Poll: Why choose being vegan over vegetarian?

[andreimg]

Is there a vegan in these forums whou could tell me why they chose veganism over vegetarianism?

Saw that movie/documentary "Super size me". You don't really need to watch it to get this post. It's basically common sense what they're saying. Don't eat fast food three times a day. But what the protagonist's girlfriend implies is that the only way to stay healthy is by being vegan.

My question is ''Why?'' Why choose veganism over vegetarianism? I'm not either myself, but i get why someone would choose to be a vegetarian. I have friends that chose that lifestyle and for them was either being more healthy, loosing weight, the general claim that is just because of animal cruelty or all of the above. One is not strictly vegetarian, in the sense that he eats fish sometimes for nutritional value and to keep a little balance between meat and non-meat. What I don't really understand is why would you decide that is healthier for you to eat only vegetables.

Now, every time there is and argument about this, I think it goes in a totally wrong direction(even in the movie). Comparing vegans to non-vegetarians, as if the basic argument is that meat is evil. Nobody really says why it is better for you to be a vegan than just by being a vegetarian.

The protagonist's girlfriend says for example that ham is just like heroin. Ok, maybe it is. But why keep out the other non-plant substances that are not meat?
If you don't care for reading all of that, these are my questions.
What is wrong in consuming animal bi-products? Is it just the notion that mass-produced bi-products imply the animal being treated bad?
Is it it healthy for your body to base your entire nutrition on whether or not you feel bad for what is generally considered ok to eat?

 

[AndyFromMonday]

The Body need's meat just has much has it need's vegetables. Why not just keep to the normal formula(aka eat both meat and vegetables)?

 

[Inverse Skies]

Vegans are those sort of people who really believe in a cause and take it to the extreme - hence the nothing from animals at all. It's actually a little creepy when you think about it, like they care more about animals than humans...

 

[andreimg]

The Body need's meat just has much has it need's vegetables. Why not just keep to the normal formula(aka eat both meat and vegetables)?

Ok, I understand that, but I'm talking about more on the line of if you had only two choices: vegan or vegetarian, why you would choose vegan?

They both have the same big argument: Don't eat meat.

 

[Quanefel]

I prefer a healthy diet based off of meats and vegatables. Along with a normal balanced diet that is much better for you than simply just meat or just vegetables. Either one requires too many vitamin pills to make it effective and even so, is not going to give you the nutrients your body needs to be considered healthy.

All diets like vegan is a fade, sounds good on paper but reality says you need the nutrients that a balanced diet requires. Humans are meant to eat meat even if our reasoning says otherwise, we are still animals designed and coded a certian way that nothing can really do to change that. But, to each their own I guess. I prefer to eat healthy.

 

[Sethzard]

vegetarian is actually better for you, because if you are a vegetarian you can get most of the vitamins and minerals you need, as a vegan you will almost certainly have to resort to vitamin supplements for everything you need

 

[andreimg]

vegetarian is actually better for you, because if you are a vegetarian you can get most of the vitamins and minerals you need, as a vegan you will almost certainly have to resort to vitamin supplements for everything you need

Yes. This is what I'm saying. Let's leave out the meat part for a bit in these arguments and consider the other nutrients that are not plant or meat related.

 

[Sethzard]

oh, well you need to be really devoted to animals to the point at which you stop caring about yourself

 

[TopHatTim]

PETA was at a KFC across the street from my school once (they were all girls in bikinis in -11 degrees celcius)
and i walked by and one of them screamed "HEY WHY DONT YOU JUST GO EAT AN ACTUAL HUMAN BEING"
after going in to KFC buying 2 buckets of chicken and eating it with 6 friends in front of them.

i realised theres no other purpose that chickens/cows and pigs have other then to be consumed by human beings.

and just becuase a carrot doesnt scream and whimper when you pull it out of the ground chop it up and put it in stew doesnt make it that much different.
they're all living creatures

 

[Maze1125]

Vegetarianism must automatically be healthier, because you have more choice.
A vegetarian doesn't have to eat milk and eggs, they just allow themselves the option, and having an extra optional place to obtain the necessarily nutrients from is obviously healthier. (And obviously the same points can be applied to eating meat compared to being a vegetarian.)

Now this does not mean people shouldn't be vegans, there are other reasons that you may or may not agree with but, if all you care about is your health, limiting your potential intake for arbitrary reasons is absurd.

 

[Maze1125]

they're all living creatures

No they're not, a creature by definition is necessarily an animal, and a carrot is not an animal.

