So... I Just Became a Vegetarian
- Thread starter TheDrunkNinja
- Start date
Recommended Videos
Just so you know, the whole caveman survival of the fittest logic doesn't apply when you're hunting your cow by going to the drive-thru at McDonalds. You might as well praise yourself for inventing electricity when you turn on a light. The money that you work for and pay with is merely an abstraction of labor and has nothing to do with a trade and barter system. So on the same token, when you eat meat, it's only an abstraction of an actual animal that you eat. Hamburger's an excellent example since you can't even tell what parts it comes from. Since there is no cow as far as you're concerned when you eat beef, there's no prey to be thankful for--or in your case, gloat over. You may think that being a member of humanity entitles you to this communal victory over other mammals, but this too is only an abstraction which creates an ideal so that reality may be ignored.Aerodyamic said:
And perhaps you're the kind of person who goes out to hunts and eat his kill. But clearly you do it for sport, not necessity. Hunting can only give the false sense of justification to what meat actually is, an abstraction labeled food that has nothing to do with the animal from which it comes.
Now, I'm sure that you'll take this as a vegan attack on your red meat rights, but it's not. I frankly don't care what you eat, but only that you don't use faulty logic to justify it.
I could do without the smugness. Excuse me while I take a bite out of my red, juicy apple.manic_depressive13 said:
I did the exact same thing. Took me about three months to become healthier. I respect you. It gets harder as time goes on.
My brother and sister-in-law both tried this and it didn't work as they weren't getting the proper nutrition. However, my dad is and has been a vegetarian for a few years and healthy. You need to make sure you include non meat substances to replace any nutrients, such as protein, that was formerly easily available in meat products.
It's comments like these that I can do some real good with. I'm glad I made this thread. Not only am I getting some good support, but great tips like these are really helping me understand my new lifestyle. I can't tell you how much I appreciate your input. Thanks.Callate said:
I just feel the need to say:
As I have worked on a farm before I can tell you plants do NOT fair any better. If it wasn't for the huge amounts of fertilisers and pesticides these farms would be dead. Even with these harsh chemicals it is only just enough to keep them alive, not healthy, and all in order to produce huge amounts of crops that isn't natural for these plants to produce. Yet they can't scream, so that makes it all right doesn't it?
In truth factory farming is devastating but with billions of mouth to feed there is no way for us to get away from it?
It sucks, I hate it all very much so but one thing your going to have to come to grips with is that things die just so we can live, and mostly they die after a life that isn't the most pleasant. Short of moving to some farm, somewhere, and raising your own plants and live stock there is no real way to insure that no cruelty has taken place. Just changing what you eat doesn't stop all this factory farming abuse, it just makes it so your victim can't scream.
Any one who tries to claim vegetarianism with such a flimsy excuse of 'I am doing no harm...' well they are just stroking their own egos and justifying a 'better then thou' attitude.
PS: Your eating these poor, abused and chemically altered plants alive!
PSS: I was a Vegetarian for a while, health was my concern till I realised it is a unhealthy diet. No red meats is just as poor a dietary plan as over consumption can be. True, we are eating way too much red meats these days, that needs to be addressed, but face it. Most vegetarians are doing it for the 'holier then thou' reasons....
As I have worked on a farm before I can tell you plants do NOT fair any better. If it wasn't for the huge amounts of fertilisers and pesticides these farms would be dead. Even with these harsh chemicals it is only just enough to keep them alive, not healthy, and all in order to produce huge amounts of crops that isn't natural for these plants to produce. Yet they can't scream, so that makes it all right doesn't it?
In truth factory farming is devastating but with billions of mouth to feed there is no way for us to get away from it?
It sucks, I hate it all very much so but one thing your going to have to come to grips with is that things die just so we can live, and mostly they die after a life that isn't the most pleasant. Short of moving to some farm, somewhere, and raising your own plants and live stock there is no real way to insure that no cruelty has taken place. Just changing what you eat doesn't stop all this factory farming abuse, it just makes it so your victim can't scream.
Any one who tries to claim vegetarianism with such a flimsy excuse of 'I am doing no harm...' well they are just stroking their own egos and justifying a 'better then thou' attitude.
PS: Your eating these poor, abused and chemically altered plants alive!
PSS: I was a Vegetarian for a while, health was my concern till I realised it is a unhealthy diet. No red meats is just as poor a dietary plan as over consumption can be. True, we are eating way too much red meats these days, that needs to be addressed, but face it. Most vegetarians are doing it for the 'holier then thou' reasons....
I don't think I'm making myself perfectly clear for most people when I say I don't have much willpower. It's not literally I can't commit to anything, otherwise I wouldn't be doing this at all.muckinscavitch said:
Eating that little deck of cards for every meal won't be enough. I'll want more. I know me. It won't just stop at one. The initial craving I can deal with well enough, but I can't give in to eating just a little meat. I'm going for the killing blow in this.
