Hello, and thanks for thinking about becoming a vegetarian. I understand what you're feeling... I was like that at first until I realized there was a lot I didn't know. My main reasons for becoming a vegetarian were health reasons....

Meat DOESN'T fully digest in your tummy. John Wayne died of colon cancer and had 44lbs of undigestible crap in his colon/stomach/intestines

Dairy and slaughter cows, chickens, fish, pigs, and every other meat we eat are pumped full of antibiotics to treat and prevent disease because they are forced to live in their own filth. We consume a lot of those antibiotics by eating those cows and drinking their milk that it can even affect the way we react OR DON'T react to the same antibiotics given to us when we are sick.

Most to all milk and meat have the groth hormone rBST in it/them, because they are given to the animals to produce more meat/milk. The poor dairy cows then walk around with their utters dragging on the ground because they overproduce and under-milk. (plus, I don't feel like taking groth hormones if I dont have to)

Even if we were meant to eat meat, we were meant to eat meat that was free of disease, free of homones, and free of cruelty. If all the tap water in the world was polluted, I would never drink tap water again. I would drink the substitute "bottled water." Therefore, since it is my belief that most meat/dairy products are polluted, (a lot of milk can be found to have cow piss) I choose to eat Gardenburgers and drink soymilk. :)

A lot of disease to my own body can be prevented mostly if not totally by not eating meat or eggs and not drinking/eating dairy... Salmonilla, ecoli, mad cow disease.... Cancer is reduced 40% just by not consuming meat.

Then, after I became vegetarian, I learned a lot more about how animals raised for food are kept and treated. I watched the videos at www.peta.org and cried. As for me, I am completely happy cutting out meat from my diet. I save at least 95 lives a year. ( I think I ate more meat than that) Everyone has to make their own decisions. Don't let anyone make this one for you. My best advice is to become educated first, then make your own educated choice. If you feel no different than you do now, don't do it. But just by seeking out this site, you have made your first step. I do encourage you to cut out meat for your health, but keep in mind you have to do it for yourself and no one else, because there would be no point in doing something you don't believe in. You can PM me anytime, I can be here to help you! Good luck! :)

I don't know about you, but when I see clear-cut "destoyed" land, I feel my heart break; when I see a slaughtered "destroyed" pig, I feel a hole in my chest; if I squish and "destroy" a snail when walking, I honestly hurt for it and apologise. But for every ying there is a yang (er, you know what I mean :p). I feel exuberant when I am hiking through woods that haven't been touched by a saw in years. I feel overcome with joy when I see my friend's new baby boy only a few hours old. I feel accomplishment when I complete a poem or story I am working on. Just as there is hate, there is love; just as there is destruction, there is creation.


I know that while my life is far from perfect, I am doing the best I can each and every day for myself, for the environment, for non-human animals, for the future. I will not sacrifice one for another, but will move forward as one whole.

BTW, Kimberly, that was beautiful. It should be a famous quote....:p

Eating meat can be healthy (shock, horror!), both can be unhealthy for us.

So long as it's not all you're eating.

Vgetarianism is hardly self-indulgent, but just the opposite as it benefits the many.

"Poor subsistance farmers have to slaughter and eat their livestock, their survival and their children's survival depends upon it."

They would have much more food raising grains and veggies rather than feeding them to an animal and slaughtering it.

like it's been stated before, not all veg*ns go veggie for politcal reasons, we're a fairly diverse group.
If you want go vegetarian, even just to try it for a month, or a week, or a day, go for it. There's no reason why there needs to be politcal motivation behind your choice.

I found that my reasons changed. Initially, I went veggie for health reasons, sort of. I started reading about all of the antibiotics and other stuff that they inject cows, chickens and pigs with prior to slaughter. I started to wonder if it was such a good idea to be eating that sort of thing.
As I read more about modern farming practices and really started to think about what I was and was not seeing on my trips back home (I grew up in rural Indiana), my reasons changed.
We keep livestock in conditions that would send the public into a blind rage if the animals were cats and dogs and not cows and chickens (and yes, I've seen these conditions first hand). Once I asked myself the question: "so what's the difference, really?" I knew I really couldn't go back to eating meat.
Keep in mind that I have no problem with small scale organic farms, but since I'm not always in a position to choose between them and large scale factory farms, I just stay away from all of it.

