Are You a Vegetarian?
 

I've created this thread in the interest of learning more about fellow posters. I've noticed the occasional poster mention that they are a vegetarian. I've seen others say they aren't. There should be a thread that can be used as a record of such things.

Feel free to post reasons why you are one way or the other.

No.
My reason is simple; we have pointy teeth for a reason.
Also, I have no moral objections to the fact that something has to be killed to produce meat.

I'm very interested in knowing other reasons that people become vegetarians, though.

nope. i think it would be nice to be one, there are some meats I cannot seem to give up, chicken and pork. I no longer eat red meat though.

Never! I come from a small town and if you didn't eat meat, you didn't eat at all! You wouldn't be supporting the local cattle industry if you didn't eat meat! Or deer meat or moose meat, or partridge etc.

Besides, I could never stop eating steak and burgers. Man, I love meat! Chicken too!

Save cows, eat vegetarians...with a 2000 Chateau Lynch Bages Pauillac and maybe a little Café de Paris sauce and possibly a hint of oregano. For dessert, Republican, served with bumbleberry sauce.

No, vegetables are disgusting and I never eat them.

PiccoloNamek, I thought you said vegetarians were disgusting and never eat them. You'll want to thank ionuk tomb for that...

Seriously though, you don't eat any vegetables? Just fruits? I mean, what is your diet then?

I eat a lot of chicken and shrimp, and a lot of wheat-based foods, and probably way too much pizza. I don't eat a whole lot of fruit, actually, although I like most fruits.

Cool. I personally LOVE shrimp as well, but I usually don't get to have it often unless I am with my brother in law. I am not much for seafood overall, mostly because of the fact I live in the middle of the North American continent. But I have Lake fish on occasion, especially during the summer.

Nope. I'm not a vegetarian. I like vegetables, but I couldn't eat them all the time, I like to have meat in my meals. I don't eat chicken though, it doesn't agree with me.

Yep, I'm one of those people who defies natural law and our biological make-up by abstaining from meat. I'm not strictly vegetarian (vegan), though; I still love eggs, milk, and especially cheese. I stopped eating meat in March after deciding that I shouldn't contribute to the mistreatment of animals if I can get my nutrients from somewhere else. Don't get me wrong, though: I don't go around calling meat eaters killers or anything. Some people like to eat meat and that's fine with me.

I accidentally answered "no" to the poll, but I am a vegetarian. I have no major ethical reasons, I just found that over a period of time, I came to prefer to avoid meat. It then turned into a habit, and I found other things to replace the meat in my diet, and I am not so habituated to my current diet that I couldn't imagine anything else.

Yummy: Shrimp Scampi.

Anyway i'm not a vegetarian. A few reasons.
1. I grew up loving tenderloin, ribeye, and many cuts of beef pork and chicken.
2. I absolutly hate vegetables. Except for some like broccoli(only the leafy part the stems are disgusting) green beans, ocra, corn, peas.
3. I could never give up meat.

And I don't eat fruits of any kind. No fruit in my diet. I get all the fruits I want from juices.

So you can't say i'm fruity.

No, I'm not a vegetarian, and I have my mind set on never being one.

The idea of no meat just doesn't sound appealing. I mean steak. STEAK!!!


Plus salads are only awesome when they have some sort of meat in it - bacon bits, chicken, etc.

Bacon bits in salad are usually soy, in my experience. It is very strange to me, that quite a few meat-flavoured products you will find on the shelf in a Wal*Mart are entirely suitable for vegetarians, while an equal number of non meat-flavoured products are unsuitable, due to containing animal products, such as rennet or gelatin.

That's of no relevance to you, of course. I simply find it amusing.

It's quite a coincidence that I just saw this thread moments after my cousin came into my house after coming back from an F.F.A. awards dinner in Indianapolis. He brought me a nice gift...

http://i41.photobucket.com/albums/e2...arianshirt.jpg

So no... I'm a carnivore. I like my vegetables just fine but if I lost meat in my diet you may as well bury me alive. Nothing, and I do mean nothing, tastes better than a bleeding-rare ribeye steak on a sunny day. :D

Really?

I always eat the Hormel bacon bits which are suppose to be made with "100% Real Bacon."

