Pescatarian vs. Vegetarian...

I don't think I'm a true Vegatarian, at least not yet. I can do w/o most meat b/c it tends to upset my stomach and it really isn't good for my particular digestive system. Seafood however doesn't cause me pain, I love the taste and I eat a couple servings of fish a week. I completely failed at being a vegan, that lasted for about 2 weeks. But I've been vegatarian off and on for the last 3 years. My longest stint was a period of about 8 mos. The last time I tried, I was able to go about 3-4 months.  I would like to try to be vegetarian again, but I'm having the hardest time giving up seafood. I'm a pretty logical person (hopefully my wife would attest to this). I don't really have a logical reason for giving up seafood other than "Being a vegetarian is healthier".  But that doesn't seem to be enough. With meat, I could say "Meat upsets my stomach", and then it's easy to quit. But with seafood... no such problem. 

Any advice? Or maybe I should just stay eating seafood? And for those who like eating seafood, do you notice any health benefits? For those who don't like seafood, why not? THANKS!

I was a vegan for six months as an experiment. I've never felt better in my life.

But honestly- are you a human? At the top of the food chain? Eat a fish.

If you gave up meat for health and not ethical reasons, there is less reason to give up seafood, which is widely recognized as the healthiest meat you can eat, if you must eat meat.  The only concerns I would have as far as health is mercury.

However if you are also concerned about animal welfare and the environment, then you should probably give it up.

I wasn't bashing eating seafood. It is just that some people do not know about it and putting the word out there that it is probably worst than eating beef... because of the way they are harvested.

Cheers

Original Post by loudashope:

i don't think any of us eat seafood because we don't care about the environment, or because we're unaware of the damage it does. as i said, i try my very best to only eat humanely and sustainably caught seafood, and the amount of seafood i eat is really very little. that's what i am currently able to sustain, at this point in my life. even so, it was an incredibly tough decision to start eating fish again after being veg for almost 5 years. that's just me, i'm sure everyone else has their own reasons, and i'm sure they're all perfectly valid. just the same as plenty of vegetarians have valid reasons for not being vegan.

just because i'm not a vegan doesn't mean i'm evil, or misinformed. i could choose to be ignorant and eat a steak with every meal, but i don't. i do the best i can within my means, and i don't appreciate being made to feel like it's not good enough. this isn't an "all or nothing" area - we're all contributing, whether we go all the way or not.

This is the biggest damn list of boohoo feel bad for me excuses I have ever heard. 

Here you are talking about your "tough decision" to begin consuming fish, when these animals go through absolute hell, not to mention our oceans and fish populations are on the verge of collapse.

You do realize that "humane, sustainable fish" is purely a marketing ploy to ease your guilt, dont you?

Do you understand the meaning of "sustainability"? It means, by all practical purposes that you can continue doing something forever. As in, you do not take more from the land then it can provide for you. Seeing as we have a current world population of 6.7 billion, eating any sort of flesh including meat can not and will not be sustainable. As in, if every person lived and ate the way you did we would need multiple planets in order to make that lifestyle "sustainable" by definition.

You either make an ethical decision to stop exploiting animals and the earth, or you don't and have to face the consequences of being responsible for that decision. No free passes here.

Do what you feel comfortable with.

If you feel eating fish is best for you, then eat fish.

It is your decision.

Original Post by jonasfreek:

Do what you feel comfortable with.

If you feel eating fish is best for you, then eat fish.

It is your decision.

Choosing to take the life of another being is not just "your decision".

What about the decision of that being choosing to live? What about its right to life and self determination?????

You have to realize people take different paths to get to the end point. "your decision" is a belief.

Such as churchy people believe in banning gay marriages. They don't believe that way, so to say their view is wrong is wrong in itself. I think you should respect people for their decision and share ideas. The way you go about telling people what is wrong is preachy.

Original Post by conbread101:

You have to realize people take different paths to get to the end point. "your decision" is a belief.

Such as churchy people believe in banning gay marriages. They don't believe that way, so to say their view is wrong is wrong in itself. I think you should respect people for their decision and share ideas. The way you go about telling people what is wrong is preachy.

 

Your ideas are speciesist. Your argument seriously boggles my mind.  We should be free to do as we wish until that freedom encroaches on that of another being.  It is wrong to keep, consume and use animals as food slaves, just as it is wrong to keep people as slaves.

Would you argue that a slave owner was exercising his right or beliefs by owning slaves? Or that a child molester or rapist was exercising their right when they molested, or raped? What about the holocaust? racists, and Nazis hold the belief that certain groups of people are biologically and intellectually inferior to them, so they deserve the right to treat them as they see fit.

