I don't understand Vegan/Vegetarians?

Question

I mean I understand the point of not wanting to eat another living creature and I completely empathize but humans are meant to eat meat. We have teeth designed to rip and tear. If we were meant to be herbivores then we would only have molars. Many of the people that I know with vegan and vegetarian lifestyles are not very healthy. Their doctors are constantly telling them to change their diets by adding fish or chicken. Now I'm not looking for hate messages. I am looking to be enlightened.

I appreciate everyone's feedback. It has been a dilemma I have struggled with for years. I studied nutrition in college and have a very diverse background in different sciences. I have watched the videos of how my food gets to my table. I have cried many times about it. I have tried enjoying a vegetarian lifestyle but it seems that my diet was always lacking something and I was always very tired (As are my vegetarian friends). I just wanted to get some varied opinions from other people. I appreciate everyone's input. P.S. An egg is a cell not a fetus. Cows do not eat meat because they are herbivores. (Mad cow disease developed from humans feeding cow remains to cows. They are not meant to eat meat.)

Answer 1

It is simply a personal choice. It is possible to eat a very healthy diet and be vegan or vegetarian, though you should take the B vitamins that are only found in animal products.
I AM NOT a vegetarian, but how much are we told that we need to eat more veggies? More fiber? Less fat? Vegetables, beans, soy (and soy protein products), fruits, and grains have all of these. Your friends need to be better educated on how to be vegan, rather than changing their beliefs - assuming their beliefs are strong enough that they are willing to do that.
Being a vegan can require more work, since you can't just go for take-out burgers (my sister used to order tacos with extra cheese and no meat at Taco Bell... you should have seen the faces of the employees). Just skipping the meat isn't enough, you do have to replace it with something nutritious. Take care and have a steak for me!

Answer 2

"This is what i said to a group of men who yelled at me last week. can someone tell me why it had to happen that way?" It didn't have to, but you chose for it to. You must understand that we cannot control others, but we can control how we respond to situations in our life. I have learned this through many painful, difficult life experiences, and I believe this is one of the greatest things we can ever come to understand. No one "makes" you do/feel anything, it's all how you respond to them. For someone who stated more than once in that blurb that s/he respects the beliefs of others, you sure don't seem to exude that. Respecting beliefs are different from respecting people. In the military, we say, "Salute the rank, not the officer" if you really don't want to render respect (salute) to an officer because s/he is a douche bag. When you think about it as saluting the rank, it makes it easier to do. Same here. In your situation (and I've been in this same situation, only reversed because I'm vegan...there are douche bags all over the place, it's not just one group, one race, one gender...it's just some people in general), I would simply say: "I understand you feel this way. However, I disagree. Let's leave it at that. You can't honestly believe that insulting me and badgering me somehow shows me just how kind and compassionate you claim vegetarians/vegans are." That might not stop them, but you can't control other people so you just do what you can. Good luck.

Answer 3

There are a lot of subsitutions for meat actually. I'm a meat eater but my friend is a vegetarian but not a vegan. She's living such a great healhty life, when i say healthy, i mean yes she is healthy. She enjoy being a vegetarain and she doesn't have a craving for meat at all. Being a vegan, that's unhealthy because they are cutting off a lot of nutrition from milk,etc. Well people have their own choices and if they want to do what they believe is right then let them. Moral-is what each individual believes is right or wrong. You can't just say we're meant to eat meat then are we meant to eat other humans because actually human has meat with a lot of nutrition so the meat becomes more rich. I totally respect the people who are vegetarian. it's the ppl's choice.

Answer 4

We do not have teeth to rip and tear, we have teeth that are considered omnivorous (can eat anything). Some vegans are sickly because of an uneducated diet, however doctors are not telling vegans to eat meat, but rather a balanced diet of nuts, legumes, and grains along with fruits and vegetables, the darker the better. So yes meat and fish protein are good for humans because we have evolved to consum them but only in moderation. Vegan: not eggs or cheese, vegetarians can have.

Answer 5

Vegan is pretty hard. I eat vegetarian, including dairy/eggs, and I eat fish as well for protein and omega 3 sources. Yes- you have to be a bit knowledgeble to ensure that you get sufficient nutrition, but you can certainly be very healthy on a vegetarian diet.

My reasons are less about 'not eating another living creature'- as I don't have a moral problem with that, but more for the reasons of health and environment.

So- you can be very healthy on a 'healthy' vegetarian diet- although not everyone does it right.

Hope this helps.

