What are people's reasons for becoming vegitarians?

Question

I am just curious, it seems so un-natural seeing as how humans are biologically meant to be omnivores. Most vegitarians i know are sickly thin, and always sick. I thought it may be their diet as they have no other health issues.

Answer 1

I wonder the exact same thing. Every health food store I have ever been in and I mean in every country I have ever visited most people inside of Health Food stores look like you peeled them off a poison bottle. They may live forever but who the hell would want to go through life looking like that except for Olive Oyl.

Answer 2

If you plan your meals right and make sure that you are eating a variety of different veggies and fruits and such, you can be a very healthy vegetarian.

Meat also has some bad health implications, more so than eating a lot of vegetables, fruits, and grains. Most of the vegetarians I know (and since I live in Santa Cruz, I know a lot) are vegetarians for either health reasons or because of the treatment of the animals that are being killed for food.

Someone, I don't remember who, wrote about how if everyone in the world becames a vegaterian, that world hunger would be reduced. Sounds weird? The point to that is all of the food that is being used to feed the animals we eat would go into the humans instead. This would be a very interesting concept and in my opinion ought to be studied in depth.

Answer 3

I have been a vegetarian for over a year now and I feel great! My health has immensly improved and I have a ton more energy. I stopped eating meat for a lot of reasons but mostly because I don't agree with slaughtering animals in the way we do (with unnecessary stress and pain) and I also don't think that their lives are very happy before the slaughter. They live in cramped feed lots and are fed hormones and antibiotics to keep them reasonably healthy enough to endure the last few weeks of their
lives. I just don't think there is any reason to treat cows (which, by the way, have the same IQ as a dog) in this way. Pigs, chickens, and other livestock are treated in similar ways (chickens are "de-beaked," etc.). Like I said, there are MANY reasons why I stopped eating meat--if you need more than what I have listed read "My Year of Meats" by Ruth Ozeki or watch the documentary "Meet your Meat."

Answer 4

Being a vegetarian is a very personal choice. If the veg's you know are always sick then they aren't doing it right!
I grew up eating the typical midwestern diet - meat and potatos - in my late 20's I went on a diet and gave up red meat and diary for 6 weeks. I lost some weight and felt great and decided to stop eating red meat ( I no longer drink milk either but still eat cheese - I live in Wisconsin!!)
After a year of eating so much chicken it wasn't hard to give that up either!! Besides I love seafood and fresh fish.
I do crave a steak once in awhile - but knowing what they feed cattle (and chicken for-that-matter) I just can't bring myself to eat it!!
I am not sickly thin (HA! far from it) and eating meat is not what makes you fat!
It does take discipline and awareness of your diet - most that scoff at it wouldn't be able to last a month!!

Answer 5

A vareity of reasons.. the top 3 are probably religeon, culture or personal choice as they feel sorry for animals and health.

I am from India and i have been a vegetarian all my life. I have never even tasted meat nor felt the need to. My whole family has been vegetarian for many many generations. 70% of Indians are vegetarians and have never tasted meat and have followed it for generations. Our diet has evolved that way and so we know how to get protein into it.

Most new vegetarians esp in western countries dont know how to get protein from non-meat sources and so they might be sickly.

Although i have lived in the US for 6 years and am married to an American who isnt vegetarian i have never wanted to eat meat. I am aslo a food scientist and i like my vegetarian diet for personal, health and cultural reasons.

Answer 6

So far people have said the following things: They live longer, are healthier, meat production is bad for the viroment and being a vegeatain is more natuaral.

It is a proven scientific fact that they aren't healthier and don't live longer, often the opposite. Meat production isn't bad for the enviroment as most of the pastoral farming land around is far too poor quality to grow crops.

The exceptions to that is the meat ranches in the rainforest, but their meat is poor quality due to poor grass quality and isn't sold in the US or europe.

And it's natural to eat meat, people who say otherwise are incorrect.

I've seen animals slaughterred, even skinned alive as I saw Hearther McCartney's website, and it has neither put me off meat of the fur trade.

Most vegetarians I know are just hugely over sensetive.

Answer 7

I am a vegetarian because the mass production of meat is unhealthy for the enviroment. It takes ten times more water to produce a pound of hamburger than it takes to grow a pound of grain. Its not natural for humans to be raising millions of live stock that eco-systems can not support.
Also the things they put in animals to make meat production profitable are disgusting. Anti-biotics, growth hormones, and other things can be horrible for our health.
I showed this website to a group of kids I gave a presentation to- http://www.themeatrix.com/

Answer 8

Some hear about the factory farms and genetic modification and are so apalled they swear they will never eat meat again. Some are tree hugging pu$sies that are apalled by the meat industry. Fat vegetarians are attempting to lose weight. It comes from the philosophy that all life is equal and I'm guessing neither of us believe in that.

Answer 9

Most vegetarians have not been exposed to meat due to religious or cultural reasons. having spent their formative years without meat, it is psychologically very disturbing for them to eat or touch meat. Besides acquiring a taste later on in life is difficult.
Living in a society where eating meat is considered barbaric makes it much easier to be a vegetarian.
In the case of late converts to vegetarianism, it must be related to extreme empathy for the creatures being eaten, allergies, or distaste for mass slaughter meant for meat production.

Answer 10

i well i became a vegetarain not only cause i dont like meat adn get sick by the site of it. but cause i dont believe in killing animals for food. and i been a vegetarain for awhile now and im healthy i get enough iron and protien. and im not thin i actually have gained weight that i tried to lose when i was eating meat. when i ate meat a quit danceing i gained alot of weight. but now im in the middle. so not all vegs are sick thin or have heath issues. meat is gross thats my choice