Being vegetarian/vegan........?!
Being vegetarian/vegan........?
Who hear thinks that the world would be better-off if every one was vegan? I'm a vegan, but I feel like the only one. So please join me!!! The animals would agree with me, but before they can say anything there killed for there undersides.............
Answers:
Esugrad97 almost got it right
Without meat eating the problem of HUMAN (not animal) overpopulation would be MUCH worse! Just in terms of longer lifespan caused by a vegan diet (fewer deaths from heart attacks, less food poisoning, no prion disease, no parasites,etc.) you can easily see that human overpopulation would be much worse (that little problem of birth/death ratio you know).
I almost forgot that animal husbandry is the number one cause of water pollution worldwide! The reduction in water pollution would also allow folks to live longer and serve to fuel human overpopulation.
Since we know that most of the worlds food is wasted in the inefficient production of meat (70% of all grains goes to animals and it takes a minimum of 10 Lbs. of grain to get 1Lbs. of meat) there would be more food available to feed humans. This would reduce deaths from starvation and once again mess with the birth/death ratio increasing human population.
With all the meat animals taken out of the environmental equation the world would have much lower levels of methane. This would have the effect of reducing the increase of solar energy stored in the Biosphere (usually erroneously referred to as 'global warming'). The reduction in human deaths due to less severe weather would once again serve to increase human overpopulation.
Maybe all us vegheads should start thanking the meaties for all the environmental benefits they provide
I sure hope no one takes these valid points as a serious endorsement of meat eating!
I'm a vegetarian, not so much because I love animals, but really because...
I hate plants. :)
It's probably not reasonable for everyone to go vegan. But- we could all agree to eat a heck of a lot less meat.
Most things I eat are vegans and I apreciate them very much
I dont think being a vegetrian is healthy. Everyone needs to have their meat and poultry to stay healthy... I mean things you use and eat have to do with animals even if you are a vegetarian...so i mean... come on.
I don't think the world would be better off if everyone was vegan, or vegetarian. Animals would be overpopulated, spread disease, and be very unhealthy. As far as animals not saying anything because they are "killed for their undersides", first of all, animals can't talk. Second, they are killed for more than just their undersides, the whole carcass is used.
oh i do! and don't feel like a loner. im vegan too.
ABSOLUTELY.
That's my dream.
I know sometimes you get lonely and feel like it's an impossible fight being vegan in this world, but realize how amazing you are for making the right choice and being vegan!
It should make you only want to fight harder.
Vegan love. :)
It would be nice, but it's terribly unrealistic. At least in my lifetime or yours. One person at a time.
Yeah, I do think that. Not because of the animals specifically, but there'd be less hunger (more room to grow crops) and less global warming (due to "bi-products" of feeding way too many animals way too much- you know, crap...) and it's possible that there would be less cruelty. You know, there's that quote, "as long as there are slaughterhouses there will be battlefields."- if we all decided on a more humane diet, we might in turn realize how horrible the attrocities are that we commit on each other, and try to stop those as well. If what I just said made sense, it's my opinion.
I have been a vegetarian my whole entire life (42 years) and did not become one because it was the "in" thing to do. I find that most people who have "become" vegetarians of some kind are self centered and very ego centric. Why would the world be a better place if all 'ate" like me???? My diet is what it is because I have been raised this way and now, because I choose for it to remain that way. I love animals but many people (especially those in far away lands) only have meat to eat. How would Eskimos survive if they only ate greens? They wouldn't. Please don't be one of those with arrogance JUST because of the way you eat. Don't put others down because of the way THEY eat. It is their mind, body and spirit and how they nourish it is up to them. Even if you don't agree.
mb
Of course I agree, and I understand your frustration at the lack of enlightenment you see around you. But that's just the way it is; you can't change society and culture. The only one you can change is yourself, and you have by choosing an ethical diet and lifestyle. You should always look for opportunities to acquaint others with veganism, but try not to let the lack of interest or (worse) the derision and misunderstanding you find when attempting to illuminate others dismay you.
