Meat is murder.

You do not have to eat tofu (ugh) to be a vegetarian. In fact, there's so much controversy over whether or not soy is good for you, I'd rather just not eat it at all. You need to learn to like green vegetables, beans, nuts, nut butters, etc. There's some good protein in beans and oats. Rice is okay, but you should realize that white rice is mostly useless. Try quinoa as a substitute for rice. Tasty and better for you. I love eggs... they're like the perfect protein. And I hate when people say to throw away the yellow part. THAT'S WHERE ALL THE NUTRITION IS. It's high in HDL cholesterol, it's good for you, it helps prevents heart disease. But I don't know if you're allowed to eat eggs. Or fish. But fish is pretty good. I eat a lot of peanut butter and almond butter. Cashew butter is pretty tasty as well. Whole oats cooked for one minute (you can eat them raw, but I like to get them hot) with some cinnamon, agave nectar, walnuts, and raisins makes a tasty and effective breakfast. I eat it almost every morning.

I do love a good steak (medium-rare!), but most of my meals are vegetarian, mostly for convenience. It's easier to prepare veggies than meat (in my opinion). Also, soups. And salads. A good Greek salad with feta and olives.... oh man...

Anyway. Point is, the over-processed tofu meat bullshit isn't any better than what it replaces, and is probably worse for you than if you just ate grass-fed beef (grain/corn-fed beef is not the good stuff).

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I don't recommend peanuts or nuts though. It's a nice snack, but will probably end up with you gaining lots and lots of weight fast.

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WRONG. So wrong. Nuts have healthy fats, which satisfy hunger and keep you full so you do not get snacking urges. They are good for you. NUTS ARE GOOD FOR YOU.


Avoid processed grains. That will keep you fat.

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Originally Posted by OceanEyes28

NUTS ARE GOOD FOR YOU.

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That's all I got outta that post.

hiyoooooo

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Originally Posted by Che

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Originally Posted by OceanEyes28

NUTS ARE GOOD FOR YOU.

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That's all I got outta that post.

hiyoooooo

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DAMN YOU! You beat me to it! For the love of NUTS!

http://content.ytmnd.com/content/b/3...42a9451b6c.jpg

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Originally Posted by OceanEyes28

WRONG. So wrong. Nuts have healthy fats, which satisfy hunger and keep you full so you do not get snacking urges. They are good for you. NUTS ARE GOOD FOR YOU.

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That was in the context of using it as a primary protein source, Ally. :( I'm not recommending that anyone cut them out, just that for every serving of nuts you have you are taking in nearly twice as many grams of fats as your are protein, with each gram of fat being worth over twice as many calories as a gram of protein or carbs. It is a similar situation with eggs. I am merely saying that it isn't quite like lean meats which are mostly protein and that a person could gain a lot of weight if they aren't aware of it.

Not that you don't know this, but a lot of people don't.

I actually haven't had too much of a problem missing meat. I haven't had any fish, pig, or cow in years, so chicken was just about it for me. Unfortunately, it was a very common meal.

Thanks for constructive suggestions, ladies and gentlemen.

It isn't actually for a girl, you guise. However, there is a cabal of sexually open hippie women on campus who would be much easier to bed as a result. I am just tired of being a murderer. I think I am going to stay away from eggs. Milk products, however, are a necessity. White Russians and such.

Seriously? A murderer?
Cows want to be eaten. If they didn't, they wouldn't taste so good.

Think about it, man. It's logic.

http://www.thebestpageintheuniverse....es/bigpot6.jpg

Courtesy of Maddox.

Seriously though, meat really isn't murder. For one, it's delicious. And it's also a part of the food chain and perhaps even the circle of life. I can't say it makes you a better person for not eating meat, but if you think it does, then go for it.

Instead of going vegetarian, I would look into going kosher. The meat is processed more safely and apparently the animals are to feel no pain while being butchered. The guidelines I read about seem really strict about how kosher food is prepared. You don't have to have religious reasons to go kosher, either. A lot of people do it because it is more ethical than eating meat from a factory that force feeds thier livestock, or used chemicals to make them bigger.

Good luck to you though, and I hope you find a diet plan that works for you.

Everybody here needs to change their Friday nights to "Stir-Fryday". It's the greatest name ever created.