So unless they'll lying to me...

although I eat chick peas daily, there's no way i would become vegetarian. An equivalent amount of protein in peas and in a steak surely don't give out as much energy... right? Anway, I just love meat:biggrin:

Not all of 'em are fake, but of the ones I've seen readily available in our local stores, both brands are So. Sorry if I gave the impression that they are always soy.

I probably could go vegetarian with little problem, except I really like chicken and enjoy my hamburgers. But really, I despise steak and am rather fond of tofu. I even drink soymilk for no particular reason, other than it tastes good to me.

Um, I don't know if you can call me a vegetarian. I don't eat any meat, but I will eat dairy, eggs, and seafood. I don't really have any moral or ethical values for it. One day my friend asked me if I would give up meat with her. I said sure what the hell, she gave up after about a week or so and I continued and stuck with it.

Makes it easier to order stuff when you go out to eat. I don't miss meat much, except maybe bacon. I'd think about a hotdog with bacon wrapped around it and onions on top and just die for a bit. I found imitation bacon which isn't the same, but you get used to all the substitutes.

Im not a vegetarian. Just the thought of a juicy 12oz steak sitting on my plate makes me wanna burn miles of farm land.

If veggies are so good then why is the side salad optional?

Because in a real steak restaurant, the damn steak is usually so huge that you're lucky if you have room for a sprig of parsley. Next question?

That does sound pretty delicious right about now.

Nay to vegetarian. In fact, I'm in the same burrito as PiccoloNamek: vegetables are disgusting and I'll never eat them. Well, I'll eat the "easy" ones that come with sandwiches or in burritos (corn, lettuce, tomato, ...) but I'll avoid pickles and onions. Chicken, shrimp, pizza, rice, fries, shrimp, etc.: yum.

Nope. I don't even know if I want to think about life without meat. I hardly ever eat vegetables save for some ceasar salad. So vegetarian is a no-no for me.

Not a vegetarian.
Meat is way too delicious to give up, and has proteins or whatever all that is that you'd have to eat a ton of vegetables to come up with an equivalent amount of. I also have the viewpoint that refusing to eat the animals doesn't make a difference to the actual amount that are already in food form regardless of whether one chooses to eat them or not (not that I hate vegetarians or anything).

Yes yes i am also whats up to all vegetarian buddies on GFF pm me for secret vegetarian crew meetup.

God said I could.

No, I was raised with meat, and I couldn't really imagine giving it up. I don't think I would be disciplined enough to properly replace the missing nutrients either. I still love fruits and veggies though. With some exceptions, of course :)

vegetarian-sadly missing out on the sweet taste of life.

As outdated as it is, my diet looks sorta like the food pyramid. Only with less bread-stuffs and more meat, fruit, and (green!) veggies. I'm the vegetarian's worst nightmare. I eat something like 250g of protein a day. Whatever you've all heard, there's nothing wrong with red meat. The natural, grass-fed variety is full of omega-3's. My cholesterol is in the 130's, and I eat well over the recommended values for saturated fat and cholesterol. The one thing I tend to stay away from is pork; its nutrition value is pretty low. I indulge in the occasional sausage or canadian bacon (which is actually very lean), and for all the time in between it tastes that much better.

I'm a post-modern vegetarian; I eat meat ironically...

Nah, I eat fish but that's about it. I've never really liked meat that much so it doesn't bother me, and I probably would go fully vegetarian if I didn't love seafood so much. I can't even remember why; I think I was guilt-tripped into it by a protest in my city at the time when they were handing out pamphlets. I never went back to eating meat after that and it doesn't appeal to me anymore either.

EDIT: Actually the other night the rare steak my brother made is possibly the most tempted I've been to eat meat in about 3 years now. God, it looked gorgeous, and I've never even had steak before.

I'm not a vegetarian right now, although I was functionally so for a long time for economic reasons. Even meat bought in bulk and on sale isn't as cheap as a few bags of lentils and some tofu. I got pretty good at lentils. (Meat in bulk for cheap was pretty tempting sometimes but I didn't have a freezer and there was only one of me, so it wasn't really possible.)

