What benefits do you get from being Vegetarian?

[KiloFox]

i've been eating meat all my life, hell i'm practically a carnivore. i barely eat any fruits and vegetables. (i DO, but not much and not often... i'm not gonna go out of my way to avoid OR add them... well.. i do like some fruits [apples, pineapple] so i'll eat those happily but if they're there, fine, if not, oh well) i eat my steaks almost raw and with few (if any) condiments (i do season and marinate before searing the outside on a grill though.) and i'm in excellent shape. i don't have necessarily a LOT of stamina, but i can use a lot of energy in quick bursts and regenerate it very quickly. hell for three months i ran 2 miles in under 20 minutes three times a day. (eventually broke 14... but averaging the slower times at first it's about a 20 minute average). i honestly can't see how vegetarians and vegans can seem to stand having no meat/meat products... but i've noticed in several of the posts from actual veggies that they've been like that since childhood... so i guess never having HAD meat (which i guess can be a bit of an acquired taste... i didn't ALWAYS eat meat nearly raw y'know) is a pretty big factor. did i mention also that i'm sick only about once every 2-3 YEARS? when i had less meat in my diet i was sick almost every day, (VERY minor, just a persistent cough that lasted a year or two) but once i ate meat almost every meal, i only got sick about once every 2 years. granted it's pretty bad when i do, but still. it's rare, and it's over within a few days. i've seen a few vegetarians and they look a bit... off... a bit sickly. and with as much meat as i eat, and as healthy as i am, that dosn't lend a good argument towards the practice in my view... Vegetarianism/vegan-ism dosn't bother me at all really. what DOES bother me is when people try and push it on me/lord it over me/look down on me for eating meat. if they want to defy nature by NOT eating meat the way we evolved to, then that's their deal. i like my meat and am proud to consume it. (and you can't call not eating meat "death free" and stuff [as i've heard it called] because plants are alive too... and can live for a long time after being uprooted... so we're probably even eating those plants ALIVE. and if not, then they die of starvation from not being in the ground before we eat them. which is a million times MORE cruel than any animal slaughter practice that I know of...[okay, maybe boiling lobsters alive is on par with that one... but still]) the practice MAY have it's health benefits or whatever. but i know it's not for me.

urn ynitau <--- seriously Captcha... WTF is this???

 

[rutger5000]

I turned vegetarian about six months ago. The most important nutrisions you'll miss from meat are minerals such as iron. These can be obtained from green vegatables or eggs.
I personally noticed that I started eating a lot (really a lot) more, but it's all healthy stuff, with little fat. So I haven't put on much if not any weight (maybe a pound or two). I feel much more healthy now, and many people say I look healthier to.
Thing is meat isn't unhealthy at all, but a lot of meat you buy at your local supermarkt is stuffed with steriods, antibiotics and more crap. I you avoid those things you'll be healthier.

 

[Proverbial Jon]

I don't like the idea of the meat industry. I think it's brutal and not enough people appreciate where meat actually comes from. I don't like the idea of it so I choose not to eat meat. I know it won't stop the meat trade or their practices but at least I have a clear conscience.

Besides, I just have no NEED to eat meat, there are so many alternatives that I enjoy. I have lived a perfectly healthy and happy life without meat so far (well about 6 or 7 years of veggie-ness so far) and I have no desire what so ever to ingest any.

So I guess the benefits are being able to preach my ways to everyone who eats meat and a smug sense of self satisfaction? I kid, I kid! I'm not one of those people. Everyone is free to their own beliefs and this is mine.

 

[royohz]

Meat is an unhealthy protein source. The meat is dirty, it's full of bad fats and cholesterol (especially red meat) and the protein, compared to that from plants, is not as usable for your body's needs. A handful of e.g. tofu contains the same amount of usable protein as an entire serving of meat. It's bad for your heart, and increases the chance of developing cancer, cardiovascular and blood vessel diseases dramatically.

The amount of water used for harbouring a pound of meat is roughly twenty-five times the water needed for a pound of tofu. That water could be used to feed those in need. The same area of grain used for feeding a cow and then a man's caloric need for one meal, could provide sufficient carbohydrates for ten times the people for an entire day.

