To Vegan or not to Vegan

ElizabethB

ElizabethB

Legendary Member
Joined
14 Aug 2017
Local time
5:22 AM
Messages
3,885
Location
Lafayette, LA. US
TodayInTheKitchen
showed up after being AWOL for a while with a Vegan life style that he has adopted this year. I have asked what prompted this dietary change.
I know several of you are vegan or vegetarian.
Please excuse my ignorance.
I could NEVER be Vegan. Sorry. I at least need eggs and dairy. I could possibly do the vegetarian thing for a short period of time - a month or two max if I were being paid good money to do so. I know myself. The minute I am told I can not have something that is when I begin to crave it
So my very nonscientific evaluation is look at our teath. Our teath are nothing like herbivores or carnivores. Our physicality is that of an omnivore. So a Vegan or vegetarian diet is a matter of choice. I am curious about what promts an individual to adopt a vegan or vegetarian .
 
Last edited:
I think a lot of folks don't like to see harm coming to animals. Which from my end of things means I do my best to purchase meats sustainably raised and that have a non-factory-farm life. I don't think I could be a good vegan in a healthy sense as I can't eat most tree nuts - which many depend on to get a balanced diet. I figure for myself I do need eggs and at least seafood. Not necessarily every day of course. I do know there are a lot of vegan foods I won't eat because they seem too "faux foodish" to me - seitan for one. (Seitan by itself isn't really faux... but the manipulations that are made to have it "taste" like meat.. I fear those are...)

On the other paw, I do want to try to make home-made vegan cheeses, as I've discussed in another thread here - once I can obtain the ingredients - which for me will have to be tree-nut free. Basically because i want to have such cheeses available for lactose-intolerant friends (assuming we can ever have any friends over in our homes ever again...)
 
We didn't go vegan/vegetarian, but we went on a Mediterranean diet for a while once, which was mostly grains, pasta, legumes, beans, veges, eggs, cheese, etc, with animal protein playing a very small role. We did good for about 6 weeks, then went out to a wing joint for dinner with wings, fries, onion rings, the works. We both felt sick as dogs starting shortly after we ate into the next day, then went back to the Med diet for a while. Ultimately though, just couldn't keep it up due to prep/cook time. Even with me working from home, it was just too much to keep up with long term. I'll admitt we felt better on it and lost weight, but I just don't want to cook that much and Craig is limited because he can have very long days when he travels for work.
 
ElizabethB said:
I know several of you are vegan or vegetarian.
Click to expand...

Far as I'm aware of current regular members we only have one vegan (with eggs), SatNavSaysStraightOn and one vegetarian, Duck59. I did and still do cook a lot of vegan meals as my son when living here was vegan and daughter vegetarian (with fish).

I was vegetarian for many years from age 12 to mid 20's. Not easy in those days. The reason I became vegetarian was because I hated the idea of animals being killed for me to eat and found the idea of eating dead animals repugnant. Simple as that. I refused to wear leather shoes for the same reason. Nowadays I'm vegetarian about 75% of the time. Just lately I'm finding that the same feelings are coming back to me. I simply don't want to eat dead animals. If I think about it too much I find it really quite horrific! I do love eggs and since chickens produce eggs without a cockerel, they are not going to turn into baby chicks - so I don't find it difficult to eat eggs. However, I'm well aware of what happens when chickens are bred for laying (or eating). The male chicks are destroyed at birth.

My downfall is seafood. I could probably live without fish - but oysters are simply wonderful. Maybe I could argue that if it doesn't have a face, its OK to eat it!

medtran49 said:
Ultimately though, just couldn't keep it up due to prep/cook time.
Click to expand...

Not sure what you mean. Maybe my ignorance, but I don't see why a mediterranean diet takes more prep. Maybe I don't understand what you mean by a mediterranean diet.
 
morning glory said:
I was vegetarian for many years from age 12 to mid 20's. Not easy in those days. The reason I became vegetarian was because I hated the idea of animals being killed for me to eat and found the idea of eating dead animals repugnant. Simple as that. I refused to wear leather shoes for the same reason. Nowadays I'm vegetarian about 75% of the time. Just lately I'm finding that the same feelings are coming back to me. I simply don't want to eat dead animals. If I think about it too much I find it really quite horrific! I do love eggs and since chickens produce eggs without a cockerel, they are not going to turn into baby chicks - so I don't find it difficult to eat eggs. However, I'm well aware of what happens when chickens are bred for laying (or eating). The male chicks are destroyed at birth.

My downfall is seafood. I could probably live without fish - but oysters are simply wonderful. Maybe I could argue that if it doesn't have a face, its OK to eat it!

