honest question here, what makes you choose to be a vegetarian?

Question

I have eaten meat a lifetime and see no reason for eliminating it from my diet. Is being a vegetarian for a health reason or what? I fail to understand this line of reasoning and intend no offense.

Answer 1

I choose to be a vegetarian because of the cruelty inflicted on animals, even though i do prepare and love dishes with meat in them, i substitue the meat with soy meat, or just more veggies. .. . Being a vegaterian is a healthy choice also, but i do love the taste of meat, and i was not always a vegetarian, but when i think of what animals go through for us the consumer is cruel and heartless. . . . It is a choice i have made and stuck with,. .. . I never judge anyone that eats meat, its just a choice i have made. I do feel better that i dont eat meat also. . . More energy, I have lost a lot of weight and also my blood pressure has gone down significantly. . . . So I am pretty happy with my choice :)

Answer 2

I'm vegan and what folks do or don't devour has no final result on how I suppose of them. So some distance, there's a bigger likelihood that I'll like a meat-eater than an additional vegan individual(good, thus far I've not ever identified of person who used to be sincere) founded at the folks that I've met in truly existence. If any one stated that they have been vegetarian and I noticed them consuming fish or ribs, I could inform them that it's an unsuitable description. I would not deal with them otherwise or give up being their pal, I could simply suppose that they have been a dumbass. Same is going for any one that calls himself vegan however eats cheese if it is loose.

Answer 3

I will give you an honest answer to your reasonable question. I, too, ate meat my whole life, as its how I was raised, and I never thought to question it. I suffered from a crippling illness and was in a wheelchair for 12 years. At the worst of my illness, concerned that I was going to die and leave my 9 year old motherless, in desperation, I sought answers. My extensive research led me to food allergies. I eliminated my allergens, but still kept reacting to meat. In doing yet more research, I learned how truly unsanitary and unhealthy meat is. All of the elements of the animal pass into the meat-thats how we get B12 and protein from meat. What also passes into it are the growth hormones, steroids, antibiotics, blood, pus, urine, fecal matter, adrenaline, purines, amines, whatever disease the animal has, etc. ALL meat contains feces. To prevent people from getting sick, meat is injected with antimicrobials containing bleach and peroxide. As a consumer, you get the whole load. Once I eliminated meat from my diet, as well as the allergens (which were in the meat-soy and wheat thats fed to the animals) I healed completely and fully. In three years, I have cheated a few times, and ended up with crippling pain each time. Now, meat repulses me=I dont even pass the meat counter in the grocery store-it grosses me out. It just doesnt make sense to eat decaying dead animal flesh, when there are SO many other options. Hope this gives you one perspective. (also, animals raised for food are treated horribly-its shocking. Watch meetyourmeat.com if you want to see for yourself-warning, its graphic and not for the faint hearted

Answer 4

I am a vegetarian for a few reasons:
1) As a devout Christian, I believe that ALL life is precious and is created by the Lord. Just because animals cannot communicate the way humans do...just because they do not show the intelligence level that we do, does not give us the right to kill the animals for our pleasure. That's right - pleasure. We don't need meat for survival. I do not like consuming other creatures He created.
2) Similarly along those lines, just because we are more intelligent than the animals does not give us the right to mistreat them. More often than not, the cows, chickens, pigs, lambs, etc. are treated horribly before they are consumed by humans. This mistreatment is not confined to the slaughtering process, either! They are injected with hormones that make them grow too fast. I've seen video of animals who are carrying so much weight so early in life, they cannot even stand up. That is so hearbreaking to me. I have one word for you: veal. I cannot agree with people when they say "They're just animals". Animals have brains, and a central nervous system. That means they feel pain as they are being tortured. :-(
3) And finally, I have a lot of health problems on both sides of my family such as diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, heart attack, hardening of the arteries, etc...just to name a few. I am pretty much pre-disposed to die when I'm young and I refuse to let that happen to me. By adopting a vegetarian diet and exercising regularly, I attempt to live a healthier life than my relatives.
So, there are my reasons for being a vegetarian. I'm just a sensitive health-nut, I guess.

