going vegetarian in 2013

cheshirequeen

vegan for 8 years. if you need any help or guidance, feel free to friend me. good luck.

Taem2

I'm seriously considering going vegetarian. It would really help me lose weight,

Not necessarily. You can still eat potato chips and things like Little Debbie snack cakes and French fries from anywhere but McDonalds and pasta and cheese.

Heck, I know strict vegans who are overweight. I was much thinner when I ate meat than I have been since going veg.

By all means, go veg if you want to, but you still have to count calories and exercise and make sure you're eating a healthy, balanced diet.

Being or becoming a vegetarian or vegan means eating 10% or less of fat from calories, because foods like starches and veggies and fruit average out to about 7% fat intake.

Eating foods rich in calories like honey and high in fat such as nuts and avocados are tolerated in moderation and considered a treat.

Eating processed foods, regardless of them being vegan or vegetarian is still to be avoided as it is rich in sodium and artificial ingredients.

If you learn what it means to eat healthy, you can achieve it.

But telling people there are unhealthy vegetarians and that you were better when eating meat, is not helping anyone in this thread.

szarlotka717

I started eating less and less meat starting when I was about 6. I've been pretty much fully vegetarian for about 15 years (currently 27).

OP - I think it's great that you're starting to go veggie while on MFP. While I don't think eating vegetarian ever made me terribly unhealthy, when I started tracking on MFP I realized that I wasn't getting quite enough protein, B vitamins, iron, calcium, and Omega-3's (at least, not when I was also trying to lose some weight). I've starting taking some supplements - a multivitamin and something for Omega-3's - to make it a little easier. I'm also at the point in my life when my husband and I are thinking about kids, so making sure that I'm eating well has become more of a priority.

I highly recommend Bittman's How to Cook Everything Vegetarian cookbook. There are lots of great ideas there.

For people who are concerned about the ethics around the meat industry but are having a hard time giving up meat entirely - there are some more ethical producers out there. My husband (who eats meat) and I belonged to a meat CSA in the Bay Area called Marin Sun Farms. They treat their animals well, and I think it's good to promote more sustainable/ethical practices (I think expecting the whole world to become vegetarian soon is not very realistic). As for fish, fishing CSAs that catch safe, local fish in a sustainable manner are also becoming more popular. The Monterey Bay Aquarium has a lot of great resources on their website.

SteveJWatson

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In order to make gelatin, one must actually kill an animal. No animal dies in order for me to eat an egg. I am vegetarian not for health reasons, but because I don't want to eat dead animals, which is the reason stated by the OP. Therefore, my advice was accurate and appropriate.

I guess you didn't want to see that in order to get female chickens, the male baby chick is killed.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GN5H9audCRQ

So, yes, you are killing animals for eggs.

You mean you have to sacrifice a male chicken in order for a female chicken to exist? because that is what you just said.

Yes, the egg companies won't even sell the male baby chicks because there is no profit, they just kill them and throw the baby chicks away.

Here is another video, by the vegetarian society of Hawaii, a presentation dealing with eggs and dairy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zyjOPzKc4vA

But it is not necessary to kill a chicken (male or female) to produce an egg. That may be the practice of factory farms, but the process of laying an egg does not include the death of any animal.

Don't eat eggs if you don't want to eat eggs. That is your business. But claiming that eating eggs makes people unhealthy or insisting that an animal died in order for an egg to exist (not the case. An egg can exist without an animal's death) makes you look ridiculous.

Just as a by-the-by:

All laying units will gas male chicks - using a sex-linked breed will make male chicks a different coulor to females.
Laying hens - whether battery, free-range or organic will lay for a season and then their production drops, so they will be replaced by the next generation - the hens will then be slaughtered. Some organics are using dual-purpose breeds so the hens will be slaughtered for human consumption, the rest will end up as dogfood - there is no meat per se on the breast of a laying hen - I know this, I have hens and when mine go off lay (they generally last some years though) they go in the dog.

The dairy industry routienely shoots male dairy carves (most dairy cows are put to a beef bull for most lactations, they will go to a dairy bull to produce replacements) - sadly the demand for veal because of the (very understandable) objection to crate veal is almost nil.

I am a livestock farmer by profession (sheep, as it goes), and as such - I have nothing against eating meat, and I long ago made my peace with death - in fact, I think a quick and painless death is one of the better things any animal (myself included) can hope for.

But, for the sake of wanting people to be informed - the only diet where you do not cause death is a vegan one.