Vegetarianism

[shunyadragon]

Question for this thread:

Are you a vegetarian?
Why are you a vegetarian?
Do you feel eating meat is immoral and way?
Do you think vegetarian is safe diet?
What are some of the problems with being a vegetarian?

Share tips, recipes and ideas that help vegetarians to eat well.

[amiller127]

Save the cows, pigs, sheep and chickens

eat a vegetarian instead :-)

[aikiMac]

"Are you a vegetarian?"
No, but if I have a choice I will not pick the meats. I have a strong preference for vegetarian dishes.


"Why are you a vegetarian?"
It's healthier. Meat is not good for humans. It digests poorly, and we can get everything we need from plants.


"Do you feel eating meat is immoral in any way?"
No.


"Do you think vegetarian is safe diet?"
Yes.


"What are some of the problems with being a vegetarian?"
Selection. The American diet is so full of meat that very often I don't have many veg. choices.


"Share tips, recipes and ideas that help vegetarians to eat well."
I'm very fond of the macrobiotic diet. And miso soup. Love miso soup.

[wayofthedragon]

Goodness, whats with all the vege threads lately. Is it vegetarian recognision month:D Anyway...........

Are you a vegetarian?
Yes I am, for about 8 years now
Why are you a vegetarian?
I believe that it is a healthier lifestyle. And what aikiMac says as well
Do you feel eating meat is immoral and way?
No, except for certain kinds
Do you think vegetarian is safe diet?
Most definately. It's the best diet, if you know what you're doing. You have to have a balance
What are some of the problems with being a vegetarian?
I can't find any for my self, how ever I do think that some people don't balance out their vegetarian meal, and thus they may not get everything they need. Balance is important, must have balance

Share tips, recipes and ideas that help vegetarians to eat well.
Later, really no time right now, pluss none will come to my head at the moment. but I will later ;)

[shunyadragon]

[QUOTE]Originally posted by wayofthedragon
[B]Goodness, whats with all the vege threads lately. Is it vegetarian recognision month:D Anyway...........

Diet and Traditional Medicine are very much a part of Arts of the Way (Martial Arts) in the Orient. I thought it would be an interesting new thread to find out how diet is related to what people practice in the Arts.

[Ara]

Are you a vegetarian?
No
Why are you a vegetarian?
:) Unlke the others i dont believe its healthier. balancing meat and vegetable intake to your body is the best way to live, not just one or the other. we wouldnt have incisors if we didnt need to tear through a good steak or burger ;)
Do you feel eating meat is immoral and way?
no
Do you think vegetarian is safe diet?
Its safe, just as safe as properly prepared and cooked meat.
What are some of the problems with being a vegetarian?
Limited choice in places.

[Adrift_Quasar]

1.No

2.I just plain enjoy eating meat, steak is my favorite. I eat meat because not eating meat is a descision, and eating meat is an intstinct.

3.No, I have no issues with eating meat because I have no issues with killing any animal for food if need be.

4.I don't it's neccesarily healthier, it all depends on how/what you eat. I know some vegetarians that eat alot of junk food.

5.You're missing out.

[judojedi]

humans are meant to eat meat, thats why we have cannine teeth.

my g/f is a vegatable ...errr...vegetarian i mean, for no apparent reason other than she wants to. sometimes she craves chicken but as not given in so far.

can i just ask something to vegetarians, if you have a pet, do you make them eat a vegetarian diet aswell?

[natxanadu]

Are you a vegetarian?

no

Why are you a vegetarian?

i'm not

Do you feel eating meat is immoral and way?

no but modern farming can be very cruel to animals

Do you think vegetarian is safe diet?

yes

What are some of the problems with being a vegetarian?

justifying wearing leather

[shunyadragon]

The choice of being vegetarian are different for different people.
I will name a few and others can chose or add their reason for being and not being vegetarian.

1. The religious choice. Some religions encourage or require their followers to be vegetarian. Seventh Day Adventists and Buddhists encourage their followers to be vegetarian. Hidus more strongly believe in vegetarianism, but recently I've found that this is not a rigid requirement except for meat.

2. Moral choice - somewhat related to the religious choice, but the primary motive is that it is morally wrong to kill animals for food.

3. Health choice - Many people chose varying degrees of a vegetatarian diet for health reasons, siting growing evidence that eating meat contributes to heart disease and other health problems that shorten life. Also dairy products are found to contribute to obesity, tooth decay and jingivitis.

4. Ethical reasons - A vegetarian diet is a more environmentally friendly diet. The production of meat needs 2 to 3 times the energy than nonmeat foods and creates 3 to 4 times the polution in the process.

5. Intolerance of meat or dairy products by the digestive system -Some people have difficulty eating meat or dairy product due to intolerance of their digestive system.

I learned to be a vegetarian through studying Buddhism. I was lucky because the Buddhist who taught me told that it wasn't a requirement, but an option on the path to enlightenment and entering the river.

I remained vegetarian because after I began to reduce the animal products in my diet my health improved and I got sick less.
So my reasons ended up to be 3, 4, 5 I never felt the a religious necessity to be vegetarian and I was never offended by the killing animals for food. I realized that the life and death of humans and animals was all apart of the river of life. The physical pain and suffering of life in the river was naturally a part of life. It was the separation and disunity that caused spiritual suffering that caused the pain and suffering that would not go away for humanity to be free from suffering.

