Any vegetarians or vegans out there? Need your support.

[miles01110]

As far as watching what you eat, NO IM SORRY you don't have to watch what you eat anymore than anyone else should watch what we eat.

Heart Disease is the NUMBER ONE killer of women in the United States, never mind Osteoporosis and a bunch of other ailments linked to eating WAY too many animal products.

Being vegan reduces a mans risk of prostate cancer by 95%

So no, if anything eating meat you have to be WAY more careful.

Did this make sense to anyone?

-You don't need to watch what you eat
-Heart disease is linked to eating too many animal products
-A vegan diet reduces the risk of prostate cancer
-If you eat meat you have to be more careful about what you eat

So...you do need to watch what you eat?



Anyway, if you're going to go vegetarian or vegan you might as well go organic as well. There're plenty of "bad" chemicals found on/in produce.

 

[flopticalcube]

Did this make sense to anyone?

-You don't need to watch what you eat
-Heart disease is linked to eating too many animal products
-A vegan diet reduces the risk of prostate cancer
-If you eat meat you have to be more careful about what you eat

So...you do need to watch what you eat?



Anyway, if you're going to go vegetarian or vegan you might as well go organic as well. There're plenty of "bad" chemicals found on/in produce.

I think he's saying, EVERYONE should watch what they eat, regardless of vegan/vegetarian/pescarian/fruitan.

I agree about organics. Many chemicals everywhere.

 

[Quetsche]

The Bonobo is one of our closest living evolutionary relatives

Bonobos eat mostly fruits and vegetables, but will also eat shoots, leaves, flowers, seeds, barks, pith, herbs, invertebrates, and small vertebrates such as flying squirrels and young forest duikers (small antelope found in rainforests). They are also known to eat termite clay for essential minerals, and have been recorded to eat 113 different types of plants per year (Pygmy Chimpanzee, 2000). The bonobos also obtain 72.22% of their food sources from secondary forests (Sabater-Pi, 1994).

Bonobos are also known to eat a large amount of Terrestrial Herbaceous Vegetation (THV) which they consume to provide their main source of protein (duikers are a delicacy). Their consumption of large amounts of THV suggest the bonobos superior shearing ability, as well as extraction of essential elements from food. Also, because within the Bonobo habitat, the food source is plentiful, which also reduces feeding competition and aggressive encounters (Malenky, 1994)

uummm, sorry, but :

A new study reveals that some bonobos—one of humankind's closest genetic relatives—hunt and eat other primates.

Groups of the endangered chimpanzee subspecies were observed stalking, chasing, and killing monkeys they later consumed.

Scientists have long known from stool samples that some bonobos eat rodents and small antelopes in their natural forest habitats in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), but many researchers thought this was the extent of their hunting activities.

Gottfried Hohmann and Martin Surbeck, at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, thought differently.

"We saw that their relations with neighboring monkeys were frequently hostile and found a black mangabey finger in bonobo feces last year," Hohmann said. (See a photo of a mangabey.)

"We did not know if the mangabey had been killed by another predator and then scavenged by the bonobo or if the bonobo had killed the mangabey itself, but this raised our suspicions."

The researchers went on to observe bonobos attacking, killing, and eating monkeys. Their findings were published Monday in the journal Current Biology.

To the O.P. : I would advise you to not go 'cold turkey' and reduce meat in your diet step by step. Btw, red meat is by far the most nocive for cardiovascular health, so if you got to begin somewhere, begin here.
also, maybe check that : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vegan#Nutritional_concerns
(yes yes i know wikipedia blah blah blah… )

 

[StruckANerve]

Now let me add, I don't think that humans can't eat meat, and I think you CAN be perfectly healthy doing so. However to suggest that our physical makeup is somehow designed for eating meat is blatantly FALSE!

Now your just full of it. We would not have even evolved into humans if we had not changed our diet to eat meat. We may actually be currently evolving carniverous physiology because of the change in our diet over the last 2 million years or so.

http://berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/99legacy/6-14-1999a.html

 

[TechieJustin]

uummm, sorry, but :

Stop monkeying around.

 

[R.Perez]

uummm, sorry, but :

I never said they didn't eat any meat, id love for you to show me where I said that?

I simply pointed out that it is not a primary part of their diet whatsoever.

This is also true of the African Chimpanzee, meat is 5% or less of their diet

Chimpanzee diets are composed mainly of ripe fruits but vary according to the time of the year and abundance of specific food items. They will spend many hours a day eating about 20 different species of plants and up to about 300 different species during a one year period. They do not store food and will eat it at the place they find it. They also enjoy eating young leaves particularly in the afternoon. In long dry seasons when fruit is scarce, tree seeds, flowers, soft pith, galls, resin and bark become an important part of their diet.

