Vegetarians/Vegans?

[Spikesangel11]

I've been vegan for 2 years and 3 months now, and vegetarian since I was 12 🙂 Are there any other vegetarians or vegans on BB, and if so, why did you go vegetarian/vegan?

*Please let's not turn this into a debate about veganism, I just want to talk to others who are veg. *

 

[JCC]

Yo, vegan for a year and a couple months. I just went straight to vegan, though, no vegetarianism.

 

[Tasha]

I was a veggie for a year and a half, then i went to mcdonalds and went crazy and bought myself chicken nuggets, i felt so bad, they weren't even that nice!

Lmfao.

I stopped eating meat because i watched this programme, 'Kill it, cook it, eat it'

It actually showed you them killing the cows 🙁

I am definitely considering going back to being a veggie although i became anemic last time.

I know people who are vegans , and they have to buy certain types of chocolate and stuff, it would be too stressful for me.
haha.

 

[Summerlilly]

Wow. Thanks Spikesangel11 for posting such a thread. I would never have dared because unfortunately in some forum a while ago I posted a reply about how horrific Mcdonalds' was...boy was that a mistake. It was amazing what sorts of comments followed. In my opinion when it comes to getting people to think about their everyday actions and how they affect others, the planet, and animals most become defensive. I suppose it's a natural reaction but I strive to be as open minded as possible in life in general!

I am a vegan and have been for about seven years. I too grew up vegetarian with a chicken/fish stint senior year of highschool. Both my parents were long time veggies and worked in health food stores so I was aware of eating healthy at a young age. When I went to college I decided there was no real reason for me to eat meat so went back to being veggie.

I have always had a love for animals and so at one point I wanted to do an internship somewhere to see if I could have a career in animal care or along those lines. I came upon a farm animal sanctuary called Farm Sanctuary in upstate New York. Farm Sanctuary is an animal rights sanctuary for slaughterhouse or factory farm animals who have somehow escaped slaughter and were lucky enough to be rescued so they could live out the rest of their lives on this farm. There was one catch, you had to be vegan to live there. Farm Sanctuary has been one of the loudest voices for animals by doing amazing legislative work!

Farm Sanctuary | Watkins Glen, NY

So I spent 2 and a half months working harder then I've ever worked in my life! I learned so much about how horrible animals are treated in today's society and what little the general public is aware of. Farm factories and slaugterhouses literally treat animals like commodities, torturing them in unimaginable ways all so we can have a chicken mcnugget at Mcdonalds. It's all about money to the corporations so they cram animals together, cut their beaks and tails off, put them in darkness, let them die in their own feces....I mean it goes on and on. (Family farms are now only 1% of how animals are raised for food)

I decided that by becoming vegan I could make an easy decision to not support the suffering of animals. Working with the animals there was amazing. Many had health problems and permanent scars of their past lives but you could see how happy they were to be given what anyone deserves, freedom.

I then went on to do an internship at PETA. It was an amazing experience in which I learned so much about how animals are used by humans not just for food but for entertainment, research, experimentation and clothing. It was unbelievable. I know may people thing PETA is too out there or extreme and while I don't always agree with their tactics, you've probably heard of them right? Well, that in itself is an accomplishment because they are making people aware that animal rights do exist.

Besides not causing animal suffering I learned about how damaging farm factories are to the environment and that a vegan diet can be extremely healthy. I believe that many people have compassion in their hearts but they need to be able to extend it not only to other humans but to animals who have no voice and needlessley suffer because we want a cheap fast (unhealthy) meal. (full of antibiotics and hormones) Not to mention the makeup you wear is tested cruelly on animals and the circus you go to abuses elephants and it goes on...become educated. There are a lot of battles to fight out there but I believe veganism touches on all of them. It's about non-violence, compassion, whats good for the earth and knowing that animals are sentient beings that deserve as much respect as humans.