Not sure what you mean. Maybe my ignorance, but I don't see why a mediterranean diet takes more prep. Maybe I don't understand what you mean by a mediterranean diet.
Click to expand...

I think getting eggs from local, non industrial farmers means that at the very least, if they are raising their own crop of future layers, the male babies aren't going to be crushed alive to kill them, as happens at laying chicken factories - the males will at the very least be allowed to mature and more humanely put into the freezer.

There are some nearly-vegan types who WILL eat oysters and clams because they don't have faces. (I do think some of us really do have a need for animal protein - and that it is not a universal thing.)

Someone I once met was a raw "bee-gan" as he called himself - he ate a raw vegan diet along with permitting some honey and bee pollen.

Re Mediterranean diet - many things are very simple to make, others are indeed complex. I'm looking back at my recent foray into Greek foods... and working with Moroccan foods as well.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Mountain Cat said:
I think getting eggs from local, non industrial farmers means that at the very least, if they are raising their own crop of future layers, the male babies aren't going to be crushed alive to kill them, as happens at laying chicken factories - the males will at the very least be allowed to mature and more humanely put into the freezer.
Click to expand...

Not sure if that is the case here. There is limited call for rooster meat. In fact, I know of only one producer in the UK. I know SatNavSaysStraightOn breeds her hens but I think she only keeps one or two cockerels simply to keep the flock in order. I presume she humanely kills the male chicks.
 
morning glory said:
Not sure if that is the case here. There is limited call for rooster meat. In fact, I know of only one producer in the UK. I know SatNavSaysStraightOn breeds her hens but I think she only keeps one or two cockerels simply to keep the flock in order. I presume she humanely kills the male chicks.
Click to expand...

Limited call for it here, too - I don't have a large operation so they go in my freezer, and friends who come by to visit are fine with good low and slow prep braising preparations.

However here a lot of the meat birds that are sold are indeed males - just not mature. I am given to understand that the smallish Cornish game hens are more likely to be boys than girls...
 
Maybe a meal every now and then that just happens to be vegan. Never going to happen as a life style. "Q", grilling and seafood I'll never give up.
 
Last edited:
[QUOTE="morning glory, post: 193150, member: 1122"

Not sure what you mean. Maybe my ignorance, but I don't see why a mediterranean diet takes more prep. Maybe I don't understand what you mean by a mediterranean diet.
[/QUOTE]

Everything made from scratch, complex/multi part dishes, dishes that took a long time to cook and/or marinate so had to be started early in day, seemed like I was always in the kitchen. Granted, I was at home, but still had an actual job, plus household chores and it was just too much time cooking.
 
medtran49 said:
Everything made from scratch, complex/multi part dishes, dishes that took a long time to cook and/or marinate so had to be started early in day, seemed like I was always in the kitchen. Granted, I was at home, but still had an actual job, plus household chores and it was just too much time cooking.
Click to expand...

There's a lot of med. food that is really simple. In fact, my experience of being in the med was that most dishes were very straightforward - lots of fresh produce, vegetables, fruits, legumes, a lot of tomatoes (!), fish, olive oil etc. Was this a specific diet you were following from a book?
 
morning glory said:
There's a lot of med. food that is really simple. In fact, my experience of being in the med was that most dishes were very straightforward - lots of fresh produce, vegetables, fruits, legumes, a lot of tomatoes (!), fish, olive oil etc. Was this a specific diet you were following from a book?
Click to expand...

Pretty much all out of 1 book AND you have to remember, Craig has to like it or I might as well not even try. He won't eat just anything you put in front of him.
 
medtran49 said:
Pretty much all out of 1 book AND you have to remember, Craig has to like it or I might as well not even try. He won't eat just anything you put in front of him.
Click to expand...
George will eat anything and every thing on his plate. Every now and then he may make a comment about something not being his favorite after he has cleaned his plate.
He did that the other night when I made curry chicken - he loved the chicken but was not crazy about the sauce. I have to agree the sauce could have been better. I have modifications in mind.
 
I posted a long story about this in the other thread so I am posting the short version here.

I am no vegan because I have no colon and the resulting health issues made it necessary to eat meat. And by now I have also come to enjoy eating meat from well treated , locally sourced organic raised animals
 
Windigo said:
I posted a long story about this in the other thread so I am posting the short version here.

I am no vegan because I have no colon and the resulting health issues made it necessary to eat meat. And by now I have also come to enjoy eating meat from well treated , locally sourced organic raised animals
Click to expand...
:hyper:
No colon = colostomy bag. You are so young and so beautiful. You are also an extraordinarily strong woman. You have my deepest respect and admiration.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom