Are You a Vegetarian? | Poll & Discussion

[2sin54]

I don't see the point of going against nature.
I am not a vegetarian.

 

[S_Happens]

I definitely eat meat. It makes up the vast majority of my diet.

Most of the beef I eat these days is already packaged up, but I've participated in the butchering of a few pigs and cattle. I've killed and eaten many other game species. We always have some venison (whitetail deer or axis) in the freezer. I used to be an avid duck and goose hunter, but that tapered off when I started working as much as possible in preparation for going back to school.

I also live on the gulf coast, so fishing is easy and accessible. Up until I got married and bought a house, we always had fresh fish around. We haven't caught and boiled any blue crab in quite a while, but we still buy live crawfish to boil a few times a year.

I also eat lots of vegetables and fresh fruit, but they make up a smaller portion of my diet.

 

[Drakkith]

Emotionally, I could not eat any animal if I had to kill it.

But that's when it tastes the best!

 

[Evo]

But that's when it tastes the best!

 

[Drakkith]

I understand Evo. I'd have a hard time killing my cats if it came down to that.

 

[rollcast]

But that's when it tastes the best!

I must concur, freshly caught trout or mackerel are some of the nicest things you'll ever taste. No need to go over board or use any spices, just salt pepper and flour, whack them in a hot pan with butter and serve with crusty bread.

 

[PAllen]

I must concur, freshly caught trout or mackerel are some of the nicest things you'll ever taste. No need to go over board or use any spices, just salt pepper and flour, whack them in a hot pan with butter and serve with crusty bread.

I concur, but never did it myself. I only experience this traveling:

1) Row boat comes into tiny Carribean island, blows conch shell announcing fish, get chunk of red snapper caught within the hour.

2) At a small middle eastern village, our group of friends is invited to join a feast. We see live poultry being carried to a shed. They are killed and plucked while we chat and drink turkish coffee. Cooked over a fire. Never had better chicken in my life.

 

[Moonbear]

I worked with a guy that once was a research assistant at the University of Maine. They were involved with programs studying the feasibility of flash-freezing and shipping Maine lobsters. Guess what happened to the lobsters and lobster-parts that were not required? I would love to have been in Gerry's research group. (who buys the butter?)

That's about as good as the person I met from Louisiana who did research with crayfish. The project involved only females, but they couldn't buy just females, so their lab had very well-fed grad students with lots of crawfish boils of the males.

 

[turbo]

That's about as good as the person I met from Louisiana who did research with crayfish. The project involved only females, but they couldn't buy just females, so their lab had very well-fed grad students with lots of crawfish boils of the males.

Not only did Gerry and his pals get all of the unused parts of the lobsters, but they made their own "vodka" out of research-grade ethanol with a little citric acid to add a bit of sourness.

 

[Moonbear]

Not only did Gerry and his pals get all of the unused parts of the lobsters, but they made their own "vodka" out of research-grade ethanol with a little citric acid to add a bit of sourness.

You have to be careful with that. A lot of research grade alcohol is "denatured" alcohol, which means it has a small percentage of methanol or isopropanol added to keep it from being drunk. The pure stuff is basically the same as Everclear, which is dreadful!

 

[turbo]

The stuff that we had in the pulp mill lab was denatured with methanol, ethyl acetate, and even aviation gasoline. The university had real ethanol. Gerry was a little "out there" but he wasn't suicidal.

 

[richart2012]

Hi
I used Pure Vegan B12 spray.There is also a cheaper version that does not advertise vegan but says so on the label called Pure Advantage B12. The ingredients are identical.

 

[Moonbear]

Hi
I used Pure Vegan B12 spray.There is also a cheaper version that does not advertise vegan but says so on the label called Pure Advantage B12. The ingredients are identical.

That's not B12, it's a methylated form of it. Lots of "health food" shops sell these scammy products as supplements for vegans, but they aren't bioavailable forms. There is no bioavailable form in plants. Some supplements of cobalamin are produced from bacterial sources, and can be used, but there are far more scams out there than legitimate products.

Humans evolved to require a diet that includes some animal products. It doesn't need to be daily, and it doesn't need to be meat, but it does need to be an animal product of some sort...raiding the chicken house for a few sterile eggs now and then is fine. There's no sane reason to deny a person all animal products. But, instead of eatingna few animal products, they'd rather support an industry that manufactures synthetic vitamins, packages them up in plastic bottles, and ships them over long distances, and may not even be a usable form of the vitamin.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

I eat everything [less breads and high carb foods] but keep the red meat to a minimum. And while I am on a low-carb diet, which by definition means relatively high fat and protein, I have probably eaten more fresh fruits and vegetables over the last year than in the previous ten [no kidding!]. Now, as long as I keep my party platter handy, I tend to eat vegetables like candy.

People here might be interested in learning more about former President Clinton's diet. He is on an extreme vegetarian diet that doesn't even allow processed plant oils. Even fish oil is forbidden. I saw the author of the diet interviewed. He claims that no one who has gone on this diet has ever had a heart attack; that some people have gone on this diet were in dire need of corrective heart surgery, but the disease was reversed through diet. He claims that while genetics plays a role, all heart disease is preventable and 100% attributable to food. A striking claim to say the least! And he claims to have the research to back it up. I've been meaning to learn more about this but hadn't gotten around to it yet.

