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

Coco51

Now we know that communications between plants and trees can be recorded, and they all react to a tree or plant in distress, should we be eating plants?

I sometimes feel mean when I’m murdering a potato that’s happily sprouting little shoots and would enjoy being planted in the garden, where it would flourish, and produce baby potatoes.

I have also been known to buy seriously wilting plants that nobody at the garden centre has bothered to water, to save them from certain death.
I dare say I’m not the only one.

volver3

Look what you can get on Amazon.

How do you know there is a vegan in the room -

They will tell you or even wear a badge now

Why, do they do that do they think they are special or just attention seekers, I don’t care what they choose to eat that’s their choice

I have a niece who is vegan, she will not sit down to a meal where anyone is eating meat.

People don't become vegan to be attention seekers.

I think people who say things like that are just a wee bit defensive.

Maybe your niece doesn't want to sit down with meat on the table in case she throws up because of the dead animal in front of her?

Methinks some of the meat eaters protest too much! Seriously it is a personal decision, I've been vegetarian for 45 years and healthy so far, my husband for 3 years apart from occasionally fish, my daughter since she was 5 and son since he was 10 (mad cow disease prompted that) and their partners and children are. The children do take supplements. It works for us and them, you do need to make sure you are having a good range of other foods though not just missing out the meat, lots of lovely alternative recipes available. It may not suit everyone. Re-cancer a friend was told she had inoperable cancer and her parents had both died of it, she had a very young child and had a very strict vegetarian diet with certain specific things, she also did meditation, she'd been given 6 months to live but went on to live for 7 years. Could be coincidence, may be diet. It was the Gerson diet which has had mixed results. I wouldn't recommend anyone did this rather than go to their doctor but if all else has failed, as in her case, it was worth a try and no money was made by the person advocating this. Cancer patients need to be wary of charlatans

My 6’ 7” son decided to become vegan just over two years ago after watching You Tube videos on animal farming. He suffers from ulcerative colitis and for the first few months on his new vegan diet he was fine. Then he had a colitis flare up and for months afterwards, was quite ill and ended up in hospital. He stuck to his vegan diet throughout his illness and is now on man-made antibody infusions to keep his colitis at bay. I respect his choice of diet but find it’s a hassle when planning meals and having to buy two lots of food. I’ve tried a few vegan foods myself and some of it is ok but some, like the cheese and bacon not only looks gross, it tastes gross too! I find that the cheese doesn’t melt nicely and some have a terrible plastic smell and some plant based mince looks like plasticine! It’s all highly processed food and tends to be more expensive. I make him vegan flapjacks which he loves but I’ll stick to my all butter flapjacks made with honey. When my son first became vegan he tried to convert me but failed. I’m quite happy with the way I eat and what I eat.

pinkquartz

A vgan diet isn't a healthy diet. It lacks too many nutrients especially B12.

I did try being Vegan for 2 yers in the midst if 30 years as a veggie but my already damaged health grew much worse.
I believe now this may have been down to the lack of B12.

Years later I had tests showing a deficiency. At that time though I was mislead by being told I would be able to obtain B12 from seaweed. This just wasn't true.

I don't think a Vegan diet is safe for growing children.

I wanted to be Vegan for the sake of the animals.

Now I only eat organic meat mostly from local farms. My way has been to eat less meat though. I don't eat animals every day my portions are not very big.

I don't believe a Vegan diet will save the planet. I believe that careful conscious animal husbandry will.

It is greed (money) that is causing the big problems.

Good points pinkquartz well made

Ironically, it is usually me who is questioned about what I am eating/not eating and why, I never question or criticise anyone for eating meat, regrettably this courtesy is rarely afforded to me. As a child, I would always insist on waiting outside the butcher's shop as I hated seeing the dead animals hanging up, and loathed the smell. I did eat meat though, just because everyone did, but always refused roast beef and lamb and pork, only eating chicken, and tatties and mince (Scottish staple) This carried on into adulthood so I decided that I may as well stop eating chicken too, the tatties and mince having been discarded when I left home. I don't describe myself as a vegetarian as I sometimes eat fish.

I just don't understand why some people are so defensive about eating meat, to the extent of being critical of and sometimes aggressive to those of us who choose not to. Why would it bother you?

Good points pinkquartz.

