I have a feeling I may piss people off or alienate them, and I'm sorry

[aprilstarchild]

Vegans Taste Better. Short sweet summary of why a person would be vegan. Like, say, me. *lol*

Bleh. Tricky stuff. I'm not big on evangelizing to my friends, even though I wouldn't mind leafletting total strangers. BUT: I am personally of the opinion that, when given all the facts on the matter, most people would severely cut down their consumption of animal products. Note that I didn't say that most people would become vegetarian or vegan. But more of them would, certainly.

It's hard, because I know a lot of my friends are very caring and wonderful people, but the things they eat are doing so much harm to the world. Several environmental organizations have pointed out that not eating meat is the biggest thing you can do for the environment. Not trading your car for a bike, or recycling, or using low-flow showerheads and toilets. But not eating animals.

I am not against the idea of killing things to eat them. However, if I know I can be perfectly healthy (chances are, I'll be healthier!) and happy without having to kill animals, why not? Also, the way most food animals are treated (whether for meat or eggs or milk) is inexusable. Period. I won't go into details, but it's pretty awful, and the awful stuff is not the exception.

I feel healthier. Everyone around me has been laid up with a cold. I spent one day lying down and then was fine. In fact, during the day I rarely had any symptoms other than an occasional cough and having to blow my nose. I can't help but think it's related to my diet. I've always had a weak immune system, catching everything that blows by and being in bed for a week, so this is a new thing. *knock on wood* Watch, now I'll catch something awful. *lol*

Blargh. Feel free to ignore this post if you want. Please please know that I'm not angry at anybody. I know that vegetarianism and veganism are the exception in this world. I just wish people would think about it more....

Comments

[sagcat.livejournal.com]

Amen, sister! Eating an animal is as good as cutting it's throat. I worked my ass off at the humane society to have people treat animals better, and eating them is simply *not* a nice thing to do, no matter how you rationalize it. (and it's so obvious that it's mean, i just can't see how people continue to ignore it.)

How would X person feel if someone said, "I'd like to eat you and your family?" If that kind of thing wouldn't bother you, your a fucking psychopath. The only difference is that the animals can't stick up for themselves.

But then again, with all the disease in the meat, maybe they *are* sticking up for themselves. Every person who dies from diseased meat is just another fucking darwin award winner, as far as i'm concerned. Eating meat is stupid. Eating meat is cruel.

yeah- these are the things we feel and are not supposed to say, but i figure 1) I'm a tactless Sag, and 2) I've had a couple of beers.

[aprilstarchild.livejournal.com]

Something else to think about: animals at a slaughterhouse know what's coming. They can only see the animal in front of them, but they can smell the blood and hear them making noise. You really have to force the animals to come toward you when they realize what's going on. So they become afraid, and they have a rush of adrenaline (I know this is true of mammals, anyway, not so sure about birds). All that adrenaline is in the meat when you eat it. Yay! You're eating pure fear!

[sagcat.livejournal.com]

Reminds me of a quote in the sixth season buffy episode when Willow does a forgetting spell that goes wrong and makes everyone forget who they are. There's a vamp going after Tara, Dawn, Xander and Willow in the sewers and they're hiding right? So he picks up their scent and says, "Smells like fear. Smells tasty!"

[aprilstarchild.livejournal.com]

LOL

I love that, when something reminds me of something completely different.

[sagcat.livejournal.com]

=-) I thought they were pretty related. Vamps eating people = bad, but "the food chain." Same excuse people use for slaughtering and eating a poor ickle piglet.

[wildcelticrose.livejournal.com]

There's nothing wrong with sharing what you stronlgy believe in with others in a respectful manner, which is exactly what you have done...

have you ever seen this?

http://www.bancruelfarms.org/meatrix/

It made the rounds of the waterkeeper groups because of our "hog campaign" against factory farming

[aprilstarchild.livejournal.com]

I've heard of this cartoon but I haven't seen it. I'm on my boyfriend's computer and he's listening to music, so I'll watch it when I get home. Thanks for the link though!!

*shudder* Ever seen PETA's Meet Your Meat video? Even in a tiny quicktime window, that was enough to make me sure I wanted to be vegan.

