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Vegetarian / Vegan Foods Thread


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I gave a persuasive speech the other day on why people should consider going vegan (no animal products in your diet) and it got me wondering if there were any other board members who are vegan or vegetarian.

I've been vegetarian for 2 years and vegan for about 6 months now. At the beginning it was Food Inc. that got me. I went "cold turkey" after watching it and never looked back.

If anyone out there is looking for help or advice on where to start or anything like that feel free to ask!

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I've cut out pork and beef. Stopped drinking milk too. Next is cheese, then chicken. I'm mostly doing it for health reasons. Beef (other than ground) rips my stomach up, and I see a truck with pigs loaded in it every day on my way to work, and that's honestly what got me to stop eating pork.

Honestly, I don't miss it. But if I feel like eating a burger, I'm going to have a burger.

My wife doesn't eat any meat other than chicken, so that makes it a lot easier. There are so many great meat and dairy subsitutes out there that its easy to make better choices.

Have you seen forks over knives? It's a great doc as well.

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Comes from a body, doesn't go into my body. I stopped cold turkey too but don't have much advice. I just find meat and dairy to be repulsive. It now has to do with anima cruelty but started off as just being unable to swallow meat because of how gross it is.

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Forks over Knives is crazy. My girlfriend is vegetarian so I tried it out for about 6 or 7 months. I didn't mind it at all and I'm still vegetarian probably 90% of the time but if I'm craving something I eat it. Turkey dinners are a prime example.

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My wife is vegan, I'm flexible. Eat a vegan diet at home, going out with the soccer team or to a nice dinner might eat some dead things here and there. Diary is pretty much out for me all the time, ethically it just feels weirder than eating meat.

I have a bunch of pretty decent vegan recipes that we've cooked up over the past few years if your interested.

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I've been a vegetarian for six years and my wife has been for three. It all started for me by reading Fast Food Nation in 2003. That was the last time I ate at fast food restaurants like McDonald's and whatnot.

The practices of the meat industry and animal cruelty is what pushed me toward trying the whole vegetarianism thing. I can't imagine going back to meat now at all.

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I'm not vegetarian, but for the most part the only meat I eat is chicken. (Aside from the occasional In-N-Out burger).

I have a friend who was supposed to write a persuasive speech about going vegetarian. Not sure how it went for him, but when he got the responses back for the survey he did of his class, the majority were seriously anti-vegetarian and had the craziest reasons/responses. I remember one guy wrote that not eating meat would fuck up our ecosystem because of all the animals that would go uneaten and the veggies that would be eaten.

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I like being big and strong (work very hard at it), no protein in veggies, and soy turns into estrogen in the body (and I don't want bitch titties). So I eat meat. It's what evolution pushed me to. I'm all for responsibly cultivating that meat and ethically slaughtering the animals, though.

The fast food argument is a whole different story.

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I'm not vegetarian, but for the most part the only meat I eat is chicken. (Aside from the occasional In-N-Out burger).

I have a friend who was supposed to write a persuasive speech about going vegetarian. Not sure how it went for him, but when he got the responses back for the survey he did of his class, the majority were seriously anti-vegetarian and had the craziest reasons/responses. I remember one guy wrote that not eating meat would fuck up our ecosystem because of all the animals that would go uneaten and the veggies that would be eaten.

Lol. It would probably lead to no person in the world ever going hungry. Doesn't it take 1000 calories of plants to make 100 calories of meat (or something like that)?

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i was vegetarian for about 2 and half years, then went to be vegan for another 1 and a half after that. i couldn't do it anymore, i was just feeling like shit with no energy, and i thought it'd be cheaper to just go back to eating meat rather than buying all sorts of vitamins/supplements...(being blazed at 2 am and offered chicken nuggets didn't help either)

i totally understand how people justify their choices, but it's just not for me anymore...

i might be able to go without meat at some point (my girlfriend is veggie), but never will i ever go without chocolate milk again!!!

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congrats jerseydave, thats awesome! i'm looking forward to that day myself!

i definitely feel the difference, there's no way i could see myself going back to even vegetarian...though i went cold turkey to vegetarian i slowly cut everything out when i transitioned to being vegan.

I can't really comment on the whole body building as a vegan/vegetarian, but it is a myth that it's really hard to get a the normal amount of protein you need to be healthy.

Also, i got a really great response in my class (besides the normal intentionally stupid comments haha), and had a great conversation with someone who wanted advice about that kind of diet which prompted me to talk to everyone on here about it.

