Inspired by drift in one of those items back there. While the discussion 
is currently about vegetarianism, this item can also include anything 
about eating. 

Pass me the Fritos.

91 responses total.

When I was younger I tried my darndest to go veggie. It unsettled me 
that I was eating something that had once been alive. I don't think I 
stuck with it long enough to notice any health benefits or losses. I 
just know I got tired of it really quickly. Now I eat red meat maybe 
twice a week at most. I'm not too great a cook so I don't trust myself 
to do meat at home... I'm convinced I'll accidentally kill myself from 
salmonella. I do like chicken and fish, and I will eat pork but it's not 
a favorite of mine. Bacon, mmmm. 

I do have veggie friends who had to go back to meat on doctor's orders. 
One girl I knew was die-hard veggie (but not vegan), and had to eat 
seafood against her will on occasion because she was deficient in some 
nutrient, I've since forgotten which one. 

I used to not care too much about what I ate until college. Living on 
campus and not being able to cook hindered what I could eat. Midway 
through sophomore year I got one horrible ear infection after another 
and had no energy. I'd also gained 25 pounds. When I wasn't eating fast 
food, I was eating microwaved or prepackaged stuff. I also got viral 
infections. It was as if my body was shutting down. Not knowing what 
else to do, I decided to eat healthier and if anything, cut back on the 
processed foods. By that fall I felt a little better and took karate for 
my PE credit, which helped in getting the weight I'd gained off. 

Like jiffer mentioned earlier, I think there is a reason we are 
omnivores. Some vegetarians argue that humans are just not designed to 
eat meat, and I can't agree with that. What humans are NOT designed to 
eat are Dortios, Cokes, fruit roll-ups and all this canned, processed 
crap we refer to as food. (And I had a diet coke today myself, so I'm 
also guilty as hell). Why do we eat this stuff? 

because it tastes good?

vegetarians who argue that we are not designed to eat
meat are most likely IDIOTS, they are certainly not
inuit.  they're the same people who slam the inuit seal
harvest, probably.

anyhow fritos with velveeta and hormel nobeans-chili on top
is REAL GOOD!   8D

You can have any kind of problem you care to about eating meat, but if the
fact that it "was once alive" is what's stopping you, then precisely how do
you think those lentils there came into being? They weren't mined, Skippu.

or as ward churchill would say:

"Have a nice fast, buckaroo."

I feel healthiest when I eat the recommended allowance from each food group.
Go figure.  ;-)  

I try not to eat red meat more than once or twice a week, but I eat a lot of
chicken and turkey.  Veggies and fruit are a wonderful thing.  =)

I have nothing against vegetarians; I just get concerned about their health.
There are smart ones who consult a doctor or make sure they read a lot of
books describing how to mix foods for health, but there are some idiots who
just cut all meat out of their diet and live on macaroni and cheese.  Heh.

Re the last: I don't think that's 'living'.

Last I heard, the only contamination problem with beef is surface
contamination.  Of course, ground beef has a *lot* of surface to get
contaminated.  Poultry and pork should be cooked through.  Which puts
me in a tight spot: I like rare meat, but I have to watch my fat intake.
Pork and poultry are easily de-fatted, unlike beef, so I very rarely
get to enjoy a steak just the way I like it.

I certainly don't eat meat at every meal, but I find that I stop feeling very
good if I don't eat meat somewhat frequently.  I suspect there are probably
other things I could eat to substitute for the meat that would have the same
effect, but meat tastes good.

  Mac and Cheese can be cool, but don't give me a steady diet of it.

  I never was concerned with what I ate, then after smelling racid bacon
cooking, I decided right then and there I had eaten my last piece of bacon.
That was 3 yrs ago, come Jan 1. I have decided that my diet will slowly go
to a strict kosher diet, following the kashrut, though I am catholic, and not
Jewish. I just think the Jews eat better than Christians do. The hard part
will be giving up sausage, ham, shrimp and lobster, not that I really have
the budget to buy lobster and shrimp whenever I want. I figure that if I can
do this well with bacon, I can do it with anything else. I mean, I have not
been drunk since 1982, and I used to really drink beer.(at least 18 per binge)

   I'm not sure how much Mac and Cheese is allowed by the kashrut. 

I hate pork.  Blecch.  I've had people think I'm Jewish because I refuse to
eat it, which is fine with me since I like the religion.  =)  

I'm pretty sure Mac & Cheese is kosher.  