I would imagine you would not defend their decision to oppress others. So why defend the decision of others to oppress animals?????????

yes it would be ideal if everyone in the world is vegan or vegetarian... IDEAL

I say you should respect people and share ideas

This is democracy, and not a dictatorship. Go live in Cuba if you want to live that way. I also believe in being kind to people which I think you have totally lost in my mind and the mind of others. As i said no need for giving people labels.

I am not saying enslave or be cruel to animals. People haven't reached the same path as you. Everything in life is a learning  journey

I am going to use a church example. If you told a child this is right..they grow up believing this. However, if someone share ideas with them and they go down the path where things become clear and they have reasoned that it makes sense. Respect their decision.- if you think differently share your ideas! Dictating what is right is not the way.

Personally, I am a pescatarian and my main motivation for giving up meat in the first place was (and remains) health reasons.  What I found in my research was that the fats and oils in fish are metabolized differently to those in meats, and so are not as harmful. 

Personally, I am a very picky eater.  Maintaining a healthy and balanced diet is a challenge for me as a vegetarian/pescatarian, but in the 5 or 6 years I've been eating so, I have never experienced any dietary deficits or malnutrition.  I attribute this partly to the fact that I still eat fish (no seafood for me, just fish).  Given the fact that I won't eat things like mushrooms, nuts, straight tofu, or soy milk, I think it's a pretty important source of protein for me.  I don't eat fish obsessively... only every once in a while as part of my healthy diet.  Plus, I don't eat much canned fish.  I try to eat fresh, healthy fish like tilapia, avoiding things like albacore tuna with a high amount of mercury in them.

On a more practical note, I happen to also keep strictly kosher.  Eating fish makes it easy for me to say no thanks to meat products, but yes please to dairy and parve ;)  Which, incidentally answers disease_of_ease's question as to why I don't consider fish to be meat.  Being religious, I define things as the Torah defines them . . . and it does not define fish as meat.  If I can eat it with cheese... it's not meat! :D

ETA: My religious beliefs are the same reason this whole speciesist argument y'all have going on completely baffles me. G-d gave us animals to eat. End of story.  They are ANIMALS. NOT PEOPLE.  Does that mean torturing them is good? NO.  But the Torah says to treat them with respect and slaughter them a certain humane way... and that is good enough for me.  So although I don't expect anybody else here to agree with me or believe the same thing I do, I do hope you'll be respectful enough of my religious beliefs not to put me down for them. -_-

Re: the bycatch issue.  My philosophy is simple... I would rather be a somewhat guilty healthy person than to be guilt-free but anemic/protein deficient/etc.  Plus, I don't think it's half as dramatic as you make it out to be.  First off, I can't rely on the statistics you cite until I see some reliable sources (although I'm going to readily admit that I haven't researched it well enough to say one way or the other).  Additionally, you can't just ignore the fact that any animals unwittingly killed as bycatch are NOT just "wasted."  Whether it's humans using them or other animals, they are getting used.  Other animals will eat them... other fish, sharks, crabs, etc. etc. etc.  Or they will decompose and put those minerals back into the environment, thereby providing food for plants.  Does that make it right to be killing animals you don't plan to use/eat?  I think not.  But it does make your point that much less dramatic... and me that much less guilty of a healthy human being. ;)

Original Post by conbread101:

yes it would be ideal if everyone in the world is vegan or vegetarian... IDEAL

I say you should respect people and share ideas

This is democracy, and not a dictatorship. Go live in Cuba if you want to live that way. I also believe in being kind to people which I think you have totally lost in my mind and the mind of others. As i said no need for giving people labels.

I am not saying enslave or be cruel to animals. People haven't reached the same path as you. Everything in life is a learning  journey

I am going to use a church example. If you told a child this is right..they grow up believing this. However, if someone share ideas with them and they go down the path where things become clear and they have reasoned that it makes sense. Respect their decision.- if you think differently share your ideas! Dictating what is right is not the way.

you completely avoided my point.

This is not a religious belief, and can't be related to one.

I will agree with you that most things in this world are varying shades or gray.

However there are certain things that fall under what we consider to be right and wrong.

A few examples would be murder, slavery, rape, racism etc. etc.

You would not argue that it is someones to choice/decision to murder or rape another human being.

What I am asking you is, why do you think it is someones choice/decision to murder or rape an animal?

On that note, if you argue that animals are less worthy of the right to not be murdered, raped, tortured and abused, is that not inherently a speciest argument??

Haha, preachy vegans...I eat this ish up.

Seriously....I haven't eaten chicken or beef sinse I was about 11, but it was simply because it grossed me out. I didn't like the texture, or the veins...

Most fish I have no problem eating though. There are occasions where I have trouble, but for the most part I'm fine. I never considered myself to be anything, but about a month ago I was on a forum and realized I was considered a "pescaterian."

