Vegan/Plant Based Do you ever wonder about the animals you eat eat.

volver3

Shelflife

Can someone please explain to me why they don't eat animals - and I fully respect and understand that but are ok about eating fish - another living creature?

For most of us, I imagine, it's because we do the best we can, and despite what people think, we're not zealots.

'not zealots' despite all the propaganda and nastiness to the contrary.

But it's a lose, lose situation isn't it? If you're totally vegan, you're accused of shoving it down everyone's throat. If you're flexatarian, you're not committed enough.

Shelflife

Can someone please explain to me why they don't eat animals - and I fully respect and understand that but are ok about eating fish - another living creature?

For most of us, I imagine, it's because we do the best we can, and despite what people think, we're not zealots.

Can someone please explain to me why they don't eat animals - and I fully respect and understand that but are ok about eating fish - another living creature?

Have been vegetarian for 20 years. I tried once and failed but the photo of a pig that had it's throat cut trying to escape a vat of boiling water did it for me. The cruelty involved in intensive farming is vast and avoidable but people want cheap food. But something pays along the line.

I had a cat, and she lived for almost 20 years, who was born on a farm and caught her own meat! Otherwise she had cat food which was probably made from the bits of meat humans refuse to eat.

Grammaretto

So many alternatives are available now. dSiL is vegan as is her DP. Yes they have to take their own oat milk etc so as not to embarrass their hosts if they stay but they are undemanding and very healthy slim and good-looking too
Anyone who likes cooking can just as easily cook with vegetables and grains as with meat.

We're vegan, for around 10 years. Much better for our health, the health/welfare of animals and the health of the planet.

Yes, to cooking a wide range of meals, using pulses, lentils, quinoa, tofu, interesting spices and techniques - far more appealing than the lumps of meat, carb, veg approach. Also cheaper, easier, tastier food.

Nan99:

'Is it for your health or the animals?' - both - but, crucially, urgently important for me (the thing you failed to mention) is the state of the planet and the future for our grandchildren.

We can't just ignore the environmental consequences of our choices. It's our responsibility to show younger generations the way - and meat eating simply isn't sustainable (until factory grown muscle meat becomes mainstream).

I doubt that they'll ever forgive us for selfishly polluting and ruining the planet, our pathetic, inadequate and last minute attempts at slowing the destruction - do you? Those now in their eighties or nineties could possibly have the defence of gross ignorance and negligence - but the rest of us know full well what we've done to the world.

I don’t eat meat or fish and haven’t for a few years I don’t call myself vegetarian as I don’t read all labels etc and in a cafe or restaurant I don’t ask what fat is used etc so I don’t think I can use the term vegetation but I just don’t eat meat or fish and that’s good enough for me I stopped some years back and don’t really miss it (only occasionally perhaps miss a fish shop bit of cod or a nice fat prawn) but not enough to make me start eating it again

I have seen the cruelty shown to animal and fish in the industry and don’t want to add to it
I do like quorn mince a lot and went through a period of trying the other substitutes but didn’t really like any very much so mainly stick to vegi s and stir fries jacket potatoes vegi spring rolls things like that now

Rosie51

I'm not vegan, or even vegetarian. I don't eat huge amounts of meat and often choose a vegetarian option when out or cook vegetarian meals, just because I like the dish. I am aware of animal welfare and buy only fully accredited meat.

I do wonder how vegetarians and vegans manage to have pet dogs and cats. Dogs I believe can live on a vegetarian diet but cats are obligate carnivores. Surely nobody believes animals should be farmed solely to feed their cat or dog?

Regarding pets.
Yes, my dog eats meat and the cat just eats biscuits which I’m sure have meat in (she is ludicrously fussy)
We all make choices, and the huge majority of us are hypocrites to some degree or other.
I don’t eat meat, but I wear leather shoes because the alternatives are too hot and don’t breath.
My sofas are leather because they are practical with my pets.
I don’t believe that anyone needs to justify their choices, it’s not a moral competition

Mogsmaw I couldn’t agree more about horrible over processed vegan food.
There seems to be fewer nice vegetarian options in supermarkets too, now that ‘plant based’ has taken over

So many alternatives are available now. dSiL is vegan as is her DP. Yes they have to take their own oat milk etc so as not to embarrass their hosts if they stay but they are undemanding and very healthy slim and good-looking too
Anyone who likes cooking can just as easily cook with vegetables and grains as with meat.

Well said HettyBetty

I have been vegan for years, and have not eaten meat of any sort since childhood. It is a perfectly healthy way to live although you need to know a bit about nutrition. People who think otherwise have simply not done enough research. The way animals are treated in the meat and dairy industry is horrific. I don't know how people can accept it at all. I know people who will fawn over a pet dog or cat but then eat a chicken raised and killed inhumanely.

During my pregnancies all the healthcare staff remarked on how well I was, including good iron levels.

