Vegetarianism

HTML5!

I've read articles claiming it's healthier to be one. Is it really though?

Anyone ever tried it?

Any converts that are feeling way better since becoming one?

I think it would be far too difficult for me to give up meat!

Ihatecuddles-old

No way, I f*cking love meat. Mmm meat

Chucken

Gosh have we gone full circle on all the topics again?

Where To

I like salad, particularly meaty salads.

--Kaiser--

You can find articles claiming all sorts of bull****. What you should be concerned with is what they can actually prove

HTML5!

Chucken wrote: »

Gosh have we gone full circle on all the topics again?

Yes.

judgefudge

Been eating vegetarian food a good bit lately. I haven't had meat in a few weeks but I wouldn't consider myself vegetarian. It's surprisingly easy and tasty to cut out meat. But every so often it's nice to have some chicken or steak. I guess each to their own. But there's no denying a vegetarian diet tends to be healthier because of more variety of fruit and veg.

And yes, I know not all vegetarians are healthy eaters.

Praetorian Saighdiuir

Vegetables have feelings!

Have you ever heard a carrot scream as you peel it and fcuk it into a pot to boil......the horror!

Vegetarians should be ashamed of yerselves.

Chucken

HTML5! wrote: »

Yes.

Ok. Just checking. Carry on

Arawn

I love being a vagatarian

HTML5!

Chucken wrote: »

Ok. Just checking. Carry on

I like your username. It's like what you'd call an enormous chicken that terrorizes a small village.

ElvisChrist6

HTML5! wrote: »

I've read articles claiming it's healthier to be one. Is it really though?

Anyone ever tried it?

Any converts that are feeling way better since becoming one?

I think it would be far too difficult for me to give up meat!

I turned vegetarian partly for health reasons - it is healthier than a diet with red meat if you do it right and eat the foods you need definitely (and that's in comparison to a healthy omnivore diet), however I would say the healthiest diet on paper would be a pescetarian diet. No red meat, but you can eat fish.

In saying that, there is nothing wrong with some red meat about the size of a pack of cards a day. My veganism hates me for typing this though! :P

squod

Like watching hot chicks feeling up those plastic covered cucumbers in the supermarket. Durty.

68 lost souls

Vegetarianism can be healthier depending on what sort of diet you eat, like with being an omnivore. You need to ensure you are still getting enough iron and protein especially since you will be missing these from your diet. As humans we don't need meat but yes people enjoy it.

I was a vegetarian for 13 years but at the time I was a very fussy eater and didn't substitute enough vitamins and minerals and so I started to eat meat, it is also difficult to go out or eat in friends houses etc. I reckon I could go back and do it again now since I have started to eat a lot more varied foods including tofu, lentils and cheese.

Fact is that people eat too much meat and this is bad for you. Also there are environmental and food supply reasons we should eat less meat. Here is a good list of reasons.

http://www.britishmeat.com/49.htm

1ZRed

Ihatecuddles wrote: »

No way, I f*cking love meat. Mmm meat

Let the obvious ones slide, too easy :P

Chemical Burn

Chucken

HTML5! wrote: »

I like your username. It's like what you'd call an enormous chicken that terrorizes a small village.

:pac: I'm a gentle old soul I'll have you know!

I'll answer your OP now
I've been vegetarian since 1980 (yes I'm that old) and I've only died of hunger once or twice!

admiralofthefleet

no way could i give up meat. if god didnt want us to eat meat then he wouldnt have made cows so tasty

Chucken

admiralofthefleet wrote: »

no way could i give up meat. if god didnt want us to eat meat then he wouldnt have made cows so tasty

Or horses?

Pottler

HTML5! wrote: »

I've read articles claiming it's healthier to be one. Is it really though?

Anyone ever tried it?

Any converts that are feeling way better since becoming one?

I think it would be far too difficult for me to give up meat!

O-be-one. The force will be with you.

Only a nut could replace meat in their diet. Or you'd need a pulse. I'm never too sure. I always mix up my nuts and pulses.

CiaranK

I've never had meat. Born a veggie. I'm very healthy, healthier than most probably. Some people think being a vegetarian is the same as eating meat just without the meat, i.e. instead of steak, spuds and carrots the dinner would be just spuds and carrots. You need to balance out what you eat and it can be healthier than a meat diet.

--Kaiser--

CiaranK wrote: »

I've never had meat. Born a veggie. .

