Meat Eater / Vegetarian / Vegan

[Amaris]

No, humans are omnivores, we naturally consume both meat and vegetables. We can survive healthily and happily on not only a meat-free, but entirely animal product-free diet. Many cultures have been doing so for centuries.

I think that while many people can, I do think we have to respect the fact that some may have conditions that prevent it. As I said before...I truly believe it would be medically inadvisable for me to attempt a diet that didn't involve some sort of meat or animal products. In my case there are a lot of fruits and vegetables I cannot eat, or not in sufficient quantities, without getting sick. That's even with medication. It would be either that or take tons and TONS of supplements to make up what I couldn't get the normal way.

Even if we as a culture reduced our meat-eating habits, I think there are some people who will not be able to cut it from their diets, and telling them not to eat meat would be like trying to force a lion to live off of leaves.

Oh, I agree entirely. As a type 1 diabetic, I also find it easier to control my blood sugars when I eat meat and seafood. There are also many people who need to hunt for financial reasons, and those rare peoples for whom meat is the staple (like the Inupiat), and I don't believe there is anything wrong with that. I just find it obnoxious when people refer to humans as "carnivores" and say that vegetarian/vegan diets are unnatural or unhealthy.

My sister is raising my nephew vegan and you couldn't find a healthier baby around!

When I started the Pritikin program, one of the first things heavily stressed was the need for a change in diet to one of a Vegetarian nature. The program could work if you ate some meat, but if you really wanted results, if you really wanted to be healthy and minimize the effects of diabetes and high blood pressure, switching over to a Vegetarian based diet was absolutely crucial.

I'm working my way there, because I still like chicken, but I'll do it so that I can have a longer and healthier life.

 

[Rek]

Thats one thing that bothered me in Star Trek. Yes, being cruel and killing animals may be wrong, but I do not think all humans could live on a Vegetarian diet. My aunt got some kind of black mold poisoning that resulted in her system no longer being able to handle lots of kinds of food. She has a very strick diet now, she can only eat certain seafoods and vegetables in order to meet her bodys nutritional needs.

Anyway, I'm a meat eater.

 

[Colonel Green]

I am a meat eater, though I try to go meat free a few days a week. My wife is a pescetarian, but I feel the need to consume a steak now and again.

 

[Pingfah]

why do you choose to eat meat knowing what has to be done to provide you with it?

Why do you?

 

[thestrangequark]

When I started the Pritikin program, one of the first things heavily stressed was the need for a change in diet to one of a Vegetarian nature. The program could work if you ate some meat, but if you really wanted results, if you really wanted to be healthy and minimize the effects of diabetes and high blood pressure, switching over to a Vegetarian based diet was absolutely crucial.

I'm working my way there, because I still like chicken, but I'll do it so that I can have a longer and healthier life.

Yeah, I think that, almost universally, removing or greatly limiting the consumption of meat (especially red) from one's diet would improve the individual's health, with a few exceptions. Remember, type 1 diabetes is a completely different disease from type 2, though. I can control my type 1 just fine on a vegetarian or vegan diet, and have done so for years at a time, but it's pretty limiting as meat is one of the few things I can eat that has no effect on my blood sugar.

Good luck on your diet!

 

[M'Sharak]

Just a general poll to see what we got around here.

So are you a Meat Eater, Vegetarian or Vegan?

Omnivore, but you've neglected to include a poll option for it.

What made you become Vegetarian/Vegan? or if not either of those why do you choose to eat meat knowing what has to be done to provide you with it?

I like meat. It's tasty.

 

[Miss Chicken]

My am a meat eater but I often feel very guilty about it especially as I have researched the cruelty involved in the meat industry. I would probably feel less guilty about it if animals were treated more humanly than they currently arr.

I extend this guilt to eating eggs and milk that comes from factory farms. If I kept a couple of chickens in my backyard I would not feel guilty about eating their eggs.

I wish I didn't like eating meat so much. I feel very selfish about eating it. I wish I could be happy being a vegan.

 

[trampledamage]

Meat-eater, although for general healthy-eating reasons I stopped eating beef - having said that, I'm now thinking of including it occasionally again because it's such a good source of iron, zinc and the B vitamins which are all good for concentration.

young master trampledamage, picky eater that he is, is almost naturally vegetarian - he will occasionally eat a bit of chicken, but otherwise he doesn't like eating meat. He couldn't be a vegan though because his diet mainly consists of milk and yogurt!

 

[Cornholio]

I just find it obnoxious when people refer to humans as "carnivores" and say that vegetarian/vegan diets are unnatural or unhealthy.

yeah, I feel the same way when non-meat eaters get up on their soapbox and get all preachy, and look down on those of us who enjoy consuming animal flesh, and try to make us feel guilty about it by posing questions such as:

why do you choose to eat meat knowing what has to be done to provide you with it?

I like most animals better than I like most people, but I don't have a problem with animals that are born and bred for slaughter being slaughtered.

pescetarian

now that word always makes me laugh!

