Vegetarian, Vegan, Pescetarian?

[Fluttershy Friend 25,445]

Of course vegans have quite big problem with vitamine B12 and D. But vegetarians not. If you eat cheese, milk, eggs everything is OK.

[Hierok 11,829]

I eat very few vegabeles and no fish or sea related, but meat and snacks I eat a lot and a lot of fruit.

[Sir Warith 130]

Right now I'm not in any position to not eat meat even if wanted to stop which to be perfectly honest I don't. I have a really high caloric intake requirement for the amount of physical activity I have to do and I require vast quantities of protein due to that activity and being larger in stature. Now if I was say gotten much older (in my 50's) and I was more sedantary then I would consider a large reduction in meat products in my diet as it wouldn't be as necessary anymore.

[Meeps 297]

14 hours ago, SunshineFlow said:

That seems impossible to me. I mean refraining ok maybe thats possible but your body needs b12 which essentially is either in meat or dairy products (though i can't stand dairy products to be honest) but atleast for a religious buddhist it would work. I can't imagine samurais fighting in that state, they would essentially feel sleepy if they atleast didn't eat right

Though i have heard Buddhism in terms of religion is vegetarian, how in some forms i have no idea about. Like do they eat dairy products for example? I am a tad bit ignorant on it, but i doubt japanese soldiers would all be buddhists, and isn't Japan's state religion Shintoism. Thats not buddhism, even if buddhism has had a impact too on Japanese culture

Either case here is a link for it.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buddhist_vegetarianism#Japanese_traditions

 

Blaming westerners for. Imperialism, bigotry, intolerance and racism in the past before after WW2 when self reflection and owning up to mistakes became a thing. Ok that i can sort of get. But the food ethics i am sorry thats a bit too much XD

 

I also read this if buddhism originally prohibeted meat and if it was very pro vegetarianism as some vegans would say. The answer seems to be "maybe, maybe not" its not clear really.. For example what animals is allowed to eat, what intentions you have seems to be the moral compass really. The sects divided over it so it seems to depend how seriously you take it. To me it doesn't seem to really be about vegetarianism, it just seems to give up material goods and live a simple life and be a grateful humble human being. Which is why it says "if something is slaughtered to give food to a village or family its ok". So it really just depends how you see it.
https://www.thoughtco.com/buddhism-and-vegetarianism-449731

Atleast it condemns extremist attitude towards the goal. But really i think calling buddhism vegan would just be misleading since the goal is much more bigger than an agenda rule of thumb. I just recommend reading that link if you wanna know about it. Its very informative.

Yes, I think that veganism would be difficult if not for our modern lives; b12 is present in fortified breakfast cereals, for instance, but mostly only in products of animal origin. I'm not sure how or if one could fulfill that requirement without modern methods, such as if they were tossed on an island and told, "survive."

Many civilizations were predominantly vegetarian or pescatarian, but still ate meat sparingly, such as during times of celebration.

I do have a friend who is a vegan body builder and who takes no additional supplements, just carefully monitors their diet, and I know a couple of rastas who have never eaten meat in their life, but they do consume vegetarian foods. The body builder chick is ripped and has been at it for years.

I personally find veganism to be too hard and too limiting... I doubt I could do it for too long! 

[Meeps 297]

11 hours ago, Sir Warith said:

Right now I'm not in any position to not eat meat even if wanted to stop which to be perfectly honest I don't. I have a really high caloric intake requirement for the amount of physical activity I have to do and I require vast quantities of protein due to that activity and being larger in stature. Now if I was say gotten much older (in my 50's) and I was more sedantary then I would consider a large reduction in meat products in my diet as it wouldn't be as necessary anymore.

I think many people forget that some people simply cannot go without meat, whether for medical reasons or life style choice.

I've also met a subset of people who literally don't care where their meat comes from, so long as it's tasty and preferably cheap. At least they own up to the mindset, I guess.

[Meeps 297]

13 hours ago, Hierok said:

I eat very few vegabeles and no fish or sea related, but meat and snacks I eat a lot and a lot of fruit.

