Vegetarians!! I need your help please!!?

Question

I have just decided to go vegetarian. I think it will make me feel healthier and I've heard it's good for the environment. I am still planning on eating eggs and dairy but I figure once I'm used to the no meat then I will consider cutting out the eggs and/or dairy. What were your reasons for going vegetarian? Do you feel healthier than you did when you ate meat? I'm thinking it must be good for your heart or something?

Answer 1

Yes it is better for you. The PRIMARY (note I say primary, not only) cause of heart disease and circulatory problems is animal fat. You can still get animal fat from eggs and dairy though.

I am veg for the main three reasons:

1 Health - meat is bad for you and getting worse. There are so many additives, hormones, and antibiotics in meat that you eat. Also, there are concentrated pesticides in the meat from all that the animal has eaten. Additionally, meat is being produced with more and more intramuscular fat or "marbling".

2 Cruelty - factory farmed meat animals are treated with extreme cruelty, living highly unnatural lives of pain, fear, and suffering.

3 Environmental - the huge farms that produce mono-cultures of grain, which has to be fortified with artificial fertilizers and pesticides, poison the land, the water, and ultimately the consumer. The huge meat factory farms grow weakened animals in unnatural conditions that breed disease, both in the animals themselves, and in their antibiotic-laden droppings, which are collected in huge "lagoons" of filth. These lagoons are toxic to the earth and water as well.

Answer 2

Don't listen to anyone who thinks that vegetarians do not get enough protein in their diets. Yes- it is a much healthier diet than one with animal meat. You will not be getting as much cholesterol as a meat diet. This will help reduce your chances of getting heart disease, cancer, and diabetes. You will still be getting animal protein through eggs and dairy. Also vegetables still have protein, beans, and nuts do as well. To truly see all the benefits of a vegetarian diet I would recommend the book "The China Study." This book also helps to point out that there is almost no benefit of eating animal protein- besides promoting cancer. I became a vegetarian at the age of 12. I didn't like the idea of eating something that had once been a live animal! After reading the book I recommend to you, I am going vegan!! Just make sure you eat HEALTHY! Drink lots of water, eat lost of fruit, vegetables, whole grains, nuts, and beans. There are great and fulfilling recipes for vegetarians. Look them up on the web! Good Luck!!

Answer 3

I became a vegetarian because when I donated blood I was told my cholesterol was 300 (under 200 is normal). I family has a history of heart disease, and most of them are on medication for it (while they continue to eat bad food). I just decided to cure the problem instead of just treating it.

A plant based diet has basically 0 cholesterol (cholesterol made by the animals shows up in their meat, eggs, milk, etc.), and your body already makes it's own cholesterol, so there is no need (and it is very unhealthy) to get lots of extra. I still consume milk and eggs, but within four months my cholesterol numbers were normal.

I feel a lot healthier now, and I'm not as lazy.

Answer 4

I went vegetarian for health reasons, but I'm not a vegan, so I still eat dairy and eggs. I feel better, higher energy and my skin looks better. Vegetarians generally have lower blood pressure and lower cholesterol - so it is a healthier life style. If you think you'll have a problem giving up meat, I would start be giving up red meat first, then after a little while give up the chicken, fish and turkey. It may be better to ease into it.

Answer 5

I am not a vegetarian, but also I do know you can eat healthier food by you being a vegetarians. I do you can eat alot of fruits and vegatables. Also, when you go into grocery stores they have their own aisles of veggie food, frozen, and like soy milk with various flavors. Yes, the veggies food are expensive unless you catch a sale. You want to eat eggs, you still can, because in the stores they sell veggie eggs they are brown. You can find the veggies eggs in the diary aisles and also the soy you find in the diary aisles also. If this is what you want to do and be more healthier do that.

Answer 6

I became a vegetarian at the age of 4, and have been ever since (almost 14 now) I chose to do this because I felt sorry for the animals, and the idea of eating meat totally repulsed me. Being a vegetarian IS extremely healthy. Give it a shot, you'll be glad you did.

Answer 7

Congratulations on making the leap! Vegetarianism is good for the environment and can be very healthy.

I've been a vegan for 9 years and feel great, but there are two things to watch out for in the beginning. I had one friend who just ate salads, didn't have any protein or iron, and got very sick. I also knew someone who just ate junk food and also got sick. It's important to eat a variety of grains, legumes, nuts and seeds, vegetables, and fruits.

