing]

In both cases that's probably caused by mass production. Hormones in meat production serve more or less the same purpose as pesticides in farming, they make it so that one can get more food out of their crop/animal.

I'm not sure if there is an effect caused by eating meat that has added hormones. It sounds too much like the kind of scare tactic that people have used in the past. Like genetic engineering in plants that will carry over to the humans that eat them.

 

If anyone needs me, I have a comic book to write... :razz:

 

Well, GM in another field in itself. But mass production on any industry will not be just strawberries and cream, there will be problems that surround health somewhere along the line. For vegetables, it's pesticides, for meat, it's hormones and antibiotics.

 

I think it's fine to have 'meatless Monday's' or whatever, I just don't really see any reason to completely abandon meat related products. Especially Veganism. -shudders at thought-

[Alg]

The funny thing is that all of those problems that everyone wants to get rid of are probably the only thing keeping the system as stable as it is. Those things were all invented for a reason, and the health threats on both sides are probably overstated to a degree.

[Assume Nothing]

Well, I have a pretty strong view on Vegetarianism. I think it's funny how Anti Abortionists are sometimes meat-eaters. A life is a life, no matter if it's animal or man.

[Skeptical]

Being vegetarian is unhealthy.

 

Better than eating fast food? Yes.

 

The industrial food machine commits horrors on such a scale as to not just frighten, but to rend one's mind with the sheer scale of pain and moral obliviousness.

[Kimberly]

Being vegetarian is unhealthy.

 

I don't know how you can say its unhealthy. It's harder to get the protein you need maybe, but it's not impossible. To make an assumption that all vegetarians or omnivores maintain a balanced diet 100% of the time is a leap of faith bound to get you ridiculed for.

[obfuscator]

 

The industrial food machine commits horrors on such a scale as to not just frighten, but to rend one's mind with the sheer scale of pain and moral obliviousness.

 

Ahh, so you don't eat, right?

 

Being vegetarian is not unhealthy in the slightest - like with meat-eating it has its advantages and disadvantages.

[aeternitatis]

 

Meh, after eating meat my whole life I can't see myself switching. I love steak too much, and to be honest I don't put much thought into what the animal went through. I'm sure vegetarianism has health benefits, but I eat anything, so all those benefits + the ones from meats are available to me... personal choice though.