Why should I go VEGAN??

emzypemzy93

So you've only JUST decided to go vegan and you have all these convictions? Why not sooner if you felt so strongly about it? I feel that you should be walking the walk to be able to tell others to do the same! I know vegans who have been in the game for 5+ years and I will listen to them because they've been doing it for so long. Not a mere "I've just decided to go vegan so you should too" kinda thing. When was the last time you ate meat or dairy?

Chadomaniac

DONT GO VEGAN !

HardRockCamaro

7. You're saying being vegan makes you look better and fitter? How? A balanced diet does the same. And a vegan diet is not balanced.


I don't see many "why you should eat meat" threads, although I don't think they'd be out of place given the "why you should be a vegan" ones...

Eat whatever you like but don't suggest that those of us eating a balanced diet as expected by nature are doing bad things for our health. We are doing exactly as our bodies expect.


As for killing with claws and teeth, we evolved and found more efficient ways to do it using tools.
But before we invented spears and traps we did use our hands.

stevenleeryan

http://www.menshealth.com/nutrition/soys-negative-effects\\\And if you own a car, you are hurting the enviroment.

Simplicity

I should apologise I have been over zealous. So Sorry for ranting.
I suppose I mean perhaps I feel and look better than I did when I ate meat, and not generalise it for everyone else.
And evolving to use tools, all I will say is touché, dammit. My one last input though is that we require fire and tools to eat animals that other carnivores don't. I'm sorry but I can't leave things lol.

I guess you and me both will keep eating the way we like, so if its working for you congratulations, I hope you hit your weight loss goals. I hope I hit mine too.

I hate being riled up so I'll agree to disagree on certain things. Good luck with your weight loss.

HardRockCamaro

That's cool.

I wish you the best health whichever diet you choose to follow.

Just make sure you're eating the fortified stuff so you get the right amount of calcium, vit D, vit B12 etc.

It's not an easy choice and I wish you luck with it!

Simplicity

Cheers. I'm doing my research and learning all the time so I hope I do ok.
When my skin starts falling off and I turn yellow I'll come apologetically crawling back to this post grovelling for some help.
Btw the way this is not sarcasm I'm being serious lol.
Now where did I put that carrot......

Yogi_Carl

What do you do when you are married (ten years) and your partner is pescetarian but when you make the switch to vegan your food choices become such a problem that it affects the relationship?

"So when I want tuna pasta - what are you going to eat? Do I have to prepare two meals?" "So when I do Leeks in cheese sauce - what are you going to eat?" - and so every evening goes.

The way I see it there are two options - wait for her to die and then I can eat what I like (a bit harsh!) - or end the marriage (also a bit harsh!) - or cave.

Any suggestions?

beccyleigh

^^ cook your own dinner & tell her to chill out over it? My husband is thai & wants to eat thai food every day, I don't so we each cook our own meals. has worked for the past decade so it is doable.

Yogi_Carl

That's one option. I have tried that approach and it seems she takes it personally if I "refuse her culinary offerings" when I get home; a sensitive issue.

beccyleigh

ahh well if she is sensitive about it then tell her to go vegan too

HardRockCamaro

Tell her you take it personally when she refuses yours so how is it different?

(Not that such logic will ever fly with women, lol!)

Yogi_Carl

Yeah - you see - I get to this point in the argument and I just want to go and eat steak!

GoddessG

I tried to walk in that direction two weeks ago. (I eat eggs and don't see any reason not to). But my weight instantly jumped and I didn't feel as good. Always full. That's not a nice feeling.

I think that some bodies do well on Vegan. Others, like mine, seem to be made for eating meat. Perhaps it's in our DNA

VeganVamp

I was ok with being vegetarian up until last year, thought I was doing the ethical & kind thing, until I became an on shore volunteer for Sea Shepherd. I discovered all of their crew were vegan and only vegan meals were cooked on board ships. I did some digging about why people go that but further than vegetarian and must say I was horrified and almost think that being veggie is a bit hypocritical you won't eat animals, but you will let them die for you so you can have dairy. It's mental really.

I have done vegan pledges for weeks at a time, and only very very recently have I decided to go full vegan. I'm losing weight nicely too.

For me, this is why..