I don't eat as much meat as I used to, but what meat I do eat is from local farms where I know all about their care and husbandry.

I'm a vegan and to say it's an unhealthy diet is rubbish. Fortunately I love to cook so our meals are made from scratch, I always make more than we need to go in the freezer. I went vegan for the benefit of animal welfare and hate the way factory farming is done. The added benefits for me is I am more selective what I eat, have lost over 1 stone in weight and have more energy than ever. Win win for me.

I long for the day when meat can be produced in factories until then if we kept all the animals alive until they were very old we would still have to slaughter them as they couldn't be kept alive like we do with humans.

It is completely untrue to say that a vegan diet is unhealthy for children. My DGS became an ‘accidental’ vegan in a family of vegetarians due to multiple allergies which showed up when he was still breast fed. He has been under a consultant and a dietitian from babyhood, was as fussy an eater as many children at various stages, and his diet was pronounced perfectly healthy. He is a bright, healthy 7 year old and has taught the rest of us a few things about healthy eating.

Please can we lay to rest this idea that children cannot be healthy on a vegan diet because it’s nonsense.

Coco51

Now we know that communications between plants and trees can be recorded, and they all react to a tree or plant in distress, should we be eating plants?

🤣🤣🤣

wetflannel

I'm a vegan and to say it's an unhealthy diet is rubbish. Fortunately I love to cook so our meals are made from scratch, I always make more than we need to go in the freezer. I went vegan for the benefit of animal welfare and hate the way factory farming is done. The added benefits for me is I am more selective what I eat, have lost over 1 stone in weight and have more energy than ever. Win win for me.

Like any other diet, a vegan diet can be healthy or unhealthy. Done correctly, a vegan diet can obviously be healthy and good for you, but hypothetically speaking, you could eat chips for breakfast, lunch and dinner - that would be vegan, but certainly not healthy! I have no axe to grind whatsoever with whatever people want to eat, but I do get a bit fed up with the holier than thou ones who seem to think their particular diet makes them better than anyone else (and yes, there are a few Gransnetters among them!)

I don't know why people get their knickers in a twist over this post.
I did not seeing anyone trying to push for a plant based diet and original poster only asked to hear other people's opinion. No need to jump down people's throat here.

I am a vegetarian for 26 years now as I suffered major illness and surgeries and feel much better for it. So I became vegetarian for health reason but also for my believes in animal welfare and care. Hubby has been a vegetarian since he's been 17 and has always been very healthy.
I eat only eggs from friends who have chickens and I know they are happy chickens.
I do dislike dairy farming but I still use milk, cheese etc but use some alternative dairy products too. I do feel guilty about it but I just haven't found suitable alternatives that I am happy with. My hubby is a beekeeper so we have happy honey too.

I do not lecture anyone on what to eat and what not to eat and expect others to respect my choice too.
And for the meat eaters who don't like people telling them they're vegan/vegetarians (again and again was the phrase used earlier) - believe me I got more people making fun of me being vegetarian, more people telling me I should eat meat as humans are omnivores, telling me if I want plant based meat substitute I should just eat meat etc etc etc - than you will EVER hear someone say the word vegan/vegetarian in your lifetime!

Nan99 I don't think your statement tells the whole story. However, if you look here:

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29216732/

This gives more of an explanation. It's US government website.
Apolgies, I can't get the hyperlink to work.

