Eating more vegetarian....

[MelanieC]

I've been a vegetarian now for over 5 months. I've also made great strides for ridding egg/dairy out of my diet. At home and most restaurants I've been pretty sucessful. I still have a ways to go though, especially since I'm undecided how I'm going to handle my upcoming Disney trip. There are some things at Disney that I'm having a hard time saying I'm not going to eat..........and I fear having so little choice on what to eat since I don't have my fall back things to eat that I enjoy at home that making eating vegan easy. Eating vegetarian is easy!! Eating Vegan outside your home takes more thought.

There are definately those that eat vegetarian and eat unhealthy. I think most younger kids, teenagers and probably college age kids would fall into this category. Then again think about how most kids, teens and college kids eat when not vegetarians. It's really no different. Americans in those age brackets and really most Americans overall eat really bad. Take a look at the grocery carts of those around you at the grocery store. They are full of processed foods, with boxes of cream of this, helper that, etc. Very little fruits, veggies or whole grains.

Even before going vegetarian, I ate better than the average person. I try to eat as clean as possible. I eat (now and then) about 85-90% organic foods and when I decide to use a recipe the only way I pay attention to it is if it doesn't include things like sugar, artificial sugars, processed foods, etc. I use recipes that use whole foods. I don't eat fake meats, but I do eat organic veggie burgers once in a while and am hoping that soon I can find an easy to make recipe using whole foods. The veggie burgers I do use, are organic and contain ingredients you can recognize and I strive for ones that have the fewest ingredient lists. It is possible to eat extremely healthy and yummy while being vegetarian. I like to use beans, nuts, whole grains and high protein veggies like broccoli and others as my main sorce of protein. You'd be surprised how fast your protein adds up if you eat those items.

Find veggies and whole grains that you love and build your meals out of that.

Some of my favorite vegan books are

The Kind Diet, Vegan Yum Yum, Eat Drink & be Vegan, and 1000 Vegan recipes.

Take your families favorite recipes and re-think them. Think about how you can lose the meat and still make them yummy. Veggie tacos with black beans are great, avocado's make so many things yummy. Most things can be made vegetarian. Use things like mushrooms, beans, hummus, avocados, nuts, diced veggies, brown rice and other grains to take the place of meats. Take it one meal at a time and you'll be surprised at how easy it is. An example of taking something you like that has cheese in it and making it little healthier and vegan is by using hummus instead of cheese in a quasadilla. This is so tasty dipped in some homeade salsa -yummy! I make 2-3 batches of homemade hummus a week. It's my spread of choice.

Good luck to you and your family.

 

[Colleen27]

What I found most disturbing in the movie, even more so than the meat processing plants, was the whole issue of corn. Now THAT was scary.

Same here. I guess I'm either aware enough or desensitized enough that the parts about meat didn't really come as a surprise. We've been buying pastured beef for several years because of the antibiotic use that goes hand in hand with the unnatural diets given to feedlot cattle. But the issues with corn and soy, the genetic modifications that the FDA decided don't make it different enough from regular corn to require safety testing, that was disturbing.

 

[npmommie]

Yes!! I agree the corn and soy information was the most eye opening and disturbing!!

 

[paintnolish]

Okay, did anyone see King Corn?

 

[LisaR]

Okay, did anyone see King Corn?

I've heard of it but never watched it. I just checked Netflix and it is an instant watch.

 

[princessmom29]

I'm glad to hear that your company did such things, and I hope that others do the same. But when the major companies create the "windowless", security-laden, fortresses in which they create the food, people are going to start to get suspicious.

I understand the need to keep things clean, so you can't just give tours of the facilities, but I live in an area that has a very large beef rendering facility. The place is like Fort Knox. They do nothing to educate the community about what they do, their reputation, their safety practices. A little transparency is all people are asking for. Especially when, as a friend of the local Fire Chief, I get to hear about how often they are over at the plant because of chemical leaks and biohazard situations, in addition to the fact that the company is now being held responsible for 2 very large fish kills in the local waterways over the past year.

Based on this, you can't be surprised that I'd believe it happens elsewhere, nor that I sought out a local grass farmer to purchase my meats from.

