How many of you are vegetarians?

[Bhikku]

I'm vegetarian. I do eat fish and dairy though. I started to become vegetarian almost sub-conciously a few years ago. Red meat just started appealing less and less to me until it was gone. The other meats soon followed, and I do think fish one day will be out of my diet too. I don't eat a lot of soy, mainly vegtables and pastas, and sometimes I buy those "fake chicken" frozen things- you really wouldn't be able to tell the difference.

"Look within, thou art the Budda"

[Adrian]

Greetings Bhikku!

quote:
I'm vegetarian. I do eat fish and dairy though. I started to become vegetarian almost sub-conciously a few years ago. Red meat just started appealing less and less to me until it was gone. The other meats soon followed, and I do think fish one day will be out of my diet too. I don't eat a lot of soy, mainly vegtables and pastas, and sometimes I buy those "fake chicken" frozen things- you really wouldn't be able to tell the difference.

"Look within, thou art the Budda"

Yes indeed. I must admit that the soy based food is getting tastier all the time.

I don't eat much in the week anyway, but at the weekends I like a cheese salad with lots fo different salad food, and I also had a Mushroom Stroganoff with Basmati rice - very nice it was too.

With best regards,

Adrian.

[Qui-Gon Jinn]

I quit right of, I had enough - I wanted no more part of it...  so it was a pure morally decision, and therefore very easy..  haven´t regretted it for a sec though, and I´ve learned all the health benefits AFTER I decided to "leave out" animals.
I eat no animals from any walk of life, but I do drink some milk every day. That is pretty much the only thing from the animal kingdom I consume DIRECTLY, indirectly I allow other dairy products such as cheese.

I eat alot of soya (haven´t developed any breasts yet Wolfie;) and can recommend that, it´s both very good for you I think and it is very easy to get in the market if you don´t want to make your own soy food... then of course, lots of fresh vegetables (should eat more though), lots of fruits, lots of pasta, lots of grains (oatmeal porridge mixed with 2 bananas every morning, cannot get a better start than that) and so on..  and most important, lots and lots of clean fresh water, nothing vegetarian over that but when speaking of "diets" one can´t leave that out...

 Take care //Qui-Gon

- Your focus determines your reality -

[goku22]

I don't eat meat of any kind, but I do have milk and eggs, but I hate eggs, so I only have them in deserts. My favorite dinners are probably pasta with parmesean cheese and nutritional yeast mixed in, and (I'm embarrassed to say) Kraft mac and cheese (only the shapes of course, I like the Pokemon ones with these soy things called Linketts from a company called Loma Linda mixed in, and pizza of course. The linkets and these things called Tender Bits are things I eat when my body tells me I need some more protein. Other than that, I like alot of fruit, cereal, and peanut butter sandwhiches. Basically I still eat all the same things as when I was 10. I sure hope soy doesn't grow breasts because I've been a vegetarian for all of my 20 years and when I'm older, I'll have quite a set.  Ben

[PeacefulWarrior]

I am in the process of becoming vegetarian.  I have always eaten meat, etc. (because I grew up that way) but in the past few months I have begun to notice that eating meat and ingesting too much diary based food makes me lethargic and prone to headaches.  I also notice that when I avoid heavy foods of any kind and don't over eat, I feel my psychic senses are enhanced.  

In the age of microwave dinners and drive-thru restraunts (especially here in the US) vegerarians and healthy people in general are a definiete minority...and subsequently organic foods are pricey, so as I approach this new way of eating I too look more to pastas and of course natural fruits and vegetables.

For those of you who live outside of the US, does it cost more to eat healthy?  

-Dan

fides quaerens intellectu

Edited by - daniel on 10 April 2002  08:25:48

[WalkerInTheWoods]

About two years ago I tried becoming a vegetarian. I ate mostly pastas, fruits and vegetables, cheese, and milk for a few months. But like Daniel said it can be expensive here in the US when compared to fast food and tv diners. Work cut back my hours all at once, very unexpectedly, so I could not afford it for awhile. Sad that when one has to cut back to pay the bills they have to eat junk food. I must say that during that time of eating no meat I felt a lot better than I ever have. I may try doing it again now if anyone could give some suggestions to help me get started.

[Adrian]

Greeings all!

Someone above mentioned peanut butter sandwiches - yes - really like those

As for junk food - who says it's cheap? We have a McDonalds here, and I haven't been to it in over a year - even with the kids. To me it tastes like cardboard, and costs a fortune!

