How did you become a vegetarian?

Question

This is the most interesting reason.
Full details are at:-
http://www.satyamag.com/feb98/varanasi.html

Reproduced (with kind permission) for those who wish to read the core of it.

From Varnasi to Vegetarianism By Jason Freitag
I had been back from India for about a week. My parents had invited my partner and I for a summer evening dinner. Cedar Grove is a mid- to upper middle-class suburb of New York City, about 15 miles to the west. The lawns are well-manicured, there are two cars in every driveway, and life seems to be as it should--the prototypical image of the American suburb. We were on the deck in the backyard. The gas grill was fixed up, and my father was the grill master. He lifted the grill cover, and the very familiar smell of chicken cooking over a fire wafted across the deck. I've smelled this smell hundreds of times before. This time, however, it had more of a resonance--I'd smelled this somewhere else, or in some other context. I could not immediately place it. The conversation continued for a few moments--so-and-so is getting married, so-and-so is late in arriving. In a gentle wave of recognition, it came to me. The smell of the chicken on the grill in Cedar Grove was exactly the same as the smell of the funeral pyres on the Ganges at Varanasi. As I began to reflect, it became clear just how much sense this made. THEY WERE BOTH BURNING FLESH.

Many thanks to 'Jessica J', 'julie knows', 'welshlyn', 'Vegon', 'Minnesooota' for those answers. Shame some spoil it for the rest even on V&V.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Perhaps 'Hindu-ka- pitah' has had too much beef. It is still reported to be causing Mad Cow Disease. !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Answer 1

i completely agree with this person's reason but mine was different. i made the decision when i was very little (5 years old or younger) because i simply felt that it was wrong to eat animals. i have never smelled burning flesh before, and obviously i never want to; i just realized hey, we are eating other living creatures that are only born to die and be digested. that is really sad, and it is really wrong. and by the way, we don't know for sure that hitler was a vegetarian, and even if he was, that does not make vegetarianism evil. that is a ridiculous argument, look at all the great vegetarians: leonardo da vinci, pythagoras, and benjamin franklin to name a few. anyways, i don't know if you personally are a vegetarian, but if you are, then you should be proud to be one. =D

Answer 2

I have been veggie for 22 years. I am a real vegetaran which means I do not eat meat, fish, or anything such as gelatine, or anything with animal fats. I was a small child when I decided I just did not like meat or fish. The look of it, the smell of it, the taste of it, everything! The only way I can describe this to you, is if you presented me with a plate full of every type of food, my brain sort of 'discounts' the meat and fish as being something I want to eat. It might as well be plastic or glass. I do not 'see' it as food. As I became older, obviously, I became aware of what was in certain foods, and the cruelty to animals thign does come into it.

Answer 3

When I was very young I used to go out on the weekends to my Grandfathers farm/ranch. I used to sit on the sheep and cows, I liked the animals.

When I was about four and a half years old I found out that meat was animal and that these animals were only here to be slaughtered. I couldn't eat them anymore so I started becoming vegetarian.

For most of my life I was a strict vegetarian but ate cheese, and other occasional dairy products, cake and ice-cream. Eventually, after learning more about diet, health and nutrition and also not to be a hypocrite, I went 'the whole hog'.

Now I'm a strict vegan. (I describe it as: a Progressive Vegetarian.)

Answer 4

Hey dear... come on i am a veggie... I have so many non veg friends... I really dont feel anything about anyone eating non veg food.... I just get upset sometimes for them when i get a feeling that they are eating some animal or bird that lived walked and flew one day... I really dont get any hard feelings at any of my non veg friends. To be frank, my best friend is a non veg... In fact on the lighter side, they make fun of me saying i live on grass and leaves!! lol.... Being veggie or non veg is just a way of living darling... I dont feel people are to be discriminated anything based on that.... I think someone hurt you bad for being a non veg or discriminated something to you for eating non veg food... Why do you let someone else's words or thinking affect you this much... dont hate us Veggie so much :-(( It hurts....... Live the life your way... Eat what ever you want..... As i tell everyone - ' Rest of the world....out of the window!!!'

Answer 5

I became a veggie about 20 years ago, my reason was not the smell of meat the look of meat or the taste as i really enjoyed all different types of meat.
I was sitting watching TV one night and there was a programme on about farming pigs, i watched how they kept these pigs and reared the young piglets (it was far from humane or pretty) and that was it my heart was broken i just could not be part of a very cruel practice (in my opinion) and i have never ate meat again. To be honest i did not have anything to do with by products either, however i am sad to say i do now have a leather sofa and leather shoes! but as far as i am aware the animals do not get killed for just their skins if that were true i would be more than happy to sit on the floor.
I love the smell of meat and believe humans are "made" to ate meat but not me, for me to eat meat the animal would have to have a happy life and die of natural causes. I don't hold anything against meat eaters but for my piece of mind I DON'T.

Answer 6

I was born a vegetarian!
My mom had been one since she was a teenager so when she had me, she brought me up on a lacto-ovo veg diet.
Since my birth, I have only had meat (to my knowledge) once. One of my friends asked me to try bologna when I was about eight or something, but never since then.
Don't think that I'm a vegetarian just because my mom brought me up that way. When I was old enough to pick my own eating habits, I stayed with vegatarianism. It seems like the humane thing to do!

Answer 7

Hi >
I am far from "veggie", & indeed a meat-lover for good reasons.
Your long-winded question reminded me of the delights of cooking snake, shark, goat, on a fire on a Middle - Eastern beach
With some corned beef & bought steak thown in the pot.
OK, spuds, tinned peas, beans, & corn to go with it.
I mean "with it " as a carrot cake or whatever would have not gone down well on the night.
Best of luck to non-meat eaters. Yet why have you got incisor teeth ?
C'est natural, n'est pas ?
Et aussi - how does lovely horseradish sauce go with carrots ?
Bob.

Answer 8

Well, if you have a problem mixing up human flesh with chicken flesh, it's clearly better you be a vegetarian. I understand Hitler was a vegetarian for much the same reason . . .

Answer 9

you have to stop slowly and gradually. dont stop eating meat all at once, your body can react in a weird way if you are so used to eating meat all the time.

Answer 10

read the River Cottage Meat book.........................


I did Save a couple of friends of mine with 2lb home cured,smoked bacon.......................