This is a rather interesting subject for me, being as I have never really
looked at what I have eaten untill this year.  The only thing I know of that
I won't eat on its own is baked beans, but I sometimes eat them with other
things.  I generally just eat what I see in the cupboard or fridge first, so
I have a very variable diet, and I think that is one of the reasons I am as
fit as I am.
As for vegetarians, I have nothing against them, as long as they don't try
to make other people turn vegetarian.  I know many vegetarians who are quite
healthy, and a few who are not, it just depends on how much they have looked
into what foods contain. 
Anyway, I think I'm rambling again, so on to the next person...

I don't have anything against meat-eaters, as long as they don't try to force
vegetarians to eat meat.

I suspect that 'good nutrition' is a hard thing to pin down because we all need
something different. I've been sort of half-heartedly trying to find some good
books on the subject lately, but when I went to the library, all they had were
books from the 80s. I'd love to find a nutritionist that could maybe do some
tests and ask me questions about my diet and then give me suggestions on how to
improve it.

I love bacon. Love it. Will go out to get some today in fact. Which 
reminds me...

Travolta: Want some bacon?
Jackson: No man, I don't eat pork.
T: Are you Jewish?
J: No I just don't dig on swine, that's all. Pigs are filthy animals. I 
don't eat filthy animals. 
T: But bacon tastes good. Pork chops taste good.
J: Hey a sewer rat may taste like pumpkin pie, but I wouldn't know 
'cause I won't eat the filthy motherf***ers... 

Sorry. Anytime anyone discusses bacon this is what I think of. 

It's okay.  I had forgotten that line was from Pulp Fiction.  I told someone,
"I don't dig on swine" once, but couldn't figure out where I had gotten that
from.  Heh...

Linda Blair is a vegetarian.
http://members.aol.com/ultraindy/JDouglas/index.htm

  I have the soundtrack, and that little exchange is on it as is the Royale
with Cheese thing. 

  Bacon also has nitrites and other good carcinogens that I can live without.

Can someone tell me what nutrients are found in cows and that are not found
in the milk from cows, other than probably more iron?  Vegetables (green leafy
ones in particular) are full of iron, which is where cows get it from.

Omni, your mac 'n' cheese is OK, as long as the cheese is kosher. I'll try
to remember to e-mail you some good sources of info about identifying kosher
foods and preparing them properly.

I find it interesting that people will point to the occasional vegetarian
who has health problems as an example of why we should all eat meat, but
they take the heart disease and other problems that go with meat eating for
granted...

body-nazi.

You can get nitrate-free bacon at health food stores, though it costs a 
bit more. I have a bacon-wave cooker, so you can nuke it and the fat 
drips away instead of cooking it in fat. 

re: "Omni, your mac 'n' cheese is OK, as long as the cheese is kosher."

And what about the status of the pasta, milk, butter, as well as 
the pot & utensiles?
Also, does omni know that the price of kosher meats & poultry
is generally 2 - 4 x the prices at the standard meat counter?

bob evan's spicy breakfast patty pork sausage...

mmmmmmm

For many years my digestion has been lousy in just about every way a
digestive system can be lousy.  When Valerie and I moved in together, I
became semi-vegetarian.  We both eat vegetarian at home, but when we eat
at a restaurant, I eat meat about half the time.  I've also started
eating substantially less junk food, and we mostly buy organic foods. 
Ever since then I've been feeling ... pretty much exactly the same.  Oh
well.  You'd think all these huge changes in my diet would have some
effect one way or the other, but there isn't any that I can discern.

I'm the same way. I love popcorn, and used to eat it by the truckload, 
but my body's decided it no longer wants to digest it. Along with a 
zillion other foods. I can't drink Snapples with impunity like I once 
did, the sugar rush results in a fierce crash. I haven't found organic 
foods to make that huge a difference in how I feel, but I know I feel 
badly when I eat junk foods for a few days in a row. Maybe it's a mental 
thing, a placebo effect, knowing you're not eating something processed 
makes you feel better. 

Um, otter cooks kosher food, and she said "pretty sure".  

Re #25: in what way has your digestion "been lousy". I only ask because
a few years ago my digestion turned nasty and I eventually worked out
I had become lactose intolerant. Things cleared up after I removed
lactose from my diet (or remembered to take lactase pills along).

