Any vegetarians or vegans out there?

Holy cow there is an another pescatarian. I have been following it for around the past 3 - 4 years.

I have recently gone veggie because eating meat just stopped making sense to me for moral, health and most importantly logical reasons (we simply don't need to kill and eat animals to survive).
I feel 100x healthier than I did 3/4 months ago when I was eating meat and I've lost a tone of weight (which needed to be lost so that's a good thing in my case)

Also my girlfriend is Vegan and I regularly cook and eat Vegan meals with her and really enjoy them.

I'm very glad it is becoming more common and less associated with hippies because supermarkets in the UK are catering to Vegans and Vegetarians more and more recently.

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Thats exactly my point too- I mean I/we could eat meat but it seems less and less necessary for moral and logical reasons. Not to mention how low yield cattle farming is in terms of produce which to me as a rational being made alot of sense. I like things that are neat and effective in most cases vegetarianism is very lean and effective. Excluding some locations where nothing grows such as Inuit communities and some deer hearders who simply cannot have access to enough calories in any other way- i'm not sure we should live there anyways if the land cannot properly feed us but whatever I leave those in as exceptions because 1 step at a time...

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Completely agree with all of this.

How is it less neccisery for moral and logical reasons?

From every which way you look at it it is just more reasonable check out few of the reasons I am doing it below. The only thing I cannot argue about is peoples traditions, values and lack of spine when it comes to changing habits that are as ingrain as diet but I did it so have others, so can we all:

To get you started:
http://www.ewg.org/meateatersguide/a-meat-eaters-guide-to-climate-change-health-what-you-eat-matters/climate-and-environmental-impacts/

As well as some other reasons like:
1) Not harming beings who are arguably less intelligent than us but intelligent enough to serve as pets and companions and also feel pain, suffering and despair just as we do. Did you know that pigs are smarter than dogs on average and that some species of crows can build and use tools and can reach the relative intelligence of a 7-year old.
2) Health benefits in numerous ways and reduces risk of many heart conditions considerably amongst other physiological bonuses. Even some top BJJ and MMA champions have gone full vegan and do not need animal products to be competitive.
3) Huge difference in environmental costs and yield in production is staggering. It costs far more: land, water, fossil fuels, time & effort to essentially create animal products we can do without that we do not need physiologically.

P.S Considering that in most cases meat is made tasty by herbs, spices and minerals which are essentially non animal products the taste argument also starts to lose its ground If i want something that has that "steak texture" I could grab a shiitake (type of mushroom) burger instead and not feel as if I have lost anything. Also i'd like to make clear I have not always been vegetarian it took me few years of calm and calculated reduction in animal products first stopped eating mystery meat then dropped non-organic suppliers after which dropping down to fish and so on. During my journey I ate well and still am....I have become more adept at knowing how to find excellent tasty treats that are vegan and so on it is not difficult but as with anything it might take just a tiny bit of effort but so does going to mcdonalds....so why not choose something which actually helps people and the planet (the only one we have at the moment not counting paradise). Considering the environmental costs and current population growth I'd make a bet we will all be going vegetarian quite soon as most people will not be able to afford any meat because all the land will be used to produce crops which give more yield...alot more.

Peace :)

I agree that vegetarian/vegan diet can be a much healthier way of life. Depending on how you do it. I met some people that where pretty unhealthy cause of how extreme they went in there vegan ways. But when it comes to health impacts of meat it's all about moderation. A lot of people overdo it in meat. Especially over processed meat (fast foods). As far as the taste thing goes I don't really agree. I've had vegetarian/vegan and I can always tell it's not meat. I personally love the taste of meat. All kinds of meat. Simply amazing. That's me though. As far as animal cruelty goes it depends on the animal and how it was raised/ butchered. Would I eat a dolphin? No. I worked on a chicken farm for years and years. The chickens there where raised in a warm comfortable clean barn given good food and water daily. Picked the eggs and when they reached the end of thier life they got shipped off to the butcher. Sure it's not a glamorous life but it's a chicken. On the flip side of that coin I do know there are a lot of farms/ meat factories I'll call them that treat animals like crap. That I don't agree with.

Personally I hunt/fish a lot of my meat and buy the rest.