You were certainly not born a vegetarian. You are a member of Homo Sapiens and as such your natural diet is omnivorous - including the flesh of animals. What you have decided to eat after, or what diet you had pushed on you by parents is another story

woodoo

Can you imagine never eating crispy bacon ever again.. or a lamb chop, or a sirloin steak Noooooooooo!!

I will never be a vegetarian.

HTML5!

68 lost souls wrote: »

http://www.britishmeat.com/49.htm

Didn't think there were that many health reasons.

--Kaiser--

HTML5! wrote: »

Didn't think there were that many health reasons.

I had a skim through and a majority of that page is unfounded and/or untrue

ElvisChrist6

--Kaiser-- wrote: »

You were certainly not born a vegetarian. You are a member of Homo Sapiens and as such your natural diet is omnivorous - including the flesh of animals. What you have decided to eat after, or what diet you had pushed on you by parents is another story

Ah would you feck off, it did him no harm, you could say the same for your parents having you wearing whatever gender appropriate clothing you do or drinking tea.

I don't give a shite what other people eat, but what annoys me are people like that who get so worked up about other peoples diets. Despite popular opinion a majority of these are omnivores.

Edit: In saying that though, it's possibly because a majority of people ARE omnivores!

Jacob T

"There was a time when the same topics were repeated once every 2, maybe 3 months, now it's once every 2 or 3 days"

-Unknown poster, some time last year

HTML5!

--Kaiser-- wrote: »

I had a skim through and a majority of that page is unfounded and/or untrue

I read of studies by various universaties that concluded that a vegetarian diet was healthier....

I'm yet to be 100% convinced though.

Crea

My husband was veggie a few years ago and I thought i'd kill him. Trying to make a decent dinner took ages with peeling endless vegetables and preparing various pulses. He gave up being a veggie when I stopped cooking for him - it seems he was only a veggie while it wasn't a hassle for him.

HTML5!

Crea wrote: »

My husband was veggie a few years ago and I thought i'd kill him. Trying to make a decent dinner took ages with peeling endless vegetables and preparing various pulses. He gave up being a veggie when I stopped cooking for him - it seems he was only a veggie while it wasn't a hassle for him.

Yeah it does appear to take a lot more effort alright.

Meat is just easy!

ElvisChrist6

Crea wrote: »

My husband was veggie a few years ago and I thought i'd kill him. Trying to make a decent dinner took ages with peeling endless vegetables and preparing various pulses. He gave up being a veggie when I stopped cooking for him - it seems he was only a veggie while it wasn't a hassle for him.

Hahaha, 'tis true that doing vegetarianism well is hard work at times! :P Unless you make in bulk and keep it in the fridge; one great advantage of vegetarianism (especially veganism) is there is very little that can go off and make you sick after eating. Kidney beans are actually the only really dodgy thing a vegan could have!

Capt'n Midnight

Stealth Recce wrote: »

Vegetables have feelings!

Have you ever heard a carrot scream as you peel it and fcuk it into a pot to boil......the horror!

Vegetarians should be ashamed of yerselves.

and that is why I only eat unicellular organisms

I try to avoid eukaryotes when I can

Truncheon Rouge

Real vegetablism takes dedication.
I don't have that.

But I do make some effort.
I cut out pork years ago, I still don't eat hog and it was not the least bit difficult to stop.

Then steaks, (and beef in general) they were always a bit leathery.
Those two parts were pizz easy. Chicken and fish though I can only avoid 50% of the time.

Its not hard to avoid flesh, you got:
vegetable fried rice, chips, vegetable noodles, vegetable pizza, quiche, soup, fried/scrambled eggs,

ehhm...crisp sambos, toast... porridge

Jev/N

68 lost souls wrote: »

Vegetarianism can be healthier depending on what sort of diet you eat, like with being an omnivore. You need to ensure you are still getting enough iron and protein especially since you will be missing these from your diet. As humans we don't need meat but yes people enjoy it.

I was a vegetarian for 13 years but at the time I was a very fussy eater and didn't substitute enough vitamins and minerals and so I started to eat meat, it is also difficult to go out or eat in friends houses etc. I reckon I could go back and do it again now since I have started to eat a lot more varied foods including tofu, lentils and cheese.

