Why are you Vegetarian/Vegan?

[Melby]

I'm veg for many reasons! But to start, my history: I've never eaten seafood, it smells disgusting, it looks disgusting, why would I put it in my body?! lol. I've also never eaten veal, lamb, rabbit, etc, as those are cute furry things and when I was young I used to beg & plead with my mother not to eat them as it was just so cruel and nasty! Sometimes it worked, sometimes not (we never had them in our house, only restaurants/my one aunt's house). I stopped eating red meat when I was around 10yrs old or so. My dad had grilled burgers and in the middle of the meal I just suddenly got this image of -dead cow- in my head and it wouldn't leave and it kinda made me want to puke. I pushed my plate away and that was that. ...Okay I did still eat the occasional all-beef hotdog every once in a blue moon for a few yrs but, rarely. I still ate chicken & turkey for the next 15 yrs or so, mostly because I was (still am, but not nearly to the same extent) a very picky eater, and not eating them would pretty much have meant I would have lived on pizza and mac & cheese, heh. But finally, around spring of 2006, I realized that my palate had expanded enough to allow me enough options to give up the poultry as well and still be taking in enough things my body needed, so I did! I don't think I could ever bring myself to go vegan, as I adore cheese. Plus I have yet to find any plant-based milk product that is unsweetened and not gross. I don't actually drink milk (I actually find it pretty nasty, I've only ever been able to drink it alongside chocolate), but I do use it a little bit in cooking/baking. Eggs are pretty much the same, I dislike plain eggs but sometimes use them in other things. (As an aside, I read through a few of the early comments but there's tons of pages here so I didn't read too many and don't know if it was addressed, but I saw one that said something inaccurate about this - the eggs you get are not fertilized and are therefore not the same thing as eating an animal, there was never any embryo in them!)

As for my actual reasoning, there's several, like I said above. For one, I do not! believe that the human body was made for consuming meat. We have none of the features/qualities that make us able to do so, aside of brains that gave us technology to kill. No flesh tearing teeth or claws, no speed to run down prey or strength to take down most of the things people eat, we can't eat it raw, the GI tract is not suitable for it, etc etc. For two, I believe all life should be cherished. The only bugs that I kill are mosquitoes in my home and occasional flies that get in (their disgusting bacteria-filled bodies kind of terrify me!), but if my husband is around he'll normally get the flies out the window even. I would prefer not to kill any, but I'm not about to offer myself as host food, nor do I want to chance diseases they can carry. Three, meat eating, in such excessive quantities as it is now done, is destroying this planet. It takes too much to feed them, they produce too much gas, etc. Four, factory farming is one of the most horrendous things ever. It is cruel and disgusting how they treat the animals, and it is highly disturbing all the things they feed & inject them with, that people are then also ingesting. And five, I simply think it's wrong. In the same way that I have always known the fur industry and animal testing are wrong. Just because they have no voices that people can understand, does not make them any less of sentient beings, or any more just things for human use. 

So, well, there ya go, that's me! heh.

[CamOovas]

Plus I have yet to find any plant-based milk product that is unsweetened and not gross.
....
 (As an aside, I read through a few of the early comments but there's tons of pages here so I didn't read too many and don't know if it was addressed, but I saw one that said something inaccurate about this - the eggs you get are not fertilized and are therefore not the same thing as eating an animal, there was never any embryo in them!)

Yeah, eggs are just chicken periods, not abortions

I have the same problem with non dairy milks, but I also think milk is disgusting and it makes me sick.  So far I have found that the Silk Enhanced (with Omega 3, I think) is drinkable/cookable and I have recently discovered plain rice milk- it's a little thinner than dairy skim milk but I can chug it when I get a milk craving and I find it very satisfactory

[Melby]

I have the same problem with non dairy milks, but I also think milk is disgusting and it makes me sick.  So far I have found that the Silk Enhanced (with Omega 3, I think) is drinkable/cookable and I have recently discovered plain rice milk- it's a little thinner than dairy skim milk but I can chug it when I get a milk craving and I find it very satisfactory

