vegetarian diets

[Kelda]

I actually dont mind the smell of meat and sometimes I think it smells good but its never made me think - oh I need to eat that.

Callum (my partner) has a much better diet now that he lives with me and often doesn't eat meat for days at a time, which was very unusual for him, coming from a family which were very much meat eaters. If we go out for a nice dinner in a restaurant he always picks the meat main course!

I find that if i got to a vegetarian restaurant I can't choosee - I'm like - there's too many choices! Too many!

Wow - Katherine - for a 9 - 10 year old boy that really is self diciplined - I can see why you were proud of him for that.

My 4 yo niece has announced - nothing to do with me I might add but she does know I'm a vegetarain and has asked about it before - that she is now a 'vegetabletarian'.  she's very proud od that fact and she wont eat any meaty things at the moment.

She often asks - can a vegtabletarian eat that? And we'll say - well it is meat but you can eat whatever you want - but so far she refuses any meaty things.. shes not got to the stage of refusing yougurts and sweets cos of Gelatine etc though!!

[Brown Eyes]

Throughout most of high school and all of college I was mostly vegetarian (meaning I only ate chicken and fish very rarely... but usually stuck to a purely veggie diet).

And, just this week I've decided to try to go back to that routine.  This has mainly been spurred by the recent beef recall and the horrific videos of animal cruelty that have been on the news so much these last few days.  I can't get those awful images of those poor cows/bulls out of my head.


There's no way I could ever be vegan, but I'm actually excited about the idea of going back to a vegetarian routine.  I hope I have the discipline to keep it up.  I love the flavor of meat and the vast variety of foods available to meat-eaters.  I fell off the veggie-wagon shortly after finishing undergrad college and have eaten meat ever since then (except for veal, which I've always thought was pretty horrific).  So, this will be a big change again for me.  I remember how easy it is to lose the taste for meat, so I'm hoping that will help with the discipline issue.

[Meryl]

I've not eaten red meat since December, and I've had chicken only a couple of times.  So far, so good.  Haven't missed them very much.  I still crave butter and cheese, though. 

[Brown Eyes]

I've not eaten red meat since December, and I've had chicken only a couple of times.  So far, so good.  Haven't missed them very much.  I still crave butter and cheese, though. 

Meryl, next time we have a visit in NYC we'll have to seek out a cool vegetarian restaurant! 

And, as I said, there's no way I could ever give up dairy.

[serious crayons]

To me, what makes the most sense from an animal-rights standpoint is to eat meat, dairy and eggs that are produced under humane conditions.

My sons and I had a debate about this when my younger son was a vegetarian. My older son pointed out that if fewer people ate meat, more cows wouldn't be living long happy lives -- there would be fewer cows, period. Ranchers are not going to raise them just to be nice. If nobody ate meat (or dairy, or wore leather) the cow population would dwindle to -- what, a handful in zoos?

So then the question becomes, from the cow's point of view, is it better to live, but eventually be killed for meat, or not to live at all? I think when cows (and chickens, pigs, etc.) are raised and slaughtered under the horrible conditions we hear about, they might feel it's better not to live at all. But if they live happily and comfortably, you could argue that you're giving them a chance to experience life.

I know not everybody will see it that way, but it is one way to look at it. The other problem is it's hard to ascertain just how your meat has been raised. I have read that truly cage-free eggs, for instance, are really hard to come by, even though many eggs in the store are labeled as such.

[Brown Eyes]

Well, yes, it's very clear to me that choosing to stop eating meat (for now anyway) is not a perfect solution in terms of an interest in animal rights (especially because I'm not going to stop eating dairy/eggs and I'll still wear leather).  As with many environmental-type interests and intitiatives there are often pro- and con- consequences to numerous decisions (even when best-intentions are involved).

To me, at the moment, it's more about my emotional response to the food I'm eating.  After watching the news last night I actually threw away some food I had in my freezer that contained meat (none of which was actually recalled as far as I know).  And, clearly that didn't help the cows that had been slaughtered to make that particular food since it was already a done-deal.  But, I just couldn't face eating it.

[serious crayons]

As with many environmental-type interests and intitiatives there are often pro- and con- consequences to numerous decisions (even when best-intentions are involved).

Yeah, it gets so complicated. For instance, I just read an article about how difficult it is to analyze the carbon impact of food. You'd think eating locally would be the best choice, but it isn't always -- sometimes food raised more efficiently can be less environmentally harmful, even if it has to be shipped halfway around the world.

So I think you're right that the best thing to do is go with your emotional response in a way that makes sense to you and hope for the best! I'm sure at least making an effort is going to have some positive impact.

[serious crayons]

Surely they are here for their own benefit and not for ours.  I know, I know, survival of the fittest, but still.  It is hard for me to accept that our superior intelligence is reason enough for us to be able to dominate animals and use them solely for our benefit or nourishment.

Well, animals at every level of intelligence use other animals for nourishment. What makes us different is not that we do eat meat but that our biology and intelligence allows us to choose not to.

Of course, I am such a softy that I will not even kill a bug in my house.

Me neither. But then, I'd rather eat a hamburger than kill a bug.

[Brown Eyes]

One of the hardest things for me in maintaining a veggie lifestyle is that I consider myself something of a foodie... and it's very hard to limit my options by cutting out meat.  I love the taste of meat, so it's not about food preferences for me or even really nutrition/ weight-control.  I think it's important to have food/eating be very pleasurable and enriching (both in terms of experience and nutrition). I know that there are good vegetarian cookbooks, recipes and restaurants.  But, in my past experience I know those things are never quite the same. So, I'm going into this new decision knowing that it probably will really be a phase for me.  I dated a vegan once and it was just so hard dealing with food and things like going out to dinner and even finding coffeehouses that had pastries that she could eat. She was a vegan entirely out of an animal-rights stance... she's a serious animal rights activist and is active in a couple pretty serious groups about that.  But, it made food entirely a chore for her and it was sort of unpleasant to be around sometimes.  I remember feeling like the food-as-chore aspect of maintaining her vegan diet was somewhat demoralizing.

But, I'm still going to give the vegetarian idea a try for now and see how it goes.

[brokeplex]

Well, animals at every level of intelligence use other animals for nourishment.

What makes us different is not that we do eat meat but that our biology and intelligence allows us to choose not to.

Because humans evolved as omnivores they can choose a mix of  diets, but the most complete protein is animal protein. Humans are the most succesful predators on this planet and therefore within reason can modify the environment to suit their needs. But, does that mean that this choice is preordainded?

If we wish to convert to vegetarianism wholesale, then much of the crop land now used to raise grains to feed livestock or increasingly turned into biofuels will have to be turned over to other grains and legumes. Maybe a change in diet is a more efficient manner of solving our energy and resource problems? We could also try more effectively limiting the Earth's population.