Answer 6

Yes, I have canines. However, I can choose not to use them. It's about making a conscious choice to nourish my body in a way that doesn't compromise my soul. We don't *need* meat by any stretch of the imagination. If you know a bunch of unhealthy vegetarians whose doctors are constantly telling them to add chicken to their diets, I'm frankly surprised. Some vegetarians are unaware of what it takes to nourish a human body, but my vegetarian friends, acquaintances and family members are all perfectly healthy. I know people who have been raised veg from birth who are strong, vital and athletic. I get sick far less often than most people I know and no doctor has ever had reason to question the soundness of my diet. I was at the doctor for a preconception physical just a couple of weeks ago and we were discussing vegetarian pregnancy. She has no concerns over my health or my ability to feed a growing pregnancy with the diet I currently eat.

If you don't understand vegetarianism, then perhaps it's not for you. That's OK with me, I'm not going to judge you for choosing how you sustain your own life and your own body. That's nobody's business but your own.

Answer 7

Humans do not need meat to survive. Protein can be obtained through plant sources such as soy. Iron can also be obtained from plant sources. An ounce of spinach has more iron in it than an ounce of meat (though admittedly the iron in the meat is somewhat easier to absorb).

I do love animals and I don't like the concept of eating them. If most people actually had to slaughter their own meat or see it killed I think there would be a lot more vegetarians. I like sitting down to a meal where I know no animal had to die.

The meat that is commercially available today is pumped full of hormones and antibiotics. Medical experts agree that the traces of antibiotics found in meat is probably contribuing to antibiotic resistance. Also, the growth hormones injected into cattle are probably causing endocrine effects in us - the average age of onset of menstruation is much lower than it was ten or even twenty years ago. This is likely from the trace hormones found in meat and even milk. Animals are not reated well in commerical production. Chickens are packed so tightly together that they can barely move and their beaks and nails must be partially removed or they would attack each other in frustration. Veal calves are kept in a small crate where they cannot walk or move and are fed an iron deficient diet to produce the pale anemic liver prized by gourmands.

Meat is a very resource intensive crop. It takes lots of acres of grassland and thousands of gallons of water to produce a few pounds of beef. That same acreage, using less water could be used to grow several pounds of soy. If we took all the land now used for growing cattle for meat consumption and used it for soy production, we could end world hunger! A time is coming in human history where the population of humans will cause a shortage of arable land and we will have to depend upon socially responsible crops such as soy and drastically reduce the amount beef produced.

So, why am I vegetarian? I don't need meat to live, I am healthier without it since today's meat is full of hormones and antibitoics, I don't like animals dying or suffering tp provide me with a meal, and plant sources of protein are more socially responsible.

Answer 8

You dont need meat,you need the protein and vitamin B,which you get from an array of other thimgs. Soy products are far higher in protein and vitamins and have way less fat and usually NO cholesterol. Im not angry at meat-eaters,I think its terrible someone can do the slaughtering. Why not take a peak at "faces of death" part one or two.
The problem is there are vegetarians who dont make up for the lossed iron,vitamin B and protein. Red meat is a killer and vegans have been proven to live longer and healthier lives. These days there is no excuse to eat an animal,we have many different options now,its not all about salad. And why would you eat an egg yolk? Thats a FETUS for cryin' out loud!

Answer 9

When was the last time you ripped and tore and raw flesh? Your teeth are no longer designed to do that. Vegetarian lifestyles ARE healthy if done correctly. Most meat eaters I know have more health problems than most vegetarians I know. People can get ALL the protein they need from plant sources so don't go down that road of lies.

Answer 10

I have friends that are vegan that are very very healthy. They went vegan because of a conscious decision to not eat other living creatures, because of the state of slaughterhouses in America (not the most sanitary of conditions), and for colon health.
Humans do have teeth for tearing but we also only have one stomach and many feet of intestines that slow the breakdown of food in the body. Which leads to putrification. Which leads to the malabsorption of nutrients, possible toxins sitting in our bodies for long periods of time, and possible disease.
People that go vegan or vegetarian for *real* reasons learn what they need to eat to get enough protein and amino acids, and are very careful about what they put in their bodies. Perhaps your friends that are unhealthy need to do more research about their choice so that they can make good eating decisions. And eating chicken or fish may not be the best solution because most commercial fish is farmed and could by dyed, and most chicken farms and slaughterhouses are filthy and the chickens are sick before being killed and are pumped full of hormones and antibiotics. Another reason to eat "natural" chicken and beef.
Anyway, I eat meat...but I do know why my friends have made their decisions and why I think before I eat.
hope that helps :)