Fact is that people eat too much meat and this is bad for you. Also there are environmental and food supply reasons we should eat less meat. Here is a good list of reasons.
http://www.britishmeat.com/49.htm

There is a lot of bull and half-assed science on that list

Sam Kade

CiaranK wrote: »

I've never had meat. Born a veggie. I'm very healthy, healthier than most probably. Some people think being a vegetarian is the same as eating meat just without the meat, i.e. instead of steak, spuds and carrots the dinner would be just spuds and carrots. You need to balance out what you eat and it can be healthier than a meat diet.

I was never a vegetarian and I am very healthy, so how do you come to the conclusion that being a vegetarian is healthier?

ElvisChrist6

Sam Kade wrote: »

I was never a vegetarian and I am very healthy, so how do you come to the conclusion that being a vegetarian is healthier?

I've never taken steroids and yet I can still run fast, how do you know steroids would make me run faster? Same logic, I'm not even going to argue whether or not it is healthier. Just wanted to point out your logic is flawed!

CiaranK

Sam Kade wrote: »

I was never a vegetarian and I am very healthy, so how do you come to the conclusion that being a vegetarian is healthier?

There have been extensive studies all over the world and they have nearly all concluded that a vegetarian diet is healthier.

(I hope I don't come across as pushing my views onto others, I would never want to do that)

osarusan

To talk about 'a vegetarian diet' or a 'non-vegetarian diet' misses the point really. It's all about eating healthily. Being a vegatarian doesn't mean having a healthy diet, nor does eating meat.

Getting the right amounts of the vitamins and minerals your body needs to be healthy is what consititues a healthy diet.

You can get these from a diet which includes eating meat, or excludes eating meat, but if you don't get the right foods, you won't get all of them, regardless of how much or little meat you eat.

blatantrereg

I'm vegetarian. Have eaten quite a bit of meat in my adult life before deciding to stop. I do feel way better since becoming one. It was a nice surprise. I switched for ideological reasons and perceived [to some extent at least] it as a form of sacrifice on my part. However now I see it as being highly beneficial for myself and not a sacrifice at all. [I switched over 18 months ago.]

My digestion has improved tremendously since I switched. I'd always had a tempramental, frequently upset stomach. Now I rarely get an upset stomach, even when eating large amounts of rubbish.

I've chilled out a lot. I perceived a definite, lasting improvement in my emotional stability in general, which I wouldn't be able to explain through other factors. [On an aside, Hitler was not a vegetarian, dispite his suggestions to the contrary.]

There's a strong clear improvement in my natural body odour. I smell cleaner. Without getting into too much detail, I observed related differences in an ex when she began eating meat. My experience with her and others is that vegetarians taste a lot nicer. There is published research on this subject supporting this fact also, incidentally.

I found it surprisingly easy to give up meat once I educated myself a little on what to eat as a vegetarian. I enjoy my food more not less now. I generally eat more flavoursome and varied food, not less.

CiaranK is right in saying that you don't just remove meat, but balance it out with other things. I had tried going vegetarian before without good basic knowledge of how to do that. On that occasion I found my energy levels depleted, and my diet pretty bland - which resulted in me switching back. However when I approached things more intelligently I didn't miss meat at all. I used to enjoy meat a lot, so that surprised me. [It also surprised me when I started perceiving meat as chunks of dead flesh instead of food.]

You only need basic knowledge and a sensible attitude for a viable and enjoyable vegetarian diet incidentally. No need to perfectly plan it out or anything that extreme.

You are a member of Homo Sapiens and as such your natural diet is omnivorous - including the flesh of animals

That's not really true. We seem to be slightly modified herbivores. Our phyiology is much more similar to one type of herbivore than to an omnivore. If you look at what primates eat, the meat component is usually comprised of insects if it is present at all. "Most of mankind for most of human history has lived on vegetarian or near-vegetarian diets." - American Dietetic Association.

Chimps are our closest animal relative. Chimpanzees are sometimes vegetarian and sometimes omnivorous. The meat component of the chimpanzee diet is about 1.6%. The consensus is that meat plays the role of a social tool for chimps, rather than a nutritional role. There appears to be a correlation between the level of meat-eating/hunting and aggression. Bonobos are the type of chimp that is the most similar to humans genetically. They in particular are mainly vegetarian, and they are considerably more peaceful than other types of chimp.

All in all, we are not designed for eating meat, not "supposed to" eat meat. We just can eat it if we want to. But it's usually a bad idea... There are many compelling reasons to avoid it. The only reason to eat it I can see is indulgence.

This post is starting to become a Wall of text so I'll stop typing now. The last thing I'll mention is that the UN's position is that a global move towards vegetarian dairy-free diets is not just preferable, but necessary.