 

[TopHatTim]

they're all living creatures

No they're not, a creature by definition is necessarily an animal, and a carrot is not an animal.

either way it take in sustininence it breaths and it lives

 

[Ace of Spades]

If I had two choices: vegan or vegetarian, I'd go vegetarian. There's still eggs, and cheese and stuff that I could eat.

 

[Crystal Cuckoo]

Having a normal diet (I.E neither vegetarian or vegan) is the best- you get proteins from meat, calcium and stuff from dairy, and all that pretty stuff from salads.
Of course, there are more vitamins and nutrients than the ones I just mentioned, but that's the general idea.

 

[Samurai Goomba]

I have no problem with Vegans or Vegetarians who are that way because they believe it's healthier. After reading The Omnivore's Dilemma, I've realized there are some uncomfortable facts that meat eaters have to face (or ignore, as I do) with regard to our meat industry.

Those who don't eat meat out of some political belief, however... Just no. There's plenty of evidence that says vegetarians cause harm to animals. Also, some vegans/vegetarians use their eating habits as an excuse to act better than everyone else. Those people can jump off a cliff and fall into a toxic waste dump carrying a backpack full of alligators.

 

[Maze1125]

they're all living creatures

No they're not, a creature by definition is necessarily an animal, and a carrot is not an animal.

either way it take in sustininence it breaths and it lives

A carrot cannot breath, breathing requires lungs, plants respire, which is different.

And why I'm I picking you up on all these little details? Because that is exactly what you're doing when you go "But a carrot's alive too, and you kill that." Yes, by the scientific definition, a carrot's alive, but when animals rights activists go on about protecting life they don't mean the scientific definition, just like you didn't mean the scientific definition when you called a carrot a creature.

 

[Spacewolf]

i think people are vegans because animals have been breed to produce more milk etc and this is causeing problems for the animal e.g. the udders on a cow are very delicate and definatly not a natural evolution trait

 

[TopHatTim]

they're all living creatures

No they're not, a creature by definition is necessarily an animal, and a carrot is not an animal.

either way it take in sustininence it breaths and it lives

A carrot cannot breath, breathing requires lungs, plants respire, which is different.

And why I'm I picking you up on all these little details? Because that is exactly what you're doing when you go "But a carrot's alive too, and you kill that." Yes, by the scientific definition, a carrot's alive, but when animals rights activists go on about protecting life they don't mean the scientific definition, just like you didn't mean the scientific definition when you called a carrot a creature.

why are you flaming?
theres no need for you to just shoot down everything im saying.
alot of people instantly know what im talking about.
if your a vegitarian or vegan atleast let me know so i know what your trying to defend

 

[[Insert Evil Laugh Here]]

Actually, the body can survive perfectly well without meat. What you do need to find is a ready alternative source of proteins. This is especially important in your formulative years, and being a vegetarian can often prove hazardous to children if their parents don't keep them on a strict diet. The alternatives tent to be the foods we traditionally despise as children. Recently one of my housemates got into the vege/vegan/green scene in a big way, so I consider myself pretty well informed.

The morality vegetarianism can come from several angles and needs to be understood to understand the morality of veganism.

The first is a fairly standard argument, that its wrong to eat animals. Call me speciesist but this one does appeal to me. I do not think that a cow has the same intrinsic worth as a human. Even ten cows. Ask yourself, would you rather save ten cows or one human?

The second is rather more convincing. Because so much energy is lost up the food chain it takes X acres of land to feed one human on meat where it only takes Y acres of land to feed on human on a vegetarian diet. Where Y is a much, much, much smaller number than X.
What this has led to is that poor countries are using their land to grow feed for animals to supply livestock in [Insert Western Country You Hate Here] rather than growing food to feed their own population. People are starving etc. etc.
From a purely humanist point of view vegetarianism has the moral high ground.

Veganism takes this argument to its logical extreme by pointing out that even if not eating the meat, vast herds have to be maintained to produce all the eggs, milk, cheese, etc we consume, and thus simply being vegetarian is not enough. Again, I cannot fault their logic.

So why, you ask, am I not a vegetarian, if I have conceded that being so is a more moral way of living? Answer: bacon.

However, we in the West, especially the Anglosphere tend to eat far more meat than our bodies actually need. It's a cultural thing, left over from the 16th/17th century. If you want to help the planet without abandoning your carbonised animal flesh of choice, try a more Mediterranean diet. Eat more pastas and vegetable/fish based foods, and cut as much meat out of your diet as you can stand.

 

[cuddly_tomato]

The Body need's meat just has much has it need's vegetables. Why not just keep to the normal formula(aka eat both meat and vegetables)?

I don't like the factory farming of animals, so I avoid eating meat.