Vegetarians and vegans. Controversial Topic

SueGremlin

if you dont mind my input id like to say. that yes overall in America vegetarians may be healthier than most, but thats because a lot of Americans are over weight like me and made a choice not to combine the right meat and fruit?vegetables to make them healthy. you can be healthy and eat meat like yourself. i get that most vegetarians/vegans want to save animals. i was vegetarian for a few months, but i like meat. the real problem is the way they are killed. GOD put the animals on earth to eat. if we could just treat the animals better and not torture them to death then there would probably be less vegetarians. just saying!
P.Speople dont realize that you shouldnt it to much meat. skip out like twice a week on meat. Dr oz says you shouldnt eat animal with for legs more then 3-5 days a week.

Uh. Animals are humanely killed, they are not "tortured to death". I have been to slaughterhouses and have seen it firsthand.
I take exception, too, to your claim that animals were put here by God for us to eat.
We are animals. We love to imagine that we're special, but I think that's bull****. We are no different and have evolved in the same way as anything else.

maricash

I was vegetarian for about 12 years and have now been a mostly-vegetarian omnivore for about as long. In my time as a vegetarian I met many, many more preachy meat-eaters than I did preachy vegetarians. As a vegetarian I constantly heard comments like "you eat tofu, gross" and "being a vegetarian is so stupid, we were meant to eat animals," "why would you want to do that to yourself" etc. Since beginning to eat meat again, I have eaten meat in front of any number of vegetarians and vegans and heard not a word of criticism.

Of course, there are preachy people of all sorts, and that woman you met was incredibly rude. However, since meat-eating is the norm in this country, I think you'll find that it's vegetarians and vegans who are more often accosted for their food choices.

Edited to add: I love that you call vegetarianism "madness" in a post where you are claiming harassment from a vegetarian for your personal eating choices.

KBGirts

So.....I'm sure you were not the only person in a Jimmy John's eating meat. Did she tell everyone eating meat they were gross? How did she single you out?

angng

I've been both. I think it's a good idea for most people to at least try vegetarianism for a while; it forces you to try a lot of new foods (if you do it right--most people I know just eat a lot of processed soy & wheat crap).

But seriously. . .if she's so offended by meat-eating, why is she supporting a restaurant that primarily serves meat sandwiches?

heatgal976

I was vegetarian for about 12 years and have now been a mostly-vegetarian omnivore for about as long. In my time as a vegetarian I met many, many more preachy meat-eaters than I did preachy vegetarians. As a vegetarian I constantly heard comments like "you eat tofu, gross" and "being a vegetarian is so stupid, we were meant to eat animals," "why would you want to do that to yourself" etc. Since beginning to eat meat again, I have eaten meat in front of any number of vegetarians and vegans and heard not a word of criticism.

Of course, there are preachy people of all sorts, and that woman you met was incredibly rude. However, since meat-eating is the norm in this country, I think you'll find that it's vegetarians and vegans who are more often accosted for their food choices.

Edited to add: I love that you call vegetarianism "madness" in a post where you are claiming harassment from a vegetarian for your personal eating choices.

2nd This ^^

Charlottejogs

Hi there! I have been vegetarian for a decade or so and make that personal choice for moral purposes mostly and I feel there are some healthy benefits that come along with it. I think many foods are much less healthy and have unhealthy chemical/hormonal/antibiotic...etc included that lessen their value than say 20 years ago. Additionally the industry itself is pretty horrifying.

I agree that live and let live is the way to go- I have beliefs as does everyone else. I think the woman you encountered was way out of line...but I don't think you took the higher road in your response. I think people can be pretty healthy living many different lifestyles, vegetarian, meat eater, vegan.... I make it a practice not to lecture people about why I think I am right and only engage in educated discussions who engage me in a discussion. I am aware that many of our decisions are trade offs... I can count many occasions that people make obnoxious comments that are, rude/disrespectful or attempts to be taunting about my choice which is unfortunate- there are some in every group.

Anyway- those are my thoughts.

brendacs21

I was vegetarian for about 12 years and have now been a mostly-vegetarian omnivore for about as long. In my time as a vegetarian I met many, many more preachy meat-eaters than I did preachy vegetarians. As a vegetarian I constantly heard comments like "you eat tofu, gross" and "being a vegetarian is so stupid, we were meant to eat animals," "why would you want to do that to yourself" etc. Since beginning to eat meat again, I have eaten meat in front of any number of vegetarians and vegans and heard not a word of criticism.

Of course, there are preachy people of all sorts, and that woman you met was incredibly rude. However, since meat-eating is the norm in this country, I think you'll find that it's vegetarians and vegans who are more often accosted for their food choices.

