Just wondering what reasons you guys would give for being vegitarian/vegan/pescatarian. Im pescatarian at the moment but plan to make the move to veggie or vegan when I move out and start buying my own food... the parents seem to have a problem with me not eating meat for some reason, I think it makes them feel guilty. Anyways, my reasons were a mixture of health and ethical... meat is bad for you, fact. The ethical reasons go without saying cruelty, mistreatment, suffering. Also im a firm believer that if nobody FARMED meat and instead used the ground to grow crops then the third world famine problems would for the most part be abolished. Anybody agree/ have different opinions? Im interested hehe =)
i'm vegan for ethical/religious reasons. also, health reasons, but that's the last on the list. If you believe so strongly about animal cruelty, suffering, etc. how come you're still pesco? is it that you can't be veg at all until you move away? And if you're really concerned about animal cruelty, consider veganism. You may be surprised at the amount of cruelty that dairy and egg animals have to go through even though they're not exactly slaughter animals. You can start being veg today in fact... that is if nobody actually forces you to eat fish.
Nah, its not really a matter of choice, I cant afford to buy my own food at the moment and the 'rents refuse to buy the foods Id need to be vegie and remain healthy and active... basically a case of "eat whats here or not at all". By remaining pesco I know im getting neccessary protien, fats etc without having to go out and buy other foods which contain these things. Better than nowt I suppose =)
I'm vegan for ethical and moral reasons XD it's good to hear other people think of it like that, I've met alot of peole who are vegetarian because they think it'll make them thin (???)
I had a rather "moment of clarity" in a philosophy course; ethical concerns for me. Sorry to hear your parents are not too flexible with your beliefs. I was kind of in the same boat as you when I first transitioned over to veganism. I was living at home and was pretty dependent on my parents for food at the time; I was relying on canned soups, pasta and veggie burgers for a while haha. Anyways, after awhile they noticed it wasn't just a phase. Fortunately my parents are pretty understanding. I still don't feel they would ever understand to the fullest (or would ever want to) why I do what I do, or more of the logic behind it. Have you ever sat down and tried to really have a talk with them about it? The only thing that I could really recommend is to be consistent with your intentions and don't let your parents make you feel guilty about it. Eventually, I hope they would start to see how important this is to you and become more tolerant. Once again, however, we all know how parents can be (no pun intended).
I always stood up to my parents. I was a really rebellious and opinionated child from the get go. If they made it hard for me to practice my beliefs I'd pack my bag in an instant and be gone.
i went vegetarian about a month ago for mainly ethical reasons. iv never really been a big meat eater but i got to a point where i was just wondering why i was still eating meat, because i didnt particularly enjoy it and knew the suffering that went into it, so i just stopped. i also agree that world hunger could be lessened if more people went vegetarian. i plan to go vegan someday, but i wouldnt worry that you still eat fish, i know how it is with the parents, but the fact that you've given up meat is already fantastic and maybe one day when your ready you'll make the switch its probably easier than you think, good luck!
aren't you pesca? how is THAT standing up? it was my family's attempt at compromise, not a place to stand from.
I went vegitarian first for environmental reasons. Then, once I stopped eating meat it got easier to pay attention to the animal rights arguments so I went vegan for ethical reasons. I don't believe you can be serious about animal rights and still eat dairy and eggs.
If I believe in pescaterianism and I stand up for it, I'm standing up for it. And I've only been pesco for a year. I was a vegetarian for 2 years before and I stood up for that too. I made the "compromise" because I felt differently than most vegetarians do on the basic principals that underly vegetarianism. So I changed my diet to fit MY ideals. So what are you talking about? And what does my being a pescaterian have to do with standing up for what you believe?
