I think I may be heading vegetarian

[Mrs. Darcy]

I love burgers, steaks, any kind of meat, but I recently saw a show about how cruel the slaughterers were to the animals. Ok maybe I'm naive, but I always thought this process was done more gently, not just throwing the poor animals around with no respect. It broke my heart and I feel guilty eating meat now.

I know it's the law of the jungle to eat meat, but maybe I'm too sensitive? Am I being irrational? I just don't like the idea of getting my steak from an animal that was slapped around and beaten and worse. Part of me wishes I could get over it, but I don't know if I can.

Has anyone here ever had that experience? My husband thinks I'm overreacting, that people are made to eat meat. Any opinions?

 

[lulubelle]

Becoming a vegetarian will not in any way change the treatment of the animals you saw. Nor will it disminish the love you have for meat. Just sayin'

However, if it makes YOU feel better as a person to give up meat, by all means, do what works for you.

I just feel we are a society that is conditioned to eat meat and that it is normal and delicious and that is how most of us live our lives.

Good luck to you making your very personal decision.

 

[Imzadi]

If you decide to become a vegetarian, make sure you do enough research to ensure you eat proper protein substitutes in the right amounts. Don't just assume being a vegetarian simply means eating no meats.

A friend of mine decided to become vegetarian for religious/cultural/ethical reasons and didn't do the research. After many months, she became hypoglycemic, dizzy, weak, constantly ill, anemic and exhausted all the time, until she finally started eating vegetarian properly.

Also, vegetarians tend to eat smaller meals several times a day. They just do not have a long, slow burning protein in their bodies. Meat digests slower, so there is less blood sugar dips and people can go longer between meals.

 

[JoShan1719]

I've been going back and forth with this for a couple years now for the same reasons. Without getting into a whole debate about whether or not it really makes a difference, the bottom line is it makes you uncomfortable. I definitely think you should do as much research as you can before deciding, and if you still feel uncomfortable with the idea drop the meat. The Peta website has a little booklet you can order for free with some good pointers for starting out vegetarian. I personally still eat meat, but it wouldn't be difficult for me to stop. DH, however, has no desire to stop so it makes things tricky. Good luck

 

[disneyfav4ever]

I became pescetarian (still eat fish,) for mostly the same reasons as you. I think it's a decision everyone has to make for themselves, but with all the fake meats out there now, I think it's easier then ever, just make sure you start reading labels, because there are a lot of foods you wouldn't think contain meat products that do.

 

[Planogirl]

You could look for some local growers who treat their animals humanely too. I know a few people who have done that.

Those shows are horrible but not everyone treats their animals so horribly. It's just a challenge to know for sure who doesn't.

 

[bumbershoot]

I slowly went veggie over a period of years, and didn't realize I was heading there. There were many reasons over the years, and I rarely share the last one b/c it's gross, but they were varied!

Because I don't eat meat (and neither does DH (he didn't before he met me) or DS), there are animals who do not suffer inhumane treatment and death. I'm not a consumer, therefore no one needs to kill anything for me.

For awhile I still ate fish, which I justified by saying that I have, and could still, catch, kill, and cook a fish.

But in this last year I got honest with myself, and knew that I have never 'cleaned' a fish, heck, I never KILLED one (handed it over to my dad for that), and if I tried to cook one I'd likely give us all food poisoning. Because I wouldn't have the guts to actually do it, I had NO right to ask others to do it for me. So I stopped with the fish. And there are animals out there NOT dead because of that.



There are people who eat kosher meat, as there are more standards on the treatment of animals. Some eat organic, because those are usually from smaller farms (and maybe they are slaughtered locally as well) and don't have the hormones and antibiotics. Those things can make the pre-death suffering of an animal better (though when you walk down that path, it's a slippery one towards dumping cow etc milk products b/c of the dairy industry and what happens to BOY calves born in a dairy farm....and eggs become difficult because you don't want battery-farmed hens making your eggs). But ultimately, what ends up as "meat" on our plates started with an animal that was killed...and that's pretty dang cruel. So if you don't want cruel treatment of an animal pre-death...you can see where I stand on this.


The ONLY problem I had when going veggie was with salt. Was having some hugely disturbing dreams of eating entire hams (which I had stopped eating, along with other things, in high school when I found out that a maternal ancestor was Jewish). Mentioned it to a longtime Vegan mentor of mine. She suggested salting my food every so often. I did so, the dreams ended.

Eating vegetarian doesn't require a degree, it's not complicated at all. Some do go into the salads-only realm, but those who do that, I've found, are few and far between, and often started it as an eating disorder (so they had issues to begin with).