Edited to add: I love that you call vegetarianism "madness" in a post where you are claiming harassment from a vegetarian for your personal eating choices.

I have this happen all the time. Especially when my orders at restaurants are messed up and i send them back because i ordered something w/o meat. People look at me like omg how are u alive if u dont eat meat.

Charlottejogs

I was vegetarian for about 12 years and have now been a mostly-vegetarian omnivore for about as long. In my time as a vegetarian I met many, many more preachy meat-eaters than I did preachy vegetarians. As a vegetarian I constantly heard comments like "you eat tofu, gross" and "being a vegetarian is so stupid, we were meant to eat animals," "why would you want to do that to yourself" etc. Since beginning to eat meat again, I have eaten meat in front of any number of vegetarians and vegans and heard not a word of criticism.

Of course, there are preachy people of all sorts, and that woman you met was incredibly rude. However, since meat-eating is the norm in this country, I think you'll find that it's vegetarians and vegans who are more often accosted for their food choices.

Edited to add: I love that you call vegetarianism "madness" in a post where you are claiming harassment from a vegetarian for your personal eating choices.

I have this happen all the time. Especially when my orders at restaurants are messed up and i send them back because i ordered something w/o meat. People look at me like omg how are u alive if u dont eat meat.

Yes- agreed!!!

bm99

A lot of vegetarians/vegans are PRETENTIOUS.

So are you saying this lady was trying to make her self sound important and trying to impress me? I give her a 10 for guts for approaching me like that. I can see that as a admirable trait lol!

10 for guts, 0 for social skills

gaynorharding

Why can't the people on this board just leave their uninformed opinions to themselves. It seems that the level of discussion is pretty low...really people, picking on vegetarians. Don't yu have something better to do in your lives. It turns me off to join a group like this...

jodycoady

I think the person who yelled at you probably had mental problems. Veggies and Vegans aren't usually like that. :drinker:

I was a veggie for years and never came down on anyone...

therealkittymao

I'm not a veg anymore (I was one of the people who's bodies just can't take it), but I was for six years, and I am still really light on the meat most days. I just honestly don't like it that much. Unless my fiance is cooking it, then it's generally amazing. But I grew up in a house where (no offense, ma) but the food was BAAAAD, constantly the meat was cooked to a charred mess, and it was usually really fatty and disgusting. I was always eating pork that I swear chewed like a piece of gum, it was so rubbery and fatty and GLUUUUK just thinking about it... I'm grossed out. I MUCH preferred cooking and eating stuff that I know is not made of hormones or lips and *kitten*. So I switched to vegetarian (I am dairy allergic, so I never ate cheese, but I ate eggs and every once in a while I would have fish, but not often).

Unfortunately, I started wearing down really badly. I got all kinds of little bone breaks and stuff. And I was tired ALL the time. And if I worked out, I was sore as HELL for DAYS afterward. And finally I went and saw a kinesiologist on the recommendation of a friend, and he said that I really needed to be eating meat. That there are some people who can do without meat, but I am not one of them. And I am A positive, so it's not my blood type... I dunno. Since I started eating meat again (and again, this is not every day... more like every three or four days), I haven't had any bone breaks and I can work out like crazy before I hurt myself. But I totally support vegetarians and vegans, and I get it completely. I just can't do it.

hollyeverhart

if you dont mind my input id like to say. that yes overall in America vegetarians may be healthier than most, but thats because a lot of Americans are over weight like me and made a choice not to combine the right meat and fruit?vegetables to make them healthy. you can be healthy and eat meat like yourself. i get that most vegetarians/vegans want to save animals. i was vegetarian for a few months, but i like meat. the real problem is the way they are killed. GOD put the animals on earth to eat. if we could just treat the animals better and not torture them to death then there would probably be less vegetarians. just saying!
P.Speople dont realize that you shouldnt it to much meat. skip out like twice a week on meat. Dr oz says you shouldnt eat animal with for legs more then 3-5 days a week.

Uh. Animals are humanely killed, they are not "tortured to death". I have been to slaughterhouses and have seen it firsthand.
I take exception, too, to your claim that animals were put here by God for us to eat.
We are animals. We love to imagine that we're special, but I think that's bull****. We are no different and have evolved in the same way as anything else.

If you really believe what happens to these animals before & during their death isn't considered torture I encouraged you to watch some of the undercover slaughterhouse videos, egg hatchery videos, dairy cow videos... That is cruel, inhumane disgusting torture, I couldn't care less if others eat meat but you cannot honestly think what happens to these poor creatures is 'okay'.

Rosa1213

Wow, that lady was rude..
I think I've met the exact same amount of rude vegetarians and rude vegans and rude every-other-group-ers. everyone just wants to think they're the one group that's right, whereas everyone's eating choices have pros and cons.