I've been meating vegetarian dishes... Oh, crap. I mean I've been *eating* vegetarian meals for dinner for a long time. My mom just tends to make more vegetarian based dinners. I don't get meat often around the house, but if I was threatened into it, I could probably go vegetarian. I love most vegetables. Because of this habit of eating in the way I was raised, I'm often craving a juicy steak.

I got into a discussion with one of my vegetarian friends a while back, and she pointed out to me how disgusting it was to her that non-vegetarians eat meat from the bone. I could understand that point of view, but I also find it funny in retrospect because the bone has that unique bone-flavor.

I'm not a vegetarian either. I love fruits and vegetables though, but I don't think I can manage a lifestyle where I exclude meat from my diet. (Although it probably would be good if I do cut some from my diet; meat tends to be fatty, and my cholesterol must be through the roof!)

I don't think there's anything wrong with being a vegetarian. There are some branches of vegetarianism I don't really understand (like, it's ok to eat fish, even though they're alive with nerve endings? ), but I don't think it's that big of a deal.

Resident vegatarian along with pom. I started being a vegetarian out of a whim and it will be out of whim I will start eating meat again. I just wanted to try it out and thats really my only reason. I thought it would be hard without meat, but its easier than you think.

Hay GFF.

No, I'm not a vegetarian. I, for myself, actually like eating meat alot. Especially stake, chicken, meatballs, etc. I also eat vegetables alot, too. But I eat more meat than I eat vegetables, thus me not being a vegetarian.

hmm I love red meat, fish, chicken.... what's more... I hate veggies... guess I'll never become like spiderman... that dick said "eat your vegetables"! I WANT POWERS TOO!

i like veggies sometimes but no i'm not vegetarian .. no way i'd be
i love meat ! why should i deny myself from such a joy ! :)

No, but interestingly enough i was raised vegetarian. At about the age of 12 i decided to switch, which has since made for an interesting situation, as i am now living with four vegetarians.

Half the time i do eat vegetarian, but i'm used to it.

although I enjoy my vegetables, I am not a vegetarian. it's eat or be eaten, besides, the last vegetarian I knew got eaten by a lion on a trip to africa, *gleaming with sarcasm*

I believe God put animals on this Earth so we can eat them.

Carrots don't have feelings.

No, no. I am not a vegetarian, but making sure that I have not previously made its acquaintance--whilst it was still living, of course--is very important to me. My dinner and I, ideally, should not engage in conversation.

By no leaps and bound am I a vegitarian. There's just that feeling you get when you get into a nice dont steak with the works...nothing will replace that. And a a reponse to those veggie eaters..don't carrots have feelings too? They respect life after all, so...

I have nothing against vegetarians and vegans, but without meat the humankind couldn't build pyramides, cathedrals, skyscrappers. I can't imagine miners, farmers, all physical workers to survive without energy from meat.

Nope.

I love food, and I can't see myself eating just meat or just vegetables and fruit. I love how when the meat and the vegetables are in a dish, they compliment each other. I don't know how people do it, but some people can just eat steak. Now if I eat steak, I need rice, vegetables, or something... otherwise it would be too plain. Well more food is better so I'd be happy with steak, rice, and veggies.

It is cruel that we slaughter animals to eat them, but I feel that it is worse if you do that and waste the whole animal.

My cousin became a vegetarian, and I don't know how he does it. It must be difficult because his mother cooks a lot of dishes with meat in them.

.............................

I'm not a vegetarian basically because it would limit the food that I can eat. I'm usually short on money, so I pretty much eat anything that I can get my hands on. "Beggers can't be choosers". Plus, I like to eat new foods. I would think being a vegan would be boring.

I did it for a year and a half while I was in High School.

Currently, no.

Sashimi and sushi is just too yummy to pass up, boyfriend's grandmother's carne asada are just so delicious it's just plain rude to resist, and I found that I can cook steaks and chicken breast fairly well to anything edible and for safe consumption (that's assuming, no puking).

However, I do prefer 60% veggies + 25% meat and 15% carbs in a meal; seems like the best balance for me. I love veggies.

I sometimes enjoy meals without meat. It quickly gets stale after awhile though - because my meals would then comprise of nothing but beans, tofu, and vegetables. You can spice it up all you want, but I somehow still find the need to eat meat strong. Especially if everyone around me is eating meat... Really can't pass it up.