 

[thestrangequark]

I just find it obnoxious when people refer to humans as "carnivores" and say that vegetarian/vegan diets are unnatural or unhealthy.

yeah, I feel the same way when non-meat eaters get up on their soapbox and get all preachy, and look down on those of us who enjoy consuming animal flesh, and try to make us feel guilty about it.

As do I -- extremists on both sides of the issue quite annoy me. You might notice that I have not been preachy or said anything to make anyone feel guilty about eating meat. As I enjoy it myself!

ETA: Referring to humans as carnivores and stating that vegan and vegetarian diets are unhealthy or unnatural is factually incorrect.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

I eat meat, and lots of it. Why shouldn't I? It tastes good. I ENJOY it. I consider it healthy for me. My doctor won't disagree with that assessment. I have nothing against vegetarians/vegans, but they better not friggin' dare try and tell me I can't eat meat. I'll eat it if I damn well feel like it.

The way I see it is, there is a food chain on this planet. We humans are part of it. We eat what we please. If you choose not to eat meat, that is your right, but as far as I'm concerned, eating meat is the birthright of every human being. Animals eat each other, so why shouldn't we eat them?

No one should feel selfish or guilty about eating meat. That is our RIGHT to eat. As long as you don't steal it, go ahead and eat it!

Now of course this doesn't mean we should abuse the animals that we raise or hunt for food. No one wants that. Animals should be hunted and/or butchered as cleanly and as humanely as possible. But that doesn't change the fact that anyone who wants meat should be able to get it.

Or, as Ron White put it:

I didn't claw my way to the top of the fuckin' food chain to eat CARROTS.

 

[Cornholio]

^I'm ok with carrots as long as they're not cooked.

I just find it obnoxious when people refer to humans as "carnivores" and say that vegetarian/vegan diets are unnatural or unhealthy.

yeah, I feel the same way when non-meat eaters get up on their soapbox and get all preachy, and look down on those of us who enjoy consuming animal flesh, and try to make us feel guilty about it.

As do I -- extremists on both sides of the issue quite annoy me. You might notice that I have not been preachy or said anything to make anyone feel guilty about eating meat. As I enjoy it myself!

if you've made the assumption that my remark was directed towards you, you're mistaken. I can see how that may have happened, and I've edited my previous post for clarity.

ETA: Referring to humans as carnivores and stating that vegan and vegetarian diets are unhealthy or unnatural is factually incorrect.

expressing MNSHO is just that, nothing more nothing less.

 

[MeanJoePhaser]

You only have the option to be vegetarian because meat-eaters made that possible. Meat's what counts out here! Not your fucking Whole Foods! Not your fucking t.v. shows!

Get this through your head, you !#% muthafucker. You only exist out here because of meat. That's the only reason. Without meat, every animal out there is gonna want a piece of your #&$ ASS!!

You've been warned, don't every go protesting meat again...you muthafucker, you.

 

[Nerys Ghemor]

Um...what? I can't tell whether you're being sarcastic or you really mean it. Are you spoofing something I'm unfamiliar with?

 

[scotpens]

If God didn't want us to eat animals, why did He make them out of meat???

We humans are made of meat too, you know.

Not that I have anything against cannibalism. I've just never had the opportunity to try it.

 

[Punky]

I LOVE meat. I hunt sometimes and have killed and gutted my own deer before. I do not feel ashamed or guilty for eating meat.

However, I am not an extremist and will not try to find fault if someone choses not to eat meat. It is certainly your right to be a Vegetarian/Vegan just as it is my right to be a meat eater!

 

[Mr. B]

My eating habits don't resemble the name of a religion.

 

[scotpens]

You only have the option to be vegetarian because meat-eaters made that possible.

All facetiousness aside, a more accurate statement would be, “You only have the option to be vegetarian because AGRICULTURE made that possible.”

Look at the scraggly wild grasses that are the ancestors of today's corn, wheat, and other cereal grains. Look at a wild banana compared to the modern domesticated variety. Nobody could subsist on a diet of wild fruits, grains and legumes. That's why hunter-gatherers have to hunt. Meat is an essential part of their diet.

We can choose a diet with no animal flesh, or no animal products at all, only because for thousands of years we've been artificially cultivating and selectively breeding our crops for bigger yield, greater nutritional value, and better flavor. In other words, vegetarianism may have advantages for some people -- but it's NOT NATURAL. Not for human beings, anyway.

 

[scotpens]

^I'm ok with carrots as long as they're not cooked.

Funny, the only way I can eat carrots is if they ARE cooked. Same thing with celery. I've just never been able to eat raw carrots or raw celery. There's something about the fibrous texture -- I keep chewing and chewing, but the stuff just doesn't want to go down.

Besides, raw carrots are for rabbits.

 

[Canadave]

Personally, I dislike most vegetables and love meat, so I think it's pretty obvious what I voted.