ElvisChrist6

osarusan wrote: »

To talk about 'a vegetarian diet' or a 'non-vegetarian diet' misses the point really. It's all about eating healthily. Being a vegatarian doesn't mean having a healthy diet, nor does eating meat.

Getting the right amounts of the vitamins and minerals your body needs to be healthy is what consititues a healthy diet.

You can get these from a diet which includes eating meat, or excludes eating meat, but if you don't get the right foods, you won't get all of them, regardless of how much or little meat you eat.

+1

blatantrereg wrote: »

That's not really true. We seem to be slightly modified herbivores. Our phyiology is much more similar to one type of herbivore than to an omnivore. If you look at what primates eat, the meat component is usually comprised of insects if it is present at all. "Most of mankind for most of human history has lived on vegetarian or near-vegetarian diets." - American Dietetic Association.

Chimps are our closest animal relative. Chimpanzees are sometimes vegetarian and sometimes omnivorous. The meat component of the chimpanzee diet is about 1.6%. The consensus is that meat plays the role of a social tool for chimps, rather than a nutritional role. There appears to be a correlation between the level of meat-eating/hunting and aggression. Bonobos are a type of chimp that are the most similar to humans genetically. They in particular are mainly vegetarian, and they are considerably more peaceful than other types of chimp.

This post is starting to become a Wall of text so I'll stop typing now. The last thing I'll mention is that the UN's position is that a global move towards vegetarian dairy-free diets is not just preferable, but necessary.

I'd say it's likely we're naturally pescetarian - unlike carnivorous animals, we can't digest raw or rancid meat safely, so I don't think we're naturally meat-eaters. But fish, I don't see why it wouldn't be part of it. Since turning, the only thing I miss is fish though!

blatantrereg

ElvisChrist6 wrote: »

+1



I'd say it's likely we're naturally pescetarian - unlike carnivorous animals, we can't digest raw or rancid meat safely, so I don't think we're naturally meat-eaters. But fish, I don't see why it wouldn't be part of it. Since turning, the only thing I miss is fish though!

You might be right. The healthiest diet seems to be one that eliminates meat but includes fish. The [specific kind of] omega 3s in fish oil are not available in normal vegetarian diets also. You convert some of the omega 3s in vegetables to the beneficial type, but the conversion rate is low. It is probably preferable to supplement with algal oil (which has the same sorts of omega 3s as fish).

I've found myself missing fish before too. Never developed the aversion to fish that I seemed to develop towards meat fairly quickly.

blatantrereg

ElvisChrist6 wrote: »

+1



I'd say it's likely we're naturally pescetarian - unlike carnivorous animals, we can't digest raw or rancid meat safely, so I don't think we're naturally meat-eaters. But fish, I don't see why it wouldn't be part of it. Since turning, the only thing I miss is fish though!

There's a theory that our evolution was shaped by fishing come to think of it. It explains our upright posture, hairlessness, and even our increased intellect.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aquatic_ape_hypothesis

awec

I would eat vegetarian food if it was set in front of me to the same extent that I'd eat food with meat (i.e. I won't instantly disregard it because it has no meat).

I would never willingly choose a vegetarian option off a menu. To me, a meal without meat just seems lacking. I could never give up a steak either, that's always the first thing I look for on any restaurants menu, and as someone who likes their steak oozing with blood the idea of it being dead flesh doesn't bother me in the slightest, it still tastes immense.

I also don't actually like enough veg to be able to have a balanced and interesting vegetarian diet.

ScumLord

blatantrereg wrote: »

That's not really true. We seem to be slightly modified herbivores. Our phyiology is much more similar to one type of herbivore than to an omnivore. If you look at what primates eat, the meat component is usually comprised of insects if it is present at all. "Most of mankind for most of human history has lived on vegetarian or near-vegetarian diets." - American Dietetic Association.
.

But we have been full on omnivore for a lot longer than we've been human. Our ancestors started eating meat millions of years before we were anything remotely close to human, they didn't have much of a choice in the matter at the time because the forest they used to live in disappeared. It's not a case of a primate acting strangely we are a branch of long standing omnivores with adaptations to deal with eating meat that came into being millions of years ago.