NEVER! i love meat! there's no way you can make me NOT eat meat. sure i'll eat tofu, but there's no way i'm eating Vegi-dogs, tofu-dogs, vegi-burgers, or whatever other meat replacement there is. i don't even consider SPAM meat. icky! :><:

I'm not a vegetarian. But my meals usually don't have meat anyway. :p

I'm a meat eater! I love meat, I love its texture and it's taste. I can't imagine not being able to tuck into a big juicy burger at T.G.I. Fridays. I've got nothing against veggies though and i do like quorn but it doesn't come close to the real thing. At all. Plus I'm not that keen on many vegtables. I only like Potatoes, Carrots, Peas and Green beans.

Nope. I was gonna try to be a vegetarian a couple years back, but.. that didn't work so well when Thanksgiving came. I wanted that TURKEY!! So.. I ate it..

Yes,Im a vegetarian and a strict one at that. I've been a vegetarian since I was 8 years old. My reason to becoming one was because I can't stand the thought of killing animals or eating animals. Huge animal lover. ^__^ People ask me if I ever get cravings for meat. Truth is I don't even remember what it tastes like and don't want to re-find out.

i'm a carnivore... meat meat meat :D

i hardly eat vegetables because imo they taste like crap (well... cesar salad is not bad...)

i do eat fruits though.... sometimes....

I'm a quasi-vegetarian at the moment. At the noon I will usually eat only vegetables. I eat tempeh as meat substitute, it's as good as meat, and it's healthier!

At the night I usually eat meat, because I'm sure my body still needs fat. =)

I'm no Vegi. I reckon it would be unhealthy not eating anything like meat or extra fatty foods. It is the food chain.

-Billy.

I think that being a vegetarian is a lot harder than being an ordinary carnivore. I have a friend that's vegetarian and she's sick all the time. She doesn't nourish herself and is anemic. She needs protein supplements to keep her active or she'll be lethargic all day...and for what?

She's probably not eating a balanced diet. Eating a vegetarian diet is healthy, contrary to what most carnivores think. You know you can still eat meat and be unhealthy. :/ It all depends on how you go about your diet.

Um, human teeth were adapted, that's right, to eating plant materials. The incisors were used for cutting through these materials, and foods such as nuts. Our teeth and jaws aren't really structured for a carnivorous diet. Also, the fact that our intestines are a few times longer than the typical carnivore, and that our digestive acids are weaker than that of a carnivore's suggests that we were meant to eat predominantly a plant based diet.

what

Yeah, I'm vegetarian. I don't enjoy consuming animals, nor do I like the taste (aside from chicken. And bacon). But I haven't touched meat in two years. I still eat cheese, eggs and honey. I'll never be a vegan, but that's alright with me. I don't care that others choose to eat meat. It's their choice.

I find a vegetarian diet too hard to follow, not to mention a little expensive.

There is no way I could ever live without meat.
Yeah I'll have meals that have no meat what so ever in them but damn the best thing to sink my teeth into is a nice steak or chicken breast. Nummy ^^

Being a bodybuilder means eating tons of complete proteins, which mostly come from animal sources. Have you seen how vegans look? They look like walking corpses. I'm sorry if that offends anyone, but it's true. BTW, you better have a damn good reason to become a vegan other than 'health' reasons. Most vegans choose that life style because of their beliefs, not health implications. You can lead a very healthy lifestyle eating certain types of meats, even then, you still need a healthy dose of natural saturated fats to keep the libido strong.

Actually, I know a couple really, really fat vegan chicks.

One of my best friends is a vegetarian, and she's huge.

I know when my friend Sarah went Vegan, she became skin and bones and was as white as a ghost.

I'd say that was mostly from her not being able to afford the Vegan lifestyle. Broke, broke, broke.

But yea, I'd never go vegetarian. I love me some steak. I've been challenged to do it, but I think it's a challenge which would be met with more difficulty than quitting smoking. ^_^

They probably haven't been in the game that long. But when you deprive your body of complete proteins for long, and don't eat enough like most vegans do, then your body slowly starts eating itself away.

I'm not a vegetarian, but I don't eat a lot of meat either. But, I still chose "No" as my vote.

rambo guy eats [ in real life] only one red meat dinner a week.
That's what I read.

