what made you guys become vegitarian/vegan?

Question

im just wondering. health? animal cruelty?

i dont know why i brought this up but these 3 vegan guys were yelling at me that meat kills and i will die earlier.... but my family has a history of living past 100 and we eat a lot of meat but thats just us... so why did you all switch?

i keep my diet balanced

Answer 1

Because producing meat wastes a lot of grains, a lot of energy, and a lot of lives.

If everyone became vegetarian, or better still vegan, there would be a lot more food able to be distributed to famined areas without need for Genetic Engeneering, there would be less global warming (less farms = more forests, giving us oxygen) and a lot less suffering of innocent animals.

Answer 2

no, i think your genes probably matter more than whether or not you eat meat in determining how long you will live. That is not to say there is no effect. its like the woman who smoked, drank, and ate poorly every day of her adult life, but lived in to her 90's. There are a lot of stories like that. Thats not to say that it was more healthy to smoke, or in your case, more healthy to eat meat, just that your habits do not always effect your life span.

I switched primarily because of the animal cruelty issue. It is entirely unnecessary for most people to eat meat to live healthy, happy lives. In the US alone around 10 billion animals are killed every year (often after a life in very unpleasant conditions) for no necessary reason. I think its wrong to inflict that much suffering over something as trivial as habit or taste or tradition. Since becoming veg., though I have come to learn about other reasons which are also important: the animal industry is a major source of pollution (i just read an article the other day that a non-vegetarian contributes about 1.5 more tons of carbon dioxide every year to the atmosphere) and the animal industry is a major source of wasted food (large amounts of crops are fed to those animals every year, those are crops which would have provided about 10x more nutrition if they had been eaten directly by people or if the land had been used to grow crops for human consumption.) Given the facts that there are numerous famines in the world and that people in the first world are using surplus food on animals because of taste, it seems extraordinarily selfish to go on eating meat, even if you ignore the animal suffering caused by those industries.

Answer 3

I am not at present a strict vegetarian but am changing my diet to plant based gradually, hope to end up a lacto/ovo vegetarian.
A plant based diet is just healthier. Those who say you can't get adequate nutrition in a vegetarian diet are just ignorant. The ONLY nutrient significantly lacking in a plant based diet is B12, which is easily added with a regular multivitamin which many people need anyhow because they eat only junk food.
Plant based diets are also more cost efficient and ecologically viable.
I have nothing against meat and will probably never give it up completely until the end of time but there are many good reasons to stop basing your diet on it.

Answer 4

I just don't like the taste or smell of meat...especially deli meat.
And, seeing how these animals are taken care of (or not, rather)and how they are killed in the slaughterhouses and etc. just reinforced my distaste for meat.
One of the last issues of Rolling Stone had a really descriptive article about a pig slaughterhouse and the horrid conditions the animals were kept in and how the company is destroying the land and water in the area....blood, fetus, fecal matter, dead pigs and piglets and etc. are just allowed to wash into a highly toxic open pit ....the photos showed the rivulets of blood and other waste running down hillsides and such...

Answer 5

I became a vegetarian because I did not want to hurt animals. I saw how horrible animals are treated and I did not want to contribute to that cruelty.

Meat is not good for you. Humans should not eat meat.

Answer 6

My family eats meat at every meal.
I turned vegetarian 2 yrs ago for the health benefits.
My skin is completely clear now coz i eat so much fruit and vegetable & i lost 6 kilos which havent come back.
I feel more energetic,eat more,look younger.
Its not a sacrifice for me-i have never loved meat as such though i eat fish sometimes.

Answer 7

I became vegan because I eventually realized that the animals probably prefer NOT living in dark, crowded cages; being fed arsenic, antibiotics, hormones, and their own dead; being castrated without anesthesia, etc.

Answer 8

I'm no vegetarian but I don't think that you should be punished that you eat meat. Everybody needs some meat or they'll get really skinny and weak. You won't die earlier, in fact you might actually live longer because you are healthier, stronger and have an average amount of nutritious food.

Answer 9

I Saw This.
http://www.goveg.com/factoryFarming.asp

Answer 10

i <3 animals =]