Vegans/Vegetarians...I have a question

Hello Vegans/Vegetarians!

I am an omnivore and I could never see myself giving up meat.  What I'd like to know is why you chose to become vegetarian/vegan?  There are many reasons and I'm just curious.

Also, I think you should know that I am somewhat familiar with vegan type foods (I think).  I've tried soy milk and rice milk and I find them too sweet.  I have had tofu and felt that it tasted bland and had the texture of a styrofoam peanut.  I have had to shred Veganrella vegan mozz and cheddar cheeses and I think they smell soooo gross.  I have never had a slice of the vegan pizza it goes to make (it doesn't look appetizing).

I figure I've hit on a major reason why vegans/vegetarians don't eat meat...they don't like the taste/texture/etc.

But please, I come with an open curious mind as to why people become vegans or vegetarians.

Thank you,

Mel

I do consider plants living entities. It's a fact that they're living. There are plants that can sense danger and take precautions and plants that also react to touch, so whether or not they feel, to me, is debatable. 

My problem isn't eating something that was once alive. It's the circle of life. My problem is how they kill them and what they're pumping into them -- essentially what they're pumping into me.

Then again, they do spray most vegetables with pesticides. So, no matter what we lose.

My dream one day is to have a house on a lot of land. Maybe one day I'll be able to grow all my fruits and veggies.

I can't support factory farming.   Animals are so mistreated when we use them as food - sometimes the kill floor is the best thing to happen to them. 

I don't see meat as an animal corpse.. or rather, that doesn't really bother me... it's what the animal experiences before it hits my plate that bothers me.

I recently started eating eggs because I found a woman who has several happy, roaming chickens and she gathers their eggs and sells them.  Those eggs would never be chickens; they would just rot so I can eat them with a clear conscience. 

I don't really eat the fake cheeses or meats.  I make my own sometimes from tvp or wheat gluten - but that's only when I need that texture.  

I'm vegan for ethical reasons. I don't think humans are any more special than any other type of animal and I don't think we have the right to expolite them the way we do. I love animals and do not want to promote cruelty towards them.

Regarding your tofu experience, true, in miso soup it can be bland and a strange texture, but tofu is one of those amazingly versitile food products that can take on any flavour that you add to it and the texture depends on how it is cooked, etc. Experiment and you'll find a version you like I'm sure! Same goes with soy milk, almond, hemp, rice milk; there are so many brands out there and they all taste so different and have such varying consistencies, it's all about finding your personal preference. Cheese is a tricky one. I've yet to find a vegan cheese that tastes as good as the real deal, but I have confidence that one day someone will make a suberb alternative!

I view plants and animals differently, and I agree with dwzbrad.

For me, I could easily go outside and pick an apple off a tree to eat. Could I kill an animal and just eat it? I would probably get my ass kicked.

I'm with dwzbrad in that I'm not trying to convert anybody :)

Original Post by prinzessin_naseimbuch:

This comment is not meant to offend anyone, but a few of you mentioned an aversion to meat because it is the "dead corpse" of an animal...logically, couldn't you consider the vegetables you eat "corpses" (albeit nice looking ones) or something once alive that is now dying because it is no longer receiving the nutrients it needs (from the soil/sun)?  To me it all seems relative.

I have a few thoughts about this.

1.  Ayurveda, sattvic eating and probably some other "spiritual eating" philosophies distinguish between foods that contain a life source and foods that don't.  Meat, once it's dead, is dead; it's never going to "ripen," but instead rots away.

2.  Many plant foods are still living when you eat them.  Fruit, for example, will continue to ripen after it is picked.  A seed has the power to sprout a new plant.  Even many leafy plants survive being cut from the stem; lots of plants are propagated through cutting.  Animals, on the other hand, lose their life force when they are turned into meat.

3.  Plant foods become the equivalent of meat (i.e., eating a corpse) when they become overripe.  Rotten fruit and wilted greens are a sign that the food has lost its life source, and shouldn't be eaten.

There is definitely a fine line when you try to divide the food/life spectrum based on morality.  Some folks will only eat fruits, and not root vegetables or leaf vegetables, because harvesting fruit does not necessarily result in killing the plant (like digging a potato does).  That's going a little too far for me.  I think the animal/non-animal distinction is easiest because we have many similarities with other animals, and it's easy to project our feelings and experiences onto animals and assume that they are "like us" in experiencing pain, sorrow, grief, etc.  It's much harder to imagine what life as a plant is like.

I agree with a lot said here.  I'm glad to see so many people wanting to make a change for the better, not just for themselves, but for the enviro. 

I was vegetarian for nearly 20 years.  I started at age 15.  At about 35 I started incorporating fish into my diet.  Then chicken and turkey. Then bacon.  O I love bacon.  In the whole 20 yrs I never got past how yummy it smelled to me.  I don't really like beef so much.  Just doesn't 'do it' for me like tofu.

Tofu takes practice, diligence, patience and trying lots of new things.  For anyone wanting t be vegetarian my advice is not to try and make the same foods with substitutes.  The subs never taste quite right.  You have to relearn how to construct and prepare vegetarian fare.  There is no meat-anchor to the meal.  So I suggest some vegetarian cookbooks that are less about mimicking meat dishes and more about learning new cultures of diet.  India is a good place to start.  Its not all spicy. 

The reason I initially became vegetarian changed over the years to what kept me going.  Part of it was that I was into Hinduism and had just discovered yoga.  As I went vegetarian for some years it began to transform.  I had read the statistics and knew how much more energy/carbon footprint it took to produce meat.  That bothered me.  I became an enviro activist and my diet was at the most personal core of my passion to heal the planet. I saw it a sorta sacrifice I had to make in order to justify my existence, which brings me to the other reason I did it. 

Part of the reason I became vegetarian was that I had an ED.  I did not feel I deserved to eat rich foods if it wasn't something my body needed.  I gained a lot of weight during my first 5 yrs and had to go through a massive learning curve.  Starting studying nutrition and began on my degree to become a nutritionist.  Though I dropped out, I still study nutrition.  Its  passion for me. 

Why I started eating meat again?  My body changed.  I required it.  I was getting sick, not from malnutrition, but from a lot of things.  I needed the animal protein.  Not everyone does.  And people change. Also, my 20 yrs of vegetarianism and activism didn't help matters.  So I gave up on activism and the diet followed. 

Now, when I sit down to a meal, I take a minute or so to meditate on the aka cord still connecting the animal whose body I am about to consume.  I acknowledge it and all the mana on my plate, how to came to be on my plate and how, as I take it into my body, for that short period of time, it is a part of me and on some level gets to experience humanity.  So I figure I owe it not only to myself to proactively evolve interpersonally, but to the animals whose got to share the experience with me. Its not just rotting flesh.  There is a consciousness still attached to that piece of meat. 

So my inspiration for being vegetarian for so long evolved into a conscious relationship with my food, a dedication of being the best human I can be while I partake of the life-force I am consuming and utilizing.  I try to make it worth it for the plants and animals I consume, and for all the people who made it possible for me to have it and for the earth, of course for bearing it all. 

Make no mistake.  I know what I am eating when I consume meat.  Its why I only buy free range chickens and eggs and I keep my foods as organic as possible for the health or the planet.  Conscious eating is where its at.  What you eat really, imo, is secondary, excepting of course, nutritional value. 

I could write a book, really.   But a great movie to watch is Fast Food America.  Explains some of the socio-econmic problems the cattle industry poses on humanity.