Are You a Vegetarian? | Poll & Discussion

[micromass]

Are you a vegetarian??

Hello all!

I'm posting this topic because I had a very interesting discussion with ArcanaNoir last week on the subject. We had a discussion on why people eat meat and if we really need it. This caused me to wonder if there are many vegetarians or so on PF. So that's why I'm posting the poll. I hope at the same time that we could get an interesting discussion on the subject.

So, if anybody has remarks, stories or criticism: bring it on

 

[Evo]

I do eat meat, but I mostly eat vegetables. Until a few years ago, I only ate red meat maybe 2-3 times a year. Since I started having problems after my stomach surgery a few years ago, I have increased my red meat consumption to at least once a week. I find it makes me feel better. I guess I need the natural nutrients.

Emotionally, I could not eat any animal if I had to kill it.

 

[turbo]

I need to eat meat. Chicken, fish, pork, beef... I love fruits and vegetables, but can't imagine subsisting on them.

 

[turbo]

Emotionally, I could not eat any animal if I had to kill it.

Grow up in a family that hunts/raises animals for slaughter, and that objection could go away pretty quickly. The worst debacle was when my uncle let his kids name a pair of piglets "Romeo and Juliet". Not his shining moment.

 

[Evo]

Grow up in a family that hunts/raises animals for slaughter, and that objection could go away pretty quickly. The worst debacle was when my uncle let his kids name a pair of piglets "Romeo and Juliet". Not his shining moment.

I mentally distanced myself from eating meat as soon as I knew what it was. As long as it came in styrofoam trays and covered in plastic wrap, it wasn't real.

 

[turbo]

I mentally distanced myself from eating meat as soon as I knew what it was. As long as it came in styrofoam trays and covered in plastic wrap, it wasn't real.

Holy cow! As a kid, I helped slaughter and prepare livestock, and butcher and pack game. My parents grew up during the depression and we couldn't afford to be too "delicate" about the treatment of animals. Luckily, we had relatives who had working farms and were willing to let my folks share the costs of buying and feeding critters, so we could share in the meat. Fall was when our freezer got stocked for the next year.

Lugging dish-pans full of pig intestines, scraps, blood, etc to the farmhouse for the women to process kind of brought stuff home. Not a lot of (actually none!) styrofoam and shrink-wrap on the farms. It sure was nice to have sausages, bacon, chops, etc for the winter and spring.

My father was a pretty dedicated poacher, too, when I was a kid. We would have meals of roasts, steaks, etc, that were all moose-meat back when moose were protected here. He never told me until he figured I was old enough to keep a secret.

 

[Evo]

Holy cow! As a kid, I helped slaughter and prepare livestock, and butcher and pack game. My parents grew up during the depression and we couldn't afford to be too "delicate" about the treatment of animals. Luckily, we had relatives who had working farms and were willing to let my folks share the costs of buying and feeding critters, so we could share in the meat. Fall was when our freezer got stocked for the next year.

Lugging dish-pans full of pig intestines, scraps, blood, etc to the farmhouse for the women to process kind of brought stuff home. Not a lot of (actually none!) styrofoam and shrink-wrap on the farms. It sure was nice to have sausages, bacon, chops, etc for the winter and spring.

My father was a pretty dedicated poacher, too, when I was a kid. We would have meals of roasts, steaks, etc, that were all moose-meat back when moose were protected here. He never told me until he figured I was old enough to keep a secret.

You have to admit, that's not the experience of the majority of children.

 

[rootX]

Holy cow! As a kid, I helped slaughter and prepare livestock, and butcher and pack game.

My parents didn't let me do those things but I would see people slaughter livestock .. so the reason I was a vegetarian at that age.

 

[Proton Soup]

i am a committed omnivore. i think it is a nutritional necessity backed by science. and i consider subjecting children and women of childbearing age to such practices as veganism is a crime.

i wish i'd had more of a farm education like turbo, but all i ever got to do was clean fish. but maybe one of these days i'll get into hunting a bit. I've got a bit of fetish for things like primitive archery and other things most of us have forgotten.

 

[Adyssa]

I eat meat, maybe two or three times a week, and vegetarian otherwise. I'm not vegetarian, but meat is expensive and I like vegetables, especially in the wok, or roasted. I can make a really nice curry with no meat for about $8 that feeds 3 (or me, 3 times!)