Or just drink VEGA shakes a few times a day like the vegan athletes and bodybuilders do. It contains your complete nutrition. I haven't tried it but my non-vegetarian boyfriend loves drinking the stuff.

Answer 8

Hi, great choice! I am 34 and have been vegetarian since age 9 by choice and I look about 10 years younger...no-one believes my real age. I honestly think its clean living and protecting from the sun that has done it for me.
I am vegetarian for every reason there is, why does a life have to be taken for my sandwich? I hate the industry of death.
Check out firm tofu in the chill counter - not in the carton. Learn how to scramble it. I promise you will love it. Get a recipe. Slice it and fry it simple as that. You will love this stuff.
Amy products are great. Use lentils, some hold their shape better some just go to mush so find out what you like!
Kashi go lean crunch cereal has 9g of protein and fibre.Stonyfield farm soy yoghurt is great and has 7g of protein.
No Kraft cheese is vegetarian except for philadelphia! they use rennet. Learn about this. Stay away from Gelatine also.
Vanilla soy milk is fabulous..try short grain brown rice...
Good luck and well done!

Answer 9

My reasons for going vegetarian are legion!
At first it was because they killed my favorite calf for veal and I had just taught him how to eat out of a pail! I was 8 at the time. (For the full story of my initial vegetarian commitment you can go to my website www.your-vegetarian-kitchen.com its on the homepage.)
When I was a student at the University of Rhode Island, we started an alternative food cooperative and soon it became a matter of my growing consciousness of the newer factory farming practices, and my desire to have an efficient, economical, environmentally conscious way to nourish myself and my family. Then it became a spiritual matter -- of ahimsa -- not wanting to inflict unnecessary pain on anyone, even the animals; and a growing awareness that we are all of us both connected and energy.
Everything is energy. We all participate in the same stuff and no question about it, we are what we eat.
Furthermore, I experienced first hand at the farm of a friend that when an animal is killed it experiences two heavy emotions -- fear and anger. Frankly, when that finally sunk in I stopped eating meat. PERIOD. Completely. I figure that there is enough fear and anger on this planet and in me, myself, without creating more of it or ingesting more of it.
So yes, I feel better on every level. I work 12 to 18 hour days with energy to spare -- I can, and often do, cook for 400 or more people, and it is not nervous energy I am experiencing but steady energy. I look twenty years younger than I am. I am on no medications and I am 70 -- yes, 70 years old. A healthy 70 year old chef -- there are not too many of us on the planet.
I know that my food choices have had significant impact on my health and wellness and on many others.
I frequently teach vegetarian cooking classes and work on my website offering great recipes and really sound dietary information also.
I figure that I am responsible for my choices and I am happy with those surrounding my diet and the food I prepare for my self, my family, my friends and clients. I know my food choices make a difference in my health and lifestyle as well as in the health of the animals I choose not to cage, kill and eat and in the health of the planet, its rain forests, it waterways, and its environment.
As for your thoughts about eating eggs and dairy -- do your research -- carefully. Eggs are unborn chickens. Samuel Johnson said "An egg is a chicken in potential!"
The life cycle of chickens in our factory farms is not healthy for them -- and salmonella is a real factor.
As for dairy -- Ultra Pasteurization raises temperatures so high that the peptides in the milk break. The body does not recognize the peptides as food but as plastic which is why suddenly, in the past twenty or more years, people in this country are all complaining about dairy sensitivity or dairy allergies. The point is that we are all sensitive to plastics when ingested hence we create mucus to rid the body of this foreign material -- am I clear?
Good luck on your journey to the vegetarian way of life. For help along the way the web is a great place to get fine information, and excellent recipes, tips and tricks.

Answer 10

good 4 u!! i hav been 4 almost a year now and its great!!! i feel healthier and better that i am not digesting animals!!! ugh. its disgusting to me. us humans r betr off hrbivores! the reason why i went veg is because these "factory farms" are being cruel and injecting hormones and crap like that. and i feel bad for animals too. i dont think animal lovers should eat animals. its just wrong to me. i mean you can eat meat all oyu want, but im not gonna partake in it. and yes i do feel healthier. i havent been sick like i used to and its great!!!!
thats basically it. if u would like some recipes or tips, feel free to contact me. ask away!

also, go to chooseveg.com. watch the videos and then see why u should be a veg. and if u r 100%.... yayayaya!!!!