Why did you stop eating meat?

u04kmm5

Not sure if this is in the right topic group but what the hell.

I was just curious to know why all of you vegetarians/vegan/etc decided to give up meat?

I have recently given up meat. It started about a year ago when I noticed that I would be cooking meals for me and my then boyfriend and I would be dishing up my portion without any meat on it because I didn't fancy it. I preferred the veges and sauce. Then I just stopped cooking with meat and now the thought of meat gives me the actual boak!

I haven't eaten meat in a few months now and do not intend to. I am 25 and for some reason when people ask if I am vegetarian, I say no. I never thought I would be... I always loved meat. I feel like a faker!
Anyways, what's your stories?

mcdonl

I have not stopped, but I am "trying" to limit myself to chicken and fish....

Why? Well.... Partially because of the movie "Fork over knife"

haileemou

Me toooooooooooo

I try to eat the meat, but if i have a bad experience i wont eat it for a long time!

knighthood77

I wouldn't consider my self a veggie either, but I only eat meat outside of my home. I just don't care for it honestly. I am also starting to feel sympathetic to all the way animals are raised and slaughtered. I believe their sadness and stress will be passed along in the food products that they become.

u04kmm5

Partially because of the movie "Fork over knife"

Never heard of it or seen it... I can imagine though. I seen Gordon Ramsay slaughter a pig once on tv and that was almost enough for me to give up meat forever

u04kmm5

I wouldn't consider my self a veggie either, but I only eat meat outside of my home.

Yeah I was thinking I would be the same. But actualy even when I'm out eating now (which to be fair, isn't often) I still wouldn't order. It just sucks cos most places have a poor vege choice

threeringedgirl

i stopped in college.. a friend of mine was vegetarian and i thought if he could do it so could i! i was vegetarian for less than a year before i went vegan... i was having issues w eating cheese or drinking milk etc if i wasn't eating the cow as i have always been motivated by moral/ethical reasons.

i did not have much support at all when i started. my parents thought it was a fad and that i couldn't stay healthy. i have now been vegan for almost 10 years and have never been MORE AWARE about what goes into/onto my body!

u04kmm5

i have now been vegan for almost 10 years and have never been MORE AWARE about what goes into/onto my body!

I think this the stage I am looking to get to!

cessnaholly

I quit meat about 6 years ago and lasted a few months. Then I got preggo and all I craved was cheeseburgers from Friendly's. Now that I'm done with the kiddos I'm actually only eating beef and pork on the rare occasion. Mostly it is chicken or turkey - because they are better for me and because they don't have the same fillers that other meats have.

My kids don't eat red meat - never have. Not sure why but I don't push them too.

We get turkey dogs and veggie burgers. I have a regular burger once in awhile b/c my hubby still eats red meat. Or I'll make beef stew with half the beef cut into tiny chunks. I don't usually miss it. The thought of what's in hamburgers kind of creeps me out and i have a hard time eating them - bologna and hot dogs too.

msaap

I don't really consider myself vegetarian either. Although I haven't eaten meat in a very long time, I haven't really given up on meat either. I just don't have the desire for it. When I thought about the vegetarian/Vegan lifestyle I went to a local group to talk about it and they were so mean to me. They kept preaching animal rights and hated the fact that I didn't view eating meat as wrong and barbaric. Needless to say I never went back. I feel that it's okay to stop eating meat just because you want to, and it doesn't have to have anything to do with animal rights. I'm a Georgia girl and I grew up eating and loving my meat. When the desire hits me, I may eat meat again, but I refuse let anyone make me feel bad about the choices I make for my body. I know people who stop eating meat for health purposes.

Bethany_leigh

I'm a pescetarian (still eat fish, but only very sparingly). I guess my story is that I moved to austin, tx into a huge shared living home called the treehouse (14 people lived there at the time). I shared a studio at the top of the house with two girls, one a veggie and one a vegan... so it became easy for me and now I'm glad. The initial reason i wanted to was when I read the book "Eat to Live" by Dr. Joel Fuhrman, which I recommend to everyone! I guess, technically it's a diet book, but it goes way beyond that... it gives all kinds of statistics about how America is eating itself to death and the main point was that meat causes the most serious diseases that Americans die from... heart disease and cancer.