 

[Pengwuino]

I like plants, they are pretty and make oxygen for us. Why people find it okay to senselessly kill them, take their fruit, and subsequently feed off of them is beyond me. I eat meat and try to minimize the pain plants must go through in order for me to survive.

Cows, on the other hand, cause global warming and are plant murderers. They made their decision and I am simply seeking justice.

Also, what kind of option is "Vegetarian but I eat some kinds of meat"? THEN YOU'RE NOT VEGETARIAN. That's like saying you're a mathematician but you also do useful things.

 

[rootX]

I am tempted to make the last line my signature :d but I might get assainated by mathies :(

 

[wukunlin]

not a vegetarian but I can easily live as one

 

[Pythagorean]

We've tried to eat vegetarian a couple times a week, but it's failed so many times. It always leaves a hole in my stomach whenever I can actually get them down. Maybe we just don't know how to prepare vegetarian meals (lentil-loaf was the last attempt... we went out for burgers after a couple bites).

 

[DoggerDan]

"Vegetarian but I eat some kinds of meat (like fish, chicken,...)"

What? Lol, that's not vegetarian!

 

[Borek]

I am a vegetarian 4-5 days a week.

 

[Reshma]

Vegetarian since birth.

 

[DoggerDan]

By definition, any human who has ever nursed is not vegan.

Well, at least they weren't then.

 

[Monique]

i am a committed omnivore. i think it is a nutritional necessity backed by science.

This is not true, there have been many studies that have shown that a vegetarian diet meets our nutritional requirements. We've had this discussion before. Just examine the literature, the data is very clear.

Also, if you look at the literature it has been shown that a vegetarian diet has a protective effect on cardiovascular disease, colon cancer, GERD and diabetes. If you examine the literature that list can be made longer.

 

[billiards]

My parents raised me to be 'vegequarian' or 'pescaterian', or 'a vegetarian who eats fish'.

Once I spent a summer living on a Greek island, being a student I couldn't afford to eat fish, there really was only one option for me to eat at dinner times, a fairly bland pasta dish with red peppers and tomatoes. I was making a geological map of the island so spent long days trekking up goat paths in blazing midday heat. After a month of this my body was feeling a bit depleted, furthermore I was with a friend who seemed to think it was his duty to get me to eat meat, one night after an ouzo or two, I ate a chicken kebab for the first time. I liked it. I ate chicken for about two years, until one day I had some really bad chicken and I just stopped, I haven't eaten chicken since (about 3 years now). I think the variability in the quality of meat really puts me off it, not to mention the cruelty to animals (battery chickens anyone?), and the deleterious effects on the environment.

 

[Jimmy Snyder]

When I was a child, my mother prepared my meals. She ate meat and that means I ate meat. Now I'm married and my wife prepares my meals. She eats meat and that means I eat meat. If this leads me to an early death then don't embalm me, just lay my body out where the animals can get their revenge. Let them deal with the cholesterol.

 

[PAllen]

This is not true, there have been many studies that have shown that a vegetarian diet meets our nutritional requirements. We've had this discussion before. Just examine the literature, the data is very clear.

Also, if you look at the literature it has been shown that a vegetarian diet has a protective effect on cardiovascular disease, colon cancer, GERD and diabetes. If you examine the literature that list can be made longer.

Monique, are you speaking of Vegan or Vegetarian? If Vegan, are you allowing B-12 supplementation?

 

[PAllen]

Since I voted, I'll clarify, since the categories are pretty course.

I avoid regular consumption red meat and quite a few other foods for health reasons, but eat anything at all on rare occasions.

Probably 50% of days end up being vegetarian (no animal tissue; not vegan). Most of rest just add fish, but eat chicken probably weekly.

I generally think of myself as semi-vegetarian by habit, but no hard prohibitions.

 

[Monique]

Monique, are you speaking of Vegan or Vegetarian? If Vegan, are you allowing B-12 supplementation?

It's clear, I said vegetarian.

Be aware: the source of vitamin B12 in animals are microorganisms! What is wrong with including extra B12 in your diet if you have a good source for it? That source doesn't have to be meat or other animal products, the source can be bacterial as well. People call it a supplement because they have no clue what the biological source is! Take bacteria and have it ferment food: a source of vitamin B12. Our sterile society has taken out some of the natural sources of bacterial B12, tempeh used to have it. Now we're taking the bacteria and putting it back into our food.