So that's something at least.
[small]...If I added "go hemp", you'd all think I was a hippie, wouldn't you?[/small]

 

[oktalist]

I know most science people will tell you to eat meat because it's good for the body, so what can vegetarians do to also get this same health benefit that meat apparently gives?

Ehm, most science people? Let's ask them, won't we?

Today's Dietician, the magazine for nutrition professionals [http://www.todaysdietitian.com/newarchives/082510p20.shtml]
American Journal of Clinical Nutrition [http://www.ajcn.org/content/70/3/570S.full.pdf]
American Council on Exercise [http://www.acefitness.org/blog/86/are-vegetarian-diets-safe/]

Just got those links from Wikipedia. Not gone out of my way to find sources that support the opposite position, just seeking to find answers to your questions.

Also from Wiki, list of vegan athletes of North America:
Brendan Brazier (triathalon), Molly Cameron (cyclist), Robert Cheeke (bodybuilder), Luke Cummo (martial arts), Bryan Danielson (wrestling), Mac Danzig (martial arts), Bob Harper (trainer), Scott Jurek (runner), Georges Laraque (ice hockey), Carl Lewis (track and field), Mike Mahler (bodybuilder), Adam Myerson (cyclist), Daniel Negraenu (is poker really a sport?), Pat Neshek (baseball), John Salley (basketball), Salim Stoudamire (basketball), Ed Templeton (skateboard), Taryn Terrell (WWE), Mike Tyson (fuck yeah, Mike fucking Tyson is a vegan, bitches), David Zabriskie (cyclist).

EDIT: The poster above me has it right. Meat is bad for you and it's bad for the world. Even if, like me, you don't give a shit about farmyard animals dying.

 

[rutger5000]

The only benefit to being a vegetarian is a warm smug feeling that you're better than everyone else.

Yes but from vegetarian it's a small step to vegan, and then you get supperpowers.

 

[Thyunda]

Halal meat, however...No. Unnecessary. Just...why?! Why do it? Just kill the bloody thing and eat it. I don't see how you people find this hard to understand! There is absolutely no need for your religious methods of killing.

What do you think they do to the animal because like I pointed out earlier the method of slaughter is quite humane and the religious element basically comes down to facing the animal in a certain direction

also for the vegetarians out there at what definition do you use for 'meat' would be eat for instance products made from micro organisms and like the guy earlier mentioned synthetic meat.

and from what I can see aside of the benefits of having a higher fruit and veg intake you have to just make sure you get protein and can deal with people yelling at you to stop claiming you have the moral high ground.

If you think it's humane, you've gotten mixed up somewhere. The killing involves slitting the throat and allowing the animal to bleed to death. It's technically illegal here in the United Kingdom, but unfortunately, Islam offers its members a select few privileges.

 

[darkfox85]

I'm not a vegetarian but I knew hundreds at university and not one ever preached or even said anything about it outside those three words. Anyone who thinks vegetarians feel superior or are pretentious is a projecting and presumptuous twat. And then the Nirvana Fallacy is never far behind.

Besides, arguments about eating meat as natural are totally and utterly invalid since *natural* rarely equals civilized or even moral. Not that I think there's anything uncivilized or immoral to meat consumption ? I don't feel animals enjoy ethical privileges.

After a little investigation, I do fully respect that it's economically sound ? it taking x amount of grain (or x) to feed x amount of livestock and it taking x of x to transport these elements. But it could cost a king?s random and I still won't be put off my bacon sandvich. My respect goes to those who are.

 

[jam.on.the.toasts]

You shouldn't say such things unless you know what you're talking about. Cows for instance are killed using a splitting pen which is shot into the cows brain, using a mask so you can't get the position wrong. This physically destroys the cows brain, inducing painless instant death, in a split second.

not all cows are killed in this way, but yes you are right this is a good method ideally it should be universal but it isn't.