What are your go-to fruits? Fresh fruit where I live can get pricey

[Hierok 11,829]

Just now, Meeps said:

What are your go-to fruits? Fresh fruit where I live can get pricey

Fruits aren't that expensive here. In a normal shop it is like €1,- for 1 kg.

[Meeps 297]

1 hour ago, Hierok said:

Fruits aren't that expensive here. In a normal shop it is like €1,- for 1 kg.

A 5 lb bag will be like 7 bucks where I live :/ Don't even get me started on the tomatoes. I literally grew my own this year just to save, plus they taste sooo much better, I'd always heard homegrown were best, but I never knew how true it was really!

[Olly 1,008]

I'm vegan but not an ultra strict vegan tbh. I'll never eat meat but sometimes I'll have some dairy-type thing. Usually I avoid that too so I call myself vegan

[Mysty Breeze 84]

Vegetarian, mainly just have a meh feeling with meat and I live in the United States where we looooove to put all of our anti-biotics into our livestock, so no thanks.

[Here No Longer 5,270]

I'm not either, because veganism and vegetarianism quite frankly don't make a lot of sense. Not only is it depriving you of things that are fairly important in your diet, but the reasoning usually used for living that way is generally reasoning that is totally illogical. 

If your against eating anything because it'd be cruel to a living being that did nothing to you, maybe you should stop eating fruits too. You're sort of eating children of the plants they come from. You should also really stop eating vegetables to be principled in such a matter as well, those literally are part of the plant. For pescetarians, you know fish are just as innocent as the meat everyone else eats, too...  

If it's about being health-conscious, frankly you're only robbing yourself of things like Iron,Vitamin B12, Zinc, and Calcium. If anything, it's very unhealthy.

If it's about anti-biotics in the livestock, guess what? There's pesticides in your veggies and your fruit too!

Though if you are one, that's perfectly fine with me. However, any way you go, you have to eat something that was once a living creature, and making it suffer in one way or another, the health risks are there, and sometimes principle matters less than essential needs, and matters less than your own health and well-being.

[Total Lunar Eclipse 515]

I love tofu and vegetables, but will never have a strict diet.

I raise and eat my own animals so I know they were treated humanely and had no antiobiotics or anything. 

Buying from small local farmers also helps.

[DuskSong 742]

I am pescetarian. Seafood is a lot healthier than red meats, but the mercury problem with fish has got me on the edge with my choice of diet. When I have the ability to pay for my own food, I will have a 100% seafood diet when it comes to meat intake.

Edited February 8, 2018 by DuskSong

[Frostgage 7,972]

Not a full fledged vegetarian but I eat meat/fish pretty infrequently. However I eat dairy (specifically cheese and milk/cereal) near constantly.

Edited February 8, 2018 by Frostgage

[DJ_Bonebraker 182]

When I was stationed in Japan, I pretty much only ate Japanese food whenever I could get off the base (which was usually in the afternoons, after about 5PM on weekdays when I didn't have duty).  Since most Japanese food is either vegetables or fish/seafood & rice along with eggs, I guess you could say I was a pescetarian by default the three years I was in Japan, and I'd probably go back to it if Japanese food was easier/cheaper to come by around here.  As it is now, while I'm not any kind of vegetarian or even a pescetarian, I do try to eat less meat in general, and red meat in particular for both health & environmental reasons (that and I don't particularly like beef, because I'm weird like that).  The meat that I do eat is mostly chicken (free-range if I can get it), some seafoods & other poultry, which I usually cook in soups & stews with lots of veggies (just finished up the last of a big batch of stewed turkey saussage, cabbage & potatoes that I made Sunday, and I guarantee that the Cabbage & Potatoes, along with two whole onions were the majority of the dish)...  Heck, I'm thinking about getting a block of Tofu next time I go to Voldemart for groceries so I can try and make a batch of Oden from this recipe I got in this one Japanese cookbook my parents got me for Christmas a while back (best part is, aside from eggs & the dashi (fish stock), you can make Oden pretty much 100% vegetarian, and I even have a completely vegetarian (but not vegan, since it calls for butter & sour cream) borscht recipe that I make from time to time that's really good (plus one batch is enough for about 3-4 meals for me & it keeps in the fridge for at least 2 weeks, thanks to having vinegar & dill in it)....