I became a vegan after i saw some pigs forced out of the back of a truck and one of them had a full rectal prolapse from being so tightly packed.

The thing that turns me off about vegetarians is that the whole lifestyle seems very self indulgent. When you make the decision to be a vegetarian it means that you have decided that the best lifestyle a person can lead is a meatless one. However, billions of people simply don't have that kind of luxory. Poor subsistance farmers have to slaughter and eat their livestock, their survival and their children's survival depends upon it.
True some people don't have the luxury but some of us do just because someone has something you have doesn't mean you have to have it too. Some people have a car I don't.
Then there is the fact that humans are made to eat other animals. We have canines designed to dig into flesh. Our stomachs can digest meat protiens and have for thousands of years.
We can eat soap and paper. This doesn't mean we have to or should.
Also, by its very nature, existance is destructive. Every day we are alive we kill millions of micro-organisms, swat flies, cut down trees to build houses. The only way to avoid killing other things is to stand still and just die. I know it's possible to say that a cow and a microbe are completely different things, but does it really matter? Life is life, and philosophically speaking, our human existence is extremely destructive whether or not we choose to make it so. In fact, the atoms and molecules in my body are little bits and pieces of the earth that could have gone into creating other animals, but instead, they are a part of me, and as long as I am alive, nothing can be made out of my bits and pieces.
True. We say that a 10 dollar bill is worth 2 five dollars bills. They are just sheets of paper that we give monetary value. Most people would say a dog/cat/human would place more value than 2 flies.
That being said, I still am reluctant to continue eating meat. I could not kill a cow. I don't know if this is because I have lived a sheltered and spoiled life, or if it is for some other reason.
You don't have to force yourself to eat meat.
My question then, is what everyone's reasoning behind becoming a vegetarian is. I'm not looking for "animals are cute and I feel a special connection" type answers. For me, that simply isnt's satisfying enough. I am very interested in philosophy and think that all good actions require good reasons, so, if anybody has some, I'd appreciate to hear them.
There are a number of reasons a lot are health, environmental, spiritual,ethical, dislike of meat, animal rights. Also welcome to VB.

The thing that turns me off about vegetarians is that the whole lifestyle seems very self indulgent.

I see it as exactly the opposite. I make sacrifices because I care about something outside of my own self.

When you make the decision to be a vegetarian it means that you have decided that the best lifestyle a person can lead is a meatless one.

Generalization based on opinion, and not true for myself (and many other veg*ns, I'm guessing). The best lifestyle I can lead is a meatless one. I have no opinion regarding the lifestyle of others.

Poor subsistance farmers have to slaughter and eat their livestock, their survival and their children's survival depends upon it.

As someone already pointed out... most poor farmers don't have a lot of livestock because of the food/water required to keep them. Anyway... as I already mentioned... everyone else can do whatever they want. I pass no judgment.

Then there is the fact that humans are made to eat other animals. We have canines designed to dig into flesh. Our stomachs can digest meat protiens and have for thousands of years.

Following this same logic, humans are capable of eating other humans--in fact, this type of meal is common in some cultures. But I'm not about to start grilling up the neighbor kids for dinner.

Also, by its very nature, existance is destructive. Every day we are alive we kill millions of micro-organisms, swat flies, cut down trees to build houses. The only way to avoid killing other things is to stand still and just die.

I don't think you'll find any veg*n who believes it's possible to be 100% pure. In general, we do what we can to make whatever difference is possible. If you're on a raft surrounded by 100 drowning children, but you can only save 50 of them, do you say f*** it and leave them ALL to drown? Of course not. You save what you can.


One final note: Your arguments for eating meat are basically that--about eating meat. But what about meat production? The inhumane treatment of factory farmed animals is nothing like the "happy cow" commercials.

