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

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 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!

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!)

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?

🤣🤣🤣

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.

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.

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 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.

Good points pinkquartz.

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?

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

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.

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

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?

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.

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.

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?

Fruitarians just eat stuff that has naturally dropped of the tree.
And possibly dust too

Rocks.

We should all eat rocks, just to be on the safe side.

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?

In response to a few replies - if you eat fish but not meat, you're not vegetarian. You're a pescatarian. Just to be pedantic. 😁

Even as a young child I could not eat meat, hate the taste of beef & lamb very greasy. Pork always made me very sick. So thought I was being very clever from about 4-5 years of age getting our dog to sit under the table & wait while I carefully cut up whatever meat was put on my plate & pushed it to the edge of the plate while eating all the veggies then pushing the meat into the waiting mouth of our dog! Years later my DM told me they had realised what I was doing & that was why I had very little meat put on my plate! I carry on avoiding even chicken or fish to this day. Just doesnt taste good! Not one of the ‘if it has a face I wont eat it’ crowd. Just dont like meat!

No need for nastiness Merystreep.

Couldn’t agree more Cookiemonster

Fancy taking little children to see that. How awful

@mogsmaw I completely agree with you about the flood on the market of fake meat products! I have been veggie for over 50 yrs since a school trip took us to a farm and we watched pigs being slaughtered! I never ate meat again after that, it was so traumatic for a 7 yr old child to watch something being killed. So I have seen how veggie options have changed in restaurants and supermarkets now since the 1970's and yes it is great there is more awareness and choices, but 10 yrs ago it was much better in restaurants. At least the veggie options were vegetable based, now they have all jumped on the fake meat bandwagon assuming all vegetarians 'really' want to eat meat (but chose not to for various reason - save the planet eco warriors, animal rights, health etc etc) so only offer things pretending to be meat drives me nuts! I do not want to eat anything that looks like or tastes like meat, where have all the falafel ,beetroot, bean burgers, onion bhaji burgers gone, chickpea curry, so many options instead of fake meat. Recently on Tesco website I found 9 pages of vegetarian meal options 90% fake meat - feels likie we are going backwards!

Years ago, I tried being a vegetarian but gave it up again due to health issues.

I buy meat and fish from suppliers that take an active interest in animal welfare, not from factory farmers.