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Old 11-19-2007, 01:42 PM   #1  
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Default Why are you a vegetarian?

I've been slowly getting boobalah to increase the veggie portions of our meals. Unfortunately, his idea of veggies includes potatoes. I don't want to become a vegetarian, but I want to incorporate more into my eating plan. I've started, except for today because I forgot them, adding them to my lunches.

My younger DD became one because of some excess baby weight. She was quite successful. She does eat some seafood, cheese, eggs and poultry but that is it.

Her friends bacame vegetarians in high school because they went to an animal rights rally. Not sure if they will eat eggs or cheese, but no dead animals for them.

A former coworker is Hindi and that is part of his religion.

So, have you always been one? Did you do it for weight?

TIA.
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Old 11-19-2007, 01:57 PM   #2  
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Hi mare,
I've been a vegetarian for about 1-2 years (can't remember *lol*). I still eat fish and seafood, though.
In the beginning, the reason that I stopped eating meat was to lose weight. I never really ate a lot of lean proteins when it came to meat, just a lot of fast food. I also noticed that whenever I ate meat, I felt really heavy and bloated.
It definitely helped the weight come off, and somewhere along the way, I made the decision that I would rather not kill an animal to eat it...so I stuck with it.
I know that it seems hypocritical to not want to kill an animal, yet still kill fish and other seafood. I've struggled with this issue, and I try to only eat this meat from the most sustainable sources. I don't believe that my healthy diet would continue to be successful without those sources of protein in my diet (I know that it is possible in theory, but I'm speaking in terms of personal choice). For now, this is what works for me.
Best of luck!
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Old 11-19-2007, 03:56 PM   #3  
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I am not a vegan or a vegetarian anymore but I was both once upon a time and I am trying to go vegetarian again. I keep away from red meats. I eat chicken occassionally and seafood rarely so because I eat another living thing I am not a vegetarian.

Originally I started out as a vegetarian for animal rights. I still feel it is wrong to eat another living thing just as it is wrong to eat another human. I feel they are pretty much on the same level. I went vegan partially for animal rights as I had read more into it all, the process and the way animals are treated to get milk, eggs, etc. but I also did it to lose weight. I weighed 200 lbs and got down to 140 in only a few short months - so close to my goal. Due to certain problems (not health related) I let go of my vegan/vegetarian lifestyle and the weight came back very very quickly.

I also figured out with my vegan diet that it made my blood sugar problem disappear which was nice. Since going back to being a partial carnivore, that problem is back. Both vegan and vegetarian lifestyles are so much more animal friendly and so much healthier.
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Old 11-19-2007, 04:03 PM   #4  
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I wouldn't consider anyone who still ate chicken or fish to be a vegetarian. Just because you minimize your animal proteins doesn't mean you are a vegetarian and just because you want to increase your vegetable intake doesn't mean you need to be a vegetarian.

I don't consider myself to be a vegetarian or vegan but for the past few years, I have definitely cut down on my meat consumption. I had also definitely increased my vegetable consumption. I was having difficulties on cutting down on my dairy consumption. That was until I started reading about the negative health issues with eating any kind of animal protein, especially dairy.

So I haven't eaten meat regularly for quite a few months and I haven't eaten any animal products (meat, dairy, eggs) for the past month. I really enjoy the food I'm eating and I feel a lot better which will just generally lead me to continue eating how I have been. Maybe one day I will decide I'm a vegetarian or even vegan but I'm not there yet.

Anyway, I would definitely encourage you and your family to eat more plant based foods and to minimize your animal product consumption but then again that doesn't have to mean going vegetarian.

Some wonderful resources are vegan cookbooks and vegan websites such as fatfreevegan.com and there are tons of others out there. They will help you make creative, animal free meals.

Overall, I have to say I don't know if I've ever enjoyed my food as much as I do now.

Last edited by nelie; 11-19-2007 at 04:05 PM.
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Old 11-19-2007, 04:41 PM   #5  
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Thank you ladies. I really don't want to become a vegetarian because I do like to have meat. I don't always have it everyday, but do have it often. Red meat is seldom. I'm trying to convince boobalah that 1 or 2 meatless dinners per week would be a good thing. However, I have to get him out of the mindset that meatless does not mean macaroni and cheese, lasagna or even pizza that we make ourselves.

I have to find some way to keep it interesting as well. After all, one can only eat just so many salads.

Why do people think that if they are cooking for a vegetarian that it has to be a salad? I'm going to have to resurrect my black eyed pea salad. That was good.

I'm off to visit some websites now.

Thank you again.
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Old 11-19-2007, 07:30 PM   #6  
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Ovo-lacto vegetarian for the last 26 years. Why is multi-faceted.
1. Read the book "More With Less" - stewardship of Earth's resources is a biggie for us. 10 lbs. of grain= 1 lb. of beef. I'd rather eat the lb of grain. And yes, we donate the remainder of our food budget to a world-hunger organization.
2. DH is in the medical profession. All of his medical journals in the early 80's were full of articles about DDT and mercury in fish, hormones in poultry and the horrors of red meat.
3. Became pregnant with DS #1. After 2 miscarriages, I was extra sensitive about EVERYTHING I did. Realizing that I was part of the first junk-food generation scared me. I definitely did not want to bring up a child on the diet we were eating.