Lots of sane, sage answers here. Surely you don't feel as alone as you had?!
no... I am vegetarian and happy that way
I'm not a vegetarian, but I do limit my meat intake. I shop for things like free-range, organic-fed, no-hormone,e tc....
and, I think testing on animals is absurd. Human skin does not act the same an animal skin.
I"ve been quite successful in finding products that do not test on animals (I can't stand Bath & Body Works' label of "finished product not tested on animals").
If you're looking for natural-based, vegan, cruety-free skin care & makeup, look into Arbonne!
We are still killing each other, so for us to even get to thinking about not killing animals is far away. Even now, I thought that women and children were at least protected a little bit during a war, but now they are the targets. So I think it will get alot worse before we do anything. We only seem to do something when we hit rock bottom, or greed consumes us and we use our money to do it for us.
I do.
Not just for animals. The environment effects of the meat industry are quite frightening.
It's strange how so many people think we'd have to turn a lot more wildland into farms if we all went vegan. It's like they think the animals in factory farms/cows penned up in feedlots are out there gathering their own food or growing fat off air or something rather than eating corn and grain and soy that we grow for them.
Then there is the methane from all the cows that are raised for meat.... greenhouse gasses galore!
You are SO right. If everyone were vegan, we would all be healthy and life would be good. And we would take all the meat in the supermarket shelves and let animals eat it till its all gone, then we would eat tofu, tofu and more tofu.
There are many benefits to a diet containing meat. Many vegetarians claim that meat is unhealthy. This is a blatant fallacy.
It is well established that eating meat improves the quality of nutrition, strengthens the immune system, promotes normal growth and development, is beneficial for day-to-day health, energy and well-being, and helps ensure optimal learning and academic performance.
A long term study found that children who eat more meat are less likely to have deficiencies than those who eat little or no meat. Kids who don’t eat meat ― and especially if they restrict other foods, as many girls are doing ― are more likely to feel tired, apathetic, unable to concentrate, are sick more often, more frequently depressed, and are the most likely to be malnourished and have stunted growth. Meat and other animal-source foods are the building blocks of healthy growth that have made America’s and Europe's youngsters the tallest, strongest and healthiest in the world.
Meat is an important source of quality nutrients, heme iron, protein, zinc and B-complex vitamins. It provides high-quality protein important for kids’ healthy growth and development.
The iron in meat (heme iron) is of high quality and well absorbed by the body, unlike nonheme iron from plants which is not well absorbed. More than 90 percent of iron consumed may be wasted when taken without some heme iron from animal sources. Substances found to inhibit nonheme iron absorption include phytates in cereals, nuts and legumes, and polyphenolics in vegetables. Symptoms of iron deficiency include fatigue, headache, irritability and decreased work performance. For young children, it can lead to impairment in general intelligence, language, motor performance and school readiness. Girls especially need iron after puberty due to blood losses, or if pregnant. Yet studies show 75 percent of teenage girls get less iron than recommended.
Meat, poultry and eggs are also good sources of absorbable zinc, a trace mineral vital for strengthening the immune system and normal growth. Deficiencies link to decreased attention, poorer problem solving and short-term memory, weakened immune system, and the inability to fight infection. While nuts and legumes contain zinc, plant fibre contains phytates that bind it into a nonabsorbable compound.
Found almost exclusively in animal products, Vitamin B12 is necessary for forming new cells. A deficiency can cause anaemia and permanent nerve damage and paralysis. The Vitimin B12 in plants isn't even bioavailable, meaning our body can't use it.
Why not buy food supplements to replace missing vitamins and minerals? Some people believe they can fill those gaps with pills, but they may be fooling themselves. Research consistently shows that real foods in a balanced diet are far superior to trying to make up deficiencies with supplements.
