Vegetarians or Vegans or even Wannabees Wanna Group?

imabigvegan

Hey All,

I am in Ottawa, Ontario - Canada and I am looking for fellow Vegetarians and Vegans who are interested in starting a group. I have no experience in forming a group and am not even really sure whats involved but I do think that we have some unique challenges.

To be clear - I have no interest in excluding anyone, I am just interested in sharing and discussing some of the many problems and solutions we face on this journey.

Is there anybody out there?

Les

jessimacar

I have no idea what's involved in being in a group, but it'd be nice to have somewhere to ask like-minded people my questions..

JessesGirl05

I have thought about becoming a vegetarian but I have no clue where to start! Everyone in my family is meat eaters, so I have no clue how to cook a no meat meal!

morningjog

I am a vegetarian and new to this site. It has been educational.
I suppose a group would be nice, although one might already exist!? I am still trying to learn my way around.

Ryhenblue

I am always looking for fellow vegans or vegetarians for support and food ideas.

LJCannon

:flowerforyou: I was actually kind of thinking along these lines yesterday. Can one be a Vegetarian Who Occasionally Eats Meat? As a rule, Fish and Turkey or Chicken is the only meat I eat. I do eat Eggs. Not sure if I would qualify for your group.

imabigvegan

As far as I am concerned there are no "qualifications." If you have an interest your in, is my motto. Is there any way on here to communicate as a group?

TCrawford70

Hey everyone- I'm not really a vegetarian but more like "plant strong". I eat meat every now and then-mostly chicken,turkey, or fish. I would say I eat that way 90% of the time. I am working on being a vegetarian for the most part. I have found alot of alternatives for meat that I love, but I don't like the cheese or other dairy that I have tried. Love greek yogurt with frozen berries and zylitol or stevia. Anyway it would be nice to know others, oh! also I don't eat much bread due to wheat intolerance.

imabigvegan

I am not trying to convince anyone of anything, just trying to exist in a life of tolerance and understanding. The fact that my teeth were "designed" a certain way is irrelevant if my brain and scientific fact tells me there is a healthier way to live today for me and for the environment. This is what we call evolution.

Just my humble opinion though as a wise (Krazy) man once said.

Valtishia

I am not trying to convince anyone of anything, just trying to exist in a life of tolerance and understanding. The fact that my teeth were "designed" a certain way is irrelevant if my brain and scientific fact tells me there is a healthier way to live today for me and for the environment. This is what we call evolution.

Just my humble opinion though as a wise (Krazy) man once said.

I am not by any means a vegetarian... however, I did read somewhere that our teeth were not designed for eating meat. I don't know who much truth there is to it, but the article essentially said our teeth are flat, made for grinding, which is for plants. Meat eaters have sharper teeth for tearing and chewing down the meat. In this article, there was also mention of the fact that it takes so long for us to digest meat, suggesting we are not meant to eat it in the first place. The other thing it mentions is that if we were meant to eat meat, we would be able to eat it raw.. but our teeth are not designed for this.

Barelmy

OP; feel free to add me. I'm not currently using my main account (this one) much, but I'll be on it occasionally.

(I'm finding that starting from scratch, with a 'clean' account helps me quite a lot).

Winged_Victory

I read the "21 Day Vegan Kickstart" book and that is what got me started on my path. The first week and a half/two weeks were the most difficult (I'm looking at you CHEESE), but then it became much easier and I had a huge upswing in energy. I felt so good thay I've been sticking with it ever since.

I think it would be nice to have a group. I would hope this would not devolve into people having to defend their food choices against those who think meat is the only way.

I encountered mostly support when I started this path, but also some incredulity and

passive-aggressive hostility, which was hurtful. (FYI, I am apparently going "against evolution" and I am going to get osteoporosis, according to some know-it-alls who actually knew nothing about it.)


It is important to talk about nutrition, but that conversation does not start with putting people on the defensive. If you are a skeptic, try to be respectful and open minded. Ask open questions like "How do you get enough protein? How to you get enough B12."

Avoid, "You do not get enough protein, it's unhealthy, and I am telling you this for your own sake."

fteale

Yup, I'm in.

fteale

I studied human evolution in my first year of uni and looking at human teeth vs others, ours are very very indicative of vegetarian, actually. Along with quite a bit of other biological evidence. However we clearly DID start eating meat some time ago as chimps do too.

Barelmy

I read the "21 Day Vegan Kickstart" book and that is what got me started on my path. The first week and a half/two weeks were the most difficult (I'm looking at you CHEESE), but then it became much easier and I had a huge upswing in energy. I felt so good thay I've been sticking with it ever since.