Do you want to know where vitamin B12 in our diet comes from?
http://www.springerlink.com/content/abvdjbgkhmkmfjgu/

One of the most alluring and fascinating molecules in the world of science and medicine is vitamin B12 (cobalamin), which was originally discovered as the anti pernicious anemia factor and whose enigmatic complex structure is matched only by the beguiling chemistry that it mediates. The biosynthesis of this essential nutrient is intricate, involved and, remarkably, confined to certain members of the prokaryotic world, seemingly never have to have made the eukaryotic transition. In humans, the vitamin is required in trace amounts (approximately 1 µg/day) to assist the actions of only two enzymes, methionine synthase and (R)-methylmalonyl-CoA mutase; yet commercially more than 10 t of B12 are produced each year from a number of bacterial species. The rich scientific history of vitamin B12 research, its biological functions and the pathways employed by bacteria for its de novo synthesis are described. Current strategies for the improvement of vitamin B12 production using modern biotechnological techniques are outlined.

 

[turbo]

You have to admit, that's not the experience of the majority of children.

Readily. Though when I was a child, it was not all that odd around here. Lots of hunting, trapping, fishing, farming. When I'd go visit my cousin, my uncle got extra labor for free. My cousin and I had to feed all the cows, muck out the stalls, etc before we could go out and play.

 

[arildno]

I mentally distanced myself from eating meat as soon as I knew what it was. As long as it came in styrofoam trays and covered in plastic wrap, it wasn't real.

As a girl, my grandmother had pangs of conscience because she loved ox's tongue.
The reason was that her malevolent big sister (9 years her senior) had convinced her that the tongue was ripped out of the ox while it still lived.

My granny felt really bad about herself for many years thereafter...

 

[drizzle]

I rarely eat meat, I don't like it.

 

[Reshma]

By definition, any human who has ever nursed is not vegan.

Well, at least they weren't then.

If you are referring to me, then I never said that I am vegan. I am a vegetarian and I do consume dairy products. I don't eat any form of meat and eggs.

 

[Evo]

I was a vegetarian last night, I had rice for dinner and eggs for lunch.

 

[PAllen]

I'm particularly interested Monique's well informed view on something I've noticed.

I know of a number of cultures that are 100% vegetarian of different flavors (lacto, lacto-ovo, and of course fish variants if you want to throw that in). I am not aware of any culture that is vegan. Do you think this is related to B-12 or mostly accidental? I was thinking it was probably related to B-12, but Monique's info on fermentation as a source (and that so many cultures eat fermented products of many types) makes me wonder if it could just be historical accident.

 

[KrisOhn]

I do eat meat, but I am surrounded by a fair number of vegetarian people in my family so meat isn't always an option. If I had to choose between some of the vegetarian stuff I have eaten and meat, I would choose the vegetarian stuff, I like it better.

@Turbo, I wish I could have had that experience growing up, I hate this stuff coming out of a grocery store. For the last couple summers when I go home to live, my dad and I talk about getting maybe 10 chickens or so and slaughtering them (maybe getting someone else to clean them) over the course of the summer for meat, I really like the idea of having nice and fresh food. Even vegetables, I've grown up on a farm and we always had a garden at least 5 are large. From this garden we have a supply of fresh vegetables all year round by using a root cellar about 20' in the ground. When I move to my own place it's my dream to have my own garden and small source of meat (couple chickens, a pig and a cow if I'm crazy) for fresh food.

 

[Helios]

I don't eat anything green. Reagan said ketchup is a vegetable and that's good enough for me.

 

[turbo]

@Turbo, I wish I could have had that experience growing up, I hate this stuff coming out of a grocery store. For the last couple summers when I go home to live, my dad and I talk about getting maybe 10 chickens or so and slaughtering them (maybe getting someone else to clean them) over the course of the summer for meat, I really like the idea of having nice and fresh food.

a couple of summers ago, my neighbor built a portable rolling coop and stocked with about a dozen broiler chickens so his granddaughters (maybe 4 and 5 at the time) could see how chickens are raised, and watch them get slaughtered, plucked and cut up for the freezer.

 

[KingNothing]

To be honest I don't understand the third option. To me that is not a vegetarian.

 

[dlgoff]

I love vegetables. The more, the better. But meat is a must.