Original Poster- Have you shared any good veggie sites with your parents? They may not be trying to be difficult, just worried that you can't be healthy because of what they were taught. Vegan and vegetarian nutrition is based on sound health information. It's not luck! Here are some resources that you may want to share with your mom and dad. I know there are healthy and unhealthy eating choices in any "diet" (to me, veg*nism is not a diet) but prove that vegetarianism CAN BE and IS healthy http://www.vrg.org/nutrition/ http://goveg.com/ (meet the animals, read about nutrition, order veg starter kit) Tons of recipes! http://vegweb.com/ http://vegcooking.com/ http://www.cok.net/lit/recipes/ AnotherStarter Kit with info: http://www.tryveg.com/cfi/toc/
Ok, think on this as you answer: vegetarians do not eat fish as a general rule (You have heard all the hair splitting, but for THIS forum, vegetarian means you don't chew on animals: mammals, avians and water creatures fully included). We percieve eating fish as a concession made (much like meat eating in the Bible), not a place to stand up for beliefs. A person who eats fish is probably on a heath diet, not an ethical one, and that's fine, but it isn't vegetarian. So one does not have to stand up for a healthy diet (unless you hang with total rubes). How is fish eating anything to stand up for in the vegetarian sense. I HAVE seen you defend it here... but what restaturant server will challenge you? Or family member? you have "good health" on your side.
I guess you misunderstood me or I didn't fashion my response well enough. I was telling her to stand up for her vegetarianism if she does not want to eat fish. I happen to eat fish, therefore am not a vegetarian. But I think I can still encourage someone to stand up for their vegetarianism based on their principals even if I have slightly different ones that put me in a different category. At times I want to give up fish again and be a full time vegetarian, like I was before, but I am not in a rush. I have been using this time to figure out exactly what I feel about fish-eating in a sense that is truly my own opinion, and not just peta's or whomevers. I never planned on permanently leaving vegetarianism to eat fish, but more to put my vegetarianism in perspective later on and really be able to answers peoples questions (the biggest one, whats wrong with fish?). Make sense or no? I'm just figuring out who I AM and what I believe in on my own TIME. I am not on a dealline to figure this shit out. Do my opinions not belong here?
I gave up meat a year ago this month :tongue: originally, the main reason was because it upset my stomach, as a kid and through most of my teenage years I ate meat on a regular basis, was never bothered by it, I even lived in a town with a GIANT pig plant, but as I neared 19-20 years old, every bit of meat I ate hurt my belly. Maybe I wasn't digesting it properly? I dont know I dont go to doctors. But yea so anyway, I thought about making the switch for awhile, finally got around to trying, and for me it was a very simple process. Although now, I have picked up on my own personal moral and religious reasons, and I am disgusted by the idea of killing an innocent animal to eat it.
I had a sudden vegetarian conversion experience 12 years ago. I was just suddenly struck by the idea that it was wrong to eat meat. I quit eating it that very day. Several years later, I developed severe chronic illness and I experimented with my diet a little to see if anything would make me be able to get out of bed. I ate a little fish for a while, and had chicken a couple times, but - no big surprise - it made me feel worse physically and psychically I just couldn't handle it. So I went back to being a veg. A couple years ago, I went strict veg (dietary vegan) for about a year, then kind of fell out of it. Now, I'm about 95% strict veg. I will occasionally eat something somebody has cooked for me that has eggs or milk in it, and I'm on a ton of medications that I *have* to have, and they're not vegan. Being so ill makes it a bit more complicated - my husband works long hours, and I'm often too sick to do anything about eating but unwrap something. Sometimes the only thing like that in the house will be a granola bar that has honey in it. I try and stay stocked with vegan bars, but since I have to rely on hubby to go to the store, there are occasions when I run out. My ethical conviction about veg*anism has only strengthened with time, and becoming a Buddhist has done even more for that. I also happen to believe that veg*n diets are the only sustainable, environmentally responsible ones, so that's a factor. The health reasons have never been that important for me.
I'm rather ashamed to say that I still get around in my leather boots, belts etc, despite the fact that I don't eat any red meat, seafood or poultry. I know I'm going to get absolutely throttled for that, but I'm just being honest. Meat just grosses me out and that's pretty much it. If I was lost on a deserted island and the only thing to sustain me was meat I still don't think I could eat it. I have spoken to a few vego's of the same mind and they all agree that it's the texture that really makes them want to throw up. The thought of eating flesh raw or cooked-EWWW!!!