I like to think that my diet has helped me sail through the menopause with barely a warm flush and has given me the strong bones which I apparently have.

If anyone can tell me of a vitamin or trace element which will be missing from my diet I would be pleased to hear from them.

My DIL went vegan in order to try to reverse her diabetes, which had appeared during pregnancy, gone away following the birth and then come back again later, full blown. This worked from a while, but the diabetes was eventually not controlled by veganism. She is now vegetarian and happy to be so. My SIL, who has been a vegetarian since childhood, doesn't like to eat things that are made to look like meat and I can see why. Having tried a lot of them myself, they are not usually very good, although I personally use Quorn mince quite often for cottage pies and bolognaise type sauces. Having dipped a toe (or actually probably a whole foot!) into cooking without animal products, I think that it takes a lot of planning and determination to produce interesting meals, but it certainly can be done. DH and I eat a lot less meat than we used to, but we do eat a lot more fish. Luckily we have a local man who does a round in his van with fresh fish, and also stands on our market every week.

Grammaretto

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Meryl and Nan

I agree.

I like meat even though I feel guilty when I think about it.

Yes, I think about it and this is what I think.

Cattle and sheep eat plants that are inedible to humans and turn them into meat and milk that humans can eat.

The plants such animals eat grow on land that is not suitable for growing plant foods that humans can eat.

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Meryl and Nan

MerylStreep

Nan99
Could you give it a rest with your preachy plant based advice
We are all adults here and very aware of how our food is produced. We can make up our own minds.

Agree.

I'm not vegan, or even vegetarian. I don't eat huge amounts of meat and often choose a vegetarian option when out or cook vegetarian meals, just because I like the dish. I am aware of animal welfare and buy only fully accredited meat.

I do wonder how vegetarians and vegans manage to have pet dogs and cats. Dogs I believe can live on a vegetarian diet but cats are obligate carnivores. Surely nobody believes animals should be farmed solely to feed their cat or dog?

My dad was a keen hunter of game. He taught me and my sibling to target shoot as young children. At the age of about 10, he tried to get me to start aiming at animals. At that point, I'd happily been eating duck, pheasant, rabbit. But that was the point that the light bulb clicked on for me.

I was veggie for 15 years and due to dietary deficiencies, suffered the most terrible depression. I eat meat again now, but not every day. My DD went vegetarian at 8 and has never wavered in over 30 years.

I DO equate the meat on my plate with animals, which is why I don't eat much of it. A lump of meat is too obviously flesh and it gives me the ick.

I must admit I’m getting a bit tired of the “ vegan alternatives “
We used to go to A play, a pie and a pint. You were offered the choice of a mutton pie or a vegetarian flan. Now it’s the meat pie or a fake meat, ultra processed “vegan sausage roll” So if you dislike the taste, texture or very thought of dead animal your options are real or virtually identical dead animal….or nothing!
There is nothing wrong with making the decision not to eat animals, but it is the insistence on meat identical products always available that is making life hell for vegetarians.

Yes, Blondiescot diet can certainly control type 2 diabetes. I don’t know about heart disease but I guess a healthy diet could help. Cancer though - that’s a bold claim.

I'm not vegan but have been vegetarian for over 30 years with occasional lapses by eating fish.
Reasons are mainly to do with animal welfare though now I dislike the smell of meat cooking let alone eating it.
I'm sad that people think I'm difficult to feed. I don't think I am I love food and
I'm healthy enough .

Vegans can be healthy and if you look up vegans in sport you find plenty of successful Olympians so that argument doesn't hold water

Many people the world over don't eat animals. Ok in countries where plants don't readily grow such as Arctic regions, it's understandable, but we should be able to live splendidly on a plant based diet.
I wish I could

Vitamin B12 is produced by bacteria, not animals or plants. As such, animals, including humans, must obtain it directly or indirectly from bacteria. It can be found in bacteria-laden manure and unsanitized water, though we obviously should not be consuming either of those things.

Peoples food choices are created by how they were brought up and what is available to them . Most people don’t think about animal suffering - male chicks being ground up alive or cows forcibly separated from their calves, male calves shot at birth in some cases, as for how they are treated in slaughterhouses, pigs gassed, animals kicked and punched to stay in the kill line and so on - plenty of video evidence but no prosecutions ever. I could go on. Or if they know about it they don’t equate the slab on their plate as once being a living breathing creature. It was personal exposure to animal cruelty at the age of about 10 that made me give up eating meat - much to the puzzlement of my mother who was a roast meat and stew type cook. Fortunately I wasn’t forcibly made to eat it. School dinners they just gave me the mash and veg with maybe some grated cheese if I was lucky. I’ve been vegan for years now, it is definitely possible to have a healthy diet - last blood test show no anaemia or lack of any vitamins. I agree it’s not that easy initially but it’s much easier now than back in the day. Research has shown that overall, vegans are just as healthy as meat eaters, the main difference being that vegans tend to be slimmer which has health implications in itself.