I really like vegetarian based food of all sorts - the only thing I used to find was that it wasn't very filling at all. But as I have started eating less and less anyway, it isn't much of a problem anymore.

Good for keeping the weight down as well for those that put in weight easily - I am 6' 3", and weigh about 12 stones (168 pounds) which I figure is a good weight for my height, and definitely feel much healthier - especially after cutting out all alcohol as well.

With best regards,

Adrian.

[cainam_nazier]

I am not a vegitarian but just casting my bote and why.

I feel the need for a good steak every so often.  Mostly I eat chicken and such because it's cheaper, but every so often I need red meat.

I look at it as a means of re-affirming MY nature.  I say MY nature because the human race is actually omnivors so we can eat anything and it is only a matter choice.  But for me I like to re-affirm that I am an animal by nature.  It seems to stregthen the more primitive side to my thought patterns.

But as I say...To each his, or her if you perfer, own.  I just have issues with a lot of different vegitables.



David Rogalski
cainam_nazier@hotmail.com

[distant bell]

I am vegetarian- but I do chees, milk and eggs.
I have a bad feeling about the soy food- I still eat
it and have to say that many things taste good, but
ther´s still a bad feeling about it.

I try to eat alot of fruit and vegetabeles...

I am going to the gym four times a week, and feel that the
veggi lifestyle is a bit difficult under when trying to build
the body- but hey, it´s a moral choise and I´ll stick to it.

Anybody has any good suggestions for "powerfull" veggi food???

[Qui-Gon Jinn]

Felix, in "Arnold´s Body Building for Men", Mr Terminator writes;
"People nowadays tend to go overboard when they discover body building and eat diets consisting of 40 to 60% protein - something I believe to be totally unecessary... (In) my formula for basic for basic good eating: eat about one gram of protein for every two pounds of body weight".   And that is Schwarzenegger saying that himself..
I have recommended "A diet for a new america" twice on the forums before, and I do it again, it is superb, you´ll get alot from that one...  you can get it in "Sök & Finn" (Malmoe), I guess you´ve been there a few times, it was my second home when living in Malmoe...


"You put a baby in a crib with an apple and a rabbit. If it eats the rabbit and plays with the apple, I´ll buy you a new car."
(HARVEY DIAMOND)

Be well//Qui-Gon

- Your focus determines your reality -

[WalkerInTheWoods]

STEAK!! I would have to have a steak every now and then. No way I could give that up. Like they say, if you are going to cheat, cheat with the best!
Seriously I have no moral dilemma with whatever humans eat. No matter what we eat something dies so we can consume its energy. That is the nature of the physical plane. I do see consuming more plants and very little meat a lot healthier diet than one that is high meat content. I feel alot better physically when I eat small portions of meat and lots of fruits and vegetables.
But to each his own. If you feel it is wrong, then it is wrong for you.

[Sandy]

I'm a vegan (no animal products at all) & a raw foodist(80-90%raw).  Diet for A New America IS a really good book, as is Mad Cowboy by Howard Lyman, rancher turned vegetarian. He tells how cows (& other animals) are fed their own pee & poop as well as the P&P from other animals along with a whole bunch of other nasty tidbits.
If you people want to save money eating healthy, you might want to try sprouts, there're alot of different ones & you can get them online or at your health food store. Another way to save money is to see if you have a co-op nearby to shop at.

[distant bell]

Hey, Qui-Richard, You don´t live in malmo any more??
I thought you did...

Oopss.. sorry for squezing this non topic message in...

[SteppenWolf]

I was pretty vegetarian for quite a while but I've been looking at shamanic people and various mystical people I know - and almost none of them are vegetarian.  But I do think that you must consider the state of the animal you eat, so avoiding any produce from battery hen-houses is a good idea, and hence eating fish is best, as they are the most free-range you can get.

However I still don't eat any meat most days.  I just like to have some chopped sausage with my sauerkraut (I just love sauerkraut!) and fish is nice too.  Also the blood group book says that lamb is good stuff for us type-O people.