That being said, it is easy to gain weight as a vegetarian. Eating too much of healthy foods still packs on the pounds. Beans, grains, dairy, desserts, etc. eaten in large portions caused both DH and I to be overweight.
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Old 11-20-2007, 05:38 AM   #7  
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....On the CaloriesPerHour website I learned about Joel Fuhrman's book Eat to Live. It was so convincing and made complete sense to me about how what you eat directly relates to how your body operates.
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Old 11-20-2007, 07:38 PM   #8  
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I've been a vegetarian for years and plan to go vegan soon but it had nothing to do with weight loss. It had to do with animal rights. You know the whole story.
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Old 11-20-2007, 09:24 PM   #9  
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I have been a lacto-ovo vegetarian for about two-and-a-half months now. I had been trying to wean myself off of meat for about two years, but have finally just gotten it done and am not looking back. I had three main reasons:

1. If you read the books about what kind of food that you should be having for your particular blood type, I am A+ (I love to write that!)(I digress)...and I should not have any meat for my particular blood type.
2. I am a calcium oxalate kidney stone producer, and meat protein is BAD for me. I have been producing two stones a year for the past five years and have learned through extensive PAIN, questioning many professionals in the field, and my own research, that animal protein is NOT good for me.
3. I went to one of the vegetarian websites looking for recipes and found pages of mistreatment of animals. I couldn't bear to read what happens to animals that are being prepared for slaughter, so that sealed the deal for me.

I am now on the vegetarian diet for Metabolic Research Center, and am losing weight, feeling WONDERFUL, and happiest of all, that I've given up meat. So, that's the long and the short of it.
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Old 11-21-2007, 09:46 AM   #10  
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chopin,

Just curious with your stones, do you find the animal protein in eggs and dairy to be a problem for you?
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Old 11-22-2007, 12:33 AM   #11  
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Sorry to jump in on this thread since I'm not a vegetarian but.
I've gotten kidney stones a couple of times this year and both times it was when I tried a high protein/low carb diet so I'm starting to think that there is a connection between meat and stones also. I just started looking into this I'm looking to start cutting meat out more and more.
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Old 11-22-2007, 12:40 AM   #12  
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There's a definite connection between animal protein and many health conditions, but kidney problems top the list of people who should avoid or at the very least severely restrict all animal protein.
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Old 11-22-2007, 01:00 AM   #13  
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I'm not a vegetarian, but I'm going to jump on in here anyway. DH and I eat very little meat. I mean, I think I've had red meat maybe 3 times in the last year, chicken a little more then that, and we do eat fish. My biggest issue with meat has to do with the fact that animals that are treated poorly end up being bad for you. Factory farmed meat has a terrible nutrition profile when compared to humanely raised meat (I know some will disagree on varying levels~this is my interpretation of the information I've seen.) But, finding the "good" meat is hard and it's really expensive, so we don't eat much meat. Not too mention that most people in the US consume too much protein anyway.

Plus, vegetarian food is varied and delicious! There is so much more diversity in vegetarian cooking! Dinner doesn't need to be a slab of meat, a starch, and a vegetable. That's just not my thing. Vegetarian cuisine is not only yummy, but most of the time it's easier on the bank account too.
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Old 11-24-2007, 10:49 PM   #14  
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nelie - What a good question!...I had not even THOUGHT about the correlation of the animal protein in eggs and dairy. Everything that I have read thus far led me to believe that it was the protein in the actual meat that was producing my stones. I also know that salt, dark green, leafy vegetables, certain berries, coffee, chocolate, etc. are also not good for me as they are high in oxalate, so meat is not the only culprit.

Eggs, cheese and cottage cheese are the core of my protein for both breakfast and lunch now, so now I'm really wondering if I'm eating as healthy as I thought I was. I am on a quest now to find out about dairy and eggs. Thank you so much for bringing that up!

2muchbackend - I produced a kidney stone after two weeks on Atkins, and I produced a stone after about three weeks on the South Beach diet. I finally decided that I was the one that had to be proactive in finding out what was causing the stones. I hope that you can find out what is causing them for you, because we both know the PAIN involved, don't we?
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Old 11-26-2007, 01:40 AM   #15  
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chopingirl, I have been lucky were I've not felt the stone passing I don't know if I ever will but I fear for that but the pain I get in my kidney's is horrible I've ended up in the hospital once and I've had to take pain pills for it. My Dr just told me the other day that it was most likely the animal protein but she said dairy is ok. So hopefully the stones don't get bigger!! I just need to learn how to eat correctly now and hopefully get it figured out.
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