vegans did you know that.......

It's not really about "taking" from another animal or whatever. A lot of people have issues with HOW it's taken. If a farmer has a dairy cow that lives a normal farm cow life, and gets milked daily with the farmers loving hands, it's a whole different ball game when its a bunch of cows stuffed in a pen,pumped with all kinds of chemicals and toxins, so it's milk supply is always there,and hooked up to a machine for 12hrs out of the day that sucks the milk from them. Just as it's much different if the same farmer has chickens in a little hen house, that roam freely through the day,and lay their eggs,and the farmer collects them in the morning, Or they are stuffed into cages where they can't move a feather, pumped with chemicals and toxins so they lay eggs on a continual basis. There is nature, and then there is the factory way of doing things, that promote cruel punishment to what we call "food".

I have to say the first 3 years or so of being vegetarian I think I spent the whole time fighting. Now, if people want to ask me intelligent questions I'll talk to them about it. However, if people just want to harass me ("you're hurting that vegetable cause it's as alive as a cow") I let it roll off. If you want to pump your body full of hormones and antibiotics from your meat, be my guest. If you truly don't care how corrupt the industries are and how much damage they're doing to the environment, and it doesn't bother your conscious at all, keep on chowing down. (Although so many people have said to me "I just try not to think about it"...so, you're lying to yourself? Anything you have to hide from YOURSELF sounds like a pretty big problem to me!). If you think I'm going to die from protein deprivation....well then you're just blind.

Anyway, at this point in my life it amuses me when people want to get belligerent. My mom always told me, it's easier to change a man's religion than his diet. It's SO TRUE, people get so defensive over their meat and eggs, that they want to pick a fight with other people about it. Why is this man so insecure about what he eats that he has to harass you about it? Haha, that's just hilarious to me!

You'll probably get a laugh out of this...I went to college in Idaho (cattle country). The idea of vegetarianism is just UNHEARD of out there. I had no less than 5 class mates my freshman year tell me that I must have just never had good meat, and they had slaughtered a cow that week and would love to bring me some so I can start enjoying meat properly....well, at least they were sweet about it?

I didn't read all the responses, but I will say: I would never judge what a vegan or vegetarian does or doesn't eat. I would expect the same respect from them. If they were to make a snarky comment to me about how it's wrong to drink another mammals milk or criticize my lifestyle in any way, it's on.
Otherwise, my method of dealing with vegans or vegetarians is never to eat meals with them.

THIS.

It sounds like that guy was trying to get your goat rather than have a real conversation with you. When people get like that I just don't even bother continuing the conversation, because they clearly aren't open to anything I might say!

Cows are just like any other mammal - they produce milk after they have a baby and that milk is meant for that baby to eat until they wean. Once the baby weans, the cow stops producing milk.

When dairy farmers - large or small, family or factory farm - take the mother cow's milk to sell to humans, the calf does not get the milk. Usually the calf only gets to stay with its mother for a few hours or a few days. It makes me really sad to think about it. I breastfed all three of my babies and to think of having my baby taken away and my milk sold for others to drink - that would be the worst thing you could do to a new mother. And apparently both mama cow and calf bellow for days when they are separated.

I'm not vegan, but I've been vegetarian for a long time (8 years) and I am striving to be dairy-free. Eggs don't bother me as much so I sometimes buy organic, free-range eggs, if I'm really craving them. I don't avoid dairy though if I'm out though, that is just tough socially when we go to some peoples' homes. I'm a work in progress.

Mamagooskie, I think you just won Defensive Omnivore Bingo!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/smiteme/4170866438

In fact, the only source of cholesterol is from animal products. It's like a cigarette smoker just having an occasional cigarette or an alcoholic having an occasional drink. Your body can handle it, but it's still poison.

Wait, what? Poison? Cholesterol is essential for all animal life, including humans. It's used by the body to make hormones, cell membranes, and in the synthesis of Vitamin D. And, in actual fact, there are many plant sources of cholesterol. Particularly any oily plant, and the oils derived from them. In fact, avocado, sunflower seeds, peanuts, coconut oils, and olives are all sources of cholesterol. So if this is what Forks Over Knives is telling people, well, then, they're wrong, or just lying.

I eat many vegetarian and vegan dishes, as part of my approach of balanced eating. Not every meal needs meat, but that's doesn't mean that meat has no nutritional value to humans. My ancestors have been eating meat for hundreds of thousands of years. To me, that means it's part of a staple diet. Is meat 100% required to live? Well, no, but neither are, say, potatoes. There are plenty of sources that can give the same nutrients as potatoes, so you don't need to eat potatoes to live either, but they certainly taste delicious (or not, depending on your taste buds.) I have all the respect for anyone and their food choices. I just choose to use actual fact when it comes to my food decisions, and what's best for me, may not be best for you. I see nothing wrong with eating vegan or vegetarian if that's your preference, but at the same time, the respect needs to go both ways. Use facts when talking about being vegan, not propaganda. And check your facts, especially if it's coming from a source with an obvious slant one way or the other.

Only got though the first page. I'm sure there are massive flame wars on all this.
I get to hear this all the time, as a vegetarian, and now a unfortunate pescoterian.

I never got up in anyone's face for eating meat, why does it bother them so much? Just really always bothers me, and ruins my day.

I have a few come backs.
"I was abused as a child by tomatoes"

As far as people go, they can make their own dietary choices. I personally am not vegetarian, or vegan. I can understand why some would choose to be. But please everyone, (I saw the whole thing about dogs drinking milk) don't apply your dietary regulations to your pets. Dogs are carnivores. Just look at their teeth! They were meant to eat meat. Sure some will eat a vegetable (mine won't) but did the vast majority of us not eat junk food before we started our weightloss journeys? If something smells good, they'll eat it. Doesn't mean they were meant to.

I've mentored on proper pet nutrition. And I've seen the changes in going from kibble to home prepared, meat diets. I had an old Pit Bull x Beagle mix with severe hypothyroidism, and you can just imagine my joy when, after adjusting to her proper diet, her thyroid fixed itself and she was able to come completely off of her medications! She was like a puppy again!

Just my two cents.