Dairy cows have to have babies yearly to produce milk. This is the milk meant for their babies. It's like me putting breast milk in your coffee .. fancy some? lol ..These babies, if boys are most often dragged away from mothers at birth & either left to die (I have seen footage, it's horrendous) in a pen next to the mother whilst she calls & bellows for her baby .. (and they do, they cry out to their child, it's heartbreaking) All so I can have milk on my weetabix! Then when she becomes too old at just 4-5 yrs of age (the normal life expectancy for a Fresian cow is 25-30 YEARS!) she is taken for slaughter. Some dairy cows are too weak through over milking to walk to slaughter so they are carried by forklift and dumped where they need to be.

Cows are my favourite animal, such gentle giants and it kills me this happens

With chickens (for eggs) I presumed that male chicks were what people ate & female chicks were layers. Wrong. Again, the boys are not wanted. They obviously don't lay and apparently their flesh is too tough for meat, so they are killed at 1-2 days old. Methods are usually to be suffocated or poured into a vat of water & electrocuted, or (still used regularly in USA but not so much here, although there are still places that use them) are grinding machines. They go in alive. People talk about hell, but I think that these slaughter houses are hell.

I just can't be a part of it. To think that a calf has laid there pining for its mother and that she has bellowed for him whilst he's shot or lays there dying all so I can have a drop of milk or cheese sickens me!

I have a picture on my phone with a beautiful calf in a wheelbarrow in a barn being carried away from its mother .. The caption reads 'I was born a few hours ago, but will never see my mother again. But it's ok as it's for someone who can't imagine not eating a bit of cheese' ..

That breaks my heart .

Leading cardiologists have said it's the healthiest diet, but for me it's about the ethical side.

You can get lovely alternatives, stuff for dinners, sandwiches, 'cheese' etc ...

There's a lot of info for anyone thinking of trying out veganism or going vegetarian on www.viva.org.uk

Even considering it is wonderful though, or doing it one day a week for a bit, or every two days.. You feel cleaner, purer if that makes sense? And you feel guilt free ..

Yogi_Carl

I'm going vegan.

VeganVamp

I'm going vegan.

SteveJWatson

Dairy cows have to have babies yearly to produce milk. This is the milk meant for their babies. It's like me putting breast milk in your coffee .. fancy some? lol ..These babies, if boys are most often dragged away from mothers at birth & either left to die (I have seen footage, it's horrendous) in a pen next to the mother whilst she calls & bellows for her baby .. (and they do, they cry out to their child, it's heartbreaking) All so I can have milk on my weetabix! Then when she becomes too old at just 4-5 yrs of age (the normal life expectancy for a Fresian cow is 25-30 YEARS!) she is taken for slaughter. Some dairy cows are too weak through over milking to walk to slaughter so they are carried by forklift and dumped where they need to be.

Cows are my favourite animal, such gentle giants and it kills me this happens

With chickens (for eggs) I presumed that male chicks were what people ate & female chicks were layers. Wrong. Again, the boys are not wanted. They obviously don't lay and apparently their flesh is too tough for meat, so they are killed at 1-2 days old. Methods are usually to be suffocated or poured into a vat of water & electrocuted, or (still used regularly in USA but not so much here, although there are still places that use them) are grinding machines. They go in alive. People talk about hell, but I think that these slaughter houses are hell.

I'd already mentioned this earlier in the thread, however:
Calves in dairy farms are bucket raised if they are to be kept - if they are not (dairy bulls, most lactations are to a meat breed) they are shot. This is not news. If they were left to starve Animal Health would be all over the farmer concerned (and quite rightly too). The ones to be kept are the ones placed in a pen next to their mother precisely so they can have contact etc but not suckle - its an effort to reduce stress.

The average life expectancy of a holstein is 25 years? Do me a favour - go and talk to someone who has kept cows. But of course they are slaughtered after their useful life, meat animals are slaughtered before this, obviously (pre 36 months). They are slauughtered to the same standards as meat cows.

Any place there is livestock there will be dead/ill stock. I can (just about) carry a sick sheep - now try and do that with a cow please. Of course they are moved by loader if they cant walk.

Male chicks are usually gassed, for what its worth. All laying hens are slaughtered after the first cycle - again, subject to the same regs as any other slaughter.

A lot of the propaganda is emotive bull****, designed to make you anthropomorphise.

If you dont like meat, dont eat it - and as I have said, kudos to vegans for realising that the wool, egg and dairy industry ARE the meat industry, but if you are comfortable with a swift death (as I am) then there is no reason not to eat meat.