Whether or not humans are capable of eating meat is irrelevant. What matters is that common meat production in most of Western civilization involves inhumane confinement and slaughter.

That being said, I still am reluctant to continue eating meat. I could not kill a cow. I don't know if this is because I have lived a sheltered and spoiled life, or if it is for some other reason.

That, right there is enough reasoning to become a vegetarian.

I became a veggie and then a vegan mostly because of my dislike for meat's taste, as well as a great chance of developing heart disease or having a heart attack due to my family's medical history. (Coincidentally, that part of the family is German, whom i'm pretty sure comsume more meat than Americans and probably have one of the most unhealthy diets in the world, without fried or fast foods like Americans do.)
Also, before I was vegetarian, the only types of meat I would eat were turkey, and chicken, and reluctantly beef and pork... the only seafood I ate was clams and crabs. (How odd it is to even talk about that now.)
I never touched veal, lamb, duck or any type of seafood other than that. I could not see myself consuming young calves or sheep or fish that I used to look at through aquarium windows (I decided this probably around age 7 or so). Then when I was 11, I really began to think about this. If I won't eat a young cow, why would I eat an older one? It made no sense to me, so from then on I decided to become a vegetarian, although I was unable to do so until I was 14 because my parents thought I was just going through a phase and wouldn't let me. Obviously, they were wrong.


Oh and if you do decide to become vegetarian, don't let yourself be subject to the criticsm that comes with being both a vegetarian and a Republican.
I don't mean to stereotype, but most veg*ns I know are liberals (unfortunatly those 'indie-crats' and 'emo-crats' you refer to) and that is really unfortunate because I always get pulled into stupid arguments about the stereotype... not to mention that I have yet to find another conservative veggie other than myself!

My vegetarianism is out of both health and ethical reasoning. Personally, I feel little connection to animals. My reasoning is simply that I feel that if the opportunity to exist without taking the lives of others to is attainable, I see little reason to proceed any other way.
Not only this, but health concerns. It is a commonly known fact that cholesterol is present only in animal products, and in nearly every case of high cholesterol in a human body, it is the result of an excess in consumption of animal-derived products. The vegetarian diet in it's strictest forms is completely free of external sources of cholesterol. Additionally, it seems that the fats obtained through non-animal foods are generally less composed of the saturated fat component, and usually of the far healthier variety, unsaturated fats.
In any case, I acknowledge that in many cultures meat and animal products are the established norm, and calorically it is much easier to meet the needs of an individual through the use of meat than of most vegetables. Animals also seem to be more resilient as organisms than plants, and are often far easier to produce and maintain than the diversity of plants needed to obtain adequate nutrition. With the current economic state of some countries, I believe that the consumption of meat is a necessity to sustain life for certain populations. I also believe that optimally, the portion of the human race more economically advantaged should strive to bring these less fortunate to a greater state of economic being, and through this, a more universal vegetarian style of diet could be adopted.

>I'm a young Republican, so I'm not thinking about this simply because I'm part of the recent wave of young indie-crats and emo-crats that pretend to have an interest in politics and the earth, but do little about it except attend protests. If I'm offending anyone, sorry, but I guess you know who you are.


Given your above wording I am not so certain that offense wasn't the intention of your post.

My initial reasoning for becoming a vegan was the health benefits associated with eliminating animal fats from my diet.

But I am also deeply concerned about the social costs we are burdened by when we consume meat. I say this as a person who once raised (and not so long ago) hogs and cattle on my farm in Iowa; we can ALL eat better if meat is not the focus of our diet.

I don't understand the self-indulgent comment. We have chosen to give up something not indulge in something. For me its meant a complete change of career. I was an executive chef cooking fois and veal. I couldn't do that anymore and I've taken a huge paycut because of it. But I don't care. It was the right thing to do.

Leaving a light footprint on the planet is the best thing we can do for our future. Bike, walk, use public transportation (I bike 90% of the time now)...eat lower on the food chain (even if its just a reduction in animal based foods you're doing something to help the planet)...recycle etc etc etc...none of that is self-indulgent.