Omg, I know. I swear, I must have been addicted to cheese, the withdrawal I went through. Two weeks of craving it, and then I just stopped caring about it.

To address another point in your post, it is amazing how widespread the idea is, that calcium is only in diary products. Most people - including me, up until last year - don't realise that it's in green veggies.

oxavecamourxo

I am not trying to convince anyone of anything, just trying to exist in a life of tolerance and understanding. The fact that my teeth were "designed" a certain way is irrelevant if my brain and scientific fact tells me there is a healthier way to live today for me and for the environment. This is what we call evolution.

Just my humble opinion though as a wise (Krazy) man once said.

I am not by any means a vegetarian... however, I did read somewhere that our teeth were not designed for eating meat. I don't know who much truth there is to it, but the article essentially said our teeth are flat, made for grinding, which is for plants. Meat eaters have sharper teeth for tearing and chewing down the meat. In this article, there was also mention of the fact that it takes so long for us to digest meat, suggesting we are not meant to eat it in the first place. The other thing it mentions is that if we were meant to eat meat, we would be able to eat it raw.. but our teeth are not designed for this.

I have read this, too. What I read points out that there are herbivores with sharp front teeth. One example given was some sort of rodent. I don't remember which one. But I read it here: powered-by-produce.com

I am a vegan. Well, at least trying to be. I say trying to be because I just recently became a vegan a few months ago and I completely skipped vegetarianism, so I'm still learning.

oxavecamourxo

(FYI, I am apparently going "against evolution" and I am going to get osteoporosis, according to some know-it-alls who actually knew nothing about it.)


It is important to talk about nutrition, but that conversation does not start with putting people on the defensive. If you are a skeptic, try to be respectful and open minded. Ask open questions like "How do you get enough protein? How to you get enough B12."

Avoid, "You do not get enough protein, it's unhealthy, and I am telling you this for your own sake."

I am apparently a hippie and not to be taken seriously.

fteale

Gladiators were all vegan.

oxavecamourxo

Gladiators were all vegan.

That's good to know. I can point that out the next time someone says something negative to me. :happy:

DanceYogaRun

If any of you are vegan or are striving to be, feel free to friend me. Please leave a short msg or just say veg.

darkhorse43

I'm in. I've been vegan for over 15 years so hopefully I can provide some useful tips to newbies.

Furrytreats

Count me in. I've always been a fan of the veggie lifestyle. Last November I started making the transition. Hard when 6 other family members at home eat meat, but I'm doing the best I can and looking to work harder at it.

beccasetsfire

Vegan for 8/9 years.

Gladiators were vegan 99% of the time they ate meat at the party before the games... but still they ate a diet of mostly barley...

adougherty10

Count me in too! I've been lacto-ovo vegetarian for about 12 years. I would love to be vegan but I'm finding the transition more difficult than I expected.

To a few of the previous posts:
The people that have posted they are "almost vegetarian". My husband used to eat that basic diet and although he hates labels, that is called a "flexitarian" diet - in case you were wondering (he is a pescatarian now, which means the only animal he eats is fish).

And I agree, I think anyone should be allowed in the group - except for the guy the blabbed on about teeth being designed for eating meat - why would he post something like that in a group for vegetarians - weird? Maybe he had a bad day & wanted to try to make someone else fee like crap? I always find that argument interesting however. I don't pretend to know more about anatomy than the next guy but I always think of it like this: if we descended from great apes (maybe we did - I don't want to debate evolution vs creationism or anything here) BUT, if we did - don't we have the same teeth as them? Great apes are vegetarians....hmmmm......

Channing

I've been a vegetarian for a year, and almost a vegan, if I could just kick cheese! I've never been a fan of meat or milk/eggs, so this lifestyle hasn't been too difficult to adapt to. But cheese is hard to completely eliminate. Seems like it's on everything! I'd love to get some ideas from everyone on this thread!

adougherty10

Dr. McDougall's site has some good information about the health of vegan diets too - it might be something worth checking out for vegan-wannabes like me

millygrl

Count me in too. Not only are we both vegetarians, but from Ontario too. Yah for Canada! : )

Channing

"Ironically, the utterly unselective omnivore -- "I'm easy; I'll eat anything" -- can appear more socially sensitive than the individual who tries to eat in a way that is good for society."
— Jonathan Safran Foer (Eating Animals)

Niveous

Moving on, yes, I'm definitely in for a group.

imabigvegan

wow! who new there were so many MFP Veg members!

Keep em comin!

cupcakecarnivore

Count me in:) I've been a vegetarian for about five years and am slowly transitioning to a vegan diet:)