[arielrose.livejournal.com]

I've always been very animal-cruelty aware. When I was 12 I became a vegetarian, soon thereafter a vegan and stuck with it for 4-5 years. It simply wasn't healthy for me...I was very good about getting all my protiens and such, but I was always tired, couldn't gain any weight and had too many docs telling me with my blood type, body type I needed animal protien. So now, even though I eat heavily on veggies, fruits, tofu etc...I will have freerange eggs, meat (mostly chicken or fish) and occasional dairy.

[aprilstarchild.livejournal.com]

Have you tried talking to a nutritionist/dietician who has experience with vegan diets?

Unless you're eating nothing but junk food, it's physically impossible not to get enough protein, so I don't worry about it. The World Health Organization says that to make sure you get enough protein, 8% of your calories should come from protein--and that's with a relatively large safety margin built in. Think about it: when do you grow the most? When you're an infant. What's the perfect food then? Breast milk. Breast milk has 5% of its calories as protein. Most Americans eat waaay too much of it.

Most tired vegans I've seen are either not getting enough calories, period (something I'm working on--tahini and peanut butter and olive oil and bread are my friends).

Maybe B vitamins? Those aren't hard to get.

It probably wasn't iron. Vegans have higher iron levels than lacto-ovo vegetarians because dairy isn't taking up calories--dairy has no iron.

I have O+ blood and was told I should be eating animal protein, but honestly? I think the blood type nutrition thing is BS.

[alicia-stardust.livejournal.com]

It's interesting to hear your thoughts on this, so I'm glad you posted them. :)

Have you ever read Fast Food Nation? It has a different angle on things - it's about more than not killing animals - but I found it really interesting in an overall health perspective.

Since I've been sick and trying to rebuild my body so it can learn how to process food again, I have become acutely aware of healthy vs. non-healthy food, whether vegan or not. And it is crazy that it's so abundant in this society. I've always been a vegetarian, but now that I've been vegan minus wheat/gluten and sugar, it's been even more eye-opening for me to try to find foods without chemicals and strange additives.

Well, that was my little tangent - related to what you were saying but not directly. ;)

[aprilstarchild.livejournal.com]

It was totally related, actually. :-)

If you liked Fast Food Nation you should read Diet for a New America. It was written in 1987 with an update in 1995 in the back...so some of the data is out of date. Some of the things he writes about have gotten worse, some have gotten better. In a lot of cases they've gotten worse but the meaty/dairy/etc industries have done a good job of lying. In any case, it's still really good information and lays out the case for vegetarianism/veganism pretty nicely. He never takes the tone of, YOU ASSHOLE!, it's more like, here's what's being done, and you're eating it, do you really want to eat it?

Cooking from scratch and buying organic are obviously the best way to avoid weird crap in your food, but you already knew that. Yeay for the Whole Foods market on Burnside. Their bulk bins and produce sections are really close to each other. It's odd, because New Seasons (in Orenco) is probably bigger from a square-footage standpoint, and has more actual items, but Whole Foods has so much more for vegans. Especially in the deli section, OMG. When I was looking for work and eating with my food stamps (well, Oregon Trail card, but wtf-ever), I would always stop there for lunch, because anything cold, I could buy with my food benefits.

[alicia-stardust.livejournal.com]

Wow, I'll have to check out that book sometime. And Whole Foods, too! It's good to know that they have a good vegan selection of food. I've been hitting New Seasons, which I like, but I'm already looking for more ideas and food selections. I guess I'll be a lot better off when I can add in wheat and fruit, etc. ;) But still.

[aprilstarchild.livejournal.com]

I have a copy, I can loan it to you. I found a used copy at Powell's for a few dollars, go me.

When you're able to eat them, vegan prepared foods are often tasty and kick ass. Like Tings (made by the same people who make Pirate's Booty). Tings taste a lot like cheetos. Not quite, but awful close. Tofutti Cuties taste just like ice cream sandwhiches. Tofutti makes a lot of good fakes, including a fake cream cheese I like better than the real thing. Beware, though: Tofutti stuff was created for the kosher market, not the vegan one. They have a cream cheese with salmon in it. Soy Delicious makes awesome fake ice cream (they have a "cookies and cream" one that is fantastic). Newman O's are better than Oreo's anyway.