You tried to claim, without any source or argument, that slowly cutting through centimetres worth of meat and muscles, and then letting the animal slowly bleed to painfull death, is quicker than an instant death, zero pain method.

it's not slow the article you link claims unconsciousness in 10-30 seconds and the detection of pain signals for up to 2 minutes pain signals does not equal pain just so you know I'm not saying it's impossible for them to be feeling the pain for the 2 minutes but it's unlikely the pain 'response' lasts much past that 10-30 seconds and to be fair you haven't used sources until now either.

You see, I actually worked at a slaughter house for cows during the holidays, and helped with rabbits on a farm in France one. You don't just cut up a cow, you don't even manage that with a small animal like a rabbit. And even after you succesfully cut the throat of the rabbit, it takes a while for it to actually die.

I don't envy you the idea of working at a slaughterhouse makes me uneasy but with the rabbits you aren't a professional slaughterer 10-30 seconds is fairly quick.

I also happen to have every bit of research ever done on death, pain and bleeding on my side in that. Like for instance research done at New Zealand's Massey University, which indicated that death during religious slaughter is indeed slow and painfull.
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn17972-animals-feel-the-pain-of-religious-slaughter.html

[/quote]
thankyou for that I did read it's good but I the point I'm trying to make was that you are being disproportionately harsh on halal specifically (I assume kosher as well since it's the same slaughter method) you seem to be claiming it's much worse than it is ideally like I said the 'splitting pen' should be universal but it's not there are less humane ways of slaughter out there than halal but that's the one you're attacking and once again we find that slow and painful claim that article does not call it slow and painful it confirms there are faster methods out there and that there are ways to improve the methods used but does not say it should not be done.

I'm just worried that you're attacking halal slaughter without proper reason is all.

If you think it's humane, you've gotten mixed up somewhere. The killing involves slitting the throat and allowing the animal to bleed to death. It's technically illegal here in the United Kingdom, but unfortunately, Islam offers its members a select few privileges.

what they're exempt from is the stunning the actual method of killing is fine and from the article it's because they wrongly thought it slowed the bleeding it's not a malicious reasoning and once again what I'm worried about here is that you're angry at the Islamic faith rather than halal slaughter because you're mentioning only halal but yeah kosher is the same, has the same exemption.

 

[Jonluw]

If your wanting to know why I'm a veggie, the reason is because I'm massively against animal slaughter, It's cruel and unjust (Especially Halal and Kosher D:< )

now, I'm not going to say anything against your choice (hey, if you think meat is wrong, then who am I to argue about your beliefs), but what I am going to ask is why kosher is even worse then regular slaughter? as far as I've been told the whole point of it is to be as humane as possible with the animals with a precise blow to make sure no unnecessary pain will happen, and if the first blow doesnt kill the animal at the exact moment then it's not kosher anymore...

It might have been more humane than other methods of slaughter at the time when the traditions were invented, a couple millenia ago, but these days I'm assuming the prevalent modern methods are more humane than the ones that were invented before Christ.

Kosher and Halal survive because of tradition. The religious don't look beyond the ritual to see its purpose. They only do as tradition dictates. If the purpose was originally to minimize suffering, and they really wanted to honor "God's wish", they would adopt modern methods that do just that. Instead, they think that God wants them to kill animals in this exact way for some unknown reason, so they can not allow themselves to deviate from the method, because the purpose of Halal and Kosher to them is not to minimize suffering. It is to please God.
This is what happens when you try to teach good behaviour dogmatically. The subject does not end up wanting to be a good person by the standards which the authority use to establish the dogma. The subject's definition of "a good person" is someone who follows the authority's bidding: not someone who does good things by the authority's standards.
Now, when the authority is still around to give biddings, those two are virtually indistinguishable; but when there hasn't been word from the authority in several thousand years (cough cough) you end up with a really fucked up set of values.

 

[jam.on.the.toasts]

It might have been more humane than other methods of slaughter at the time when the traditions were invented, a couple millenia ago, but these days I'm assuming the prevalent modern methods are more humane than the ones that were invented before Christ.