I'm sorry if this has turned it to a GO VEGAN post but I had to take the opportunity! For you vegetarians out there I commend you for taking that first step but you may not know that the dairy industry is one of the primary cause of animal suffering, especially dairy cows. If you want to find out more look at the farm sanctuary web site or vegan outhreach (I'm on the back cover of their Why Vegan phamplet!) Vegan Outreach | Working to End Cruelty to Animals.

P.S. Being a vegan really isn't that hard! There's tons of alternatives out there! Yummy ones too! I just found out Ellen Degeneres recentley became vegan! Woo hooo! :lmao:

 

[Mumrik]

First - I do not intend to offend any of you in any way - I think it shows a lot of determination to be a vegetarian or a vegan and I admire people who are able to pull it off. I'm just very, very curious because I simply can't imagine not eating meat.
So please don't take this the wrong way when I ask this - what do vegans eat? I honestly have no idea.

 

[Tasha]

Oh i remember watching a video about Animal experimentation in school, it's so sick, i was actually about to cry in class. LOL.

My mum always has to buy 'Free range' eggs, she never ever buys battery eggs, or w.e they're called.

 

[InsaneMystic]

I've more than once toyed with the thought of going vegetarian, because I do feel bad about supporting the horror that is the modern meat industry. But at the end of the day, I always liked the taste of meat too much to go through with it. :sigh:

Full-on veganism has never been an option I considered, though. I can't even imagine to go without milk for a day - milk and bread are the two foodstuffs I definitely won't ever give up on, come what may.

 

[TheCheese]

I myself am not a vegetarian, I like meat too much. That being said, I understand that it costs 15-20 times as much water to produce a pound of meat as a pound of vegetables, and that if nobody ate meat we could probably solve the hunger crisis. So kudos to you!

 

[Summerlilly]

First - I do not intend to offend any of you in any way - I think it shows a lot of determination to be a vegetarian or a vegan and I admire people who are able to pull it off. I'm just very, very curious because I simply can't imagine not eating meat.
So please don't take this the wrong way when I ask this - what do vegans eat? I honestly have no idea.

Actually, it's a great question. It's one of the main reasons (besides people just really liking the taste of meat) that keeps people from becoming vegetarian or vegan.

Fortunately, tons of thai food is vegan as well as veggie sushi's and sometimes chinese (depending on if the noodles are made with eggs or cooked in meat broth). As far as in general, tofu and soy are main sources of protein (although there's a lot of controversies over soy production right now) ::huh1:: Tofu can absorb some pretty awesome flavors!

You can make veggie stir fries, fried and baked potatoes, pastas, salads, veggie burgers, eat lots of fruits and veggies. Cooked grains and beans. Veggie dogs, fake deli meats and cheeses. Fake sour cream, butter spreads, pasteries, cream cheese, ice cream. Amazing soy ice cream! Smoothies, soups, chips, soymilk, bean burritos, cereals, pancakes....the list just goes on! Being vegan now is way easier then it ever used to be! :cheering:

check out http://www.vegan.org/going_vegan/eating_vegan/index.html#1

 

[PrincessBuffy16]

I'm a vegeterian since I was 8. I know it all started when my grandpa brought this bunny home, and after some time he was just gone. They told me he died, and few hours later I saw my grandmother prepearing him for lunch. I'm vegeterian since then 😀

 

[Washburne]

I admire vegetarians and vegans but I'm not one myself. I considered it when I was very young since I loved vegetables so much and it was often all I wanted to eat. But you know, young and naive and didn't fully understand what it meant. And the food options they have today was nowhere near to be found. For a long time living in a small village/city meant that your options was limited as well but it's very noticable how much it has improved in the last couple of years. My younger sister's been a vegan but is now back to being a vegetarian but I can't remember the reason.

I do feel bad about how animals get treated just so we can get meat to eat. But I guess I'm good at blocking it out. Not a trade I'm proud of but it's how it is and there's no point denying it.