The teeth issue is laughable really. Look at vegetarian primate teeth.

I became a vegetarian for health reasons. It soon became an animal rights issue (and I quit buying leather). After that it made the logical step to environmental issues. Other than the REAL SELF-INDUGENT REASON of wanting to eat the dead body of a defenseless animal, there is no reason to eat meat.

my reson is pretty simple,
I love animals, I have a number of pets and would have never thought in million years of eating them, yet in other countrys people have no problem eating what we call pets(chow chows were breed for it, and its commen to fish for wild goldfish in china) people in other countrys eat bugs and snails and a number of what weasterners think is odd, I think that for someone to eat a cow and say it tastes good but refuse to eat a grasshopper simply cuz its a bug is stupid, animal are animals they were all at one time alive and if you don't eat one thing you may as well not eat any animal cuz their all the same, who here would eat their own dog? or cat? or gerbel? any animal was once alive breathing with blood pushing threw its veins just like human, we are animals as well so why don't we eat each other? their snakes that feed only on other snakes you know. I beleave their is no differents between us and anyother animal on earth and since few want to eat human why would we want to eat pig? to me its a vary gross idea it USE TO BE alive able to move, no different from you or me.

at first when I was little I said in my mind I would never eat rabbit cuz to me its a pet, but then 7 or 8 months ago it kinda just dawned on me that my grey bunny out in her roomy cage that I spoil so is no different then that pig(who are the first or second(cant remember which) smartest damestacated animal on earth) or that cow or chicken, plus I neve like anything realy mostly before, I ate chicken and turkey and with a little cow but I never did like fish or pig or much of anything else now the idea of that once cute animal slideing down my throt makes me sick,

I'm a young Republican, so I'm not thinking about this simply because I'm part of the recent wave of young indie-crats and emo-crats that pretend to have an interest in politics and the earth, but do little about it except attend protests. If I'm offending anyone, sorry, but I guess you know who you are.



First of all, republicanism and vegetarianism are not related. It is more common for "liberal" people to become vegetarian only because they usually are more open-minded to things that diverge outside the norm. However, my father is a HUGE republican...I mean HUGE...and he absolutely loves my vegan diet. He thinks it's great for me. He's always taken bugs outside and gets more upset when he kills something than I do. However, he will not turn veg. But, he still is pretty supportive and has many attributes of a "liberal environmentalist", although he is not one in the least.

Just remember that generalizations and stereotypes will get you nothing except for a few dirty looks. :D

About going veg, my reasons were animal welfare/health/and the simple fact that animal stuffs have grossed me out since I was a kid, but I couldn't do anything about it. As soon as I was old enough, I did. :D Good luck! And I think you should go veg! Every little bit helps, remember. I mean, if everyone thought "well, I can't make a difference" than nothing would have EVER changed!

Well, just recently I've been wondering if becoming a vegetarian might not be a bad idea.

it's a good idea actually. i like being vegetarian.

I'm a young Republican, so I'm not thinking about this simply because I'm part of the recent wave of young indie-crats and emo-crats that pretend to have an interest in politics and the earth, but do little about it except attend protests. If I'm offending anyone, sorry, but I guess you know who you are.

i'm not offended. generally speaking, i'm more into action (actually doing the work itself) and being politically involved rather than attending protests. I have organized and attended protests, but i'm more politically active at the local and state levels more than anything else.

The thing that turns me off about vegetarians is that the whole lifestyle seems very self indulgent. When you make the decision to be a vegetarian it means that you have decided that the best lifestyle a person can lead is a meatless one. However, billions of people simply don't have that kind of luxory. Poor subsistance farmers have to slaughter and eat their livestock, their survival and their children's survival depends upon it.

i suppose, then, that i don't have the 'whole lifestyle.' I am vegetarian, but i do not think or believe that everyone should be or needs to be vegetarian--or even can be vegetarian. I have no problem with other people making different choices than mine. Why they make those choices is often important to me--to see where our commonality is in regards to various animal, social, and environmental issues.

but, i'm a big fan of sustainable farming (and i know a lot of wealthy people who live sustainable lifestyles too).