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also i have seen forks over knives...that was a great documentary. still haven't gotten around to watching earthlings...its been sitting in my itunes for a few months, i'm just a little freaked out about seeing the animal cruelty because i've read about what they do in factory farms and don't know if i need to See it.

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I'm a veg, in better shape than 99% of the guys in my Volunteer Fire Dept and I get along fine with my Father in Law who is a retired cattle rancher/farmer. Hell, he cooks veg meals for his grandson. Life can be weird but there are a lot of assumptions made about strength and finding common ground. Watch your diet, be sure you're feeding the machine properly and you'll be in fine shape.

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ok guys persuade me. And I'm not playing devil's advocate, I've been thinking about trying to be vegetarian for a bit now. mainly to eat healthy but also because maltreated animals really bugs me.

what's the argument against animal-friendly farms though? I pay $9 for a dozen eggs locally from this dude who has a badass chicken farm. If I'm ok forking out the dough what's the harm in that?

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ok guys persuade me. And I'm not playing devil's advocate, I've been thinking about trying to be vegetarian for a bit now. mainly to eat healthy but also because maltreated animals really bugs me.

what's the argument against animal-friendly farms though? I pay $9 for a dozen eggs locally from this dude who has a badass chicken farm. If I'm ok forking out the dough what's the harm in that?

i actually don't have a huge problem with animal-friendly farms, i'm still not ok with it for myself but it's way better then the alternative for meat eaters. if you're looking at it from a health aspect, the thing with animal products is that they have cholesterol in them. our body already produces the right amount of cholesterol. add to that the fact that animal production is really inefficient (7 or 8 lbs of grain:1 lb of beef for example) its not really doing any good for the environment. also, i wonder where some of those farms are getting some of their feed from if its not completely self-sustaining. just some thoughts :)

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ok guys persuade me. And I'm not playing devil's advocate, I've been thinking about trying to be vegetarian for a bit now. mainly to eat healthy but also because maltreated animals really bugs me.

what's the argument against animal-friendly farms though? I pay $9 for a dozen eggs locally from this dude who has a badass chicken farm. If I'm ok forking out the dough what's the harm in that?

Props to you for doing that and spend your money how you want, but if eggs cost $9 I would just stop eating them. I don't think I've ever paid more than $2 a dozen.

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congrats jerseydave, thats awesome! i'm looking forward to that day myself!

i definitely feel the difference, there's no way i could see myself going back to even vegetarian...though i went cold turkey to vegetarian i slowly cut everything out when i transitioned to being vegan.

I can't really comment on the whole body building as a vegan/vegetarian, but it is a myth that it's really hard to get a the normal amount of protein you need to be healthy.

Also, i got a really great response in my class (besides the normal intentionally stupid comments haha), and had a great conversation with someone who wanted advice about that kind of diet which prompted me to talk to everyone on here about it.

There is some truth to this. Many people model their protein intake based on people using anabolic steroids, who obviously use about twice as much protein as someone who isn't but still works out. .5 grams protein / pound of body weight should be fine for someone trying to add size, but it doesn't hurt to have more if you can.

Still, not all protein is created equal. As I mentioned earlier, soy has estrogen-like effects on the body, so it is like taking an anti-steroid. Not like putting some soy sauce on rice is going to mess up your hormones. But someone who thinks "I will just eat a ton of soy protein in place of animal products to still have a ton of protein" might have some problems.

Nuts are great sources of protein but I'm pretty sure they don't break down into all the amino acids necessary to create human tissue. I can't explain in biochemistry exactly but the way I understand it is pretty simple -- It's a lot shorter path to turn chicken or beef into a human than a peanut or a soybean.

So you can definitely be "healthy" on a veggie / vegan diet. You can be "fit", maybe even "ripped". But you are never going to get "big". I'm sure for the majority of vegans, this is 1/1000th as important as the moral aspect of it. Not for everyone though.

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No problem with that other than the cholesterol of course. 1 egg is 2/3 the daily amount.

People go back and forth debating whether eggs are healthy. I think they are.

I know there is a big genetic difference between people and sharks so this is a bit of a leap, but look at their diet. They can eat nothing but blubbery seals and are essentially powerhouses that don't get cancer and heart disease. Obviously the difference is genetics. For humans, in addition to genetic differences between people, you have smoking, drinking, exercise level all also effecting predisposition for heart disease. I think that counting cholesterol to match the daily suggested intake on the back of labels is missing the big picture.

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