I can understand that and yes there are extremists who go too far with some experiments I support the idea of providing everything one nutritionally needs if you try to live on cabbage alone that wont work. I mean even omnivore diet actually means a much smaller portion of meat than people usually actually consume. I have fished in my life as well but well growing animals in "better" conditions goes some way but in the end it is still morally questionable even if they were kept in best possible conditions. If the end goal is to kill them when they are at their tastiest which is usually nowhere near their lifespans natural end. So depends on the person but for me being slave to my taste preferences to a point where I am willing to kill to satisfy them became unacceptable but as mentioned before it did not happen overnight. First the idea took root and I started to take small steps and yes in the beginning I understood if something was plant based or meat based right away but in the end it wont matter and there is nothing to lose besides attachment to certain ways we have become accustomed to- changing is scary and uncomfortable but everything worthwhile is.

I do find this ironic that we are talking about this while I eat a moose steak.

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I had shiitake burgers which are wonderful and yesterday I made some spicy chickpea curry with nuts and steamed vegetables afterward had some IPA's and a toke it was glorious. Moose stake sounds very fancy though at least another me 5 years ago would have thought so :)

http://www.vegansidekick.com/guide

We don't have teeth like carnivores, and I wouldn't eat my dog, so I went vegan.

The results? Healthy, happy, horny.

There's a ton of reasons to choose vegan! Those super powers and unlimited stamina are fun to play around with.

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Processed meat is extremely unhealthy no matter what morals you have.

My Mother and Sister are vegetarian and health/looks wise they are doing great. Growing up in that house hold, we ate meat, but not a large part of our overall intake that I think our society in general does now, and that meat would be seafood or turkey burger, rarely red meat. I feel I grew up healthy and could eat till I'm stuffed, every meal, into my mid 20s without gaining weight. I lived in Japan at a young age, and like @Pistol mentioned, its a land full of very healthy looking and vibrant people. In later years I started to eat whatever I felt/convenient, weight gain and fatigue followed. For a while I was an EMT and started to ask my older patients questions outside of the necessary out of curiosity, and a theme I was finding in the ones that seemed healthier than others was a vegetarian diet and/or fresh (grew up on a farm etc). It was one of these patient's daughters is where I heard of the China Study for the first time.

Years ago I started working out with a high speed/low drag guy, and in my desperation to try and recover faster and start catching up to him, I tried being vegan out, following a vegan triathletes advice on proper diet. Doing it "right" IMO is why I didn't run into cravings and other issues I think others run into. I was happy, feeling great (could have been the working out only) and would have kept at it but took a long hours overseas job that got me back into eating whatever was around or craving. I'm thinking of going back to a vegetarian or vegan diet to get some of my pep back, maybe cut my BP down a few points, loose a few lbs etc.

processed can mean nearly anything.

basically just avoid corporate produced food in general. Anything they can do to increase profit that doesn't create indisputable harmful side effects that could be linked directly to them, they will do.

I feel like people in the modern western world are often too disconnected with where their food is coming from. If people knew exactly how the meat was prepared for McDonalds or Taco Bell, would most really be ok with it? Probably not. This isn't necessarily advocating vegetarianism.

I am an advocate of reducing the number of meals you have meat in, and the amount of meat in those meals. Generally i not only think that people eat more meat than is healthy, but that people would enjoy the same quality of meat more if they reduced their intake of it, and they would even be able to afford a better quality of meat to make it that much more enjoyable. Today i had beef for the first time since Christmas day. and i probably had less than 4oz of it today and less than 4oz on Christmas day. Both times tasted amazing.

I've been vegan for about 5 years now. Everything is going fine here, but one of the struggles of being involved with PC communities while being veg/vegan is how critical and harsh everyone can be. This thread is a testament to that. I'm always hesitant to meet up at LANs and stuff when people suggest bringing food. I usually eat beforehand and then just politely decline eating things at the event. I don't want to bring in random imitation foods and get bombarded with comments. I'd love to see someone pop up a community of PC enthusiasts with non traditional lifestyles. Or heck I'd just like to see more accessible open minded spaces.

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This is just a joke, please don't get upset. I found it hilarious.

I could be a vegetarian but vegans piss me off with theor fairy-dust-amd-bark-is-a-burger attitude. At that they're all hipsters :/

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So true

going to keep this open for now despite the necroage since this is not a time-sensitive discussion. Please keep things on topic folks and try to post things that will spark meaningful discussions.