Then there is the fact that humans are made to eat other animals. We have canines designed to dig into flesh. Our stomachs can digest meat protiens and have for thousands of years.

we are omnivores. this means that we are capable of eating any number of foods to survive. our bodies are adaptable. it may be noted that some bodies are well adapted to certain foods. a look at inuit diets shows that they are well adapted to eating a large quantity of whale fat and meat, but not so much on the veggie side. so, perhaps for them it is a healthier diet. Similarly, other cultures are largely vegetarian--so apparently our bodies can handle that too.

humans have a choice as to what they eat--it's not just mirrored by biology. my rabbit, october j, he couldn't survive as a carnivore or as an omnivore--meat and even dairy products and egg products would overtax his system. His biology dictates his eating habits. A carnivorous animal has the same problem. but an omnivore--particularly a thinking omnivore like ourselves--we have a choice. We can live according to ideas or values, rather than according to strict biology.

Also, by its very nature, existance is destructive. Every day we are alive we kill millions of micro-organisms, swat flies, cut down trees to build houses. The only way to avoid killing other things is to stand still and just die. I know it's possible to say that a cow and a microbe are completely different things, but does it really matter? Life is life, and philosophically speaking, our human existence is extremely destructive whether or not we choose to make it so. In fact, the atoms and molecules in my body are little bits and pieces of the earth that could have gone into creating other animals, but instead, they are a part of me, and as long as I am alive, nothing can be made out of my bits and pieces.

it is true that life is about destruction; it's also about creation. There is also a matter of what we can avoid and what we can't avoid. We can avoid killing a cow for meat. We can't necessarily avoid killing a cow that wanders onto a dark roadway when we are driving. In the first case, we're looking at something that we consciously do in order to gain food. In the second, we're looking at the accidental death of an animal--there's no intent. COllateral deaths are often non-intentional (sometimes not, it is debatable).

We can decrease the amount of destruction that we do overall. If a person chooses to eat meat, choosing from sources that are least harmful in both the raising and the slaughtering aspects is probably a better choice than 'chuck it all, i'm just going to eat meat." if a person wants to forgo killing animals for food, then this is just another step in that direction.

certainly, it's not about avoiding everything--just avoiding what you can.

That being said, I still am reluctant to continue eating meat. I could not kill a cow. I don't know if this is because I have lived a sheltered and spoiled life, or if it is for some other reason.

this is definately something worth contemplating on your part. understanding why you want to do something will help you successfully do it.

My question then, is what everyone's reasoning behind becoming a vegetarian is. I'm not looking for "animals are cute and I feel a special connection" type answers. For me, that simply isnt's satisfying enough. I am very interested in philosophy and think that all good actions require good reasons, so, if anybody has some, I'd appreciate to hear them.

i also recommend what others have said about searching for threads about 'why i'm vegetarian." i've written into a number of them what my reasons are, and throughout the last 5 years, those reasons have changed and been nuanced based on my experience and self knowledge.

simply, i'm vegetarian because i want to be. i have spiritual and philosophical reasons, as well as social/political, environmental, and animal welfare reasons.

The young indi-crats and so on have been around since before I was born and I am 45 years old. When I was a kid there were vegitarians who picked garbage up from empty lots. There were people who lived alternative earth based lifestyles. If they protested they protested because many things needed to be changed. The pollution at the time was far worse than it is today. You have cleaner air and drinking water because of these environmentalists. I don't think really young people understand that this has been going on for a long time. It is because of supply and demand that restaurants have vegan options and stores carry soy food, and stores like "Wild Oats" exist, and Wally World carrys "organic" milk and cruelty free (supposedly) eggs. There is money to be made in organic, and pesticide-free food because many people are intrested in the poisons which have infected the food chain in the past are saying no-way. When you have babys born who cannot drink their mother's milk because of the pesticide residue in the milk, there is too much. I'd pay 20 cents more for something if I felt it would save me from an agonising death and hundreds of thousands of dollars in medical expenses. If it is selfish and self-centered to care whether you suffer from some chronic toxic syndrome, then of course you can eat what you want.