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Originally Posted by Dodie16

Instead of going vegetarian, I would look into going kosher. The meat is processed more safely and apparently the animals are to feel no pain while being butchered.

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This is a good Idea, nothing against killing animals without them having to suffer.... but the only thing I could never understand is "killing something nicely" I mean, yeah I would feel better eating it knowing it didn't suffer for me to do so, but I always thought it sounded kind of weird. If you're going to kill it, it already sucks so trying to do it "nicely" is kind of like wha?

Lethal injection on every cow before slaughtering (in all caps)

Edit: wtf I can't cruise control?

I love how people act like a Jehovah's Witness whose son just converted whenever someone they know decides to become a vegetarian.

Chill out, the world will still turn.

Haha sorry, S. I get rambunctious talking about nutrition.

Yuck it up, nutballs.

You know what I like? Spaghetti squash. The joy of spaghetti without processed grains.

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Originally Posted by Jin

I love how people act like a Jehovah's Witness whose son just converted whenever someone they know decides to become a vegetarian.

Chill out, the world will still turn.

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I have not come out to my family yet. It is hard to navigate around dinner, especially. However, I have hid atheism for 13 years, so this should only be slightly more of a struggle.

You could just buy 'bio-meat'. At least that's what it's called over here. They have green stickers or labels on them sometimes.

It's just like regular meat, only the animals were held in a more natural environment and are fed more natural foods.

So basically, you're giving the animals you're going to eat a better life. Or something.

It's usually a little more expensive than the other meat in the supermarket, but I hear you really taste the difference. Plus, you might feel less guilty for eating a dead creature.

Vegetables/fruit are living things too!!!
Also if you're doing vegies to avoid being a murderer, I'd look into growing your own plants in a bio-friendly way as most commercial crops are harvested in ways that kill a ton of poor innocent field critters.

But either way, plants are also life and those you eat gave their life to become your sustainence.

Because comparing something with a brain and nervous system to a bush makes sense.

Good luck James. My mom used to live on a farm... which is probably the reason why she's a vegetarian now. I get the feeling I would be too if I had see the things she saw. It's depressing enough just hearing about it.

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Originally Posted by OceanEyes28

Haha sorry, S. I get rambunctious talking about nutrition.

Yuck it up, nutballs.

You know what I like? Spaghetti squash. The joy of spaghetti without processed grains.

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It's okay Ally. It is all just the great passion that seethes from our loins! But what is spaghetti squash? ;\ I'm not sure what I'm looking at.

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Originally Posted by Jin

Because comparing something with a brain and nervous system to a bush makes sense.

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Well unless you grow and harvest your own bush those little field animals with brains and nervous systems get offed and that's more wasteful as the wonderful nutrients aren't absorbed by us...

And then some studies have found plants may be intelligent even if their internals are very differently structured.

I think the world would be a better place if people stopped citing "some studies".

But really, the animal costs of harvesting crops is a different point all together. It's no reason for James to go back to eating meat if he's looking to stop his complicity in the death of animals. If one wants to stop X from happening by refraining from committing complicit acts Y and Z, the fact that act Z still goes on is no reason to once again commit act Y.

I do appreciate the black-and-white absolutism of those who do not live the lifestyle. Yes, animals are killed in many different ways, but a vegetarian is far less complicit than a meat eater. I guess this sort of stuff is to try and take away from my supposed elitism, right?

You don't really believe a plant is on the same level of an animal.

This is about Morrissey, isn't it? I was right. Oh, James. Really? Every time that man opens his mouth I feel compelled to find some way of eating steak in front of him. He thinks that meat eating is more murderous than genocidal regimes killing children. You'll never know how Joan of Arc felt, and that man didn't either.

Also, for contributions, I usually only eat halal meat at home. The animal's body doesn't sieze up when it's killed, so the meat remains tender. Someone mentioned there also being no 'fear chemicals', but I can't verify that. And the butcher near me usually has duck eggs for sale for whatever reason, I have developed a taste for them.

Also also, soy production recently overtook cow production as the number one source of Amazon deforestation. Someone has to control these hippies.

James, how dare you be a vegetarian! I know this one guy who is a vegetarian and he is an ASS about it! Therefore, I have an irrational hatred of your vegetarianism and will at all times talk down to you when discussing it. I will stop at every opportunity to tell you how many animals die so that household object X can be created in some poorly reasoned attempt to show you that you should not be a vegetarian!