I don't think you should eat certain things to become a label. Eat what you like and then see what label you fall under.  I'm going to try going vegan for the month of august, it's more of a self challenge than anything. I WILL wear an all leather jumpsuit while doing this... :)

Listen, I too am against animal cruelty, but humans eating meat is completely normal. Other animals also...eat other animals. (That's right, animals are murderers too!!!) I dont think there is anything wrong with this. Maybe instead of not eating meat, we can work on creating a better environment for the animals that are being used to satisfy our hunger. Lets work on imroving treatment, because there's no way in hell everyone is going vegan.

Also, I find that a lot of vegans talk down to people who aren't also...vegan.  Try taking a different approach, maybe someone will actually bother listening.

Extremists on both sides of any spectrum tend to be very ignorant. I mean, last I heard, PETA was going around killing dogs... 

I am not avoiding your question. I agree that I would not want to harm animals, nor rape etc which is reflective of what i also believe humans should also not endure.

Eating meat in our society is considered normal. I have experienced explaining to people why I don't all my life. It is hard to get out of a habit (which is why I say it is a journey). Yes it is wrong, but not eating meat is a lifestyle change similar to that of getting off a junk food diet because it is bad. People know it (usually), but need to find the means to get to the end point.

xdarthveganx

you are insane.

you're one of those people who would choose to swerve to avoid a squirrel in the road, only to kill yourself and your passenger.

On the Titanic, you would've yelled "Rats first! Get the rats off first!"

You probably spend your weekends outside department stores with blood on your face and a sign with a skinned mink on it.

You're wildly entertaining.

That's where I'm at right now. Most meat upsets my stomach, fish and other  seafood does not. For me this isn't an ethical debate but rather a health one...my digestive system just can't tolerate any other meats besides seafood. So as of today, I'm left with seafood and a lot of tofu. I agree with conbread101; this is a journey. I'd like to fully be a vegetarian /vegan one day. If you check my food logs, (and I didn't notice this until I started going back over them) I'm already close. No milk, eggs or baked goods made with eggs, don't like cheese (upsets my stomach, badly) and the only dairy I eat now is yogurt. I have a Fussy digestive system. It's been remarkable though, just by changing my diet I've almost lost 20 pounds.  But I love fish, and it's the only meat that doesn't poorly affect my health right now. I don't consider yogurt meat.  It's so hard trying give up seafood so at the moment.  I'm an almost Vegan that eats fish!

I was a pescetarian for about 2 years and gradually started feeling more and more conflicted until I started forcing myself to research the seafood industry and all the harm it does to the environment. It's nasty. Our sea floors are being clearcut. And most don't realize that we simply don't have enough fish in the sea to be supporting the demand that's out there. People think they are fine as long as they eat wild caught fish because farmed fish is bad.. well, if they didn't farm fish then there wouldn't BE any wild fish left for you to eat.

Original Post by laurensking:

 

xdarthveganx

you are insane.

you're one of those people who would choose to swerve to avoid a squirrel in the road, only to kill yourself and your passenger.

On the Titanic, you would've yelled "Rats first! Get the rats off first!"

You probably spend your weekends outside department stores with blood on your face and a sign with a skinned mink on it.

 

You're wildly entertaining.

 

Most people would brake or swerve to avoid hitting an animal in the road, vegan or not.

I simply believe that all senteint life has a right to exist on this planet.

Call me insane if you want. The culture you partake in is the one responsible for our current ecological crisis.  Global fish populations are on the verge of collapse, sea levels are in danger of rising dramtically as a result of global warming and threatening millions of people all across the planet. Over 95% of the planets anceint forests have been destroyed. Global economies face the potential of total collapse as a result of peak oil. 46 billion animals are slaughtered every year for human consumption.

I am the one thats insane? please, I think you should take a good hard look in the mirror.

Oh "xdarthveganx" aren't you just leaps and bounds above all us average folk. You're just a perfect example of what every person should aspire to be. Thank god there's people like you in the world, I'm sure your personal eating habits are impacting the world greatly.

I'm sure with you being so dedicated to animal activism, you're also just as concerned about people's rights as well. I'm positive you make sure you aren't wearing anything made of leather. You  also probably read all your clothing labels and do all the research necessary to make sure the factories your clothing was made in treat their employee's well.  You make sure there's not child labor involved and that they are getting proper wages, right?

Or do you even bother with clothing! I mean, come on...all the pollution factories produce, that's no good for the environment!!!

NO, but seriously, you are not better than anyone.

Original Post by soaraway:

G-d gave us animals to eat. End of story.  They are ANIMALS. NOT PEOPLE. 

Humans are animals as well, we are part of the great apes. It's cool with me if you want to think otherwise, though. It's your life.