Oh I agree, I think milk by itself is gross. When younger I could drink it alongside like, chocolate cake, or stuff like that, or dumping choc syrup into it, but that's the only time I could tolerate it. Plain it was just, ugh. My mom used to drink it with *everything* when she was younger (up through her teens at the least) and that thought has always made me a bit queasy LOL. We tried the rice milk here, and if I recall properly (we've tried like at least 5 diff kinds), that one wasn't gross but was sweetened, urgh! For some stuff that'd be okay, like maybe in pancakes or things but, when I want to make mac & cheese? Sweet milk is just nasssty! I did it once on accident, before realizing it had sugar in it, and blech gross. It's really annoying, because I don't want to use cow milk; I hate how the animals are treated - forever giving birth and having babies taken away, just to make them keep producing milk, all the hormones and things that end up in the milk, just, blech, but I can't find anything else, either! 

[lorifellows]

I'm over 50 and was raised a vegetarian. One thing I realized as a teenager was that you could be a vegetarian and still live an unhealthful life. Ice cream is a vegetarian food (lacto-ovo), so are potato chips, french fries and candy bars, most desserts, etc. Not exercising can be just as damaging to your health as eating a lot of junk-food.
I'm still a vegetarian, but focus on eating healthy, rather than just vegetarian. In addition, I'm very conscious about exercise and also what I put in my mind as well as my body. It's a "whole person" thing, rather than just what I dump into my stomach.

[CamOovas]

Melby, are you buying plain or vanilla flavor? I've never had any problems cooking with plain.

[Melby]

Melby, are you buying plain or vanilla flavor? I've never had any problems cooking with plain.

Nope, just regular. But lots of them still have sugar added. =/

[emjay417]

We gave up meat while my husband was unemployed for almost 2 years...and then we just kept doing it and we feel healthier (because we are!) and we are raising 2 kids mostly vegetarian. We occasionally eat fish/shellfish if we are at a restaurant and there are no nutrionally sound vegetarian options, but we eat out only rarely and never cook it at home.

[hawkeyes_girl]

I'll play too! I'm an omivore exploring vegetariansim. I have had "texture issues" with lots of animal protein sources. (I used to gag on chicken when I had too much). I am trying to diversify my protein sources as well as reduce the unhealthful aspects of animal consumption. I did have animial guilt feelings while watching Food, Inc and disgust when watching Supersize Me. I love bean-based dishes thus far. I could live on crockpot chili. I am liking TVP crumbles and silken tofu to sub in for creams. I am looking to change my family habits of relying on expensive hunks of meat as a main dish. I am looking to reduce my grocery costs and improve my overall health. Also, I'm allergic to seafood.

My bf and I have recently tried vegetarian sushi rolls and are looking to keep trying things like this. (Next up, mango rolls) We also love Indian cuisine and that gives lots of nonmeat options. His health is in serious need of help so I am very motivated to keep him from early death by reducing the animal protein byproducts in his system. He LOVES cow and milk (cream really) and I am trying to reduce how much he intakes so he lives longer.

[muchadoaboutknitting]

I believe that I can only eat what I can kill/harvest/pluck. I have no moral right to kill another animal. I am quite at home however with tearingsome salad leaves , pulling some carrots from the ground. picking peas from the vines.

[Sita108]

I'm over 50 and was raised a vegetarian. One thing I realized as a teenager was that you could be a vegetarian and still live an unhealthful life. Ice cream is a vegetarian food (lacto-ovo), so are potato chips, french fries and candy bars, most desserts, etc. Not exercising can be just as damaging to your health as eating a lot of junk-food.
I'm still a vegetarian, but focus on eating healthy, rather than just vegetarian. In addition, I'm very conscious about exercise and also what I put in my mind as well as my body. It's a "whole person" thing, rather than just what I dump into my stomach.

This makes me think of my brother... just the first part!  He is also vegetarian, and won't eat fruits or vegetables!  (If you haven't figured it out, that just leaves him with carbs and dairy.)

Luckily when we were kids, we ate tons of Indian food, so he did eat veggies then... now its all mashed potatoes and mac-n- cheese.