Why are you Vegetarian/Vegan?

[revind]

I am not a vegan but i am quite health conscious person that's why i always prefer healthy food like vegetables,fruits ,beans etc.I'm probably in the minority here because I've only been a vegetarian since May.  I've always enjoyed vegetarian food, and I love veggies and cooking.  I'd considered going veg for a long time, but finally made the decision after reading Fast Food Nation.

[Ladyleopard]

I became a pescatarian so I still partake in the sweet sweet flesh of fish everyone once in a while, eggs, and dairy. I grew up eating meat. When my father was home my mother would prepare meat dishes. When it was just my mother and I we would eat a very limited amount of meat; if any. She has never been a huge meat eater, and neither was I.

Last year in June my SO and I took a trip to Disneyland and stayed at his friend's in L.A. the night before. I was so excited I decided to get buzzed on the way down. I took a turkey sandwhich with me, left it in the car too long and tried to eat it. Drinking+plus warm meat= Sick as a dog.

Long story short I got extremley sick, drove around all night looking for a non-shady hospital; because I became so ill. I ended up pulling myself together the next morning and still making it to Disneyland. I would try to eat meat here and there for the next couple of weeks following this incident; but every time I did I felt sick to my stomach. I kept trying, and trying, and trying; until I realiezed eating meat just wasn't for me anymore. I was not very excited to jump into a vegetarian lifestyle at first because I didn't know what to cook for my spouse and I. He was very supportive, and always willing to try my latest veggie dish. I've been able to master quite a few dishes, and there are some veg. dishes I make he says he loves way more than the meat version.  It will be almost a year since I stopped eating meat (aside from fish). I love my animal friend's and don't mind that other people choose to eat them. I just wish the meat industry would treat our fellow animals with more respect and more humanely. No animal should have to suffer in horrible living conditions as well as being treated without respect when it comes time to slaughter said animal. 

[Ladyleopard]

Let me add changing to a pescatarian lifestyle has had many benefits. I hardly ever catch a cold/get sick, I feel full but not weighed down after eating, it's easier for ME to keep my body looking rockin because I'm not feeding it a bunch of junk. Granted being a vegetarian IS expensive, because I constantly have to drive to the store for fresh this or that, and veggies are not cheap nor is fruit, plus the cost of gas. I've honestly become so much more open-minded about cuisine since the switch because your constantly trying to invent new dishes. Indian food has become a staple cuisine in our home.

[kaz814]

I've been a vegetarian for almost two weeks now - which isn't a long time, but I haven't found it difficult at all, so that's something.  I'm aiming for going vegan, but I know myself well enough that if I go for the whole thing before I'm adjusted, I'll probably fall off the wagon.  Baby steps! 

What spurred me to make the change (though I didn't eat a lot of red meat anyway) was hearing about the health benefits, and then watching a few documentaries - first Forks over Knives, and then Vegucated, which made it impossible for me NOT to do it. 

I'm also reading Main Street Vegan by Victoria Moran right now, which is really interesting, too, and has some great-sounding recipes.

[mrraawwr]

... 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.

I just have to say that not much of this is exactly true. First, if you look at human teeth you will see that we are omnivores, like bears and pigs, intended to eat a lot of different things, including meat. Second, the physical qualities you mention have been "de-evolved" so to say. Since we have our brains we have developed other ways to hunt and kill and therefore e.g. big sharp teeth are not needed anymore. If you look at our closest relatives (chimps) they have pretty big nasty teeth which they use to kill and eat animals. Humans don't have the speed as we instead have endurance due to our ability to sweat (we can cool off where other animals would be over-heated), this makes us the best long-distance runners in the world! Humans also live in packs, meaning that even if a single person might not be able to catch anything by itself, but a whole pack of humans lying in ambush - that's a whole 'nother thing. As for not being able to eat it raw, before we invented fire I'm quite sure we had an intestinal flora that allowed us to do so. And as we learned to cook the meat this "flora" basically disappeared.

That said, the meat consumption nowadays is waaay out of hand. Humans are not evolved to eat the quantities of meat being consumed right now. Meat two or three times a week (for those who "need" meat) should be enough, even for a hard working person.

I hope you won't get offended, that's not my intention.