That facility SHOULD be USDA regulated if they are porducing anything for human consuption, but rendering facilities often only produce products destined for pet food. I know that is the only place our rendering went. Every meat packing facility that produces meat for himan consumption is legally required to have USDA on site at all times. It is not a choice the company makes, but is required for operation in the US.

 

[npmommie]

We'll have to agree to disagree, at least about how you gauge cruelty, including the extent to which you choose to impose factors that are not the general case.

like what?

"idustural food complex" is a biased term. I worked for companies who were not part of some sort of conspiracy or conglomerate, but independent companies putting out thier own products. I worked for several different companies, all with very similar practices. What we produced in our factories was shipped directly to stores. I was a feed nutritionist so I was very envolved in what the birds got fed, and how that impacted thier growth and health.
1) No company I work for ever gave bird antibiotics unless they were sick or there was a disease threat in the immediate area

2) no hormones or steroids were used either. We did choose bird breeds that naturally grew bigger, particularly in the breast, faster. None of our bird ever exhibite the leg breakage ect that you see in the video due to being top heavy or calcium deficient. I carefully monitored thier calcium intake.

3) Confining birds to houses is partly for thier safety and partly to reduce bacterial contamination in foods. What they do not tell you in the video: Free range eggs and meat have twice the positive tests for salmonella and listeria contamination as house kept. Also, that many chikens in one place attracts any number of predators. Our houses all had shades that could be raised an lowered, so the birds did in fact see sunlight every day, unless weathe rwas inclement.

4) The killing and processing practices they show in the video are horribly outdated. Our birds were killed with an electric shock before ever being hung for processing.

There is always someone out there who is going to see meat porcessing, and the killing of any animal for food as cruel and unnecessary. I have no porblem with people who choose not to eat meat for moral reasons, but it bothers me when a propoganda machine like this puts out what is largely inaccurate information and causes a lot of people to make uninformed, recationary decisions who would otherwise have no moral objection to eating a food animal properly cared for.

what company are you referring to?
and my highlight.............is that because the caged confined conventional birds are given antibiotics their whole lives?

 

[bicker]

like what?

Nice of you to wait so long (until I cannot even remember what the context is) to ask your question...

Let's start here though: " kept perpetually pregnant their whole life, have their babies stolen away and killed for veal, drain the life right out of them , then they are no longer useful, they are slaughtered."

Let me cue the orchestra.

 

[npmommie]

" kept perpetually pregnant their whole life, have their babies stolen away and killed for veal, drain the life right out of them , then they are no longer useful, they are slaughtered."

Let me cue the orchestra.

well you said I was imposing factors that were not the case.
what about the above is NOT true???

 

[npmommie]

"let me cue the orchestra"



and you said you are veg for ethical reasons??

 

[princessmom29]

like what?


what company are you referring to?
and my highlight.............is that because the caged confined conventional birds are given antibiotics their whole lives?

I have seen several studies, not just from our company, and the results were usually a couple points either side of 50% greater for free range birds. They were sampling several free range farms along with several conventional farms in the same geographic area, usually several times over a 3 month period. We didn't use antibiotics so that cannot be the cause, at least in the studies comparing our birds to free range birds. It would look to me to be sheerly from increased exposure to the bacteria roaming around outside as opposed to confined to houses as well as decreased incidence of cross contamination between birds, i.e one bird infecting the rest.

 

[npmommie]

I have seen several studies, not just from our company, and the results were usually a couple points either side of 50% greater for free range birds. They were sampling several free range farms along with several conventional farms in the same geographic area, usually several times over a 3 month period. We didn't use antibiotics so that cannot be the cause, at least in the studies comparing our birds to free range birds. It would look to me to be sheerly from increased exposure to the bacteria roaming around outside as opposed to confined to houses as well as decreased incidence of cross contamination between birds, i.e one bird infecting the rest.

I have seen those studies and it seemed to me the sample population was smaller in the free range birds.
I have seen studies that go the other way too, saying free range is smaller incidence,
I think the best thing anyone can do is thoroughly cook the meat and eggs from a chicken,because salmonella is found in the intestines of them all

but I would still maintain a free ranger is more healthy just because of their more natural diet, of grubs,bugs, etc

 

[princessmom29]

Nice of you to wait so long (until I cannot even remember what the context is) to ask your question...