 

[Monique]

He's on a vegan diet, here are the publications of the doctor you are speaking of:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed?term=Ornish d [au]

 

[Evo]

He claims that no one who has gone on this diet has ever had a heart attack; that some people have gone on this diet were in dire need of corrective heart surgery, but the disease was reversed through diet.

A damaged heart or valves cannot repair themselves, that's crackpottery.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

A damaged heart or valves cannot repair themselves, that's crackpottery.

He was talking about coronary artery disease. Obviously diet isn't going to repair a damaged valve.

Monique already posted his research.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

In case memory doesn't serve correctly, here is the interview.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p4hbV4RgzI8

 

[Ivan Seeking]

Also, the interview with Clinton.

http://www.cnn.com/2011/HEALTH/08/18/bill.clinton.diet.vegan/index.html

Eh, dirty trick! That's a highly edited version. This was the other part of special CNN ran about this, but also just an excerpt.

The 'heart attack proof' diet?
http://www.cnn.com/2011/HEALTH/08/19/heart.attack.proof.diet/index.html

 

[phoenix:\\]

Vegetarian throughout the year but I do eat a bit of meat during the holiday season, so mostly vegetarian aside from two dates on the calendar.

 

[Evo]

He was talking about coronary artery disease. Obviously diet isn't going to repair a damaged valve.

Monique already posted his research.

That was an unrelated list of papers that had his name listed.

 

[Monique]

That was an unrelated list of papers that had his name listed.

What do you mean unrelated, it's a list of his peer-reviewed publications. Among them publications where he makes the claims of lifestyle changes and cardiovascular disease. Those are more on-topic than popular media statements that are known to distort facts.

People are free to look at his publications, the second one is very recent research. Here is an older publication that supports the claim of regression of coronary artery disease based on intensive lifestyle changes http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9863851

I don't have time to dig into it much further, but he also has publications on diet alone.

 

[KingNothing]

If there are any vegetarians in this thread, could you explain the rationale behind eating some meats?

 

[PAllen]

There are no vegetarians or vegans if single celled animals are counted. Then where is the threshold.

 

[Pythagorean]

There are no vegetarians or vegans if single celled animals are counted. Then where is the threshold.

single-celled are not classified as animals. You really need tissues/organs to be metazoan, technically.

Still, there are plenty of multicellular animals that are small enough to hide in a salad and not give a taste.

edit: to take a guess: probably many draw the line at vertebrae.

 

[PAllen]

single-celled are not classified as animals. You really need tissues/organs to be metazoan, technically.

Still, there are plenty of multicellular animals that are small enough to hide in a salad and not give a taste.

edit: to take a guess: probably many draw the line at vertebrae.

Ah, then let them eat escargot!

 

[Evo]

There are no vegetarians or vegans if single celled animals are counted. Then where is the threshold.

There are all kinds of little crustaceans called copepods in your water.

http://blogs.scientificamerican.com...er-look-at-new-york-citys-tap-water-monsters/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copepod

 

[PAllen]

There are all kinds of little crustaceans called copepods in your water.

http://blogs.scientificamerican.com...er-look-at-new-york-citys-tap-water-monsters/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copepod

I know.

 

[feathermoon]

I'm a veggie, and an athlete. I mentioned in another thread, but I do Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, power lifting, and running.

One thing I'd recommend all vegetarians (especially in academia) supplement with is creatine monohydrate. I'm not positive what the commercial source is, I assume its synthetic but I'm not positive so it may not be strictly vegetarian. However, studies have shown that vegetarians who supplement with creatine (as they no longer have any in their diet) show increases in memory, as well as anaerobic energy.

I've been veggie for 11 years now, so I've had a lot of time to consider where to draw the line. For me, personally, its vertebrates. I guess that makes lobster and crabs okay to me, but not fish. Insects are natures most plentiful food source, maybe, so its not very ecologically impacting if I wanted to go that route. However, I'm not in a hurry to eat either. Go figure. Milk and eggs are just fine if I need fat or protein.

 

[Kholdstare]

I eat peanut, jelly, spam, butter, spam, bread, spam, spam, spam, chicken, spam, spam, spam, spam, steak, spam, spam, spam, spam, spam, spam, spam...

 

[PAllen]

I eat peanut, jelly, spam, butter, spam, bread, spam, spam, spam, chicken, spam, spam, spam, spam, steak, spam, spam, spam, spam, spam, spam, spam...

No spamming on PF!

 

[daveb]

No spamming on PF!

There's always time for spam, spam, spam, spam, spam, spam,...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=anwy2MPT5RE

 

[Danger]

I am a strict carnivore. The only pleasure that I derive from eating is in knowing that something died violently so that I could eat it. Vegetables are not food; they're what food eats.

 

[Pythagorean]

You could, if you chose, kill vegetables violently. They're not big screamers though.

 

[Danger]

You could, if you chose, kill vegetables violently. They're not big screamers though.

I'm not so sure about that. The ex had the intellect of a vegetable, but she screamed like a wounded wombat.