 

[Sweetescape]

I've been a Vegetarian all my life, so that's going on 19 years. I have tried some meat just to get rid of the "you but you've never tried any" comments I get. I could eat meat now I guess but It's just not something I even think about. I'm happy with being vegetarian, there's a whole host of great meals and stuff, I don't live of leaves! or rabbit food 😉. And so far I've never had any health problems I can directly trace back to being vegetarian.

 

[Spikesangel11]

First - I do not intend to offend any of you in any way - I think it shows a lot of determination to be a vegetarian or a vegan and I admire people who are able to pull it off. I'm just very, very curious because I simply can't imagine not eating meat.
So please don't take this the wrong way when I ask this - what do vegans eat? I honestly have no idea.

Like Summerlily said, being a vegan in this day and age is surprisingly easy. I went vegan overnight, completely unaware of what a vegan ate or the health traps/benefits of the diet. What drove me to suddenly deciding to go vegan was the documentary Earthlings. It's extremely emotive, and I felt I couldn't ignore the facts... my love for animals has always been considerable, ever since I can remember.

The first month I went vegan I lost a whole 14 pounds, which I wasn't too sad about because although I've never been close to being anything but "medium" weight, I wanted to have a more skinny, athletic figure. The main reason I lost that weight was because I was afraid of eating anything non-vegan, which I achieved and haven't to this day ever had a slip-up that I'm aware of, intentional or unintentional. From between September 2007 to now, I've slowly but surely put that weight back on, and now I'm far healthier than I've ever been. The best decision I've ever made in my life was going vegan, and I feel that without it I wouldn't be me. I define myself by my veganism, and live for the cause of stopping animal suffering and helping the environment.

Most people didn't get why I went vegan, lots of my friends and some of my family still don't. I used to get quite a lot of crap from everyone, but I suppose that just made me more determined to prove to them that veganism is healthy and that there could be no other way to live. Since going vegan, I've read lots of books on nutrition, animal welfare, etc, and each day that's gone by I've found myself increasingly certain that veganism is the best way to go. I can't even explain how much it's benefited me personally, I just with I'd made the transition from vegetarian to vegan much sooner... hell, I wish my parents had raised me vegan. Oh well, now I have a lifetime to make up for past ignorance and denial (I only say those words because that's how I feel about myself), and hopefully improve the lives of others. I'm going to dedicate my life to helping animals because that's what I feel the right thing is to do.

So, books I'd recommend reading are:
- New Optimum Nutrition Bible by Patrick Holford.
- Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser.
- Skinny Bitch by Freedman and Barnouin (crude in places, but says what has to be said).
- Vegan: The New Ethics Of Eating - Erik Marcus.
- Slaughterhouse - Gail A. Eisnitz (my favourite book, so very sad, but just because something's sad doesn't mean we should shy away from it, especially when we're the ones causing the problem).
- Meat Market: Animals, Ethics, and Money - Erik Marcus.
- Animal Liberation - Peter Singer.

Now, on the subject of food... I usually have cereal (weetabix, etc) with soy milk or wholemeal toast with vegan butter for breakfast, a salad with lots of different vegetables for lunch or a sandwich, usually either marmite or hummus, and for dinner it changes most nights. Last night I had tempeh & vegetable stirfry which was yummy, and the night before that I had mushroom and tofu in a tortilla wrap thing. There's basically no limit to what vegans can eat... basically everything omnis eat can be made into a vegan version. There's soy milk, rice milk, almond milk, hemp milk for milk substitutes, there's soy butter (I use the brand "pure"), and there's tofu, tempeh, seiten, lentils, beans, and legumes for "meat" (protein) substitutes. It's really, really super easy being vegan, and I'm not just saying that. It took about 3 months for the cravings for stuff like dairy cheese (which you can also get vegan versions of) and Ben & Jerry's icecream (again, plenty of brands make soy icecream which is just as nice), but after that it all just felt so natural. 🙂

Hope this helped!

---------- Post added at 04:17 PM ---------- Previous post was at 04:02 PM ----------

Yo, vegan for a year and a couple months. I just went straight to vegan, though, no vegetarianism.