Mr. CooL ICE

I eat 5 meals a day; meat in three of those, and vegetables in three of those. I could never live without meat, but even though I don't like vegetables, I eat them because they keep me regular

KyussBishop

Not a vegetarian, but thinking of drastically cutting down the amount of meat I eat, as there are plenty of good well-researched negative health effects to come from red meats in particular, and I also notice I get migraines more often when I eat a lot of red meat, plus a fairly wide range of processed/preserved meats have the potential to produce nitrosamines, which are a not-insignificant cancer risk.

In addition to that, it's clear that a lot of meat is pretty well tampered with before you buy it, ranging from being pumped up with liquids mixed with other crap to hold it in, for increasing the weight, to more dodgy stuff like horse meat mixed into burgers, pork laced with dioxins and such....I didn't have much trust in meat distributors in the first place, and I have pretty much none now, so want to just eat what I can trust.

Trouble is finding good vegetarian meals I'd actually like to eat, and finding stuff that I could substitute well in stuff like lasagne/curry, without just watering down the food; don't know any vegetarian meals that seem all that interesting (but then again, haven't bothered looking much yet ).

Canis Lupus

KyussBishop wrote: »

Not a vegetarian, but thinking of drastically cutting down the amount of meat I eat, as there are plenty of good well-researched negative health effects to come from red meats in particular, and I also notice I get migraines more often when I eat a lot of red meat, plus a fairly wide range of processed/preserved meats have the potential to produce nitrosamines, which are a not-insignificant cancer risk.

In addition to that, it's clear that a lot of meat is pretty well tampered with before you buy it, ranging from being pumped up with liquids mixed with other crap to hold it in, for increasing the weight, to more dodgy stuff like horse meat mixed into burgers, pork laced with dioxins and such....I didn't have much trust in meat distributors in the first place, and I have pretty much none now, so want to just eat what I can trust.

Trouble is finding good vegetarian meals I'd actually like to eat, and finding stuff that I could substitute well in stuff like lasagne/curry, without just watering down the food; don't know any vegetarian meals that seem all that interesting (but then again, haven't bothered looking much yet ).

Just buy free range organic. You'll get your tamper free meat and you get to look posh when placing your chicken that's 5 times the price and 5 times smaller than a production line chicken in your shopping basket :P


I couldn't live without meat. A vegetarian meal much like a vegetarian is dull :P

TheBellJar

I've been a vegetarian for 17 years and it hasn't affected my health at all to be honest. My diet is healthy; I cut out junk food when I was 15 and I don't go overboard with the drink. When I started weight training I'll admit it was hard to get in the required protein daily, but that just meant adding in a few protein shakes.

The way I look at it is there are healthy and unhealthy people in both camps and it's too much of a variable to pin it on vegetarianism. For example, a kid with no clue about nutrition who becomes a veggie could easily wind up living off junk food - but then the same goes for any other kid/adult!

smash

I ate a vegetarian once. Well kinda... She didn't taste any different!

Son Of A Vidic

HTML5! wrote: »

Vegetarianism

They say meat is murder and I could murder a horse burger right now.

--Kaiser--

blatantrereg wrote: »

That's not really true. We seem to be slightly modified herbivores. Our phyiology is much more similar to one type of herbivore than to an omnivore. If you look at what primates eat, the meat component is usually comprised of insects if it is present at all. "Most of mankind for most of human history has lived on vegetarian or near-vegetarian diets." - American Dietetic Association.

Chimps are our closest animal relative. Chimpanzees are sometimes vegetarian and sometimes omnivorous. The meat component of the chimpanzee diet is about 1.6%. The consensus is that meat plays the role of a social tool for chimps, rather than a nutritional role. There appears to be a correlation between the level of meat-eating/hunting and aggression. Bonobos are the type of chimp that is the most similar to humans genetically. They in particular are mainly vegetarian, and they are considerably more peaceful than other types of chimp.

All in all, we are not designed for eating meat, not "supposed to" eat meat. We just can eat it if we want to. But it's usually a bad idea... There are

Just the type of gibberish post I'd expect from a vegetarian. Humans are not modified herbivores (neither are chimps for that matter). Meat eating shaped our evolution for hundreds of thousands of years, allowing us to grow such large brains (meat being the best 'bang for buck' food around) and to devote less time to finding and eating food (as herbivores generally spend a lot of their day eating because food is so nutrient light).

If we are not designed to eat meat, explain why we have meat digesting enzymes? Or why Vitamin B12 and Omega 3 fatty acids are so essential (neither of which can be found in significant amounts in plant foods)? I could go on but I've come to the conclusion that vegetarianism is a kind of religion and I'd be wasting my time