There's a place called Food Fight! on Division and....34th? I'm guessing. In any case, they have every vegan fake known to mankind. Fake meats, vegan desserts, you name it they got it. Fake nacho cheese! OMG, I'm so drooling. *lol* Which just goes to show, you can a be a fat unhealthy vegan. It's just expensive.

[alicia-stardust.livejournal.com]

Oh yeah, Tings! I was eyeing those last time I was at the store. I made a note of them so I can remember to buy them as soon as I think my stomach can tolerate them. :)

In the meantime, edamame has become my best friend when it comes to snack-time. That, and rice thins crackers.

Sing it sister!

[5minutelimit.livejournal.com]

I stopped a long time ago giving lectures because I knew too many ranting vegetarians who were back on the meat after a year, and because I got tired of explaining myself. But, yeah...what you said.
And as we discussed before, since I've been doing this for 30-(cough-cough) years, so I think I've reduced my footprint pretty well. So I am entitled to "cheat" a little here and there, eat a little cheese, fish if I'm craving it (which means I need it). But always with consciousness.
Thank the cow.

Re: Sing it sister!

[aprilstarchild.livejournal.com]

I'm of the opinion that most of the harm done would be vastly reduced if most people just ate a lot less animal products. It's unrealistic to expect everyonet to stop entirely. But it's taken a prominent part of our diet, and it truly shouldn't. Historically, it never did. Hunter gatherer peoples get most of their calories from plant foods.

I used to have a pin that said, "TOFU: The other white meat!" and I got more conversations started that way, and educated far more people, than if I had some animal rights pin, even a mild non-confrontational one.

Another fun way: Bring tasty food to work school etc. At PCC once I had brought this dish that was tempeh and all these veggies on rice. It smelled fantastic and everyone wanted to know what it was.

In general, I don't even tell people I'm a vegetarian/vegan unless it comes up in conversation somehow. "Why aren't you eating anything but what you brought and the salad?" "welll...."

Re: Sing it sister!

[alicia-stardust.livejournal.com]

Tell me about tempeh. I have never had it, but was told to avoid tofu for the time being. I went to buy some tempeh and it looked odd/scary to me. Is it good and if so what is a good way to prepare it?

Re: Sing it sister!

[aprilstarchild.livejournal.com]

Tempeh is cultured soy beans. Most people find it easier to digest than tofu. It's made by soaking or cooking (dunno) soybeans and then adding a culture and keeping it warm until it looks like tempeh. It sometimes gets black spots but that doesn't mean it's gone bad, it just tastes stronger. When there's a lot of them you'll want to toss it. Try to buy fresh if possible--it tastes so much better than frozen. OMG, I had really fresh tempeh in Eugene once. It was fantastic.

Most people fry it a little. You can also cut it into chunks and put it in soup. vegancooking's memories section has lots of recipes, see if you can find tempeh in there.

Re: Sing it sister!

[aprilstarchild.livejournal.com]

http://www.livejournal.com/tools/memories.bml?user=vegancooking&keyword=meat+substitutes+-+tempeh&filter=all

try there.

Re: Sing it sister!

[alicia-stardust.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the link! :)

BTW, if I can borrow that book from you I'd love to.

Re: Sing it sister!

[aprilstarchild.livejournal.com]

I'll try to remember to bring it Friday.

[arielrose.livejournal.com]

Yes, I have read both those books ;)
I went to quite a few nutritionsists and docs...but really have found no food that can completely take the place of a bit of meat here and there. I don't think eating meat is evil or wrong, but the way that meat production has been industrialized is terrible and wrong. I always do my best to buy freerange or wild products, it costs more but it's worth it and like I also mentioned, I eat mostly fruits, veggies, grains, seeds...and I never drink milk *that* just makes me gag!
And furthermore...*hehe* I know a lady who is 107 years old, in good health and mind. Her name is Dr. Leila Denmark and she was my first doctor as a baby.
She doesn't believe people should drink anything but water, should never have dairy of any kind, she eats eggs everyday and red meat once a week, she advocates lots of veggies and fresh food in your diet...and she is seriously one of the wisest and most amazing people I have ever known.