I personally believe that compassion is the highest human virtue--and I really don't care how a person awakened to it. In these days our young people have seen far more death and destruction than anyone in my generation, and it is easy to become inured to it and desensithised. If a person sat up one day and realised that they are the cause of some of the worlds pain and sought a way to lessen that pain then I would say they were good people, and will possibly let this flow into other areas of their life. I don't think there is anything wrong with that, or laughable, or faddish.

like others have previously said, it's wrong to suppose that we are all of the same political mindset. There are all sorts of different people that decide to go veggie, and just as many reasons to go veggie. I find it a little rude, though, that you think loving animals isn't a good enough reason; that instead, we need some sort of profound philosophical reason or something. My love for animals is probably the greatest reason I decided to go vegetarian and then vegan, but it's not the only reason. If this was somebody's only decision, however, that is fine. We are all free to make our own decisions, based on as little or as much reasoning as we have. If you, in the end, decide to go veggie, good for you, and good luck with that. If not, well, at least you considered it, I guess. Either way though, please don't continue to suppose that vegetarianism is a synonym for liberalism. oh, and welcome to vb!

I became a vegitarian because all meats give me heavy diareea. And because i went to a slaughterhouse and... well... it's very unpleasent. :(

I am attempting vegetarianism for two reasons, both of them extremely selfish and self-indulgent:

1. I want to be healthier and avoid the heart disease that runs in my family.
2. I do not want unnecessary antibiotics and pesticides in my body.

I think this is plenty. I am rather neutral on the whole animal-rights thing - I probably couldn't kill a cow or a chicken with my bare hands, but I know that your average cow would not hesitate to kill *me* out of pure spite, so why should I be different? (I have traumatic memories of running away from an enraged bovine when I was a child) Besides, the moral line between animal and plant seems a bit arbitrary to me. But the health line between animal and plant is pretty clear, by all the studies I've seen - and that's what I'm going by.

I have to say, those are some good, strong points. I do love animals but that was not my entire reasoning for becoming a vegetarian. Mostly, it is because of health and weight control. Maybe that is shallow, but it is the truth.

Ummm...

Okay, I'm a newbie here, but two things come to mind if you need a reason to become vegetarian without getting fuzzy about animals.
1. Mad Cow Disease
2. Ever growing threat of Avian Flu

Need I say more?

mercury content of fish.

"but I know that your average cow would not hesitate to kill *me* out of pure spite,"

Ha ha, cute :)

Everyone in my country, America, can basically eat anything they want. I deserve a choice in what I eat, too. I choose not to eat meat, other's choose not to eat veal, not to eat cabbage cause it gives them gas, not to eat chocolate cause they're on a diet, not to eat tomatoes cause they taste acidic. I don't see why I can't can't choose not to eat meat. I'm healthy, I'm happy, I'm surrounded by those who love me if I'm vegetarian or not. I think meat is gross. Does anyone question my sister about her dislike of tomatoes? No. It's just peoples different tastes. You can go on about ecological and ethical reasons if you like, which I agree with, but for me, being a vegetarian is like being an American. I get to choose, plain and simple. I have freedom to decide what goes in my mouth.




Right! I'll eat and not eat whatever I want for my own reasons. I really don't care what other people eat ( unless I knew that the food had something deadly in it). They can eat meat like there isn't a tomrrow ok. I'm doing to eat how i want to eat. If people want some vegetarian food, then when they'll see you with your food and say hey, can I try that. I'll say sure :).

Haha. I don't think it's right to push your lifestyle on people. If they are interested they will say, I want to know about vegetarianism.

Monika

I am becoming a vegetarian for just health reasons. I have some health problems. I'm just trying to live healthy. I think a vegeatarian diet is great. No applose, thank you, thank you. Bows :D.

:lol:



Monika