The Vegetarian Poll

R

Ruthenian

New Member
In a recent question on creatine, Jake provided a good vegetarian reply and this got me to wondering just how many vegetarians there are on the board.  A search indicates that there are several, but no poll yet to try and quantify it -- so here is it.

Definitions:
Vegan Diet: no animal products in diet at all
Vegetarian: no meat (including poultry or fish) in diet
Almost Vegetarian: this is open to your own self-description, though a good definition might be eating meat only seldom.

I recognize that not all non-veggies will think we are crazy, but take the last answer in the spirit of fun it is intended (the hippie remark is for Sci's mom!).

And feel free to tell your story!
 
All the veggies I've ever known look like they need a good chicken sandwich inside 'em or a nice juicy steak
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And parents of infant "veggies" should be had-up for child abuse!
 
Once again, another poll that didn't include my choice.

I eat vegetarians. They are lean, lowfat, high in protein, and good for you. Great food for growth.
 
There's a place on Earth for all of God's creatures ... right next to the mashed potatoes.


Vegetarian: Indian word for bad hunter.
 
Ah, I love the high level of intellectual discourse this topic generates.

<div></div><div id="QUOTEHEAD">QUOTE</div><div id="QUOTE">All the veggies I've ever known look like they need a good chicken sandwich inside 'em or a nice juicy steak </div>

Yeah, I occasionally get folks telling me I &quot;don't look like a vegetarian.&quot;  Apparently, they have met vegetarians that don't look all that healthy and expect us all to look frail, have sallow complections, and sunken cheeks.

Back in my college days at a 60s throw-back, hippie college, I met a fair number of milquetoast &quot;please forgive me for being a man&quot; lefty types that might have met this description, but I don't know that I can say they were all vegetarians.
 
I'd put myself in the &quot;almost vegetarian&quot; category, as I limit my consumption of meat to only two and four legged animals (and anything with gills).
 
I eat a couple of hens a week, a good slab of beef, half a turkey, and sometimes a few pieces of pig steak...and they all eat veggies...so I must be a vegetarian...except that I eat a couple fish too, and they eat other fish, so I guess I'm not one.

Waitaminnit; bottom of the fish food chain is bugs. Do bugs count? Or is that meat?
 
I just don't think it makes any sense to eliminate an entire food group - it seems to go against our goals of being healthy. But whatever you believe, then go ahead. My younger brother is semi-vegetarian, not strict about it. He doesn't seem to be dying or anything.
 
Strict vegetarianism is not compatible with human existence.
If it was, we could get all the nutrients we need just from plants.
This is not a reality, therefore we must eat red meat, poultry and birds.
End of discussion for me.
 
cats get everything from meat, actually by eating whole animals, they need no other food groups.

If you feed a tiger in a zoo only meat, they usually get sick, don´t breed and die.

If you give them a whole animal, they prosper.

Humans need plant and non-plant food substances.
 
<div></div><div id="QUOTEHEAD">QUOTE</div><div id="QUOTE">Strict vegetarianism is not compatible with human existence.
If it was, we could get all the nutrients we need just from plants.
This is not a reality, therefore we must eat red meat, poultry and birds. End of discussion for me. </div>

Dr...dr...I'd hate to disagree with you there but something tells me I must.

so lets open the good book, just for creation's sake and a bit of information:

<div></div><div id="QUOTEHEAD">QUOTE</div><div id="QUOTE">Gen 1:29 - And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for food.
30 And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every animal that creepeth upon the earth, in which is life, I have given every green herb for food: and it was so.</div>

Well, we were made to eat what exactly? According to the above no mention of any animals...yet! That only came after the flood!

Samson - was according to scriptures one of the strongest guys that ever lived, his diet was certainly vegetarian:

<div></div><div id="QUOTEHEAD">QUOTE</div><div id="QUOTE">And Samson lay till midnight, and arose at midnight, and took the doors of the gate of the city, and the two posts, and went away with them, bar and all, and put them upon his shoulders, and carried them up to the top of a hill that is before Hebron.</div>

It does not stop there, Daniel too put a test to the jail warden, and ended up being the cleverest guy in the kingdom.

Not that I am vegetarian, although I restrict my meat eating, specially red meat...but with all due respect, vegetarians are not weaklings, they just have to know very well where to get their proteins from.

If they stick to Pulses + Vegetables they get complete protein, fruits just can't be eaten at teh same time as vegetables, and I believe their resitance and endurance is way better than meat eaters.

Anyway just a rant!

I think Ruthenian is just looking for other vegetarians and we have not answered his question yet!
 
Nothing like a post about vegetarian or vegan diets to raise the hackles of the Forum!!! As a long-time vegetarian, it never ceases to amaze me how defensive carnivores get about this stuff. And please, don't tell me that it's because we veggie-types lord our diet choices over you. Many of my friends and co-workers are vegans or vegetarians, and I've never seen the kind of arrogance that many meat eaters assume we hold towards them. If any of you have experienced this, I apologize on their behalf- that kind of behavior is just plain bad manners; bad manners, by the way that are certainly shared by many meat eaters (sometimes, distressingly, including my better half)!