Good luck! If I've been too strong, just pretend to tone me down. As I was going veggie, I had two vegan friends. One had been vegan for at least 10 years and was very Zen about it. The other was a new convert, and would go on and on about things I didn't want to hear about...she'd seen the videos of slaughterhouses (I never have), and just really turned me off. She almost made me go BACK to meat, LOL. But luckily I'm more mature than that, I don't do things to spite people who annoy me, and I continued on. About a year later, she was much more calm.

 

[bicker]

I love burgers, steaks, any kind of meat, but I recently saw a show about how cruel the slaughterers were to the animals. Ok maybe I'm naive, but I always thought this process was done more gently, not just throwing the poor animals around with no respect. It broke my heart and I feel guilty eating meat now.

What's worse is that this is not "what has always been". The cruelty that is inherent in the system, now, is relatively new, a product of our modern age's otherwise reasonable desire to produce more meat with less work. However, these are living, breathing cousins of humanity affected, so the changes that have resulted in this inherent cruelty are intolerable.

If you need greater confirmation of what you already know in your heart, read Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran Foer. I've been working my way through the book for months. It is a very difficult read, but well worth the effort to understand and gird your intention to do right by animals in our society.

 

[bicker]

Becoming a vegetarian will not in any way change the treatment of the animals you saw.

Every little bit helps. For everyone who stops eating meat, that's that much less cruelty inflicted on animals.

I just feel we are a society that is conditioned to eat meat and that it is normal and delicious and that is how most of us live our lives.

We're also a society that is conditioned to watch 28 hours of television per week per person; to engage in rampant commercial materialism; and to fixate on local sports teams to the exclusion of productive work and quality time spent truly interacting with family members.

"Just sayin'"

 

[Bell30012]

Man worked far to hard to fight to the top of the food chain and then not eat meat. Think about those poor plants grown on industrial farms and the chemicals/pesticides they are forced to ingest. Really, I want to encourage everyone to go VEGAN so that the demand for meat will go down and thus the price as well.

 

[bicker]

For awhile I still ate fish, which I justified by saying that I have, and could still, catch, kill, and cook a fish. But in this last year I got honest with myself, and knew that I have never 'cleaned' a fish, heck, I never KILLED one (handed it over to my dad for that), and if I tried to cook one I'd likely give us all food poisoning. Because I wouldn't have the guts to actually do it, I had NO right to ask others to do it for me. So I stopped with the fish. And there are animals out there NOT dead because of that.

I used to feel that there was a big difference between eating animals and eating fish, but the reality is that, while there are some ways that, if the desire (and money) was there, it would be possible kill other mammals, and poultry, without cruelty, there is no practical means of killing fish, without cruelty. Every fish eaten in our society dies a cruel death.

Like you, I applaud those (who insist on eating animal, but) who do pay the very high premium for animals killed humanely. Unfortunately, we've already seen the secondary market develop, though - purveyors of cruelly killed animals trying to present their works trying to make it sound like they treat the animals humanely, when in reality they're just engaging in a deception. Probably the most common incidence of this is "cage-free" chickens. In many ways, the cage-free chickens are treated more cruelly than their caged cousins. There is nothing about "cage-free" that makes the animals lives, or deaths, any less cruel.

 

[PaulaSB12]

I have had concerns about meat but it is possible to find more ethically farmed animals. I am entering the chicken keeping intending to eat the eggs and also (when they slow down on the egg laying) eating the birds they are not going to be pets but productive food providers. Personally vegetarian is something I wouldn't even think about becomming. For these who are do you keep cats if so do you let them be the carnivours they are supposed to be or do you inflict vegetarian lifestyle on them?

 

[bicker]

The key thing to keep in mind is that humans, since we're omnivores rather than carnivores, can be very healthy as vegetarians. Indeed, our modern society actually facilitates that, and indeed makes it more of an imperative.

The critical concern is to "walk as lightly as possible on this Earth". The "as possible" part of that is very deliberate: Rest assured that if my wife and I were stranded on a barren, desert island with a cistern of water, a supply of firewood, and a pig, we'd be having bacon round-about Day 3. However, if that island wasn't barren, and had soybean fields and rice fields on it (just for example), then that pig would live a long life (assuming I could figure out how to get those fields to grow continually ).

By contrast, our technology hasn't made cats into omnivores. Not feeding a cat meat is cruel, in many ways worse because that cruelty would be done by our own hand.

 

[Disneefun]

I went veggie a couple of years ago, for much the same reasons, but with sort of a different twist. I grew up with grandparents that raised cattle. Beef was a way of life and I grew up knowing exactly where the meat on the table came from, if you KWIM. However, it didn't bother me b/c the operation on their farm was very humane, very calm, and low key. They knew each cow, they talked to them, treated them well while they were being raised, etc. There was a respect for the animal. They did what they had to do, but they did it in the best way possible, if that makes sense.

