So, when I was 16, I was a vegetarian. I got pretty sick because I wasn’t very conscious of my food choices and pretty much ended up eating whatever my family was having, sans meat. This resulted in a lot of meals consisting of one portion of some sort of side dish. I soon found out that is not healthy.
For the last 2 years I have been working in the health food section of a large grocery store, as many of you know. I’ve learned a lot more about nutrition and such since starting to work there, which has been pretty cool. My customers tell me what tastes good and what doesn’t, which is quite helpful!
Meat doesn’t make me feel nice. Sure, I get cravings for it, and I loooove bacon, but I always feel icky and sludgy and gross afterward. I don’t like it. So, a few days ago I stopped eating meat. and I feel pretty nice. I didn’t eat a tonne of meat to begin with, so it hasn’t been too difficult.
Because I am addicted to Twitter, I started a list called “Veggie Crew” of my vegetarian friends who will hopefully keep me on track. A few of them are people I know in real life, like my very old friend Lissa, and my friends Tabbie and Andrew. Two of the other ones actually both just wrote interesting vegetarian-related blog entries. Jenny‘s entry is about growing up as a vegetarian. Diana‘s is about her experiences interacting with meat-eaters and her relation to food in general. Both girls are very interesting because I only associate with fascinating people.
SO. Vegetarianism! BE HONEST. What do you think of it? Are you a vegetarian? Have you ever been one? Do you think not eating meat is completely ridiculous? Were the animals put on our planet so we could kill and eat them? (Sorry Tabbie! :P)
Good luck with being a vegetarian
I’ve definitely thought about quitting meat, many times. This is going to sound terrible, but I love the idea of it. I guess that’s why I’ve never become one…I can never find enough motivation inside of myself, besides being able to say ‘I’m a vegetarian’. I care about animals, very much, which always makes me guilty. But I know me. I know I’d fail.
I also told my friend I was going to quit meat three years ago, and she was completely against the idea. It shouldn’t matter, but she made me feel like I’d be a horrible person if I stopped eating meat (!!!?)
One of my best friends two years ago was one, but she never pressured me to become one.
Bottom line: I don’t think it’s ridiculous to stop eating meat, not at all. I just don’t have the determination for it, yet. Maybe I never will?
I am totally a meat eater, but I’m very picky about what I eat, because what you put into your body makes a difference. I do my best to pick low fat, free range meats, even though they’re more costly. I like a nice filet mignon, fish and fresh, organic chicken breasts. I pretty much hate ground meats, and while I like the taste of sausages, they leave me feeling ill afterwards.
I like meat — I could never go veggie. However, I applaud the people who are veggie, because it is admirable, and I understand the motivation behind it. However, I just enjoy finely cooked meat too much, and I think if people are down with lions nomming on some zebra, they should be cool with me nomming on some steak.
I am mostly pro whole, fresh foods in general; I find this to be the most healthy way to eat. If that means veggie to you, fine. If that means pescatarian to you, great. In my case, it means eating good cuts of organic meat. All are totally respectable to me.
I disagree with the notion that vegetarianism is THE healthy way to be. I think if you’re doing it for your moral reasons (or your ew slaughterhouse reasons, haha), that’s one thing. But you can be completely healthy incorporating vegetables, whole grains and good meat into your diet.
I’ve tried being a vegetarian twice. The longest I’ve been one is about 3 months.
See, the thing I lack is willpower. Most of my friends eat meat, so it’s a little bit of constant exposure and a little bit of sometimes going “I want meeeat!” But lately I’ve been thinking about it. And there’s really no reason for me to eat meat. It’s less healthy, it’s cruel, it’s not environmentally friendly; it’s just pretty bad. 
Soo, I’ve decided to try vegetarianism again, permanently. AND YOU HAVE TO HELP AISY! You have to peer pressure me! And hopefully Diana will too! And my two veg friends! 
I’m a vegetarian (duh, you linked to me lol). I took a break from 16-20, because I needed to be allowed to choose my own life.
I am very unique among veg*ns in that I will actively work for better conditions for farm animals that are prepared for slaughter, because I don’t think that meat will be phased out of our society anytime soon, so I would like for the meat industry to be more humane. Many veg*ns hate me for this. That’s fine. I am very much about working in the reality which we’re given.