Answer 5

Ethical reasons. I don't want to sound like an activist, because I am not, but I just do not agree with the way animals are treated. Also for me it is a health/conspiracy reason. They pump animals up with hormones to make them bigger quicker, but where do all the hormones and chemicals go after the animal is dead and you eat it??? That's right. They go straight into your body. Why do you think America has such a weight epidemic? The hormones we ingest from the meat we eat!! If it makes animals bigger faster, why would it not work the same way on humans, after all we are just an another animal.

Answer 6

If you are asking for a honest answer then the answer to your health question ..Yes being a vegetarian is healthier then being a meat eater ..you will live on average 8 years longer , your chances of developing meat related disease such as heart disease (still the number one killer in the US) are slight unless it is genetic., heart attcks and strokes are virtually non exsistent ..as is colon cancer , pancreatic cancer as many others.....the average adult carries 10 pounds of undigested meat in their intestines..this is an average taken before obesity began to take over . as you see men carry more in their stomach area probably because as a rule they are bigger meat eaters ..there is ceratinly not enough room here to go into all the health aspects, but this gives you an idea.........that all said has nothing at all to do with why I am a vegetarian(vegan)..I am one strictly for moral reasons and the health is just a benefit ..Once I started reading about the real abuse animals suffer to become food on our dinner plates ..I could have either turned my back and continued eating meat ...or ..do something not to add to the misery .. Mentally I feel great about not eating animal flesh and physically I am very healthy and strong .. If you saw an injustice and did nothing..what would that say about you ? ...to me it said it all ..if you really care to see a bit of why ..go to .. http://209.85.165.104/search?q=cache:x-yAtq-R7SgJ:www.petatv.com/+peta+videos&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=1&gl=us and view the videos.. also http://www.factoryfarming.com/ ... if none of it bothers you then you will never understand.. if it seems wrong to you..then you will begin to understand because this is the tip of the iceberg ..but thanks for asking

Answer 7

I choose to not eat animals when I haven't seen where they are raised. I like to know the conditions that my food is coming from. That way I know that the animals aren't being abused, that they are leading good lives. I know it sounds strange that I will have the animal killed after making sure that it is being treated well, but I don't like to support farms that employ cruel practices.

As a student, it can be difficult to find farms to buy meat from, so I often just don't eat meat. I don't call myself vegetarian, but I choose to try and make ethical decisions concerning my diet.

Answer 8

well, to be honest, i love meat. (well i used to) until i was surfing the net and ran across a video and it had a corky name so i watched it, i have never-ever cried so hard in my life. the thing that got me the most (and maybe its because i used to have a pet pig) is when this evil man took a pig, laid it on the ground & tied its feet together so it couldnt get up, then took a cement block and held it over the pigs head, then dropped it, and laughed as the pig laid there squealing and trying to get free as he kept repeatedly letting the cement block hit the pig in the head until it stopped moving.

i used to love meat, and now i see that its wrong, yes animals were put here on earth by god to feed us, but the food we feed them to eat to make them uberly fat so we can eat, we could give to kids in like africa (so they could eat) and the animals could eat too, animals are beautiful, i understand that some people want to eat meat and whatever, all i know is, that after 18 years of eating meat, im giving it up, i love animals and i love nature - id rather have a meat-free meal for now on.

Answer 9

I've watched this category with interest over the last several months, and this omnivore has learned a lot from these folks. I'd say 95% of the people on here are vegetarian because of animal cruelty. I've also tried some of their recipes that they post on here, and some of them are very good. :)

Answer 10

Well, personally, I just find dead animals incredibly gross. I mean, really, close your eyes and picture a dead fish, or a dead cow.... lying there, lifeless, the empty eyes staring at you... then you cut it open and there's all the bloods and guts and slimy stuff.... ewww.

I think carcasses are disgusting, and I have no desire to cut off bits and eat them.

P.S.: Here's a web page with 50 other reasons to become a vegetarian:
http://www.lumenfds.com/50rea.htm