That's great 😀. What made you want to go vegan? Do you have any vegan friends? I don't know anyone who's vegan in person, let alone around my age. :]

---------- Post added at 04:51 PM ---------- Previous post was at 04:17 PM ----------

Hahaha i use to LOVE those Tofu wraps. MMM. i would deffinetely consider going vegan in the future,

I know! My favourite is mushroom, onion and tofu 😀 omnomnom. Yay, good luck!! 🙂


I just found this site which has lots of vegan recipes: meat-analogues recipes from FATFREE.COM: The Low Fat Vegetarian Recipe Archive

& this site is another reason why I feel so strongly about veganism... ADAPTT :: Animals Deserve Absolute Protection Today and Tomorrow >> The Animal Kill Counter
Ugh, it just hurts to even think about... 140 billion animals a year. :cry:

 

[Nix]

I am not a vegan or veggie but I have experienced to some extent the diet as I was severly lactose intollerant and intollerant of msg for many years. There are some amazing alternatives out there and many pubs in the UK do vegan options as well as veggie ones. Brighton in the UK is brilliant as there is vegan pub there!! I admire Vegans I have to say.

 

[JCC]

That's great 😀. What made you want to go vegan? Do you have any vegan friends? I don't know anyone who's vegan in person, let alone around my age. :]

I think that becoming vegan stemmed from my political affiliations. I'm a libertarian socialist, I was probably more convinced of it then than now, actually, and I try to live life as peacefully as possible, emphasize the importance of community and respect everyone. After a while, it just didn't sit well with me to exclude animals from that peace. As for vegan friends, I knew one girl who was vegan but she was a few years older than me and we weren't close friends, we just chat.

In terms of what I eat, my eating habits suck because I'm still getting over an eating disorder so I don't really eat with much variety so much as just making sure that I do get around to eating something (which usually ends up being a bowl of soup or some pasta or something), but I've never really found myself wanting for much. If I want a chicken sandwich, I get some brown bread and some Cheatin' Meat (it is made by the Redwood Food Co. and it is delicious). If I want a burger, VegiDeli make great burgers. If I want sausages, sage and marjoram VegiDeli sausages are the tits. Chocolate is easy to find too. The only thing that I find myself ever really lacking for are gummy sweets because of gelatin, but it doesn't bother me all that much.

 

[SeeingBlue]

I had no idea there were so many animal rights people on here! I've been vegetarian for a year, ever since I watched the PETA investigation at a pig farm in Iowa. Scarred me for life. Now I volunteer at PETA, participate in protests, and I'm debating on whether or not to go vegan on New Year's. My only problem is I completely cannot cook, so I don't know what I would eat.

 

[Summerlilly]

Like Summerlily said, being a vegan in this day and age is surprisingly easy. I went vegan overnight, completely unaware of what a vegan ate or the health traps/benefits of the diet. What drove me to suddenly deciding to go vegan was the documentary Earthlings. It's extremely emotive, and I felt I couldn't ignore the facts... my love for animals has always been considerable, ever since I can remember.

Earthlings is an AMAZING documentary!!! It covers every way animals are treated by today's society. I actually started a group in my town called "Earthlings". In the past we've shown the movie for free around town and at the college. Many people were affected by it and made choices to be responsible humans!! I love Joaquin Phoenix and Moby! : popcorn:

Animal Documentary | Animal Treatment Society | Informative Movie With EARTHLINGS

Our myspace page:EARTHLINGS on MySpace Films - New Films & Documentaries

 

[SeeingBlue]

Wow, I just watched the trailer for Earthlings and that alone has convinced me. Don't know if I could bear to watch the whole thing.

 

[Frketson]

Wow there are so many vegheads on here (i say that with much love!).

I dont know how you guys can do it though, all i eat is meat. Put a steak in front of me and i'll do anything you want.

 

[PrincessBuffy16]

Tasha agrees: wtf cooked bunny wabbit?

I know it's sick. Like how in China they eat dogs :S
And I really don't know who could eat horse.
I think that is so yuck!