[wayofthedragon]

Originally posted by shunyadragon
[QUOTE]Originally posted by wayofthedragon
[B]Goodness, whats with all the vege threads lately. Is it vegetarian recognision month:D Anyway...........

Diet and Traditional Medicine are very much a part of Arts of the Way (Martial Arts) in the Orient. I thought it would be an interesting new thread to find out how diet is related to what people practice in the Arts.

And interesting it is. Good thread too. The vegetarian recognition month thing was just a joke;)
Anyway, let me bring up something else while at it

since you mentioned shunyadragon....the different reasons for being a vegetarian
1 religious choice
2 moral
3 ethical
4 and intolerance
I'm just wondering what the people here choices were. was it one or more of the above, or something different?

As for me it was a bit of more than one. #1 religious, I am a Seventh day Adventist. But it is not a requirement. Only a choice, though it is encouraged because we believe it is a healthier life style, and we promote good health practices
#3 For the health choice of course:)
and pluss I just wanted to be different from every body else:D

[aikiMac]

For me, it's a combination of health, ethical, and intolerant digestive tract. As a Baptist Christian I see no problem in killing animals for food, but as I said, plants are prefered. Adam and Eve were vegetarians in the Garden of Eden. That should mean something.

[wayofthedragon]

Originally posted by aikiMac
. Adam and Eve were vegetarians in the Garden of Eden.

That is true. That is because God's original diet for man did not contain meat. Though after the flood distroyed most of all the vegetation, he did allow man to eat certain kinds of meats (clean meats can be found listed in the book of leveticus) for a time. He did not intend for it to be forever. Though because of sin that has entered the world. No body cares, people eat what they want. But the original God intended diet for man did not contain meat. That's what I believe to be true. You can agree or disagree:rolleyes:

[RubyMoon]

I have been vegetarian for about fifteen years. Here's how it happened.

I grew up in Iowa. My parents maintained fairly typical American diets for the time. Most meals revolved around some kind of meat, with bread and veggies on the side and a glass of chocolate milk (I hated milk so it had to be chocolate or I wouldn't drink it). I accepted this because that's what I was taught to eat. I didn't understand that I had a choice. Vegetarianism was just something crackpot religious cults practiced, like shaving their heads, giving up their possessions, and dancing in airports.

I didn't really like eating meat. In fact, quite a lot of it was pretty gross. I loved animals of all kinds, and something always felt wrong about eating them. I even had a few nightmares about where my "food" came from. Before I had ever heard of factory farming, I knew what the inside of an industrial slaughterhouse must have looked like.

By the time I was about 21 years old, unknowing to myself, I was primed and ready for a change. I had just recently moved to Washington D.C. One day I was walking down the famous mall of D.C. between the capitol building and the Washington Monument, when I noticed some booths set up along the walkway. One of them was for a group called PETA. I learned that PETA stood for "People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals." Intrigued, I stopped and picked up a brochure about how to become a vegetarian. I was awestruck. Suddenly, it hit me like a ton of tofu.

"You mean...I don't HAVE to eat animals?!"

From that single, lightning-bolt moment in time, I never again ate the flesh of another animal. It was like a weight was lifted from my shoulders. I went full-tilt vegetarian and never looked back, never regretted, and never felt like I was "missing" anything. I knew that I was born to be vegetarian. It felt like "coming out". It felt like freedom.

Over fifteen years later, I am still a happy, healthy vegetarian.

[wayofthedragon]

Ahhh ruby moon. Thats a beautiful story:cry:

[shunyadragon]

If anybody goes to China to visit or study the Arts of the Way being a vegetarian can be an interesting experience. They offer more than one hundred kinds and ways tofu can be prepared. My favorite is chou dofu or 'stinky tofu'. The best smells like Stillten (sp?) cheese. In other words like a barnyard full of dead animals, but it tastes great. Most of the rice they eat is refined medium grain rice that's not so good. But there are many other varieties of rice available especially in the south.

It would be an interesting experience for the omnivores and carnivores too since Chinese will eat virtually any thing and everything that was ever living or dead from dogs to bugs, anything is game for the dinner plate. I've seen scorpians, silk crysillis and caterpillers, various worms, cockroaches, snakes,etc on the grill.

Up north and in Korea they eat shrimp, fish and other criters alive.

[Shade]

I do eat meat, although only red meat about 3 or 4 times a year (every now and then I have the urge for fillet steak :D ).

Of the meat that I eat a lot it is chicken and turkey. And lots of fish (is that actually classed as a meat?).

I also eat a lot of fruit, vegetables and nuts.

There are many times when I have a meal consisting purely of fruit and vegetables, and i thoroughly enjoy them all. However I do enjoy eating meat and am not convinced that I would give it up.

[shunyadragon]

Vegan recipe from China

Hot stir fried tofu

1/2 kilo soft white tofu
1 tablespoon ground hot pepper
1 star anis
1 tablespoon soybean oil or peanut or favorite oil
2 to 3 tablespoons chopped green onions.
1 to 2 finely cloves finely chopped garlic
1 tablespoon corriander
salt to taste
MSG if you like it

Optional
one or two finely chopped mushroom or black ear fungus.

The omnivores can add cooked ground meat of choice when the stir fry the onions and other stuff.

Heat oil in a wok or fryiing pan, add star anis, onion, garlic, salt, MSG, mushrooms, hot pepper and stir fry for a minute or two.
Chop up the tofu in pieces about 1/4 in size or less.
Add tofu and simmer for five minutes. add a tablespoon or two of water if too dry.

Stir in corriander and serve.