So now I feel much healthier, I feel great... I lost 20 pounds very easily right after I gave up meat. I recommend vegetarianism to everyone.

apsmith51

I quit eating meat mainly because of the impact it has on the environment to produce it. Here is a link to some information on this:

http://www.peta.org/issues/animals-used-for-food/meat-wastes-natural-resources.aspx

I know that some people have issues with PETA and I sometimes question their tactics so you can Google the topic and find other resources that will give you the same information.

Plus I have never been a huge meat eater anyway. I have children and grandchildren and I truly want them to have enough food to eat during their lifetimes. The rest of the world is trying to emulate the way we Americans eat and that will strain the earth in many ways. I can foresee wars being fought for food in the future and want to do what I can, as small as it is, to keep that from happening.

Also, watching Food, Inc., reading Fast Food Nation and Harvest for Hope: A Guide to Mindful Eating sealed the deal.

Just my 2 cents.....

billsica

I sat behind a girl in 10th grade Chemistry class, she was a vegetarian, and I wanted to impress her. That was in 1993, and I don't even remember her name.

After that it kind of made sense for me. I couldn't think of myself slaughtering animals, so what right do I have to do it. I think everyone who wants to eat chicken should have to grab a hatchet once a year and chop of a head. Pig, lamb, awl though the skull.
I also feel a lot better and healthier knowing that I won't get all those cow chemicals in me, mad cow, etc.

I do eat fish now (after 2005), I got a fishing license and tried to go catch one. I just suck at it.

We are too far removed from our food.

Grimmerick

I have always had a soft spot for animals and just couldn't turn my head anymore, I figured if i couldn't go out and hunt and kill it myself because I couldn't stomach the thought then I shouldn't be eating it. I think a lot more people would be veggies if they had to go out and kill there own food.

rml_16

I felt guilty eating animals, plain and simple.

I'd been trying to go veg for a few months, but was struggling giving up chicken and was about to just forget the whole thing. Then I was in a hotel suite with a friend and our kids. She was in another room watching the news and the story about the ASPCA slaughterhouse footage came on. I didn't see it, but she kindly described what she saw in horrific detail and that was it for me. I can't even think about eating meat again without my stomach turning at the idea.

She, of course, still eats it. lol

MissMaggie3

I've been vegetarian for about 30 years. I stopped eating meat because animals are my friends and I don't eat my friends! I feel especially repulsed by some of the contemporary 'farming' practices concerning animals. Also because I learnt that I could live a healthy life without eating my friends.

fieldfare

A £2 vegetarian recipe book bought on impulse about nine years ago stopped me eating meat. After looking through it before the week's food shopping trip I decided to see if I could go the week without meat, not too difficult as wasn't eating much meat by then anyway, only a small amount of white meat, fish and bacon.

Literally never ate meat or meat products again from that point on ... I bought the ingredients for some of those recipes and they turned out so tasty yet simple enough for me to make that I didn't want to go back to eating as before. Also, about three weeks into eating these new veggie meals noticed I had so much more energy, my skin was clearer and I felt so much fitter in general; could only be due to the huge increase in my intake of fruit and veg etc. as nothing else had changed.

Always been aware of the ethical arguments - the factory farming and environmental issues surrounding meat and dairy production - and these became more important to me as I found out more, to the point where I've now given up dairy products too. Loving my new diet and how much healthier it's made me.

dayzeerock

My dad made a really twisted joke when I was 10 about our hamburgers. I proclaimed that I would never eat meat again. 17 years later, it still holds true!

Brownski860

I am a semi-vegetarian. I do not eat red meat or pork. I enjoy chicken, turkey and all seafood. I can remember as a child having steaks and burgers and just getting the worst stomach aches after. I think it is more of a digestion issue. I haven't touched it since and don't miss it. I love animals so its not a moral/ethical issue.

kcmg0730

I am not a vegetarian, but I (and my family) are selective omnivores; not only do I want to know what I'm putting in my mouth, I want to know where it came from! So, we buy our meat from a local place and they can inform us exactly which farm our meat is coming from, which is good, since most of the meat they get in is free range or at least higher welfare than we'd get in the grocery store. Also, I live in the UK, and a lot of farming practices that are legal in the US and Europe are not legal here, so I feel like when I buy free range meat in this country, I don't have to worry about intensively farmed, pumped full of hormones food!

I did give up dairy gradually over the last year or so, and I feel like that balances my decision to keep eating meat (I try to eat only one meal with meat per day), since dairy is also pretty environmentally/ethically questionable, and just not very good for us (or necessary).

VeganGal84

I no longer wanted to eat animals, simple as that.