  Ok let me clarify a few things about my going kosher.

 1. I'm not going to do this for quite a while.
 2. I'm not going to be anal about it. I know about the soap, dishes, sinks,
    and all the other things. I do have 2 sets of dishes, though.
 

  I'm probably going to do the following:
  eliminate pork in all forms
  eliminate shellfish in all forms
  eat foods only marked with the appropriate kosher symbols.
  
  
This is about as far as I'm willing to go. If I were Jewish, you can bet that
I would be very anal about staying kosher, and that was with the dishes,
soaps, sinks, and candles. But since I'm not, I don't need to be so type A
about it.

  And as far as frest meat goes, I'm not going to worry about it, since I
don't have ready access to a kosher butcher.

It seems pretty obvious you can eat a kosher *diet* (re nutrition) without
any of the ceremonial aspects.

(But why?)

People on diet food commercials sometimes talk about sweet cravings, 
salt cravings, crunch cravings.  Who gets those?  I can't recall ever 
having such a craving.  What I do get are fat cravings.  :)

I am not a vegetarian.  Most of the reasons for becoming one don't apply 
to me, in one way or another.  I like the taste and texture of meat.  I 
am not concerned enough about my health to stop eating meat entirely on 
those grounds, although I do try to limit the ratio of meat to other in 
my diet.  Industrial farming practices do not bother me ethically.  
Eating something that was once alive doesn't bother me; I suspect that I 
would eat dead human, if it were an ethically acceptable situation to 
me.  
  But I can understand why others might choose differently.  

You're trying to limit the ratio of meat to other in your diet?  You
wouldn't mind eating dead human?  Eric, you had better watch out...

I find myself agreeing with #12 and #20.  I don't quite understand why
so many people find it deviant to not eat meat (which is the norm in some
parts of the world) and find vegetarians therefore to be either incredibly
exotic or just very silly.  To me it seems like one perfectly normal,
healthy option among a variety of options... 

Yes, I know that some vegetarians can be just as militant and obnoxious.
I lived with one for a little while.  But I've just had one too many
conversations lately along the lines of "Would you like some (bacon, ham,
etc.)?"  "Well, um, actually I'm a vegetarian..."  "Really?  Why?!  Don't
you think plants have feelings too? Sadist!" to be properly sympathetic
right now...

A friend of mine who's a vegetarian (but not militant about it) went to
college in Pullman, WA for a while, which is a fairly rural area.  He says
when he told people he was a vegetarian, he got looked at like he'd just
said, 'I only eat styrofoam.'

I think very few vegetarians are militant; I think other people just can't
handle the idea of someone with a different lifestyle.  They feel
threatened, so they have to try to convince vegetarians that their lifestyle
is WRONG.  The vegetarians I've known would only argue about it if you
started it. ;>

It's kind of like what happened to the word "feminist," which originally meant
"I think women are people too," but which is often interpreted as if it meant
"I hate men".  I think a lot of people hear "so-and-so is a vegetarian" and
think "so-and-so hates me because I eat meat" -- and so they feel compelled
to be defensive or justify themselves somehow.

        
        Well, that's partially because a lot of people who call themselves
feminists do actually hate men, or consider sex to be exploitment (which makes
me wonder what they think of homosexuality).  Their words are writ large, and
reflect on others who call themselves feminists.

        That's true, to a lesser degree, of vegetarians.  Some vegetarians are
rabid about their personal food choices.  But for the most part it's just a
normal social reaction to a small group with a marked behavioural difference.

I think the reasons for vegetarianism vary - personal health, planetary
health, animal rights, etc., and this influences whether the vegetarian is
trying to convert other people.  Someone eating vegetarian because the doctor
said to is less likely to proselytize than is a pet lover.

Jazz and I live in different worlds.  I've met only a couple women who
appeared to "hate men" and in each of those cases getting to know more
about them demonstrated that that description was not very accurate. If
there are "a lot of" man-hating feminists out there in real life (as
opposed to in the media) then I've somehow missed them.

The same goes for aggressive, proselytizing vegetarians.  I've never met
anyone who goes around condemning other people for eating meat.  Sure,
if you ask them, many will tell you that they think it's immoral to kill
an animal for food, but I don't know anyone who routinely goes around
demanding that meat-eaters stop eating meat, or trying to pressure them
into doing so.

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