I personally don't have any issues with vegans or vegetarians as long as they don't get all self-righteous about it.

[LunarWave 106]

I literally just learned that pescetarianism is a thing, but that's actually close to a diet I chose about a month ago. 

Meat is almost off the table (thoug if I get it in soup or some dish, I'm not going to be picky about it), but I do plan to have a good kebab once a month or so (also there's a pancake recipe that calls for minced meat, I'm still thinking what to replace it with as fish won't work there). I don't want to go on a strict diet, because in my experience, if I limit myself to someting for arbitrary reason, that blows up in my face pretty darn quick.  So I'm basically like "Meat is uncool, but if I eat it, it's not something to really go apeshit about"

Fish is totally fine in my books though, can't live without those yummy tuna Subways at least once a week.

Edited February 8, 2018 by LunarWave

[Br O N Y 382]

7 hours ago, Duzzkey said:

I'm not either, because veganism and vegetarianism quite frankly don't make a lot of sense. Not only is it depriving you of things that are fairly important in your diet, but the reasoning usually used for living that way is generally reasoning that is totally illogical. 

If your against eating anything because it'd be cruel to a living being that did nothing to you, maybe you should stop eating fruits too. You're sort of eating children of the plants they come from. You should also really stop eating vegetables to be principled in such a matter as well, those literally are part of the plant. For pescetarians, you know fish are just as innocent as the meat everyone else eats, too...  

If it's about being health-conscious, frankly you're only robbing yourself of things like Iron,Vitamin B12, Zinc, and Calcium. If anything, it's very unhealthy.

If it's about anti-biotics in the livestock, guess what? There's pesticides in your veggies and your fruit too!

Though if you are one, that's perfectly fine with me. However, any way you go, you have to eat something that was once a living creature, and making it suffer in one way or another, the health risks are there, and sometimes principle matters less than essential needs, and matters less than your own health and well-being.

I've been thinking about this plant thing too, and you might be right, from that perspective it might not make a lot of sense, but I've choosen to be vegetarian anyway. My reasoning is that I don't wanna kill creatures I can relate to, which are animals that have somewhat similar emotions and behavours like us. Which are cats, dogs, dolphins, cattles, sheeps and so on. I could never kill them myself, and I don't want someone else to do it for me because I'am emotionally too weak to do it. Just think about it, you would never intentionally hurt a cat or dog, and it's also socially unacceptable to do that, but with cattles it's okay, amd I think that's a double standard. 

And think about the people who have to kill the animals. Our society would crucify someone who would crush the head of a puppy while making jokes about it, but that's how these people have to be in order to be able to fulfill the societies need for meat, and that's also a really weird double standard to me.

[Here No Longer 5,270]

4 hours ago, Br O N Y said:

I've been thinking about this plant thing too, and you might be right, from that perspective it might not make a lot of sense, but I've choosen to be vegetarian anyway. My reasoning is that I don't wanna kill creatures I can relate to, which are animals that have somewhat similar emotions and behavours like us. Which are cats, dogs, dolphins, cattles, sheeps and so on. I could never kill them myself, and I don't want someone else to do it for me because I'am emotionally too weak to do it. Just think about it, you would never intentionally hurt a cat or dog, and it's also socially unacceptable to do that, but with cattles it's okay, amd I think that's a double standard. 

And think about the people who have to kill the animals. Our society would crucify someone who would crush the head of a puppy while making jokes about it, but that's how these people have to be in order to be able to fulfill the societies need for meat, and that's also a really weird double standard to me.