They also eat many different types of insects, however termites are the most nutritionally important. Termites are collected either by hand or with tools which are modified by the chimp and specifically used for this purpose. Many zoos, including the Honolulu Zoo, have built termite mounds to simulate this natural behavior of feeding. See our termite mound enrichment. Females spend twice as much time eating insects as males do. Birds are occasionally eaten. Mammals such as monkeys, pigs and antelope are also eaten, particularly by males, but along with termites only account for about 5% of their diet.

I am simply making the point that we are neither meant to, or not meant to eat meat. Basically, it is a choice.

 

[R.Perez]

Now your just full of it. We would not have even evolved into humans if we had not changed our diet to eat meat. We may actually be currently evolving carniverous physiology because of the change in our diet over the last 2 million years or so.

http://berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/99legacy/6-14-1999a.html

That does not say anything about us needing to eat meat to be healthy. Nor does it say that meat should be a part of our diet. I am not debating that eating meat was essential to our evolution, that is a different discussion altogether.

FROM YOUR OWN ARTICLE did you even read this?

Milton's paper also demonstrates that the human digestive system is fundamentally that of a plant-eating primate, except that humans have developed a more elongated small intestine rather than retaining the huge colon of apes - a change in the human lineage which indicates a diet of more concentrated nutrients.

 

[Queso]

Before you do this...
All of the vegans and vegetarians I have known over the years - always got sick. I don't know if their immune system wasn't working at 100% or what.

You can have the same nutritional goals and results with a well balanced normal diet.

I've been veggie for 19 years, and in that time have only taken two days off sick thanks to an ear infection caught whilst SCUBA diving. Thanks to the large amount of fruit I eat I also get over anything I do catch very quickly.

You can have a balanced diet without the meat.

 

[prostuff1]

The only way you are going to find out if it is for you is to try it. I have a few friends that are vegan/vegetarian and we get along just fine.

I could never bring myself to stop eating meat. I like it to much... plain and simple. One thing I do suggest is getting your meat from a local farmer. We do this with pork and beef especially and the meat is much much better quality. We have it cut the way we like and store it in a freezer in our basement for use when we need it. The meat that we get is always much leaner and cleaner than anything we could buy from the store.

Canning your own fruits and vegetables is also a good idea (much less preservatives). We can peaches, pears, greenbean, red beats, tomato sauce, beef, and a few other things. We also freeze corn (blanch it first), home made applesauce, bell peppers, cabbage, and zucchini. All this stuff ends up being far healthier for you then what you can buy in the store.

 

[0186279]

I've been vegan for about four years now, best decision I have made for myself.

I feel great mentally and physically. I look at life in a completely new way now, from animals to friendships to the environment.

Going vegetarian is especially easy, really all you are doing is swapping the burger on your plate for a veggie/soy burger (which has just as much, often more protein than a meat burger, without most of the harmful effects). Or swapping the chicken for tofu, or the hot dog for seitan, or a bunch of beans even. Its just swapping one protein for another, there is nothing more to it.

Vegan is a bit trickier, but still easy after a bit. I would go vegetarian first and work your way into veganism.

I rarely get sick as a vegan, and when I do its not worse than your average meat eater. Everybody gets sick, PLEASE dont do what so many people do: Go vegetarian, get really sick a few months later and blame it on your diet. Haven't you ever been super sick when you were eating meat?

Also, of course it is entirely possible to be healthy on a meat based diet, but studies prove that a vegetarian diet is much more beneficial in the long run, especially when it comes to the heart and. And of course there are many more reasons to go vegetarian other than the health aspects, most notably animal rights and environmental issues.

If you would like to talk about it more in depth please PM me I would be more than willing to share any info I have.

 

[0098386]

I eat a lot of meat, almost every meal. I'm healthy and never ill - never had the flu, rarely ever get colds (one every 4-5 years), had an ear infection as a kid and that's it. My girlfriend eats meat and does get the flu almost annually. *shrugs*

 

[StruckANerve]

That does not say anything about us needing to eat meat to be healthy. Nor does it say that meat should be a part of our diet. I am not debating that eating meat was essential to our evolution, that is a different discussion altogether.

FROM YOUR OWN ARTICLE did you even read this?

It's only through modern nutritional science that we've recently been able to survive on and mantain a Vegan diet. Poorer societies have suffered from malnutrition and other diseases because of shortages of the proteins in meat and their lack of knowledge on supplements and vitamins.