Can I replace the word "humanitarian" with "hippie" and it still mean the same thing?FlyAwayAutumn said:
Since I've already got it in my mind that this is a temporary thing (as in, I WILL go back to eating meat again), it's pretty obvious I'm not doing this because of those little discussions my professors love so much. I'm using the facts to keep myself off the stuff. A quick thought about the amount of shit those BK double cheeseburgers get pumped with and all temptation is eliminated.Jinx_Dragon said:
I commend you for this. My tip would be to make sure you're taking vitamins. I can't even begin to talk about how many people I've knows who've gne vegetarian and gotten sick from a deficiancy in their diet.
I myself could never go without meat. Then again, I am the guy who watched Super Size Me and then immediately went and got a Quarter Pounder With Cheese......
I myself could never go without meat. Then again, I am the guy who watched Super Size Me and then immediately went and got a Quarter Pounder With Cheese......
I will wish you luck then, no one should ever fault you for trying something new. It really does show a interesting and different perspective and you will come away with a better understanding of diet. Others have put forth the pit-falls you have to avoid, and trust me iron tablets taste like crap but if your going through with the diet then these pills can be your friend.TheDrunkNinja said:
Just... don't think about bacon. Bacon is what brought me back after year or two of trying such diet. It still is something that, just by the thought of it, can bring my belly to grumbling no matter how much I just ate. It... it is too good to exist, I'm sure I am just delusional and this wonderful meat really doesn't exist outside of my own head. Hmmmm... bacon.
Still it is one of my dreams that maybe one day we won't have to eat at all. At the very least we will have means to produce food that doesn't involve large amounts of neglect and harm to those things we eat. I like the idea of causing as little harm in my existence as I possibly can but thanks to over-population we can't live that life. It does suck.
Kay, read my comment again.Cliff_m85 said:
Again, I am not giving up meat because of the inefficient meatpacking process. I am simply using it as a means to keep myself from craving any meat. I know the odds are a billion to one that I would actually die from e coli like that little boy did. I know people can consume meat without any bad side effects. I know, I know, I know.
People eat hot dogs all the time despite the over exaggeration of it's disgusting contents. However, since I don't want to eat hot dogs any more, I can use those facts to my advantage by effectively stopping all cravings to eat hot dogs by focusing my mind on them. When I'm done being a vegetarian, I'll have the ability to go back to eating hot dogs without any remorse.
I'd highly recomend learning to cook dhal. Highly, highly basic cookery, which you can add as much to as you like (often resulting in you getting almost all your five a day in one serving, as well as healthy amounts of protein and iron).
Start off with 4 or 5 chopped cloves of garlic, a diced half-onion, split red lentils, and turmeric. Shallow fry the garlic and half-onion in oil, with the turmeric, until the garlic softens slightly, then add a litre or more of boiling water and about 250g of your lentils (which you've washed in a sieve), more water until it covers the lentils, plus a couple of inches on top of that. Let it stew on a low heat and get thick and gloopy for about an hour or more, to a consistency you like, stirring regularly after the first (about) fifteen minutes.
That's tarka dhal. Works nice with naan bread or ryvita bread things, more than rice. incredibly filling.
You can make it more elaborate and nutritious by adding at the initial stage:
A grated carrot or two, and/or plenty of heads of broccoli, and/or a stick or two of chopped celery, and/or plenty of chopped mushrooms, and/or more diced onion and so on.
On the herb front, you can also add chilli or madras powder for more spiciness, among others for little extra touches of flavour (though nothing too weak, as it's likely to be overpowered by the others), and I have a friend who swears by a few drops of Worcester sauce in the bowl when he serves it (though since that contains fish, I go for Henderson's Relish, which is only really available in Sheffield).
Enjoy.
Start off with 4 or 5 chopped cloves of garlic, a diced half-onion, split red lentils, and turmeric. Shallow fry the garlic and half-onion in oil, with the turmeric, until the garlic softens slightly, then add a litre or more of boiling water and about 250g of your lentils (which you've washed in a sieve), more water until it covers the lentils, plus a couple of inches on top of that. Let it stew on a low heat and get thick and gloopy for about an hour or more, to a consistency you like, stirring regularly after the first (about) fifteen minutes.
That's tarka dhal. Works nice with naan bread or ryvita bread things, more than rice. incredibly filling.
You can make it more elaborate and nutritious by adding at the initial stage:
A grated carrot or two, and/or plenty of heads of broccoli, and/or a stick or two of chopped celery, and/or plenty of chopped mushrooms, and/or more diced onion and so on.
On the herb front, you can also add chilli or madras powder for more spiciness, among others for little extra touches of flavour (though nothing too weak, as it's likely to be overpowered by the others), and I have a friend who swears by a few drops of Worcester sauce in the bowl when he serves it (though since that contains fish, I go for Henderson's Relish, which is only really available in Sheffield).
Enjoy.
I laughed my ass off. Those were greatrobert022614 said:
And I loved the Willy Wonka reference in the first one.