I was brought up vegetarian, and so for many years never gave it any thought. Now as a grown-up I have plenty off feelings about being raised vegetarian, and if I will raise my kids vegetarian, and dating an omnivore. But these feelings are unique to me, and I have met veg*ns that I love and are fantastic human beings, and I have met veg*ns that are essentially cruel to anything that can actually talk back. It’s a mixed bag.
Basically I ask that I be allowed to eat the way I do, and you can go your way too. If you ask, I am more than happy to tell you, but I try to live by my family’s philosophy of “Don’t be a schmuck”
You should probably stop associating with me then…
I’m not a vegetarian, but I am seriously looking in to it. Well, I’m looking into pescetarianism, but that’s only because my favourite food is smoked salmon and buggered if I’m giving that up. I’ll be doing it for health reasons more than anything else, but I won’t be too surprised if I start getting on the ‘do it for the animals!’ bandwagon since I’m already pretty anti-animal cruelty already. I very rarely eat store-bought meat as it stands right now!
However, that being said, I’ve always seen certain animals as being bred for food. They don’t have any other purpose, and if they’re not used for food, they’ll probably cease to exist. I don’t think I will ever be against using animals for food, as long as they’re being treated properly before they are turned into dinner.
Plus, I will still be making the most of dairy and eggs!
Reply: I actually wondered why you ate meat since you’re SO anti-animal cruelty. But yeah, you’re a farm girl. Not that farms need to be cruel to animals!
This may sound cruel, but I don’t particularly like/care about animals. So I’ve never had any personal problems with eating meat. I feel good when I eat chicken and it’s pretty much my favourite food. I don’t enjoy beef/other meat as much (except in burgers) but I eat what my parents put on the table.
Do you mind if I ask why you are choosing to become a vegetarian again? I understand that it “doesn’t make you feel nice,” but I guess I personally can’t imagine that alone making me decide to stop eating meat completely.
Reply: Well, the same reasons I chose not to before, essentially. I don’t like the way animals are treated. And if something doesn’t make me feel nice emotionally AND physically, why would I keep doing it?
I’m a vegetarian! I’ve been so for about a year now and it’s been all good~
I think vegetarianism is awesome, and although I’m usually not (and I try not to be D:) a big dummy who harasses those who eat meat, I’ve recently started to advocate it more and more.
I became a vegetarian for the animals. That was it, really. I didn’t know about the chain-like impacts of eating meat a year or so ago. I never ate a lot of meat as a child (and I was lactose intolerant when I was really young) so I was very nearly vegetarian, I just had to ~declare~ it. Ever since I stopped eating meat, I’ve felt great. Never better, seriously.
Animal rights/liberation is less influential on my vegetarianism now (that sounds so bad D:), though still quite a substantial part, and health/environment/social responsibility have become the main reasons I’m vegetarian.
It’s awesome you’re going meat free, Aisling
Keep it up, d00d! I’ll like, drop a present off for you or something, YEAH.
I think veg*ism is the best! I’m one of those militant vegans who tends not to get along with others, since I see it as something 100% moral. And if you see something as 100% moral, you become bitter about people who choose to do the opposite. So, I think not NOT eating meat is ridiculous.
That’s awesome that you are thinking about being vegetarian again. I know about that side meal life. Trust me. Working at the health food section must make it seem like not such a big deal to be vegetarian, though, huh?
Good luck with whatever you do, Aisling!
Honestly? I only eat meat because I get given it for free by both my parents and Sam’s parents (we’re both from dairy farm families). It’s a bit of a ‘poor student will eat what she’s given/can afford’ kind of deal. It’s good in a way, because I know exactly where my meat is coming from and how it was treated when it was in animal form, but eh, I wish one set of parents were greengrocers or vege farmers!
I eat meat because it’s hard not to in my family. My dad is from the southern US and doesn’t believe in vegetables. It would be hard to cut meat out, because my parents do all the cooking and like to include meat – and I can’t cook.
THAT SAID, once I move out, I plan to cut out red meats from my diet. This is going to sound horrible, but it’s not for animal cruelty reasons. I honestly just don’t like red meat. I’m not a HUGE fan of poultry either, so I could probably be a pescetarian quite easily. It’s all for silly, non-animal-related reasons, though.
I’ve been a vegetarian since I turned 13 — it was an act of teenage rebellion that stuck. World hunger got me started. (Raising meat is not a very efficient use of land and other natural resources.) I wasn’t a big meat eater to begin with, and now that I’m used to going without it, meat is kinda gross. Good luck!