I’m vegan because of the cruelty inflicted on animals during their lives and of course when they are being slaughtered.
I wear makeup daily so my first act of veganism (I know that’s probably not a word) was when I used to source beauty without cruelty products. I hated the thought of rabbits getting things dripped in their eyes to see the reactions.
I was with my DD in Boots 5 years ago and she was getting impatient with me looking at all the ingredients in the products and she says to me why are you doing this when you eat animals anyway. I realised how hypocritical I was being so I became vegetarian almost overnight.
I was veggie for two years before finding out about the level of cruelty that was also in the dairy industry so then I became vegan. I’ve been vegan for three years now and yes some of what I eat isn’t all that healthy but can non vegans honestly say that ALL they eat is? No of course they can’t.
I take Vitamin b12 and a multivitamin to make sure I’m not missing out.
Incidentally a friend of mine and also a colleague are both deficient in b12 needing injections, both are non vegan. Proving vegans don’t necessarily hold the monopoly on b12 deficiency.
I only tell people I’m vegan when it’s necessary for instance if I’ve been invited somewhere for food.
I obviously told my friends and family when I transitioned but I don’t preach about it. I don’t throw my hands in the air in horror when they discuss what meat they’re having for dinner that night. My lifestyle choice isn’t theirs but obviously they asked lots of questions at first so all that has been dealt with.
I have a pet dog Buddy (rescue) who isn’t vegan but loves vegetables and has to have his little bowl of raw veg when I’m peeling them. Both salad and root veg, he isn’t fussy he devours them both equally.
I still wear my doc martens boots as I can’t afford to get rid. The same for my second hand leather sofas I can’t afford new ones and of course they are dog friendly as when the Budster vomits his favourite place to do it is,yes you’ve guessed it… on my sofa! That’s not going to do a fabric one much good and even if it was protected by a throw you can’t guarantee that it won’t seep through.
I won’t apologise for the long post but I got carried away.

My daughter was a vegan from a young age and then she became a vegetarian for about 20 years. She actually got quite sick because she had a limited diet and didn’t balance what she ate. Now she is a meat eater though she doesn’t eat a lot and mainly sticks to what she calls ‘white’ meat. She has a lot more energy I have to say. I think she didn’t have enough legumes when she was vegan, she got very anaemic.

My first comment on this thread referred to all the successful Olympians and other sportspeople who are vegan.
How can anyone tell me they should be eating flesh!
I despair. You meateaters are just shutting your ears
I am not preaching by the way but I am astonished that you think a meat diet in this overcrowded world can be defended
You don't have to eat meat substitutes either. I seldom do.
Here are a few famous Vegans:
Lewis Hamilton, Benedict Cumberbatch,
Venus Williams, Miley Cyrus, Ariana Grande, Carl Lewis, Novak Djokovic

Omnivores are able to eat a wide range of foods and can therefore survive in far more situations than animals that depend on one or two specific things (eg pandas and bamboo, or koalas and eucalyptus). They don't have to eat everything on the menu to be healthy. We're perfectly well adapted to a diet without animal products.

Grammaretto

My first comment on this thread referred to all the successful Olympians and other sportspeople who are vegan.
How can anyone tell me they should be eating flesh!
I despair. You meateaters are just shutting your ears
I am not preaching by the way but I am astonished that you think a meat diet in this overcrowded world can be defended
You don't have to eat meat substitutes either. I seldom do.
Here are a few famous Vegans:
Lewis Hamilton, Benedict Cumberbatch,
Venus Williams, Miley Cyrus, Ariana Grande, Carl Lewis, Novak Djokovic

Just wonderin' why you're so het up, when you are not a vegan yourself!

And you're on a hiding to nothing by listing half a dozen celebrities who claim to be vegan as there will be so many more who are not vegan.

omega1

I long for the day when meat can be produced in factories until then if we kept all the animals alive until they were very old we would still have to slaughter them as they couldn't be kept alive like we do with humans.

Meat is produced mainly by factory farming already if it isn't its called 'Organic'
Meat is now reared mainly on cereal. Cereal is made from
heavily non organic fields of no nutrional value soil and then
chemicaled into feed for animals to eat. Humans then eat
the meat from animals which have been injected with vaccines
galore and anti-biotics. Same goes for eggs and dairy.
The western diet of heavily processed food has led to the
increase in Cancers due to the input of thousands of chemicals
needed to keep processed foods from deteriorating.
I wouldn't bother arguing the Vegetarian versis meat eating because unless you eat organic its all full of chemicals.

Sugar is one of the principal agents of many diseases not just
diabetes. There are many YouTube videos on health eating.

Meryl and *Nan why not just move on to another thread - or is the OP not allowed to say anything you don't like or agree with?

I think if someone has found a cure for cancer by turning Vegan I think we would know about it. They would have had to publish papers and research done into them before they could be released to the General public.

When I was a young girl, there wasn’t a choice of what to eat.
I was glad to get something to eat as stepmother didn’t bother cooking.
I eat meat once a week. A traditional roast dinner which I enjoy.
Too much meat isn’t healthy, I know. But I manage mostly without it.
To be a true vegan, you shouldn’t wear leather shoes, belts etc.