Anyway, they passed on, the cattle were sold, and the farm closed up shop. I kept eating meat. Then I saw a few of those documentaries and read a few of those books and was like, WTH! I had always sort of assumed that every farmer was like my grandfather and the other farmers I'd grown up knowing. That was an eye opener. I freaked out. Having gown up around cows, it broke my heart to see those animals that I loved being treated like that. That was the end of meat eating for me.

It took a few months - I didn't go cold turkey. I worked my way down from meat every day to every other, then less and less as I learned good substitutes and recipes. Now I'm meat free. I still do dairy, but in moderation and I try to get only organic dairy if at all possible.

I know in my heart that I'm not making much difference as one individual. However, I feel better (both mentally and physically). Like a PP said, at least no one is having to kill something for me. And if I model my life for others and just one person decides to go veggie or reduce their meat intake, then that's a success.

 

[disney_mommy]

I, too, was an oblivious meat eater for years and years. Then I took a social ethics class in college that included a section on animal ethics. For 2 days I thought about it, then on Saturday, I declared myself a vegetarian and never looked back.

In the past, the animals were treated humanely and killed quickly and painlessly, but now that big business and the almighty dollar have taken over, it's all about getting more product faster. No matter what that means to the animals.

There is no rule that says we have to eat meat, or that animals are ours to do as we please. The way I see it, because we are "at the top of the food chain," it's our job to look out for those below us. And that includes protecting them from pain and harm.

I know that I'm not making a huge difference in the industry, but because of my choices, I have saved hundreds of lives over my 11 years as a vegetarian.

 

[MichelleVW]

Because I don't eat meat (and neither does DH (he didn't before he met me) or DS), there are animals who do not suffer inhumane treatment and death. I'm not a consumer, therefore no one needs to kill anything for me.

While that may help you sleep at night, it's not really the truth. The animals are killed and processed if you eat them or not. It's not like the slaughterhouse is saying, "oh, Mary doesn't eat meat so this cow can go home".

I love animals and when I think about the animal behind my burger I think about being a vegetarian but.. I love the taste of beef and pork way too much, and 2, I really am not a fan of vegetables at all, so it would be hard to find food to eat.

My DH's family raises beef cows, I don't like to think about what happens to them when they leave the farm, but while they are at the farm, they have a happy life so I just focus on that.

 

[Colleen27]

There is an alternative - seek out farmers and processors that treat the animals better. They're still out there, but it takes a little work to find them and you'll pay more than you do for grocery store meats. We've cut back on meat enough to make pasture raised and humanely slaughtered fit into the budget, but that's an acceptable trade off for me. Going full vegetarian wouldn't be.

 

[Tinkermommy]

I don't think I could give up eating meat. I do however try to buy my meat from more humane farms/producers.

I would also caution you as a woman not to eat too much soy. A lot of vegetarian products have soy in it and too much soy for women can effect your thyroid (so says my thyroid specialist).

My nanny went vegetarian about 3-4 months ago and has been constantly sick with one thing or another. She has never been this sick in the last 3 years I have known her. I don't think she is doing vegetarian "right" as other PP have said, she just stopped eating meat.

I think it is great your are thinking about this. The less people buying meat/chicken/etc from inhumane growers the less demand for it.

 

[mhsjax]

I don't think I could give up eating meat. I do however try to buy my meat from more humane farms/producers.

I would also caution you as a woman not to eat too much soy. A lot of vegetarian products have soy in it and too much soy for women can effect your thyroid (so says my thyroid specialist).

My nanny went vegetarian about 3-4 months ago and has been constantly sick with one thing or another. She has never been this sick in the last 3 years I have known her. I don't think she is doing vegetarian "right" as other PP have said, she just stopped eating meat.

I think it is great your are thinking about this. The less people buying meat/chicken/etc from inhumane growers the less demand for it.

Some breast cancers also thrive on soy.

 

[Bell30012]

I try not to ask questions about where the food on my table came from. I really may not want to know. I do respect the rights of others to choose to change their diets but I enjoy food too much to do it.

I really don't want to know what all happened to the steer than wound up on my plate. I'm more concerned with how it tastes. The same with the vegetables. I have an uncle that has a huge farm up north. He grows corn, soybeans and winter wheat. One day I was reading all about the seed that was 'engineered' by Monsanto. There was a long description of what went into the design of this seed, then what chemicals should be used when growing this, etc.

Here in Georgia we have chicken houses everywhere. The chickens don't even look like the chickens that I remember as a kid. They have huge chests! More white meat.