Admiral_Derp

I know this is a "fitness website" but veganism and vegetarianism is, in fact, an ethical argument. And we can't really judge a persons ethics on only one part of their lifestyle.

Why ya gotta go make the internet so hard? Now I gotta be all rational and what not!?

CoachReddy

Dairy cows have to have babies yearly to produce milk. This is the milk meant for their babies. It's like me putting breast milk in your coffee .. fancy some? lol ..These babies, if boys are most often dragged away from mothers at birth & either left to die (I have seen footage, it's horrendous) in a pen next to the mother whilst she calls & bellows for her baby .. (and they do, they cry out to their child, it's heartbreaking) All so I can have milk on my weetabix! Then when she becomes too old at just 4-5 yrs of age (the normal life expectancy for a Fresian cow is 25-30 YEARS!) she is taken for slaughter. Some dairy cows are too weak through over milking to walk to slaughter so they are carried by forklift and dumped where they need to be.

Cows are my favourite animal, such gentle giants and it kills me this happens

With chickens (for eggs) I presumed that male chicks were what people ate & female chicks were layers. Wrong. Again, the boys are not wanted. They obviously don't lay and apparently their flesh is too tough for meat, so they are killed at 1-2 days old. Methods are usually to be suffocated or poured into a vat of water & electrocuted, or (still used regularly in USA but not so much here, although there are still places that use them) are grinding machines. They go in alive. People talk about hell, but I think that these slaughter houses are hell.

I'd already mentioned this earlier in the thread, however:
Calves in dairy farms are bucket raised if they are to be kept - if they are not (dairy bulls, most lactations are to a meat breed) they are shot. This is not news. If they were left to starve Animal Health would be all over the farmer concerned (and quite rightly too). The ones to be kept are the ones placed in a pen next to their mother precisely so they can have contact etc but not suckle - its an effort to reduce stress.

The average life expectancy of a holstein is 25 years? Do me a favour - go and talk to someone who has kept cows. But of course they are slaughtered after their useful life, meat animals are slaughtered before this, obviously (pre 36 months). They are slauughtered to the same standards as meat cows.

Any place there is livestock there will be dead/ill stock. I can (just about) carry a sick sheep - now try and do that with a cow please. Of course they are moved by loader if they cant walk.

Male chicks are usually gassed, for what its worth. All laying hens are slaughtered after the first cycle - again, subject to the same regs as any other slaughter.

A lot of the propaganda is emotive bull****, designed to make you anthropomorphise.

If you dont like meat, dont eat it - and as I have said, kudos to vegans for realising that the wool, egg and dairy industry ARE the meat industry, but if you are comfortable with a swift death (as I am) then there is no reason not to eat meat.

a couple things

1) it's more than the killing (and throwing chicks into a grinder is pretty messed up), it's how they're raised. I'm all for raising your own animals and slaughtering them for food. I'm not against that AT ALL. But I'm against the disgusting practices that take place at factory farms, such as:

- Chickens' beaks are sanded down to a nub by a belt sander - imagine someone did that to your teeth. How would that feel?
- Chickens raised for meat are now so genetically modified, that many can't even STAND UP because their breast is so large.
- You don't address the forced pregnancy of cows to make them lactate nonstop. That's gotta be a special kind of hell.
- Those chicks that get thrown into a meat grinder? Where does the chicken "by-product" go? Back into the food they feed the other chickens. So we force them to eat themselves. Nice.


2) What about those environmental effects? Being the second highest contributor to air pollution and global warming - ahead of all traffic? (again, not propaganda - just pesky facts)

3) There are appreciable health risks with the typical American consumption of meat. In the last hundred years, our meat consumption has risen by 500%. That means we're all eating 5x more meat than a typical American in 1900.

Guess what else has risen by about 500%? Prevalence of heart disease, stroke, cancer, etc.

Now I'm not going to ignore that increased methods detection plays a role in that number rising, but I would venture to guess it's not the only contributor. Why? Because when a man who has eaten copious amounts of meat his whole life, and is now pre-heart surgery due to blocked arteries, is treated with a plant-based diet, his arterial blockage dissipates DRAMATICALLY in a short period of time. Surgery can be delayed for years, if it's even needed at all. This isn't anecdote, this comes from studies. Peer-reviewed an everything.

If eating a veggie based diet can reverse heart disease, don't you think that eating it your whole life will help PREVENT it?