In response to Ruthenian's request, my sotry is actually pretty simple, and probably typical. I was raised in a traditional, meat-eating family- you know the type- chicken on Sundays, turkey every Xmas, and lots of flesh in between. I went vegetarian with my wife (yep, she was at one time too) in our mid-20s and that was that. She went back to meat after a bout with anemia while expecting our first kid (who, BTW, is a very strict vegetarian and very healthy as is her younger sis- they're both late teens). My wife is recently returning to a primarily vegetarian diet, even though I'm happy to cook anything she wants (I'm the family cook), so there was no pressure from me or the kids.

In order to preserve some sense of peace on the board, I won't go into the reasons why I, and my daughters, are vegetarian, but let's just say that it's not only about healthy eating. Although the latter is certainly a side benefit- my lipids are better than they were when I did eat meat, I've got more LBM than ever (thank you kindly, Bryan), and my endurance is excellent.

But at the risk of a flame war, I really do have to take the good Dr. to task. No, &quot;strict vegetarianism&quot; is definitely compatible with human (and many other mammals', including primates') existence. Even if, by &quot;strict&quot; you mean veganism, there are plenty of vegans who are thriving physicially, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. Certainly, the same holds true for vegetarians as well.

BTW, it's important to remember that one be a junk food addict and a vegetarian at the same time (MUCH harder if you're a vegan, because of all the hidden dairy products in candies and flavored chips and the like). You have to watch your diet whatever you do.

Hope this doesn't sound like a rant, it's not meant to! Heck, some of my best friends eat meat, just like I'm sure some of their best friends don't.
biggrin.gif
 
Hey, I wasn´t starting no flame. If you can live on plants alone, more power to you.
I am not a Meat-Nazi, I see vegetarianism more as a philosophical movement.
Our bodies have evolved to eat both.
Most of the vegetarians I know don´t look healthy.
as far as the bible is concerned, I am areligious so the bible has as much merit for me as mad magazine.

BTW, I tried vegetarianism and became horribly weak and ill. maybe it was the wrong time in my life to try it, but I eat meat almost three times a day and I feel like a million bucks.

so my vote is for eating meat.
 
To each his own- it's a matter of personal choice. But I have to wonder what the unhealty-looking vegetarians you see are really eating! Truth to tell, I do know some vegetarians who don't know how to eat, and they are probably malnourished in some way or another. Then again, I know meat-eaters who have the same problem! But, I will say that I have met very, very few obese vegetarians- same can't be said for omnivores! Is it the meat that's causing that? I don't know- maybe, but I'd bet it's probably more likely a complex of behaviors that are probably less prevalent among vegetarians- including unawareness of proper diet, too much couch and TV time, etc., etc.
 
Meat doesn´t make you fat. It is the rest of the edible crap that modern society has developed.
Although I have my problems with vegetarianism, vegetarians, as a whole are more aware of their
health and how and what they put in their bodies. The majority of severly overweight and obese people in the todays society are lazy with regards to exercise and spend way too much time in front of the tube shoveling meaningless calories into their bodies, mostly starchy sugary crap with no nutritional value.

The veges I know are all emaciated with sunken eyes and more or less energy-less. I have a family friend whose daughter at the age of 12 or something decided to stop eating meat. Her hair thinned out, she doesn´t menstruate, her breasts didn´t grow etc....her sister is perfectly healthy and no one in the family has any genetic disorders. Up until she went vege, she was perfectly normal. her parents aren´t stupid either as the researched the best way for a vegetarian to get all they needed but to no avail.

6 years later she started eating like an omnivore and bam over the course of a year she almost totally recovered.
 
Ruthenian or any vegetarian for that matter...


when the creatine thread popped up, this question came to mind.


How do you intake the amount of protein, required to meet your requirements, on a daily basis? Maybe I should also ask, what do you feel your protein requirement is, based on your weight?
 
I can only answer for myself, but my main protein sources are dairy (skim milk, fat-free cottage cheese, and eggs) and plant protein (beans, nuts, and derivatives, such as soy products, gluten (seitan), and occasionally Quorn). I have no problem hitting 1gm/lb of BW (I'm 190lbs, 13-15% BF) with my diet. You'd be surprised how fast the protein adds up- it lurks everywhere
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<div>
(Jake @ Feb. 01 2007,15:45)</div><div id="QUOTEHEAD">QUOTE</div><div id="QUOTE">I can only answer for myself, but my main protein sources are dairy (skim milk, fat-free cottage cheese, and eggs) :</div>
I couldn't care less what you eat, but isn't eating chicken embryos the same thing as eating chickens ?  What is the typical vegan's take on that ?
 
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