can you guys help me with sumn? I'm doing a survey for my psychology class. I'm studying why people choose a vegetarian/vegan diet and the psychological consequences of an omni vs. veg diet. especially the 'apathetic' aspects of it... ask if you want to know more, I'll be happy to share. Can you give me a few reasons (minimum 3 plz) why you're a veg? For instance, animal rights, health, religion, etc. It can be anything you like, and you can give me as many answers you like, but you have to rank them from most important down. Can you also include how long you've been veg and if you're vegetarian/vegan/ambian/etc.? Thanks a lot, I appreciate everybody's replies.
for instance: I'm vegan (well, about 95%... i'm tryin...), have been for about 6 months. I was a vegetarian for about 8 months before that. I'm vegan because: 1. Animal Rights- in the sense that animals suffer daily for their meat while humans turn a blind eye. 2. Religious reasons- I believe conscousness to be universal and equal. 3. Ethical- I believe it to be unethical to 'steal' an animal's life for profit. Animals have become commodoties to exploit for gain and I find it unethical. I can't support the factory farming industry for ethical reasons. 4. Health- my family has a history of heart disease, high cholesterol, colon cancer, and diabetes. 5. Cuz milk is effin nasty! egh. No way I'll ever drink milk again. And I do my best to avoid all dairy.
I am vegetarian because my health was getting very bad. I have high blood pressure, diabetes, arthritus, and asthma. My doctor wanted to put me on meds for cholesterol as well. I said no, I want to control this with diet. Since becoming veg 8 months ago, I have lost 35 pounds, my blood pressure has come down, my blood sugar is much lower, my cholesterol is fine and my triglycerides are coming down to a normal range. The longer I am veg, the more I consider animal rights as well. I am not vegan because I'm having a hard time givng up cheese and yogurt. Mostly cheese. Kathi
1. Animal rights - initially, it was simply the *industry* that I was opposed to. I didn't necessarily have a problem with animals dying for people to eat, but I had a problem with how they lived, under what conditions, and what they were being fed. As the years have gone by, I've found myself opposing all flesh-food even more. I just don't see it as a necessary part of life, and I'm honestly amazed that it's still the "normal" and accepted thing in this culture. 2. Health - I feel much healthier now that I'm not poisoning my body with these substances. Especially so since I began to cut out dairy, eggs, and fish a few months ago. (This move, oddly, was less for health than the above reason - the living conditions of many dairy cows, egg hens, and farmed fish are atrocious.) Now that I've lived the vegan lifestyle for a couple months I'm healthier than I have been in years. 3. Spiritual - Now that I don't participate in the consumption and torture of animals, I feel much more centered and at peace with the universe. And I also feel more capable of communing with and understanding those animals, because I don't see them through the shade of a guilty conscience. I've been vegan since around the end of December. Pescitarian for about three or four years before that, preceded by about two years of omni and four years of veg. (I was veg in my youth, largely for social reasons, and went back to eating meat while I was drinking heavily. It took me a while to realize what was so "off" about my life.) I'm never going back to any of it - this was a lifelong change for me. Kathi - I have insulin resistance, so I know a bit of what you're talking about. Same as you, I didn't know for a long time how I'd give up cheese. But I did it, and I really do feel better for it. I recently saw this video, of a very interesting lecture. You might want to check it out, since what he talks about pertains to diabetes a lot. http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-3214100593069532942&subtitle=on&pr=goog-sl
I'm vegan because 1. Animal rights - would you eat your dog? If not, then why would you eat a cow? Every animal has the right to live... 2. Environmental reasons - factory farming is one of the worst polluters to our groundwater. 3. Health - I feel so much better since I stopped eating meat...and even healthier since I became a vegan...I've even lost weight... I was a vegetarian for short of eight years, and have been vegan for a little under three months.
That video was great. It does address so many of my health issues. Now to figure out how to do it. I am so reliant on cheese. Making things with cheese in it is one of the few ways my husband and son and I can eat the same meal. Kathi
lacto-veg 26 almost 27 years. originally for spiritual reasons, morphed into more Pythagorean reasons ( basically that it is at this juncture unnessecary to take animal life for us to thrive). I'm aware of teh other issues, and they probably have some bearing when I get wacky cravings, but I cannot honestly say they are solid reasons. to order the main ones would be environment (but I have the natural product v synthetic issue- solved by buying second hand either way 99 percent of the time) body health possibility of a philisophical argument for rights conferred on animals (separate from protections) PM me if you need more info, quotes or a real name.
