Vegetarianism

[Cryptid]

I would pay top dollar for a FRESHLY-MADE Midwestern-style chef's salad right about now.

 

[chincey_james]

My veganism arises from compassion, and that compassion applies to meat eaters as much as it does animals.

For anyone on the sidelines and considering going plant-based, I recommend a documentary called Dominion. It is a disturbing film, not for the faint of heart, but it is what pushed me to never eating another animal product again. If you can gaze upon the totality of what slaughterhouses do, you will at least understand why some vegans are as zealous as they are (however misguided).

 

[jellyfish]

The more I think about it the more I see a red meat animal as a conscious feeling thing and it upsets me to think I cook its flesh and chew it up and eat it. I don't know, it's all very confusing.

 

[Barymore]

Also vegan here, but I prefer to call it a plant based diet. Health and climate reasons but also ethical/animal welfare aspects.
I am lucky in that for me it was similar to Ken - loads more energy and strength. I do have to make sure to eat enough calories as I lose weight easily - but that's what all those nut butters are good for supplement b12 and omega. My dad is an avid meat eater but also has to supplement b12 so probably less diet and more genetics there. I loved the entire plant based world of food that opened itself up to me! New foods, new recipes and I not once felt I was restricted, quite the opposite. Sometimes I miss eating meat but way less than when I was quitting smoking, so no problem getting past those moments. I am working on incorporating less processed and more whole food into my diet now and have really gotten into fermented foods. Who would have thought, when I got my hunter's license back in 2007 that I would be vegan less than 10 years on.....
Not a huge fan of chickpeas though, unless as hummus....

 

[Princess Viola]

I'm not vegetarian or vegan but I love plant-based meats, they're honestly mostly indistinguishable to me from real meat these days, with some exceptions (and even then most of the exceptions are talking about the texture and mouthfeel, rather than the taste. Got some vegan meatballs, for example, that are really damn good but they don't have the same feel when you bite into them as regular meatballs, y'know).

Not even kidding when I say that these days I usually go to the plant-based meats before the regular meats when I'm out shopping (or I'll go for plant-based meats when I'm doing online grocery delivery), unless it's something where there's no plant-based alternative.

That being said, while I do eat a lot of plant-based meat these days (and just like...vegetables and fruit in general, not just stuff meant to mimic meat), I don't think I could ever go fully vegetarian or vegan. I know I couldn't ever go fully vegan because I'm sorry but I just love cheese too much and I'm sorry again but I'm not that big a fan of vegan cheese. I don't hate it, I've had entirely vegan dishes (like vegan sandwiches and stuff) and it's fine but it just doesn't compare to real cheese, it just doesn't.

I also can't imagine myself going fully vegetarian because, while I feel I could give up land-based meats without any major issues, I love seafood too much and I just cannot give up things like lobster rolls, sashimi, tuna, etc.

So like at most I could see myself being an ovo-lacto-pescetarian (someone who consumes eggs, dairy products - although I will say that I am quite fond of soy milk lol, and seafood) and not a full vegetarian or vegan.

I also can't give up honey and I just gotta say this - vegans absolutely need to make peace with honey. It is probably the one thing we consume as humans that an animal produces where you literally cannot make any real arguments that it's unethical to eat without either blatantly lying or just repeating misinformation you yourself heard.

At its very core: harvesting honey doesn't harm bees at all and bees produce more honey than they need. When a beekeeper harvests honey from a beehive, that's what they're taking - they're just taking the excess honey. And if something does happen to the honey that's left for the bees (which they consume during the winter), a beekeeper can just...give them some of the honey back or if they genuinely don't have any extra honey, they can feed them sugar syrup to help supplement their food supply.

Also bees are not leashed or controlled in any way by keepers to stay in a hive, if you're a bad beekeeper, the colony will just...leave and find somewhere else to live. Bees go where the queen bee goes and if the queen bee stays in the hive, it's because she wants to, it's the best place for her and the rest of the colony to be. Bees are probably the only animal that we keep as livestock where we can 100% say consent to this because again, unlike say cows or chickens, bees can and do leave bad beekeepers.

(And there's also the fact that producing honey is just...what bees do. Beekeepers are not forcing them to do anything unnatural, it is literally what they do in the wild naturally. No one is exploiting or abusing bees to produce honey, beekeepers are just giving them a place to live and take care of them while they do what they'd do if they lived in a natural colony and then we just take the excess of what they produce)

Sorry for the honey thing there, the whole crusade some vegans have against honey is one of my biggest pet peeves.

 

[Cryptid]

Bean hamburger patties are easy to make . . .

. . . and taste exactly like burnt bean-paste, for some strange reason.

 

[Kalinychta]

Is there some vegetarians or devout vegans here? How is it? There's a lot of vegetarian options now in the supermarkets, I don't know if I could go without fish and seafood but I could probably give up red meat and pork. I like chickpeas.

You could definitely go without fish and seafood—if it’s important enough to you. You control what goes into your mouth. I’ve been a vegan for 14 years and have never looked back. (Well actually anytime I have looked back I’ve been disgusted.)

 

[vergil96]

I tried being vegetarian and had health problems from it. The way I see it, some people are perfectly healthy vegetarians, some can't do it. I have severe allergies to vegan products such as seitan (it's concentrated gluten) and cashew-based products. Milder allergies to many kinds of nuts. I've been doing better with legumes recently, but I wouldn't be able to base my diet off them. I also have hypoglycemia and need to eat a diet higher in fat and protein and lower in carbs, in which my plant-based options are non-existent. For a long time, I didn't eat a lot of meat though, on one hand I feel guilty buying meat and then throwing it out or consuming more of it than I really need to. On the other hand, I'm picky about meat and really hate low quality meat, I'd rather eat meals with dairy, eggs or legumes than with low quality meat. I certainly stopped eating meat everyday since I moved out to live on my own. I don't feel the need to.