I eat free-range eggs regularly but avoid cow's milk as much as I can since the A1 milk-protein scandal hit the news here.  (Goat's milk is rather nice and so much healthier!)  If you haven't heard about it, read this and hope A2 is released soon.  Note that there's a lot more research done than the articles imply.  Dr McLaughlin says that he found he could actually predict a contry's level of heart disease by knowing what their A1 milk consumption was.  
http://www.therockies.com/aswc/news.htm#9
http://www.stockchat.co.nz/features/stocktake/article.php/a6b0e83b
http://www.rssl.com/food-e/010411.htm#article4
http://www.unlimited.co.nz/Unlimited/Unlimited.nsf/ArchiveByDate/20248F6906504E77CC256B5E000E3238?OpenDocument

Food for thought!  So it is safer and healthier all round to steer clear of all animal food I guess.  Definitely when I dine out I never eat chicken or shellfish as I get food poisoning way too easily.

And vegetarianism helps you lose weight?  Well it depends what you eat of course.  I know a some rather obese vegetarians and lots of slim meat-eaters...

And to top it off - ages ago I contacted Robert Peterson (who wrote a book on astral travel) and he said if anything he eats way too much meat!

Cheers,
RIchard

[SteppenWolf]

BTW if people are interested in that milk thing, I've just seen that the most info is actually at Dr McLaughlin's website, including his research papers and related medical articles:
http://www.a2corporation.com/html/htmlindex.html
(Definitely worth reading!)

And just to let you know that it isn't a load of crackpot nonsense, I have friends who have a dairy farm and they said that most farms would definitely be gradually changing over to the A2 cows in the near future, as once A2 milk was being sold in quantity, who in their right mind would want to buy the stuff which might give you diabetes or finish you off early with a heart attack?

[Greg 11.11]

Hi all,
Another interesting discussion topic---good choice, Adrian!

I've been quite aware/interested in my diet's effect on my life for about 20 years. That is not saying that I have had a "perfect" diet (whatever that would mean) for the last 2 decades, far from it! But I began educating myself in nutrition way back when, once I realized the strong connection between my intake and my output, as it were...(This is perhaps obvious to most people nowadays, but not to too many of us kids of the 70s)...

Anyway, at various times I committed myself to strict vegetarian diets, various approaches therein, but could never stay with it. Not for lack of discipline, however, but mainly because I simply was not as strong or as energized while on any of the meat-less diets I've tried. I would usually give each one 6 months minimum to establish itself...

I grew up in Hawaii (I live in Venice Beach, California now) and have been surfing, swimming, diving, and thrashing around in the Pacific Ocean for more than 30 years...I also weight train to keep my strength up for the winter surfing season, when the waves are consistently bigger, and the issues of dealing with so much water power on a regular basis can get pretty demanding. For me, the soy protein (or even a dairy-only diet) simply couldn't replace the fish, chicken, and rare beef I need to eat to stay not only on top of my big wave hunting, but then I still need to function at a high energy level to deal with the LA rat race, my corporate job, my artistic pursuits, my 2 kids, etc...

So I usually eat a small 3-4 ounce portion of meat per day (at lunch--I go veggie for dinner), complemented with a daily dose of 5-6 different raw fruits, vegetables, & nuts, sprouted grain organically grown bread, organic milk, some rice or pasta, and a gallon or more of mountain spring water...this daily program does this body (a 43 year old one at that) quite good! Oh yeah, for you young bucks out there---my sex drive is as high (or perhaps higher) than it was when I was in my 20s...I ate alot of junk back then, so maybe my balanced diet I've described has had something to do with it (I've been following the one above for 5-6 years now).

One other personal observation/experience regarding diet I can share. When either plummeting into the occasional junk food routine as I've done from time to time over the years, or when I was pure vegetarian---besides the noticeable strength drop-off, I got sick more often than I do now.

Warm regards to all,
Greg

[shaman]

Hey Steppenwolf, is that a self-propelled howitzer on your avatar picture ??

I am vegetarian. No meat, no fish, no sea food. And more recently no eggs and no cow milk. I started drinking soy milk. However, I am still in cheeze, though I might shift very soon to something else. I try to eat cheeze that has no "animal renette" and from cows that have been treated humanely. My concern is not my health but the awfull way the animals are treated, no so much the slaughter as the conditions in which they lived for their short life before being "executed".

What to eat?
Sure Tofu and Soy products.
ALso Nuts of all kind are very good.
Veggies of course.
Lentils, whole food such as whole wheat bread, pasta, rice,...
Mushrooms are very good with nuts.
Many fruits...
Salads...
Olives, Humus, Tehina, Fetah Cheeze (mediteranean food)..
Many herbs/spices, herbal theas,...
Soy proteins to make "shakes" (e.g. soy milk + soy protein powder + banana in the blender) ...
Cereals + milk (soy milk or rice milk).
Rice + beans gives you also full protein (also with lentils).
SPinash and lentils have the Iron you need (parsley too).