Let's start here though: " kept perpetually pregnant their whole life, have their babies stolen away and killed for veal, drain the life right out of them , then they are no longer useful, they are slaughtered."

Let me cue the orchestra.

Or, like the cattle my FIL raises for beef, bred selectively and only after being allowed to recover fully from the last calf, provided with a pasture in which to roam and raise their young, regularly vet checked and treated when needed, supplemented with hay when grass is scarce, and yes, some of them are eventually slaughtered for food, but smoe live to old age raising babies on te farm. Not everyone does it the way you are describing.

 

[npmommie]

Nice of you to wait so long (until I cannot even remember what the context is) to ask your question...

Let's start here though: " kept perpetually pregnant their whole life, have their babies stolen away and killed for veal, drain the life right out of them , then they are no longer useful, they are slaughtered."

Let me cue the orchestra.

sheesh, sorry I am no online exactly when you are........LOL


and again what about that is not true? you haven't answered yet

 

[npmommie]

Or, like the cattle my FIL raises for beef, breeded selectively and only after being allowed to recover fully from the last calf, provided with a pasture in which to roam and raise their young, regularly vet checked and treated when needed, supplemented with hay when grass is scarce, and yes, some of them are eventually slaughtered for food, but smoe live to old age raising babies on te farm. Not everyone does it the way you are describing.

exactly,........... I am referring to factory farms, only.
my issues lay with them.

I buy dairy from a farm like you described...........grass fed, pasture raised cows. and I buy the meat from them too for my dh

no my issues are with factory farms

 

[princessmom29]

I have seen those studies and it seemed to me the sample population was smaller in the free range birds.
I have seen studies that go the other way too, saying free range is smaller incidence,
I think the best thing anyone can do is thoroughly cook the meat and eggs from a chicken,because salmonella is found in the intestines of them all

but I would still maintain a free ranger is more healthy just because of their more natural diet, of grubs,bugs, etc

It really depends, coming form someone who knows the nutritional needs of chickens. They typically cannot survive on a free range diet without supplementation in any great number. Most of the free range birds sold commercially for food are still supplemented with chicken feed, the same feed house kept birds were getting. Some "free range" farmers in our area actually bought feed from our feed mills.

 

[bicker]

"let me cue the orchestra"
and you said you are veg for ethical reasons??

Yes, but I'm also a rational person and that prompts me to allow for the fact that reasonable people may disagree with me about such subjective matters. That's really the issue here. You're casting things in a specific light, and such that a person who is not just like you would not only disagree but would reasonably conclude that what you're saying has no merit whatsoever. It's a bit down the path of, "Hey dude, you're not helping." Your choice, of course, but by casting your arguments in the manner you are you aren't really supporting the points you're making, but rather simply clarifying that your perspective is so utterly "other" that it is no consequence to the vast majority of people.

By contrast, when I explain why I'm a vegetarian to animal-eaters, they resonate with what I'm saying.

Your choice. No sense in belaboring the difference. Have a good weekend.

 

[princessmom29]

Yes, but I'm also a rational person and that prompts me to allow for the fact that reasonable people may disagree with me about such subjective matters. That's really the issue here. You're casting things in a specific light, and such that a person who is not just like you would not only disagree but would reasonably conclude that what you're saying has no merit whatsoever. It's a bit down the path of, "Hey dude, you're not helping." Your choice, of course, but by casting your arguments in the manner you are you aren't really supporting the points you're making, but rather simply clarifying that your perspective is so utterly "other" that it is no consequence to the vast majority of people.

By contrast, when I explain why I'm a vegetarian to animal-eaters, they resonate with what I'm saying.

Your choice. No sense in belaboring the difference. Have a good weekend.

WE perefer the term carnivore.

 

[bicker]

They eat animals, not cars!

 

[princessmom29]

They eat animals, not cars!

carnivore: from Latin carne meaning 'flesh' and vorare meaning 'to devour',
so I guess we are flesh devourers!