There's no double standard there at all. I've never seen anybody hunt a dog. I've never seen dog meat on any table. Nobody eats dog, and that's the difference. I see the point you tried to make though.

Even there, you're still setting your own double standard by eating some plant's children. It's suffering too, albeit that you just can't see an expression there like you can with a cow or a pig (well, even then likely not because they're usually killed in a way that's quick and almost painless). That was the whole point of my post, to talk about THAT double standard. 

 

[Total Lunar Eclipse 515]

Just putt'n it out there that I'll eat cow, chicken, alligator, horse, cat, or dog presuming they weren't wasn't someone's beloved pet (that's sick and wrong) and the animals were raised with care and decency. I don't discriminate with food though. Animals sure as heck don't.

There is a thing called biomagnification that can make predator meat a little riskier than herbivore meat, hence why we tend to prefer the grass-eaters (btw which chickens are not, they'll eat anything). 

People meat has more serious health risks, otherwise I'd eat that too. 

Edited February 12, 2018 by Total Lunar Eclipse

[Total Lunar Eclipse 515]

omgamapwny, I respect your life choices, no one should tell you what to eat.

Have you read Peter Singer’s book ‘Animal Liberation’? I’ve spent many years researching animal rights philosophy. That book is basically the bible for animal rights philosophy supporters. I personally support animal welfare instead, but have been meaning to read it for more detailed perspective.

 

Edited February 12, 2018 by Total Lunar Eclipse

[omgamapwny 51]

Just now, Total Lunar Eclipse said:

omgamapwny, I respect your life choices, no one should tell you what to eat.

Have you read Peter Singer’s book ‘Animal Liberation’? I’ve spent many years researching animal rights philosophy. That book is basically the bible for animal rights philosophy supporters. I personally support animal welfare instead, but have been meaning to read it. 

And equally, I respect yours.

 

I haven't read it, no. But maybe I'll give it a go at some point.

 

 

[rarity2018 19]

I used to be a vegan in the past but then gave up on the idea after some time. I don't think there is any added health benefits to it. If there was then we would see a difference in life expectancy and here I mean between healthy vegans and healthy meat eaters.

     As for how I feel about animals, well, some of them I consider food and there are some I don't consider to be food. For example, if I had a dog or a cat I would never kill them to eat them same as I would not kill humans to eat them (yes humans are animals too). That's what are my feelings for that. I'm totally fine with the people who are vegan, vegetarian, pescetarian, etc. it's their choice. The only thing that won't make me like one of them is if they are extremist or trying to convert me and being rude to me. It did happen many times that vegans were being mean to me and calling me names but I don't believe they're all like that. I have a few vegan friends who respect my choices as much as I respect their choices and I think that's how it should be.

[Adamgreen 1,129]

I never really care about eating meat that much. It's mostly decided whether I'm hungry for it or not. 

Though if Potatoes considered to be a vegetable, I'd eat it all day if it means not eating meat   

[Brownie dash 34]

I'm neither. But I do have something in common with vegans, and that being that I don't like killing most bugs. And maybe I go farther than vegans on this, but I actually welcome certain bugs into my house such as spiders (due to maintaining the population of other bugs like flies). I've handled bugs, too. Spiders, bees/wasps/hornets, ants and centipedes, for example.

Unless they're mosquitoes or fleas. In that case, I wish nothing but death upon them.

Edited February 12, 2018 by Brownie dash

[Total Lunar Eclipse 515]

My challenge to vegetarianism/veganism as part of animal rights is that, if humans and animals are equal, why is it okay for animals to eat each other but we can't? Why do we have to separate ourselves from nature? I grew up with in unincorporated community with exposure to vegetarians/vegans as well as small local farms and do it yourselers who don't like big box stores and cooperations controlling their food. Not good for people, animals, or the environment. 

btw I'm in the US. I moved to the south last year and have noticed a difference in meat eating culture. People love meat here. Statistics also show Americans eat a lot of meat, a contributer to health issue sin the country with all the processed junk. 

Edited February 12, 2018 by Total Lunar Eclipse