Lets not forget either that protein, while it is found in plants, is better quality in animal products.
Some people claim that meat is unhealthy because it contains saturated fat. So does margarine and olive oil, and they're vegan suitable (in fact the hydrogenated fats in Marge can be very bad, but that's another story). Besides, any excess calories in your diet, any excess sugar, starch or carbohydrates are stored in your body for later use. This is done by turning them into saturated fats.
Cholesterol too. Your body on average creates four to five times more cholesterol than the average person consumes, and compensates by creating more when less is consumed. Cholesterol isn't evil, it is essential; it makes up the waterproof linings of all our cells and without it we would die. Too much can be bad, but as with saturated fats there are more healthy ways of disposing of it, like regular exercise. Anyway, it isn't so much how much cholesterol you eat, but how well yur body handles it. A person who eats loads of dietary cholesterol and leads an unhealthy lifestyle can still have low cholesterol, and vice versa. Most people's bodies are able to take a large amount of cholesterol without getting atherosclerosis. For this reason that eating meat gives you heart disease is very misleading, and for the most part untrue. Of course, if you do have a problem eating loads isn't a good idea, but for most people there is nothing at all to worry about.
Yes, there are things in meat that there is some evidence can cause cancer in some people, but there are as many in plants too. Soy especially has some very potent carcinogens. Processing of soy protein results in the formation of toxic lysinoalanine and highly carcinogenic nitrosamines.
Soy phytoestrogens disrupt endocrine function and have the potential to cause infertility and to promote breast cancer in adult women. Also they are potent antithyroid agents that cause hypothyroidism and may cause thyroid cancer. In infants, consumption of soy formula has been linked to autoimmune thyroid disease.
Soy is bad for numerous other reasons, but that isn't the point, I'm just using it as a quick example relating to cancer not being exclusive to some animal products. The evidence that claims meat does cause cancer is patchy anyway.
No sensible vegans can contest that we were deigned to eat meat. Even most vegan scientists agree that human's are designed to eat meat, that is not in question.
That we do not have claws, talons, or incisors to hunt proves nothing. When early hominids ate meat they scavenged it, as vultures do, using their fingers to get the sinews and meat other animals couldn't. It was only after that that they began to hunt the meat themselves, and only much later they began to cook it. It is interesting that even now if someone was brought up eating raw meat he would have no problem with it.
The last few million years of human evolution have revolved completely around tools. We used advanced stone tools long before we began to hunt our own meat, and as such there was no need for evolution to bestow us with large claws or teeth to kill prey.
Simple research into human biology reveals how we are meant to eat meat. For one thing, our body produces hydrochloric acid and meat splitting enzymes that herbivores don't produce and are solely used for the digestion of meat. There are adaptations to our teeth (not incisors, rather the size of the jaw), stomach and intestines which have made a human being very adept at meat digestion. There is nothing wrong with the way our body digests meat, and we are so adept at eating it no scientists are of any doubt we've evolved to eat it.
In contrast, there are many reasons we aren't naturally herbivores. We cannot naturally get all the nutrients we need without animal products naturally. Vitamin B12 cannot be got, even now, without animal products or supplements, and a lack of it can cause anaemia and impending death. 60% of vegans even now have some level of B12 deficiency, as opposed to no meat eaters, which says something about how well adapted we are to a vegan diet.
All other nutriets can be got natually. That owes to that vegtables can now be sold all year round, even out of season, and can be flown into the country from all over the world. In bygone times people could only eat the relatively small range of plants that grew in their ecosytem, and only when they were in season. Thus many more nutrients would have been unavailable and still more unavaillable for most of he year. Until very recently it would have been impossible for a vegan human to live naturally without dying very quickly.
Now, meat makes up for all these lost nutrients very nicely, and it really shows how we aren't naturally vegans, as until very recently it was impossible to live like that.