I want to be a vegetarian when I move out, because right now my parents force me to eat meat. It’s not so much a “OMG STOP KILLING ANIMALS” thing as it is simply a “I really don’t like the taste of meat” thing.
I eat meat, but I’m more of a chicken/turkey kind of gal. My thoughts on vegetarianism is I’m cool with your choice as long as you don’t make me feel bad for choosing to still eat meat.
I hate the ‘holier than thou’ attitude that some vegetarians/vegans have. One of my friends lost a friend because she treated him like crap due to him still choosing to eat meat. That’s just wrong.
I also am one of those people who thinks some animals were put here for us to eat. Whether you choose to eat those animals or not is entirely up to you. Whatever choice you make, just don’t judge others for not doing the same.
Bottom line, live and let live. I hope the whole vegetarianism thing works out for you!
I’m not a vegetarian, but I do my best about what I do eat – notably rather difficult because I live on a college campus and am on a meal plan, and because I’m not very fond of vegetables unless they’re cooked a certain way, I have a hard time finding food I actually enjoy eating.
On the upside, I’m going off the meal plan next year because I’m living in an apartment with three other girls, two of whom have cars, and we have an excellent supermarket really close by (but unfortunately not easily accessible by bus). One of the girls who plans on doing most of the cooking (and she’s AWESOME) is vegetarian, and the other does mostly chicken, while I cook fish, so I imagine I’ll probably be going semi-veggie next year. I’m pretty excited, actually.
I have never been a vegetarian and I probably never will be one. I like meat too much to ever give it up.
I’m not a vegetarian, and probably wouldn’t become one, but I don’t like most meats and would definitely reduce the amount of meat I ate if I got a choice! I hate eating fatty, greasy stuff, and that is basically 75% of the meat I get told to eat
I like a lot of seafood, and chicken when it’s not covered in chicken fat, and beef to a lesser extent (in meat pies, bolognese sauce, and so on it’s fine, but I don’t like roast beef). I dislike lamb, pork and kangaroo meat, for a range of reasons mostly amounting to “too greasy” and “tastes like nothing”.
Honestly I don’t understand the pressure to dump some kind of meat in every meal. When my mum cooks spaghetti with meatballs, I always wish she hadn’t included the meatballs and had just left it at spaghetti, tomato and herbs. Not only are the meatballs gross, but they infect the rest of the dish with greasy sliminess! Some foods just taste BETTER without meat in them.
So, once I move out and get some choice over my own diet, I will have vegetarian meals, along with seafood and chicken-based meals (and beef occasionally). That’s the plan, anyway!
I love eating meat, and I don’t think I could ever give it up, no matter how noble the cause. I understand why people become vegetarian, but to me humans eating meat is just how the world works.
Plus, my dad is vegetarian, and so I see what he eats. None of it looks particularly appetising: indeed, there’s one curry he’s cooked a few nights a week for as long as I can remember that makes me cough and stick my head out of the window to get away from the smell, even if I’m upstairs in my room with the door tightly closed. You’d think I’d be used to the smell after almost 15 years, but nope. He’s put me off vegetarian food for life. :L
I was vegetarian from about 17-19. It was for entirely unhealthy reasons and I realized that I had to start eating meat again to normalize my eating habits. I don’t like a lot of the meat out there because of the fat and taste. Now that my life is more stable I’d be interested in becoming vegetarian again but messing with my diet always turns out to be a negative experience for me. It’s rather frustrating.
I think being vegetarian is good when you have some education on how to be one and not just cut out meat without trying to substitute the nutrition you get from it. Also, it has to be done for healthy reasons.
I don’t think not eating meat is ridiculous. I think it’s a personal choice and as long as vegetarians and meat eaters can respect one another’s food choice then it’s fine. I just don’t like when people put somebody down for eating meat or not eating meat.
Good luck with being vegetarian!
I believe that the only way to function properly is if you have meat in your diet. I am sorry to burst your bubble, but meat is something you just cannot replace. There might be possible replacements, like beans and so forth, but to stay healthy you need your daily dose of protein – not only beans.
Other than that, it is a personal choice, and it is fine by me. But when it comes down to your health, you have to eat it. It’s like deciding to not consume sugar or any form of fats because you don’t want to gain weight. In the end, you need those sugars and fat. And, again, you need the protein from meat. Why? Because your whole body is made up of protein!
But I shouldn’t be talking, because I don’t consume my daily dose of calcium. I hate milk.