Vegan_Chick

i did not have much support at all when i started. my parents thought it was a fad and that i couldn't stay healthy. i have now been vegan for almost 10 years and have never been MORE AWARE about what goes into/onto my body!

Congrats!

Vegan_Chick

It can be hard to stick to at first but once your friends and family see that you are serious about oging veggie or vegan, they will start respecting you. Just make sure you research. Been vegan for over 6 years and raising my two kids that way!

savethecat

Aside from what I have learned from documentaries over the years about the benefits of a plant-based diet, I was once driving down the highway and saw a semi-truck full of cows stacked on top of each other. As in no floors, just layers of live cows pushed into a truck and piled on one another like iinadament objects. I had never seen a more miserable set of animals in all my life and it just broke my heart.

That's when I decided I could no longer be part of the problem. That was over 6 years ago.

shander7

It was a texture thing for me! For some reason the texture of meat grosses me out. I honestly don't have any other reasons! It started about 8 years ago and I still can't get myself to like it. I don't think I could ever become vegan though.. I love eggs & cheese wayyy too much!!

SpectacuLaura

I've never liked meat all that much and then watched Food, Inc. and read Crazy Sexy Diet this past spring and was absolutely grossed out by the impact meat has on our environment and our bodies. I've been a vegetarian (trying to go vegan) since May 30th.

limismith

There are arguments both ways, and definately a lot of "vegetarian propoganda" out there but...

I feel guilty to eating commercially produced meat. That sounds really snobby, but I think of it like this - hunters and farmers who raise and butcher their own livestock don't bother me because the animals live a normal natural life. They live outside, graze and roam or do whatever they do, and when it's their time to go... well... that's the circle of life. But giant slaughterhouses full of thousands of sick cows, chickens living in cages stacked 20 deep, pigs being dipped into boiling water to remove their hair while they try to swim out.... NOT natural! Not humane! Not anything I want a part of.

I respect life, and I respect that it's natural to hunt and fish and eat what you catch. I just can't support a life of fear and cruelty that ends in an even more cruel death. It sounds very cheesey and hippie-dippy, but that is really how I feel.

That being said.. even after a year I miss chicken strips, and occasionally bbq. And eating out can be hard when your options are a dry iceburg lettuce salad or fried breaded vegetable items. Truly, I don't eat fast food more than 2 times a month because I went veg. It's just too unhealthy!

I recommend to anyone watching "Food, Inc.". Also, I liked "Super Size Me"- its not about being vegetarian, but it does make good points about how unnatural the commercial meat industry is! I fully support the free range, organic, and human farms and ranches out there!!!

Kalrez

I just recently started eating meat again ... for no real reason.

I stopped eating meat because I just didn't really like it all that much. And I figured why eat it if I didn't like it, especially considering the fact that something else had to die for me to just pick it off my food. Seemed like a waste.

I started eating meat again about a month ago maybe. I didn't wake up and decide "Today I will stop being a vegetarian." I don't even remember what it was that got me to start eating meat again. I don't really like it all that much, so I think I'll go back to vegetarian once the pack of brats in my fridge is gone.

bluegirl10

I am not a vegetarian, but I don't eat any red meat... I eat chicken, turkey, fish and shrimp. I stopped eating red meat about two years ago and honestly I don't miss it!

gaeljo

Why would I eat a rotting corpse? All meat is, is a dead animal in the process of rotting. Gross! Not only that, I LOVE LOVE LOVE animals, they have every right to have their life respected. Then I think about all the PEOPLE I love. If everyone ate less meat ,the land used to sustain beef could be used to grow food and there would be no faminie or world hunger. When I think about all the envrionrmental issues related to raising cattle and that the farming industry is the leading contributor to pollution (not automobiles) the environment is another great reason. And if that isnt' enough, how about the fact that all cholesterol comes from animal products and that vegetarians have extremely low virtually non existant heart disease, low rates of cancer and diabetes and a slew of other diseases. Then I think about how much energy I have because I'm a vegetarian. I run faster, train harder and compete like a tiger. What's not to love about being a vegetarian? I don't miss being a omnivore, not even a little.

mcdonl

I have always had a soft spot for animals and just couldn't turn my head anymore, I figured if i couldn't go out and hunt and kill it myself because I couldn't stomach the thought then I shouldn't be eating it. I think a lot more people would be veggies if they had to go out and kill there own food.

I hunt, and there is nothing more organic than game from the Maine woods.

But I have sworn off Dairy for the health reasons.