I've been an ovo-lacto veg for about 12-13 years (don't have an exact date) solely for animal rights/ethical reasons. When I was younger, it didnt make sense to me to eat animals, and I finally had the sense to stand up for my beliefs when I was in middle school. Recently though I've been vegan on and off, trying my hardest to eat vegan now. And that is for animal rights as well as health reasons. Milk does not do a body good. Sorry, cant give you 3 reasons, thats about it.
I've been vegetarian for about 2.5 years (I went veg after wanting to for a long time at my first Rainbow Gathering). I've been transitioning to a fully vegan diet over the last 6 months or year... and now am moving more towards a raw (living) vegan diet for about 75% of the food I eat (this is just over the last few weeks). Basically, I try to eat food raw (not heated above 120 degrees) so that the living enzymes are preserved and I get optimal nutrition from my food. I have also eaten organic food (almost exclusively, though there are some exceptions) for over 2 years. I consider my diet/lifestyle an investment in my own health and the planet's. I originally wanted to be vegetarian for many reasons, mainly environmental and health reasons. But as I got more into it I became involved in animal rights, and as someone who has always loved animals and had a hard time understanding why we eat them, it just clicked for me and that is the reason I went vegan. There are other reasons but my top three are the environment, animal rights, and my health. I have never felt better and going veg was the best decision I have ever made.
Left on my own my diet is vegan. I am flexible though and will go lacto-ovo vegetarian when visiting friends and family if I need to. I can’t really give time frames as my diet has slowly changed with no real defining points for labels. I have been vegetarian for about 2 ½ years, more or less with my diet slowly moving towards vegan throughout that time. I don’t call myself vegan though, since I am flexible and would not want to tarnish the name. I can’t say that the following reasons have an order of importance. They are all equally part of my choice. You can take them in the order I give them if you need to though. 1) Health – Health is the first thing that brought me to a vegetarian diet. Doing research on diabetes and heart disease lead me to studies showing a vegetarian diet decreased your chances of developing these. Since these are both things that run in my family I wanted to take measures to decrease my chances of developing them and this is all I could find. So something is better than not trying at all. I also started doing Yoga around this time and found I had difficulty doing it if I ate a heavy meal containing meat, but things we much easier if I ate a vegetarian diet. 2) Compassion/Spiritual – I have always liked animals, but I discovered after being vegetarian for awhile that my compassion for them (and all things) greatly increased. One day I saw some baby goats and this deep feeling of companionship hit me and I realized that my views had changed. I no longer saw animals as means to an end but fellow travels on this adventure of life. So I do what I can to reduce their suffering. 3) Environment – What more needs to be said here? I care about the environment and try to do what I can to reduce damage to it. Part of that is through my diet and striving to make healthy choices for our planet.
I've been a vegetarian for about 2 years now. Reasons why: 1-Health-I'm not okay with the chemicals that they put into my food. A lot of these chemicals cause health problems. I feel a lot better eating a vegetarian diet. Plus, I was diagnosed with early signs of cervical cancer and when I changed my diet my immune system improved. The cancer cells were gone about 4-5 months later. 2-Environmental Reasons-Grazing animals (cows, etc...) require a lot of room to graze and grow. People chop down forests to fulfill their meat needs. The waste that animals produce puts more CO2 into the atmosphere. 3-Animal Rights-I don't believe that we should have power other another animal. We can live effectively without meat. 4-I don't like to be wasteful. A plant or set of crops can continuously supply many meals, but an animal can only supply a few meals.
I've been a vegetarian for about a year. Reasons why: 1. Eating meat had become strange and gross to me. I slowly stopped because it just seems so strange to eat a dead animal. (I'm not saying people should feel that way because I understand that its normal for most people.) 2. Animal rights. I feel that animals are not much lesser than us. The conditions they are put through in factory farming isn't right in any way. They are living beings that have feelings. 3. Health. I really feel incredibly healthier. Meat has a lot of fat and cholesterol and I feel like I am eating in a more natural pure way. OH and also it feels really relieving to not worry about if meat is cooked all the way or getting bacteria juice on stuff - I LOVE THAT. I would constantly worry that my meat was undercooked and I was gonna get sick. 4. Purity. I'm not putting any negative energy in my body by eating meat, along with chemicals and antibiotics. 5. Environmental reasons. Factory farming pollutes the air like crazy and over 50 percent of our grains are fed to the animals. (I think thats right.. I need to research that a bit more.) Glad I could help!