Kosher and Halal survive because of tradition. The religious don't look beyond the ritual to see its purpose. They only do as tradition dictates. If the purpose was originally to minimize suffering, and they really wanted to honor "God's wish", they would adopt modern methods that do just that. Instead, they think that God wants them to kill animals in this exact way for some unknown reason, so they can not allow themselves to deviate from the method, because the purpose of Halal and Kosher to them is not to minimize suffering. It is to please God.

have you seen kosher and halal laws for the most part they're food sanitation rules it's my go to argument for why religion is social control half to control half to protect that's redundant now days. So far as it being an outdated method, it's really not bad it is quite quick and it hasn't deviated because it works well easily on par with some modern methods (not all).

 

[sibrenfetter]

Just to make it clear I'm not interested in a meat vs no meat forum war, I just want to know what you feel are the benefits of not eating meat, or even being a Vegan.

Personally I'm one of those horrible horrible people that have trouble understanding something I don't believe in, and thus in an attempt to expand my mind I'm looking for a learning experience here!

I know most science people will tell you to eat meat because it's good for the body, so what can vegetarians do to also get this same health benefit that meat apparently gives?

Expand my mind people, expand away!

My wife is a vegetarian and I am not so I think I might be able to enlighten you here and there ;-).

First of all, your question is not really correct, as there are many reasons for being a vegetarian. That said, I think most vegetarians are not vegetarian because of gain but because of a certain moral standpoint. Many vegetarians do not eat meat or fish because they do not think that the animals are treated properly (which I actually agree to). Others might have been raised in such a way by their parents and if you are a vegetarian your whole life, eating meat can make you really ill.

Secondly, most research actually shows that eating meat has no direct benefits over not eating meat. Fish however is a different matter and is more difficult to replace. At the same time, doing most of the cooking, I can tell you that by now I often prefer to cook vegetarian. In our meat societies we so often rely on the overpowering tastes of meat that we often forget about the potential of vegetables. There is just one simple thing one has to do: you have to make dishes that are supposed to be without meat. Making a meat dish an taking out the meat is often boring food. Focusing on getting the maximum taste out of vegetables on the other hand can blow your mind

 

[thethingthatlurks]

I've been a strict vegetarian for over 2.5 years now, so here's my take:

-the smug sense of self satisfaction. No, this isn't a joke. I won't be a fat sack of shit like YOU (general term meaning everybody besides me), I have the moral high ground, and I get to be something special. Oh, and chicks dig the genius misanthrope with a heart for little furry things. Yes, I'm as big an ass as this makes me sound...

More serious posts:
-it's cheaper, at least in areas with easy access to farmlands. This only applies to homecooked meals, I'm afraid. In terms of $/kcal, nobody is going to be able to top a fast food burger with anything even remotely edible.

-alluded to above, it's a fairly low fat diet. The risk for heart disease is quite low, but a small degree of planning (or alternatively, vitamin supplements) are needed if one chooses to forgo eggs and dairy products as well.

-environmental impact. In parts of the world (note, I did not say everywhere), farmland is more profitable than grazeland, and the process of farming produces less CO2 than raising cattle and slaughtering it (storage needs to be included here).

-Oh yeah, something about not breeding something for the expressed purpose of then killing it only to feast on its flesh.

 

[Hiroshi Mishima]

Interestingly we're not really designed to subsist entirely on vegetables and fruits.

I say this because if you look around and talk to people about things like diet and so forth, you'd learn that the nuts (which have not as much protein as you'd think) are also extremely fattening with lots of calories. A lot of vegetables, though they may have the minerals, don't have the carbs needed to really get an active person through the day unless they're eating a ton.

You have surely noticed that a burger is fairly small and can last you a few hours. On the other hand, a salad is easily 2-3x the size to get you through the same amount of time.

So the question is.. is it really eating healthier? I'm inclined to think it isn't. It may make you feel better personally, but at the end of the day, I sincerely doubt a vegetarian will be any better off than an omnivore.


Oh, and now for a fun little fact from my family: We're omnivores, we eat both (I prefer mostly meat cause vegetables make me ill) and we don't get sick very often. However, my aunt's friend (well, former friend, they're not on good terms anymore) raised her kid as a vegetarian on all kinds of health food and such.. and that poor girl is ALWAYS getting sick.