now, you dont eat meat, right ?


so, do you eggs ?



if you dont eat eggs, does this mean you dont eat things made with eggs ?



cookies ?



breads ?


cakes ?



how far does it go ?

wait, what about milk ?


damn... everything has milk in it

so wait, does that include cheese too ?????



oh hell no, i think i would die without cheese

There's all kinds of vegetarianism. Generally if someone says they are vegetarian, they eat eggs and dairy. If someone is vegan, they eat no animal products at all, so no eggs or cheese or milk, etc.

CarrieMpls said:

wow... seriously, i cant imagine what they eat



thats a strict lifestyle..... more power to them

i'm a not a vegatarian but from what i understand there are two types, the ones that eat don't eat meat but they include dairy and eggs in their diet. and the vegans, they don't any animal byproducts, or anything that is flavored via animals i think. there are ways to acquire protein other than animals, , i think the soy has tons of protein and peanuts. i've had soy milk before, i didnt' like it. reminds me of baby formula . rice milk is delicious and soy and tofu is pretty good. as far as veggies i eat alot of romaine and uncooked red peppers are delicous. i eat very little beef and no pork.

i couldnt do it

nakedpianoplayer said:

any body can. your body just has to get used to it.

i am hardly typical... i just have messed up eating habits

but since i was little i haven't eaten meat
i don't eat eggs on their own but will eat them in stuff
i love milk
but i like my milk fresh lol
i don't care for the smell or texture of cheese




and i loove leather

I'm a vegetarian but i don't eat regular cheese because it contains rennet , which is made from a calf's stomach , i eat vegetarian cheese

I don't eat gelatine (made from bones) either

Also many flavour enhancers (e types) are made from either meat or sardines
(e numbers 626 til 635 , here in Europe)

I recently found out that wine can contain blood powder and fish bladder , so i won't drink regular wine anymore

http://veganconnection.co...vegan.html

I am Not a vegetarian.
My wife has been.
I like to eat vegetarian.
There is all types of food to eat.
It is good and does make you feel healthy.

Vegans are the type of people that eat NO animal byproducts.
No butter, no eggs, no nothing that had anything to do with animal.
Execpt for those with dietary restraints, most just have issues.

I wish they had more quality vegetarian restraunts.

Why do they have issues ?
Such nonsense
I have great respect for that

Personally i don't eat anything from animals that can only be obtained from them when they're dead
[Edited 3/26/06 18:25pm]

Dewrede said:

Issues

edited

emm said:

You eat leather??

IrresistibleB1tch said:

Hey you

I'm a relaxed vegan. I avoid animal products as much as is possible without making myself or the people around me nuts. I think people go a little overboard in worrying what label they affix to themselves. The point is that reducing the consumption of animal products to whatever extent you can is a good thing for your health, and well as the well-being of other sentient individuals with whom we share the planet.

Being vegan is not that big a deal if you like to cook, or live someplace with lots of vegetarian restaurants, as I do. If you live in Hicksville and don't know how to work your stove, you're gonna have a hard time eating a balanced vegan diet.

As for how hard it is/was to give stuff up, I haven't found it to be that hard. Cheese was the last thing to go, and is the hardest thing to substitute for (most of the vegan cheeses on the market are absolutely disgusting, imho). But if I were vegan except for cheese, I'd still be accomplishing most of what I wish to accomplish, so. . . basically, that's no reason not to do it. . . not to take responsibility for our purchasing power, and ability to do good and/or evil with it.

Interestingly, I don't think I would enjoy eating animal products at this point. I have a policy that if something is the "best ever". . . ie. if I'm with an omnivore and they are really feeling bad that I "can't" try this or that. . . I'm generally willing to taste it. Every time I have, I've been underwhelmed. I'm not missing out on that much, and I actually feel like my palate is more sensitive to a wider range of experiences than it was before, constantly being dulled by heavy, fatty animal foods.

The only real problem that my diet has caused me has been due to the ignorance and/or cruelty of people in my life who won't respect my choices.


[Edited 3/26/06 19:12pm]

brownsugar said:

You´re right, any body can get used to it, and of course you can survive without eating animal products (vegan) or by avoiding meat,poultry and fish (ovo-lacto vegetarian) but, as a former vegetarian, IMO the qustion is not only if it´s possiblebut also whether you can live your life to the max, healthwise. Many cultures live on a vegetarian diest, but that doesn´t necessariliy mean that they´re reaching their full potential, whether it be physically or mentally.

I mean, don´t get me wrong, but EVERY individual is different, every system is different. The Massai tribe in South Africa live on nothing but blood, milk and meat, and they´re quite healthy.Then againm there are other tribes who follow a 100% vegetarian diet.

I have Indian friends who are practising Sikhs, and they´re vegetarians and healthy.

I was a vegetarian between 18 and 20 and almost collapsed and had to get injections from my doctor, I had a severe iron , zinc and vitamin B deficiency.

Then I became an omnivore again until I became an ovo-lacto vegetarian in 1999.

I followed an ovo-lacto vegetarian diet until 2004 with a few occasional exceptions ( when I was traveling, I made exceptions because of cultural curiousity , for instance in Thailand and the USA and Mediterranean region, I ate everything I wanted in small quantities because I wanted to experience and feel and sense the cultures, including the food).

Then I started feeling weaker and a bit under the weather in 2004...I´m NOT blaming it on the vegetarian diet, all I´m saying is that I didn´t want to risk not using my brain to it´s fullest potential shortly before my thesis paper and I spoke with my (also ex-vegetetarian) professor about this, and he recommended me not to be so strict and tough toward myself.

So I started eating fish again, and I have to admit, I feel a bit better, and my hair and skin looks a bit better and healthier than before...but I only eat it in small amounts.

I think the main thing is to be aware of what you eat and that you´re eating living beings, not just a manufactured product.

I still feel spiritually uncomfortable when I eat fish but , on the other hand, I really feel stronger and more energetic. I still might switch back to a real vegetarian diet one day.

All I´m saying is , yes, it is possoble, but "possible" doesn´t always equate "better".
That´s all.

Too many typos , I know...but it´s got nothing to do with my diet .

emm said:

Do you now?

i just have a really hard time eating chunks of dead animal flesh

other then that .... life is good

KoolEaze said:

SeattleInvasion said:

KoolEaze said:

Sorry to hear that.

But you can get those deficiencies on all omnivorous diets if you just don't eat properly. I wouldn't always trust the doctors on these issues though, I've heard some pretty stupid lines of advice from them all throughout the years (on all kinds of issues). And cows, pigs and fish are not exactly loaded with vitamins, you know? The vitamin B is a very complex matter though, I've never been completely sure how do the all the different kinds of it contribute to each other, but it just isn't true if somebody insisted that you'd need to eat meat specificly in order to obtain some of its variants.

The thing with many vegetarians experiencing health problems is that they just don't eat enough. Inside modern societies we just have too many calories from the ready-made products we get from stores and restaurants. These days our meals and snacks are practically just condensed fat and sugar - that's definitely not what we humans as organisms are supposed to eat (even bread is "unnatural" food for us as well). You can have a huge plate with all kinds of "natural food" (vegetables and fruit) for the same amount of calories as your typical donut would contain. Guess which one will make you feel more satiated?

I think it all started to go wrong when somebody had the idea of cooking food on an open fire. That never amounted to anything good healthwise.

nakedpianoplayer said:

Correctomundo.



At this moment yes. But I prefer if the poultry has been kept in ethically sound conditions.



If I wouldn't, that would be the case, yes.



You can make cookies without using dairy products or eggs.



The human-organisms are actually not that capable of eating too much grain. I eat heaploads of grain products myself though, I love bread and cookies.



Them too.



It will go as far as myself becoming a full vegal in a matter of couple of years. I'm a student right now and often have to buy cheaper food that's not manufactured properly, let alone according to vegan standards.

Novabreaker said:

Thanks for your intelligent and very well-balanced post...most hardcore vegetarians usually start flaming as soon as I mention that I´m no longer a vegetarian in the strict sense.

You´re right about vitamin B and other nutrients and the complexity of the matter. Things are really complicated when it comes to nutrition. Back then I did not know much about eating right, these days I´m a fanatic, read a lot of info and eat right...but still, one other problem for me between 1999 and 2004 was that I was constantly CRAVING things, especially fish.

(Back in the day, in my first vegetarian phase between 18 and 20 I was also taking heavy medicine and certain antibiotics that depleted my system of the nutrients you mentioned above, so you´re quite right, it´s not the meat eating or not meat eating alone.)

Anyway, during my second phase I craved certain things like mad and I was always hungry and ate tons of carbs, I could´ve easily eaten a couple of bags of potato chips or pretzels ( I didn´t, but I was craving them too).
So in the process, I put on quite a bit of weight and my mental situation also changed a bit....sometimes for the better, knowing that I was "doing the right thing", sometimes for the worse, feeling like isolating myself ( from friends, or certain rituals, or when I turned down meals my mom cooked for me when I occasionally visited her).

And then there´s the psychological factor....my people ( I´m a German born son of Turkish immigrants) eat TONS of meat, it plays an important part in our diet...actually my parents are from the Agaen region, the westcoast, so they eat much more vegetables and fish than the eastern Turks, our diet is mainly vegetarian anyway, but still, sometimes I felt like being depressed when I walked by a Turkish restaurant or kebap place , having a craving for the smell of it, especially when I hadn´t visited my relatives for a long time, so I think one should never underestimate this factor. I guess I´d feel different if my background were different.

But, as I said in my previous post, I eat fish sometimes, almost no meat at all ( except on rare occasions or when people cook for me ..even Buddha teaches not to turn down any food that´s offered to you ...) and , personally, I prefer being a 70 % vegetarian instead of being hardcore for a couple of years and then switching back to eating meat four times a week...that´s not my thing.

And who knows, with less stress in my life and a better nutrition plan I might become a vegetarian again real soon.
I also experienced some physical benefits from eating fish occasionally.