Because!

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Originally Posted by Walter Sobchak

You don't really believe a plant is on the same level of an animal.

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I believe they're both on a lower level than people (well most people), and both are living. I've observed some animals, especially some of those I eat for dinner, are indeed rather stupid and have looked at enough sources to know that plants may be intelligent. I mean shit, they can communicate via chemical substances and have been found to have a large vocabulary to express things like alarm, health status and more.

Here's an article I liked which I thought this could benefit from: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/22/sc...angi.html?_r=1

And here's a site I look to for the newest news in plant neurobiology.

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Originally Posted by Silver

I believe they're both on a lower level than people (well most people), and both are living. I've observed some animals, especially some of those I eat for dinner, are indeed rather stupid and have looked at enough sources to know that plants may be intelligent. I mean shit, they can communicate via chemical substances and have been found to have a large vocabulary to express things like alarm, health status and more.

Here's an article I liked which I thought this could benefit from: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/22/sc...angi.html?_r=1

And here's a site I look to for the newest news in plant neurobiology.

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Dude awesome article from the NYtimes! Always good to LEARN things from reading posts around here! Makes me feel all warm inside.

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Dr. Hilker and her colleagues, as well as other research teams, have found that certain plants can sense when insect eggs have been deposited on their leaves and will act immediately to rid themselves of the incubating menace. They may sprout carpets of tumorlike neoplasms to knock the eggs off, or secrete ovicides to kill them, or sound the S O S.

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just effing awesome.
http://www.uploadthis.co.uk/uploads/...ne/awesome.gif

Silver, if you want to go down that route, fine. In the production of your meat, livestock eats a lot of food to get plumped up. So, while I eat one meal, the dead animal also ate many a plant.

What is this, you guys? I am not trying to be better than everyone. Well, I am better than everyone, but that stems from circumstances that started before said vegetarianism. My newfound health and moral choices by no means require others to do the same.

Now I know how Joan of Arc felt.

As the flames rose to her Roman nose and her walkman started to melt.

I'm not the one refusing to eat anything for whatever ethical reason though.

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Originally Posted by Walter Sobchak

Now I know how Joan of Arc felt.

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Like a woman? :lol:

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Originally Posted by S

But what is spaghetti squash?

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Spaghetti squash is super tasty. I would have gotten it at the store this week if I wasn't already making butternut squash soup (which turned out great... and vegetarian). You cut the squash in half (you need a sharp knife for most winter squash or you're ****ed - well-known varieties being acorn, butternut, spaghetti, and pumpkin), scoop out the stringy seed part (sometimes, I will roast the seeds with some olive oil and garlic salt for snackfood later), brush on some extra virgin olive oil, and roast the halves in the oven for... well, I forget how long, you can google it, but long enough so that the flesh easily comes off the skin. Then you scoop the flesh out of the cooked squash, and it'll start to look like spaghetti. Add some more olive oil, some fresh garlic, maybe tomatoes, pine nuts, stirfried kale... parmesan, if you eat cheese (do I ever), is a nice addition. Anyway, it's good. James, you might consider it as one of your new recipes.

When people hound others about being a vegetarian, it makes me wonder if they're insecure about their own dietary choices. If you're not threatened by someone else eating only veggies for ethical reasons, then don't worry about it and let them do what they need to do.

I eat meat on occasion. Now that I think about it... if we're not talking eggs, I eat meat maybe once a week or once every two weeks. I go for free range meat for health reasons and conscience reasons (and taste reasons!). I admire vegans and vegetarians for their discipline. I don't have it.

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Originally Posted by OceanEyes28

When people hound others about being a vegetarian, it makes me wonder if they're insecure about their own dietary choices. If you're not threatened by someone else eating only veggies for ethical reasons, then don't worry about it and let them do what they need to do.

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I just don't understand any ethical reason for only eating vegetables for the reason I outlined above. I could understand a diet of inorganic matter, but as far as I can understand, once a person realises plants do posess intellect I naturally assume that there's another reason, perhaps that vegetables are less like us than animals which totally makes it ok to eat more of them than a smaller amount of each.

I'd understand if it was a matter of the individual preferring the taste of vegetation to meat, but ethically there's really no high ground either way. Then again there IS an insecure part of me calling all vegans hippies, but I do try to keep it in check mostly.