This from the same study

"In many parts of the world where people have little access to meat, they have run the risk of malnutrition, said Milton. This happened, for instance, in Southeast Asia where people relied heavily on a single plant food, polished rice, and developed the nutritional disease, beriberi. Closer to home, in the Southern United States, many people dependent largely on corn meal developed the nutritional disease, pellagra."

 

[Leareth]

I think the problem is that people do not make good food choices regardless if they are veggie or meat eaters.

How many of us have seen vegetarians who basically subsist on cheese pizza and junk food but rub in face that hey they are vegetarians ,and meat eaters are stupid/unhealthy/bad for the enviro etc.

I eat meat , do I eat meat every day? no
do I eat a lot of unprocessed foods , yes

tell me which is healthier:
peanut butter on white bread sandwich or organic grilled chicken breast on fresh spring salad ?

 

[R.Perez]

It's only through modern nutritional science that we've recently been able to survive on and mantain a Vegan diet. Poorer societies have suffered from malnutrition and other diseases because of shortages of the proteins in meat and their lack of knowledge on supplements and vitamins.

This from the same study

"In many parts of the world where people have little access to meat, they have run the risk of malnutrition, said Milton. This happened, for instance, in Southeast Asia where people relied heavily on a single plant food, polished rice, and developed the nutritional disease, beriberi. Closer to home, in the Southern United States, many people dependent largely on corn meal developed the nutritional disease, pellagra."

Wow you can't be serious.

These people only had rice, JUST RICE!!!! Hello! Where are the greens? Spinach? Kale? Quinoa? I mean seriously. People in abject poverty only have rice to eat and that is an argument against veganism?



Honestly people, this guy was looking for support in switching to a vegan and vegetarian diet, not a bunch of meat eaters telling him that without meat he will die or get sick or whatever other nonsense.

 

[miles01110]

Yeah, pretty much everything I've read on the matter suggests that it's less about not eating meat than it is about eating healthier food in general. If you want to go meat-free for ethics reasons that's a different story, but making the assumption that no meat -> healthier diet is just incorrect.

tell me which is healthier:
peanut butter on white bread sandwich or organic grilled chicken breast on fresh spring salad ?

 

[macdim]

I'm a level 5 vegan. I won't eat anything that casts a shadow.

 

[R.Perez]

Yeah, pretty much everything I've read on the matter suggests that it's less about not eating meat than it is about eating healthier food in general. If you want to go meat-free for ethics reasons that's a different story, but making the assumption that no meat -> healthier diet is just incorrect.

I agree, except people who are big on junk food and are going to eat it regardless are better off eating vegan junk food. At least then they get less saturated fat, no cholesterol etc..

Also some people find they eat healthier when they restrict what they can eat a little bit.

All in all though, people should watch what they eat, animal or not.

 

[leomac08]

If you don't eat your meats, you won't get any carbohydrates (Cm(H2O)n) or Vitamins B or B12....which are essential in the food pyramid.

and essential for you!

 

[R.Perez]

If you don't eat your meats, you won't get any carbohydrates (Cm(H2O)n) or Vitamins B or B12....which are essential in the food pyramid.

and essential for you!

Umm no. The only one you are correct about there is b12 and it is fortified in everything, so no worries there.

 

[Queso]

In Britain it's very easy for vegetarians to get a natural source of B12.

As for carbohydrates, has nobody ever heard of starch? It's in potatoes for a start, also pasta and bread

 

[SkyBell]

I'm a level 5 vegan. I won't eat anything that casts a shadow.

For some reason, I'm almost embarrassed I got that reference.

 

[Jaffa Cake]

If you don't eat your meats, you won't get any carbohydrates...

I have to carefully tot up my carbohydrate intake, and meat contains nothing more than trace amounts – although if you consume it in, say, sausages or a burger carbs can be present in other ingredients.

 

[Queso]

I have to carefully tot up my carbohydrate intake, and meat contains nothing more than trace amounts – although if you consume it in, say, sausages or a burger carbs can be present in other ingredients.

Or chocolate and other sugary foods, like erm....fruit. Neither of those are veggie surely

 

[flopticalcube]

If you don't eat your meats, you won't get any carbohydrates

How can you have any carbohydrates if you don't eat your meat?!?!?

You! Yes, YOU! STAND STILL LADDIE!

 

[CHAOS STEP]

Just because of this thread, I'm going to make sure I eat this tomorrow;

Korean Pork Don and Gyoza dumplings. Look what you're missing!


On a serious note, fair do's if you can make a go of it - I really couldn't, quite a few of my friends are veggies though and they haven't dropped dead and the food they make is pretty tasty.