I fully agree with Seattle Invasion though....at least reducing your meat consumption is something everybody should consider.

Thanks for your thoughts anyway, they´re appreciated.

KoolEaze said:

I think that if you've experienced heatlth problems you should stick to a diet that you've found the most suitable for you, that goes without saying.

I am myself indeed somewhat of a "hardcore" or a "fundamentalist" abstainer from eating meat. In fact, I belong to the school of thinkers who do not believe humans are meat-eaters by any biological grounds - so I go even that far (it has never been scientifically proven that the human body would be capable of consuming a large amount of animal products, the only reason why we can eat these things basically as much as we'd like is because they've been cooked and prepared in very special ways - and that's a whole different thing altogether that leads to whole different level of anthropological studies). And I do have to admit it's sometimes hard to accept reading the kind of stories as yours as to a certain degree they might prove that me and my kind could be wrong about our views. It means I have "faith" in my beliefs and sometimes that could be a bad thing just as well as a good thing.

One thing the modern societies aren't ready to accept is the fact that even if the human body could be adaptable to all kinds of diets (you can survive for a period of time by eating just cardboard), it's actually the food business that upholds these fraudulent images. Why do we have food groups that are taught to us in school already at such an early age? Because there's an industry behind, that's why. It's like religion, people aren't ready to question it on a large scale (sorry if offend you believers with this statement, I just expressed mine). There's not going to be a headline in the papers tomorrow morning saying: "We've been wrong all throughout the history of civilization!". Very few people would buy it at this stage.

More importantly:

I think it just goes with common sense that grown-up people shouldn't be having dairy products in their diets. Milk isn't meant for adults to consume as nutrition, it's meant for infants only (name any other animal species that consumes milk as fully grown individuals) hence we have the situation of large percentage of the population experiencieng problems, namely becoming "lactose-intolerant" (I am one, but I'm such an idiot that I just keep hedonistically eating dairy products until my system will go totally... well, I don't even want to think about it now). It's just really stupid to even think that these problems would occur for any other reason than because of the fact that humans are not not supposed to consume a form of nutrition meant excusively for another species' infants. I just find it baffling that people refuse to accept this.

Novabreaker said:

Excellent post..don´t know where to begin with my reply..first of all, I used to be so hardcore too, at least for a certain time, and I always wanted to know which food is the right one for us...never really found a satisfying answer to this.
I´ve read ton s of websites and books from a strictly vegetarian viewpoint, experimented on myself as I mentioned before, watched other people over the years ( including Prince...I mean, there was this Turkish female singer, very young, and she kept forgetting her lyrics until her doctor told her to eat some fish at least, or even meat, and when she dropped her vegetarian lifestyle she could memorize her lyrics again...and I noticed that the first time Prince started using his lyricbook during concerts was after he became a vegetarian...so quite naturally, especially after my own experience, I started getting worried).

I also checked out pro-meat websites, and they give you "scientific proof" that we´re actually meateaters..then you go to other websites, and they come up with "scientific proof" that we´re planteaters...I am really confused about this, and believe me, I´m familiar with both theories and arguments.

I even tried the anthropoligical "approach" by reading about other cultures and socalled "primitive" cultures, and most of them eat meat, even in far off places somewhere in the Amazonas or some islands in the Indian Ocean, so I´m really confused about what to believe...

You´re right, it bears striking similarities with the way certain people treat religion.

And speaking about religion, some people even tried to convince me that it is part of my "religious duty" to eat meat, because God/Allah supposedly meant it that way and says so in the Tora, Koran and Bible ( I´m an openminded thinker and don´t really subscribe to those religions in general, but I guess you catch my drift).

You know, that whole idea of planet earth to be rightfully exploited by mankind. I always tell these people, Muslims and Jews and Christians, that God surely didn´t want us to treat animals the way we do..I couldn´t care less about certain "kosher" or "helal" rituals or not eating pork or whatever, because I have a problem with the whole idea of meat eating in general...

There´s this website called www.paleofood.de

or maybe www.paleofood.com, and they come up with a bunch of pro-meateating arguments...I mean, even chimpanzees eat meat sometimes, some of them even their own kind, or at least worms and insects....so , I really don´t know what to think these days.

Did you ever watch the sc-fi flick Logan´s Run ? There´s this scene ( in the future) where the guy says something like " Unbelievable, people really used to eat animals back in the days !"



And I am REALLY confused when it comes to dairy products..they´ve always been a staple in the Central Asian steppes and in the Causcasus and even Southeast Europe....think of feta, yoghurt, kefir etc.

Your argument is excellent, but maybe we´re the only grown up "animals " who consume milk because we know how to get it whereas other animals don´t, but they still love it, at least some of them ...

One day we all will find out...either through death and all questions will be answered ( including the ones about extraterrestrial life ) or we will invent a machine, a device that will tell us EXACTLY what to eat.

I forgot to mention that there are many cultures that eat raw meat or raw fish.

Or even live animals (insects), so this makes matters even more complicated.