I eat mostly goat meat and chicken because my father has goats on our property that he slaughters every once on a while to dwindle the numbers back into 30 or so, and my mother has chickens that annoy her sometimes
And even people who eat meat as well tell me that it's gross to eat goat meat, and that I should eat beef. I don't say anything, I just smile pleasantly.

As cliche'd as it sounds: haters gonna hate.
There are rude people everywhere.

Lampy00512

I've been a vegetarian nearly all my life. I'm healthy and careless of what people think. If you eat meat, great! If you don't, great! However, that woman's a brave dumb-*kitten* for complaining to you like that.

happyhippyemma

I was vegetarian for about 12 years and have now been a mostly-vegetarian omnivore for about as long. In my time as a vegetarian I met many, many more preachy meat-eaters than I did preachy vegetarians. As a vegetarian I constantly heard comments like "you eat tofu, gross" and "being a vegetarian is so stupid, we were meant to eat animals," "why would you want to do that to yourself" etc. Since beginning to eat meat again, I have eaten meat in front of any number of vegetarians and vegans and heard not a word of criticism.

Of course, there are preachy people of all sorts, and that woman you met was incredibly rude. However, since meat-eating is the norm in this country, I think you'll find that it's vegetarians and vegans who are more often accosted for their food choices.

I completely agree with this person. I've been vegetarian for four years and I always find people ask me 'why are you vegetarian, it's not natural or healthy' and variants of all the above comments. That lady was really rude to you, but I find that more people are rude to me about being vegetarian. Most vegetarians will happily talk to you about their reasons without being preachy, and only when asked.

Being vegetarian isn't necessarily healthier than being a carnivore, except you do seem to have a more varied diet - because you've got to think up new and interesting ways to get enough protein and various nutrients into your body. That might be healthier than someone who always eats fatty or processed meats and foods. Personally I'm vegetarian because I object to the unsustainable fishing practices of the world's nations. I don't eat seafood, and 30-60% of the world's seafood catch actually goes to feed other animals which we eat. It's very difficult (and costly) to find meat or fish that is sustainably or ethically produced, so I found it easier to become a full vegetarian than be an extremely fussy eater. Especially since the western markets (UK, Australia, etc) have lots of alternatives.

Saying that, my fiance is in the navy and is a carnivore. We eat vegetarian at home and he's still able to be as fully fit as he needs, with the addition of a few protein shakes. When we go out he often has meat, but then it's usually a lot nicer than what you could buy in the supermarkets. Everyone should just eat what they need to be happy and healthy. If you're happier not eating meat, that's your prerogative. But no-one should push their ideas onto someone else.

mohanj

I was brought up as a vegetarian. I do believe killing animals for our benefit whether for food or pleasure is wrong but I don't force my opinion on others. That lady was rude and had no business in budding in other's affair or forcing her opinion. Being healthy is all about eating right and being physically fit.

krista1280

I've been a vegetarian for 8 years now. There are many reasons to be a vegetarians, including health reasons. And as for "doctors not recommending it", every cardiologist at the hospital I work at HIGHLY recommends it to their patients. A lot of people have made comments about how this lady over stepped her bounderies (which she did), but something to keep in mind...many people constantly make offensive comments to vegetarians as well.

Lampy00512

If you really believe what happens to these animals before & during their death isn't considered torture I encouraged you to watch some of the undercover slaughterhouse videos, egg hatchery videos, dairy cow videos... That is cruel, inhumane disgusting torture, I couldn't care less if others eat meat but you cannot honestly think what happens to these poor creatures is 'okay'.

I had to watch a movie on that in high school, for my AP Environmental Science course. I forget the name but it was disgustingly heart-breaking I'm so glad I have a hearing problem because I ended up turning off my hearing aids and looked away. One of my classmates turned vegan because of it, and my little cousin turned vegetarian two years ago when she watched a similar one in her class.

PlunderBunneh

what is your purpose for being vegetarian? Do they just taste that good to you? Is it about being healthy? WHY!?!? Don't get me wrong I have no problems with it, and everyone is entitled to eat what ever they wish. I however am trying to understand the madness.

Thought I'd jump in on this. I do eat meat, but not much. I don't particularly enjoy meat. While preparing and eating meat, I find that pretending it is something else is the only way to not lose my appetite. If I actually acknowledge that I am handling the dead flesh of an animal, I can't stomach the thought, and I have to force myself to finish the bite. The only reason I eat it is because it is an excellent source of protein, and the only reason I prepare it is because my husband would not be a very happy camper if I didn't.
That lady was incredibly rude to you. Shame on her.