I am not a vegetarian. I'm not one of those heartless human omnivores that don't care at all about animals and really just don't give a shit about anything but themselves, but animals just taste too good to do anything rash (like become a vegaterian) about it. I do think there are some things we can do to make the meat industry more humane.

I'm an ovo-lacto vegetarian. I became one because I disliked the way the animals were killed in slaughter houses. I dont think It really matters if you are one or not. If you want to eat meat, then eat it. It just annoys me when people insult you for your decisions. I dont actually really miss meat. except for jello and marshmallows. (gelatin)

Vegan, halla

Did you jsut cram a bucnh of "latin-y" suonding roots together and decide that made you more special or what?

I'm pretty much of the opinio that people who get weepy about meat are closet transsexual furries, genrally speaking.

They have the whole need for attention thing pretty down pat anyawy. Just sayin'. Also the hormonal imbalance which would cause such wild emotions about meat.

Especiallky because in the long run, you're making my steak more expenseive.

No, I am not a vegetable killer.

Nope, I love chicken too much to be a vegetarian

Depends on how strict you are whith your terms. I’m a nutritional and dietetics student and eat a plant-based whole foods plant-based diet which is for the most part , as in my everyday diet, is vegetarian and pretty close to vegan (if you count honey as vegan it is if not it’s not), however if you take a highly militant definition of the previous veg*n terms then no I’m not either of them. My reasons are health reasons; (*flashes leather coat* I really don’t care if you kill the animals only if you eat too much of them) which is also the reason I don’t like to use the term vegan or vegetarian to describe myself, strict adherences to these terms tend to miss the point from a nutritional perspective.

Now I’ve heard most of the in this thread all before: the unjustified obsession with complete protein, vegans meet and exceed protein requirements this is the official position of the American and Canadian Dietetics associations; people quoting an example of a sick vegan as if that where a representative sample, although most every study finds that vegans are healthier then the average non-vegetarian; but the one thing about this topic that annoys me to no end is this:

Why on Earth does everyone think being a vegetarian is more expensive than being a meat eater?
Apparently, this may comes as a surprise but being a vegetarian is much cheaper than being a meat eater I repeat being a vegetarian is cheaper, cost less, will save you money, is actually one of the reasons I have little desire to go back to meat eating.

Let’s think about this logically to create vegetarian food like say corn you must take land plant seeds water it fertilize it etc, let label all of these things as X. Now to create meat you must take an animal, and raise it till you can slaughter it this includes antibotics, water, cages etc lets label these things Y. One thing I intentional left out is you must feed the animal food (usually corn in modern farming practices) in other words X above. Now explain to me how the value of X+Y (the cost to raise animals for meat) can be less than the value of X (cost to farm plants) alone when X and Y are both positive integers. This ideal of vegtrainisum being more expensive simply does not make since, when you think about the amount of resources poured into making meat.* However let us look straight at the bottom line, look at link below it gives quite a good break down of how a vegan diet is much cheaper including the price of common foods. The McDougall Newsletter - Cutting Food Costs

*I know I am oversimplifying the agricultural system a bit; the subsidy system for example comes in helps blunt the real cost of meat production but the point remains valid. Meat is an inherently inefficient means of food production you have to give energy (calories) in order to raise the animal to the age of slaughter where it meat will inevitably yield less energy (calories) than was used to raise it.

I understand that if you use meat substitutes it can get very expensive but this does not prove that vegetarian diet are more expensive only that fake meat is more expensive then real meat. If you stick to natural whole-foods you can eat for much less on a vegetarian diet.

I do believe the link above proves the point well enough but to further illustrate the point instead of eating beef and barley soup I now eat I eat bean and barely soup a pound of beans (dry) cost less than a pound a beef and is more filling (fiber), all other ingredients in the soup stay the same. When I stopped eating chicken I ate more black beans and brown rice which is again cheaper per pound, more filling and healthier then chicken. A plant-based (aka vegetarian) diet can be a great cost saver if done properly and should be promoted as such especially to low income families, and yet to my bewilderment people cannot seem to figure this out. There is nothing inherently expensive about a vegetarian diet if anything it is meat eating which should be considered inherently expensive as it among other things has the cost of a vegetarian diet (the animals) built into it.