Reply: Actually, my brother’s girlfriend is a nursing student, and you can get your daily dose of protein from a whole grain piece of bread with peanut butter on it.
@aisy: Actually, Tessa does have a point. There is a good reason to eat meat, and that’s because it contains the eight essential amino acids (the building blocks of protein) we cannot produce in our bodies. While a slice of bread with peanut butter does pack a punch of protein, it doesn’t contain all of the fundamental proteins necessary for proper bodily function; without all of these proteins, you will start to feel like crap, as you noticed with your side-dish vegetarianism. With a combination of various non-animal products, you can get all the amino acids you need in proper amounts. But if you want all those amino acids in one go, animal products are indeed the best way to get them.
There is all sorts of science-y biology stuff that I could explain to you in further depth as to why this is all true, but I wouldn’t want to bore you
Just take my word for it — meat does have a purpose in our diet, as a complete source of the eight essential amino acids that humans cannot produce. However, it isn’t the only source of all eight, and with a proper combination of non-animal products, you can get all the amino acids you need in the proper amounts.
Reply: Um, yeah, I work in health food, remember? I am well aware of EFAs, vegetarian replacements, general supplements, and the vast amount of my meat eating customers who aren’t getting enough EFAs, because they aren’t eating the proper foods to help absorb them.
In fact, the majority of my customers who are recommended EFA supplements by their doctors are meat eaters who think simply eating meat and not paying attention to the rest of their diet is enough, whereas the vegetarians seem to be very much more informed, and are well aware of the fats required, and find alternative methods to acquire them.
I was vegetarian for 11 years (I was brought up that way) and have been an omnivore now for 11 years. Eating meat on the bone still grosses me out, I can’t eat seafood (I’ve only just started eating prawn and scallop, but I can’t eat much of them before freaking out), and until I was about 19, beef made me really sick (I remember visiting a bf and his parents made me spaghetti bolognese, I tried to pick out all the tomato and leave the beef but still ended up spending a good while in the bathroom thinking I was going to retch). Changing my diet from vegetarian to meat-eating, although I became more healthy as a result, was a very hard transition, and my body didn’t like it at all.
The reason why I am glad I am no longer a vegetarian is because being vegetarian made me anaemic. My mum, 46, has been a vegetarian for all of her life. It wasn’t until the early 90s-ish that VIABLE meat substitutes became available on the market, and my mum suffers from permanent iron deficiency anaemia as a result. I am the same. My brother, on the other hand, born around the dawn of things like Quorn (which at first wasn’t even approved by vegetarian society because of the use of BATTERY EGGS which prevented my family from eating it even then), isn’t so hard done by. He is 18 and still a vegetarian. I get by on iron supplements but that’s no real substitute for having been on a healthy diet in the first place. My mum tried to keep us healthy with the help of soya, sosmix and anything nut-filled but I don’t feel like it quite worked out for me.
I often think that there is little to almost no point being a vegetarian based on the fact that ‘I don’t want to kill animals’. Being a vegetarian is not going to prevent the slaughter of animals. You have to think of a compromise. It would be better if you campaigned for the humane treatment of animals for slaughter, and buy only locally produced free-range meats AND animal produce obtained from animals in the same decent conditions. It’s just as bad if not worse using battery eggs and caged up cows milk than just eating an animal that was killed. Would you rather be caged in shit conditions or dead?
The reason my grandma became vegetarian was because her husband was a vegetarian Buddhist – my grandma later became vegan and grows her own vegetables in two award-winning allotments. My mum was raised vegetarian and is an avid supporter of animal rights, and so is my brother. My brother refuses to touch any meat product with a 10 foot barge pole, but my mum has been happy to buy me good quality free range meat.
Personally I buy barn eggs and British-only produce and eat tuna to my heart’s content. I /am/ the top of the food chain, hear me roar.
I eat meat but it has to be meat that was raised to be food. Does that make sense? I don’t eat “wild” meat like deer, rabbit, quail, etc. If I eat fish it has to be from a farmed hatchery that the fish are raised for the purpose of food. I would love to be a vegetarian & when I was 18 I went vegetarian for a year & landed myself in the hospital due to the fact that my body refused to accept the protein that came strictly from the vegetarian’s lifestyle. Even adding eggs & milk still made me sick & almost landed me back in the hospital. So now I walk a middle road so to speak. I do my best to eat the vegetarian way, but still have to get my protein from the meat.