Thinking of going veggie, need some advice??

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(desynch @ Apr 9 2007, 05:50 PM) [snapback]420446[/snapback]</div>

Thanks for the compliment..... I think?!?!?

We're not all like that. Matter of fact I would love to eat fish as it's so healthy. It just creeps me out. I prepare meat and fish for guests and for my husband. It's not for me to preach to anyone what to eat, I'd just like the same courtesy reciprocated. I'm associated with many vegetarians and I can honestly say that they don't assume your description. The diet is so mainstream here that it's not even really questioned. And, there's no real need to be selective and picky when dining out. Even steakhouses have pasta and veggie dishes. So, yeah, you should really try to drop the stereotype, any stereotype for that matter.

 

Great!! I've been a vegetarian for thirty years, although I did eat chicken and seafood until about 10 years ago, when my partner and I, and our son, went veggie. We eat dairy products, mostly cheese and some eggs.
Not only are we healthier, we are not struggling with diets, weight and related issues arising from ingesting hormones and God knows what else.

People ask where I get my protein as if I were hovering near starvation. My partner is an excellent cook, and we eat well; protein we get from soy, legumes and some modest diary intake. When I first gave up meat in 1974, I immediately noticed subtleties in tastes in foods like lasagna, which had been overpowered by the heavy beef flavor.

I am appalled by the food processing industry and perplexed by the odd contradiction in people who will spend hours in amazing discomfort to dislodge a stray kitten from a sewer pipe, but think absolutely nothing about the horrors their diet and lifestyles inflict on pigs, cows, chickens and other food animals. I contend that if people were forced to observe how much of their food was "prepared", including lifelong incarceration for sows in cages so small they cannot turn around, vegetarianism would be the norm. We are sponsoring Auschwitz for animals without a second thought.

I heartily support your thoughts about becoming vegetarian. Not only will you drastically reduce your intake of the world's diminishing resources, you will probably be healthier. A friend of mine "cured" his type II diabetes by going vegetarian.

Good luck. I'd love to hear more about your exploration of vegetarianism.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(SSimon @ Apr 9 2007, 06:15 PM) [snapback]420461[/snapback]</div>

Fish is gooood.. pork chops are gooood..

Seriously though, come visit here.. We can go to one of the "maintstream" vegetarian restaurants. I'll show you how snooty and arrogant... skinny and malnutrition MOST of them look. If you can get passed the odor of pot and patcholi.. the food might actually be good..

 

lol.

Pig used to be one of my meats of choice. My mom had a great recipe. Brown sugar and ketchup mixed together, topping a pork choice with a slice of lemon and onion on it. It sounds like an awfully weird combo, but I swear it was tasty.

I would come visit you, but now I'm kinda scared of you.

 

Speaking of fish....

One must be careful what kind of fish he/she is eating (severe environmental problems associted with species like swordfish, tuna, chilean sea bass etc) and where it comes from (regions where pollutants/toxins bioaccumulate in organisms). IE. I would not recommend eating too much fish from the Great Lakes (high levels of DDE, a breakdown form of DDT, was found in 30% of test subject mother's amniotic fluids) or the majority of major lakes and river systems in the U.S. The toxin levels due to agricultural runoff or industry/mining leftovers are simply too high to eat much of any organism that calls those unfortunate watersheds home.

I spent a day at the California Department of Fish and Game Marine Pollution Studies Laboratories Granite Canyon, Ca. then wandered around the MBARI (Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute this last week on my coastal habitat field class and most for the stuff correlated pretty well with my environmental sciences books.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(F8L @ Apr 9 2007, 07:21 PM) [snapback]420496[/snapback]</div>

Not to mention mercury. We started looking into farm raised but that environment presents an entirely different set of worries. Moderation is key.

Here, we're at war over Lake Michigan. On the one hand we have a large city in Wisconsin dumping raw sewage into it and on the other an Illinois Congressman (Kirk) who is environmentally knowledgeable who's doing everything in his power to stop the abuses on our Lake. Our Lake also receives more mercury pollution than any other and he's working on this as well.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(SSimon @ Apr 9 2007, 06:15 PM) [snapback]420461[/snapback]</div>

I've worked with/been friends with many, many vegans AND vegetarians, and haven't known any to fit the description he gave--at least the part about them being sickly-looking. And for all but one, they were all very secure in their decision, and didn't make anyone else suffer for it by being jerks, etc.

The only person I ever knew who was prickly about his veganism was a straight edge vegan who worked for me. He was straight edge, though, which screams "extreme."

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(SSimon @ Apr 9 2007, 05:33 PM) [snapback]420502[/snapback]</div>

I hear ya man. Farm raised fish also have the potential for unbalanced ratios of omega-3 and omega-6 fats.

More info HERE

Here

Here is a site for mercury content per/species information.

Interesting article:

Literature Review of Essential Fatty Acids
By James B. Adams

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(F8L @ Apr 9 2007, 07:21 PM) [snapback]420496[/snapback]</div>

Add to that any seafppd that is 'farm-raised.' They freakin' feed the fish grain like feed-lot cattle!!! Completely screws up the omega-3.

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(F8L @ Apr 9 2007, 07:50 PM) [snapback]420510[/snapback]</div>

Okay, I'm late to the party tonight and ya beat me to it!

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(AnOldHouse @ Apr 9 2007, 08:31 PM) [snapback]420581[/snapback]</div>

It's ok man. The water is warm and full of dioxins so jump in with us. LOL

For those unaware of such things it is good that more than 1 or 2 of us is bringing the issue of farm-rasied fish to light. Sometimes people feel better when more than 1 person brings up new information.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(SSimon @ Apr 9 2007, 07:18 PM) [snapback]420494[/snapback]</div>

It's all a front for my own personal amusement. You'd love me. :lol:

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(desynch @ Apr 9 2007, 08:27 AM) [snapback]420263[/snapback]</div>

Somehow these internet forum things bring out the most ignorant comments. It's the equivalent of mostly drunk people at a cocktail party spouting off as authorities on whatever the subject might be.

I am a vegetarian and have been for over 20 years, and I am neither sickly nor pale. I am in relatively good shape, six feet tall, 225 lbs, less than 20% body fat (and working on lowering that) -- hardly sickly. I am not pale, with somewhat of a tan despite repeated application of sunblock.

However I am caucasian, so I suppose it depends on what you mean by "pale". Many vegetarians are black, making the remarkably intelligent statement quoted above a little difficult to substantiate.

I am no exception. I have known many vegetarians, none of which were in any way sickly. Maybe one or two could be called "pale", largely due to their genetics of being lily white folk from the midwest.

As for athletes, Carl Lewis was a vegan during his prime athletic years to which he attributes his remarkable successes in 1991. There are many more examples of vegetarian athletes, but his case is one of the most dramatic.

I've often thought of Carl Lewis as sickly and pale. Poor fellow.

 

Though Desynch shows little tolerance for certain groups of people, and tends to generalize, I'm making an attempt to reach out to him and provide him with tolerance even though he's called me an assortment of names. I'm hoping that this very act shows him that his views are sometimes misguided and that he'll ultimately learn to be a little more tolerant of me (and the groups of people that he's set in a stereotype) in return. I think it's working. He invited me for a visit and a nice meal. The adjectives used for the sightseeing he suggested shows I still have a little work left to do.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(SSimon @ Apr 10 2007, 01:24 PM) [snapback]420887[/snapback]</div>

If you do go, make sure you stay in public places with plenty of eyewitnesses, and you might consider hiring an armed escort.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(madler @ Apr 10 2007, 01:03 PM) [snapback]420879[/snapback]</div>

You know who else is sickly and pale? Ashley Judd. I mean, have you ever seen someone SO unattractive? Christie Brinkley is absolutely gross, too, and so is Penelope Cruz. Disgusting, the lot of them. Must be their vegetarian diets.

(please note the sarcasm...)

 

I'm going to go out on a limb and say that the reason most veggie heads I see are sickly and pale is because they are not properly supplmenting their mulch munching diet with proper proteins and other nutrients.

 

so what i don't get is using animal research as a rationale for not eating animals. i guess i don't see the link. but i wanted to pop in my two cents about animal research and the regulations that we work by to ensure proper care of the animals as they help us to deliver life-changing discoveries.

as part of my federal funding application, i had to include a section thoroughly justifying my use of lab rats, why i could not do the same with a less complex model (cell culture, perhaps) and what actions i would take to minimize the number of animals used and minimize any discomfort they would feel during the course of my research. in all, they will not fund my laboratory animal research unless i can prove that it is necessary, and in my case it is because i study the brain and development, two things that cannot properly be modeled in less complex systems.

all federally funded institutions (including the majority of universities) are bound by an agreement to provide the most humane animal care and minimize pain and distress. we take the best care of our animals as possible, and our facilities are regularly visited by our on-site animal care people, as well as larger groups involved in evaluating animal care standards. should any of these evaluations show deficiencies, they are corrected immediately and if serious enough, all animal research at the institution comes to a screeching halt until proper action is taken.

euthanasia is never something we want to do, but often have to. our choice of euthanasia is dictated by the american veterinary medicine association's panel on euthanasia, which is backed by extensive studies on the most humane and appropriate ways to go about this.

we can't avoid it, and we don't want to do it. we just do what we can to make the situation the least stressful and painful.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(desynch @ Apr 10 2007, 11:14 AM) [snapback]420915[/snapback]</div>

I find these posts extremely offensive and completely off topic. Seriously, if we can't be sensitive to the viewpoints of others, what's the point in making comments like these? This thread should be locked or taken out completely, it's useless at this point.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(galaxee @ Apr 10 2007, 01:48 PM) [snapback]420930[/snapback]</div>

Thanks so much for this post. There is a link for me as my compassion for animals extends as much to their quality of life when being raised for food as it does to their quality of life being raised for product safety testing.

I became aware of abuses related to animal testing over a decade ago. At that point, I went on a mission. I wrote letters to Unilever, P&G, Colgate, etc. to advise them of this reason that I'll no longer be purchasing their products. Since then, not a dime goes to these corporations. I purchase all my cleaners and sundries from companies that do not engage in animal testing. I learned that the safety of these items can be recognized by using cultures and/or test tube applications. It's precisely this reason (that there are alternatives to using live animals) that I will not fund this activity. I learned about these testing alternatives during my research of the topic and would appreciate your clarification and thoughts if I haven't been educated properly.

I have a pet bunny. When I heard that rabbits frequently snap their necks from the neck harness when chemicals are smeared in their eyes, that was the deal sealer for me. Well, so too was the video I saw of a chimp strapped to a table. The researchers had a machine thrust it's head forward at high velocity to study the affects of the resulting brain damage. The chimp twitched for a very long time. Still sickens me to think of it.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(SSimon @ Apr 10 2007, 03:05 PM) [snapback]420940[/snapback]</div>

You shouldn't have divulged that. Desynch might eat it.