MIam, miam, I think I am hungry....

BTW: in thibet and India they are all vegetarians.. also Daniel in the Bible was vegetarian,...

Why eat a cow? Why eat chicken? Why eat dogs (in Asia)? Why eat Gorilla and monkeys (in Africa and Asia), why to eat the fresh brain of Monkeys (Asia)? To get another epidemy? why all that when we can manage without it.

The Earth does not belong to us, we belong to it
(native american proverb)

The time will come when men will look upon the murder of animals as
they look upon the murder of men
(Leonardo da Vinci)

For as long as space endures
And for as long as sentient beings remain,
May I also abide
To relieve the suffering of living beings.
(A prayer by Shantideva that His Holiness The Daila Lama recites every day)

I do feel that spiritual progress does demand that at some stage
we should cease to kill our fellow creatures for the satisfaction
of our bodily wants
(Mahatma Gandhi)

[Nagual]

I thought about becoming vegetarian but, in the end, I don't see why.

For me, animals/insects/plants are equal.  Once, I heard a vegetarian monk said that it was better to eat fish rather than meat because fish had less consciousness than by example a cow, so it was not as bad for HIS (the monk's) karma...  I found that sooooo selfish.

Then, some people think that it's better to eat plants because they kind of don't suffer as animals do...  How do they know?  I heard some scientific study that demonstrated (by experiment, not theory) that plants could kind of feel...  They just don't have a mouth to scream.  What's worse; we eat most plants/fruits "alive"...

Now, from a diet point of view, I agree that too much meat is not good.  And I don't trust meat anyway; especially US meat full of hormones and antibiotics.  So, in the end, I eat the equivalent of a small steak once a week; either at once or spread on a few days.

[Haematite]

Hello Adrian and others[]
I'm sorry I'm answering to that topic so late...I just saw it now for the first time[:I]
I'm vegetarian and I feel good indeed like this. I've always hated eating meat - heh when I was little my parents forced me to eat "properly", but I was spitting out all the meat[] I don't like eating fish either. And as I'm not vegan I can eat cheese and drink milk, but I just forget about that and it seems I don't have the need of taking any sort of that food either. So, I prefer to eat cooked vegetables and fruits - sometimes I don't have the will to eat at all.
Best wishes[]

[Euphoric Sunrise]

Another late reply here []

I am not totally veggie, but i don't really eat red meat. It's not a decision i made consciously, i just don't like the stuff. I can't remember a time when i really did, but i think when i was a lot younger i ate it.
Now i still eat a bit of chicken, and the processed meat you get at fast food places (yum! [] ). If there is a BBQ and there's some sort of steak there i might have a go at it, but for the most part it doesn't appear in my diet.
This has actually caused a problem for me, because i haven't been getting enough iron, thus my iron levels have been low. So i'm having to take iron pills at the moment. Looks like i'll be eating more baked beans from now on! [|)]

[Adrian]

Greetings all!

Just curious as to how many people here are vegetarians?

If you are, to what extent, Vegan? Do you eat cheese etc.? Do you eat fish?

Also if you are - what do you recommend as a food basis? e.g. Soya, Tofu etc.?

With best regards,

Adrian.

[WalkerInTheWoods]

Wow, how things can change in just a few years. When I first responded to this topic there were no Super Walmarts here. Now we have many of them, a Super Target, Health Food Stores, Walmart and Target both are carrying more and more organic produce and products as well as the other grocery stores. Most grocery stores now have specialized culture sections. Soy products are varied, tasty and in abundance. Oh yeah, and I am vegetarian. I have been so for about a year. I eat no meat. I drink soy milk but I do eat cheese and ice cream. I feel great on many levels. This has been one of the best decisions I have ever made. I would also like to retract from my previous post about a veggie diet being expensive. I was wrong. It is expensive if you buy a lot of processed foods, but fresh fruits and vegetables are usually pretty cheap. I thought I would give an update.  

[Vilkate]

I've been a semi-vegetarian for about a year and a half. Due to moral issues, I quit eating red meat& chicken, however , I still have fish, sea food and dairy products. However, most of my diet consists of vegetables and fruit.

[Nay]

You're lucky, falln.  Where I live, the fruit and vegetables are not cheap...well, except for the lettuce and bananas.

[Vilkate]

Yeah, fruits are expensive here, too. The only way how to get them for cheap is to grow them in the garden.