The fact is Humans are omnivores, with the ability to eat nearly everything. By preference, prehistoric people ate a high-protein, high-mineral diet based on meat and animal sources, whenever available. Their foods came mainly from three of the five food groups: meat, vegetables and fruits. As a result, big game mammoth hunters were tall and strong with massive bones. They grew six inches taller than their farming descendants in Europe, who ate mostly plant foods, and only in recent times regained most of this height upon again eating more meat, eggs and dairy foods. We are adapted to eat meat, and it is just as natural as eating plants.
Some also claim that the digestion of meat releases harmful byproducts into our system. This is true, however such are our adaptations to eating meat that our bodies are quite able to dispose of said products without any adverse effects.
So, in summary: it isn't healthier to avoid meat. You can be healthy without meat, but likely not as healthy as if you did, assuming you kept things like the wide range of fruit and veg that a veggie diet usually entails. Too much meat can be bad, but normal amounts are no problem at all. Any health benefits that come from a veggie diet come from a wide range of fruit and veg, and being health conscious, as veggies often are; that doesn't require you to not eat meat."
I don't think a vegeterian diet benefits anyone in any way better than a better meat eating diet could at all. If you have no ethical qualms, it's quite pointless. PETA will tell you otherwise, but they have very strong ethical opinions, and mould their 'evidence' around it. There is, for example, some evidence that vegans live longer and are at less risk from cancer and heart disease; however those studies show only a very marginal and insignificant difference and none of those studies have yet managed to identify meat as the only variable. Veggies are less likely to smoke, drink or eat junk food, and eat a wider range of fruit and veg, making the test results inaccurate and unreliable.
It's not good for animals either: for a start the meat industry is booming at the moment; secondly if enough people went veggie to actually affect the industry at all, and the demand for meat decreased, it would mean animals which were surplus to requirement. You're kidding yourself if you think that would mean they'd live happily ever after, as they couldn't be sold no one would want to keep them, and they'd still be slaughtered.
Think about it, the second farmers couldn't sell their livestock, the second they couldn't make a profit, they wouldn't keep them any more. Keeping animals isn't cheap, and to keep them, without profit, would be hugely expensive to any farmer. How many do you reckon would be prepared to make that kind of loss?
Now, what'd happen then? Maybe a few wild pigs or goats would stay alive, but for the most part it would be impossible to release them into the wild. The vast majority would have to be slaughtered.
I quote "If no one were allowed to farm animals, farms would grow crops instead. The first thing to go would be all the animals. Once the rural landscape were rid of cattle, sheep, and the like, fields would get larger, for the convenience of the combine harvesters, and hedgerows would go. Wild animals like rabbits would now be a more major pest. No farmer would want animals eating the plants, and so the war on such animals would intensify. Grown in the fields would be domesticate species of food crops, and so the number of plant species would decline."
Domestication is one of the best things that can happen to animals. If the golden eagle tasted any good you can bet your life it wouldn't be nearly extinct.
I quote "In the wild, a sheep would have to look for food, compete for it, jockey for position in the herd, look out for predators, guard its offspring, and it one day would die because of some accident, perhaps a fall, some nasty illness, or it would become weak and have its throat ripped out by the local predators. By striking contrast, the life of a farmed sheep is rather different. A farmed sheep has complete protection from predators; all the food of exactly its favourite kind at its feet all day every day, for which it does not have to compete; no competition for mates; no need to guard offspring; free health care; free haircuts; it is very unlikely to die in childbirth, and unlikely to die a nasty death. True, half a ewe’s offspring are taken away and killed. However, in the wild, a ewe would lose most of its offspring anyway, and in nastier circumstances. By the standards of the natural wild, a sheep’s life is about as cushy as a life could possibly be."
This is true, animals in the wild invariably die violent deaths. the closest an animal will get to dying of old age is being picked by a predator because it it old and therefore an easier to target. Farmed animals invariably lead happier, healthier, less stressful lives than those in the wild.
Maybe there is a reason why you feel like you are the only one.