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[DGRE]

My wife is allergic to the protein in milk so she can't eat any dairy and my brother has been a vegetarian for 18 years, so I come across a lot of vegan propaganda. A lot of it is really misguided and not very convincing.

Any vegans on this board? What are your personal reasons for being one?

 

[Liu Kang Baking A Pie]

DEFEND YOURSELF.

Really?

 

[SteveWinwood]

It aligns my mystical energies better so my crystals can do better work at night.

 

[outunderthestars]

I eat vegan as much as possible these days, but don't define myself as one because I eat a steak a couple times of year, and try to be flexible when dining out or as an invited guest.

I feel better when I eat an all plant diet. Dairy and meat seems to make me lethargic and moody.

That and it is a much more sustainable diet. Also not a fan of large scale meat production practices and what not.

That said, preachy vegans/vegetarians/meat eaters are annoying.

 

[thirty]

i tried being vegan for a month. i was fine cutting out all meat but damn i could not find any vegan cheeses i liked. plus, it was so damn hard eating out as everything in restaurants had cream, cheese, was fried, had egg, or had meat. i really hate salads but love beans and faux meat, it's just really hard to eat out.

 

[Ultima_5]

I had a friend who was vegan for 2 weeks because he heard it prevented cancer. His parents told him that. They opened a vegan restaurant in our town and closed it after a few months.

Personally, I would never be vegan... Just seems to difficult. I've considered being a vegetarian. Might wait til after college is done and I hopefully have more money for veggies stuffs.

 

[xbhaskarx]

I come across a lot of vegan propaganda. A lot of it is really misguided and not very convincing.

Any vegans on this board? What are your personal reasons for being one?

I'm not nearly as smart as you so I was brainwashed by the misguided and not very convincing vegan propaganda.

 

[Osietra]

My other half is a vegan. She's lovely and thin, so I can't really complain.

 

[- J - D -]

Veganism is a necessity for me in order to support my psychic powers.

 

[mysticwhip]

on neogaf.com?

 

[catmincer]

I can't do the vegan thing. I like eggs and I like milk too much. Not to mention the deliciousness that is honey.

I am not Vegetarian either, I eat meat on occasion but I do have a mainly meatless diet.

 

[snack]

I'm a vagan.

 

[outunderthestars]

I had a friend who was vegan for 2 weeks because he heard it prevented cancer. His parents told him that. They opened a vegan restaurant in our town and closed it after a few months.

Personally, I would never be vegan... Just seems to difficult. I've considered being a vegetarian. Might wait til after college is done and I hopefully have more money for veggies stuffs.

Nothing prevents cancer, but a healthy diet, low in animal fats and high in vegetables, does generally lead to a lower rate of certain cancers, especially prostate cancer.

 

[DJ_Lae]

I eat vegan meals reasonably often, although I cannot bring myself to exclude any type of food altogether as they all taste so damn good. The vegan stuff is nice for variety, but I'd go insane if that's all I ate.

Oddly enough I wouldn't miss meat most of all - I'd miss cheese. I've tried my fair share of soy and other mock cheeses and holy shit they're nasty. Mock meat products can at least be hidden or downplayed in casseroles and lasagnas and so on.

 

[Salsa]

I have a lot of friends in the vegan community and I actually went to a couple gatherings and it was some of the best food i've ever eaten. If you get creative with that shit you get amazing results.

Still, meat all the way for me.



And what I dont really like about vegans is the fact that im yet to know one person who doesnt eat meat and doesnt mention it all the damn time. There's a lot of people in those communities that are there just to be a part of something, the means are an excuse (based in my own experience of course). That's hardly just a vegan issue tho

 

[Knox]

Veganism is a necessity for me in order to support my psychic powers.

 

[soco]

i was vegan for about 2 years before i moved to Europe. I did it because I felt awesome.

I used to tease another friend who was a vegan for a long time. one day i was bored in a tiny town and decided i'd challenge myself by trying to step in his shoes for a week. it was rough, but at the end of the week i felt amazing, so I just kept it up.

 

[ThingontheFloor]

Oddly enough I wouldn't miss meat most of all - I'd miss cheese. I've tried my fair share of soy and other mock cheeses and holy shit they're nasty. Mock meat products can at least be hidden or downplayed in casseroles and lasagnas and so on.

The biggest barrier I had from going vegetarian to vegan was cheese, as well. And I agree, there isn't anything exactly like it. But you should check out Daiya if you haven't already, the shredded version (comes in mozzarella, cheddar, and pepperjack flavors) has been around for years and can be found at nearly any health food store and a lot of commercial grocery stores are starting to carry it. It's easily the closest I've had that replicates the melt and taste from cheese. It's not soy based, it's made of cassava and arrowroot. It isn't very good out of the bag, but melted for pizza, tacos, burritos, nachos, mac & cheese, etc., it's very good. They also recently introduced a wedge cheese that is very good on crackers, the havarti flavor is my favorite.

I think veganism really opened my eyes and introduced me to a lot of foods and ideas that I would have never tried before. I'm cooking a lot more than I have in the past, and discovering so many different food types and flavors. Not that this couldn't be done on a meat eating or vegetarian diet, but once I started to really focus on what was going into my body and where it came from, the conditions that animals are kept in slaughterhouses, and how much the world has come to depend on animals for so much, it really solidified my decision.

 

[Air]

I know a girl whose vegan. She's pretty hot.

 

[Rootbeer]

I'm flexitarian, so I eat vegetarian often but I don't strictly adhere to it. I prefer seafood or fowl to pork or beef most of the time when meat is in order. I always have soy, almond or rice milk with my morning cereal -- i don't buy cow's milk, except on rare occasions (like a pint of organic, hormone-free chocolate milk from whole foods as a treat). I could see myself becoming vegan -- but just on the dietary side. I'm not into the activism.

I have had spouts of strict vegetarianism (allowing eggs but very little if any dairy) for several weeks or months but never stay with it for the long haul.

The only reason I haven't fully converted is the convenience factor. Being veg takes work, I don't care what the adherents say--it does. The food is always either more expensive, more difficult to make it have a satisfying taste, or time consuming to prepare. I'd much rather spend my free time on personal interests and cooking is not one of them. It's rewarding, but not rewarding enough that I want to do it every day

But, hey, this is a guy who'd eat fast food every day if he could a few years ago. I'm way more health conscious since moving into the city. I shop at farmers markets and put a lot more effort into my diet than ever before. Maybe someday I can make a full transition.

RE: cheese... my first experience with Daiya was having it substituted onto a pizza over regular mozzarella. Never again. It was not much different from velveta to me. That shit does not belong on pizza :|

 

[Majmun]

I don't know any vegans myself. But my sister is vegetarian.

Personally I could live being a pescetarian. But even that is too hard. I'd have to avoid all BBQ parties.

 

[Damon Bennet]

I love these threads. Only vegetarian here, too weak to go fully vegan as of now, but I consider it for the future.

Ok eating meat is:

- Unhealthy if you eat it every day. Cut it down to twice a week.

- Killing nature.
-> For 1kg of meet, the animals need 10kg of cheap soy wich is grown in deforested rainforest areas.
-> Cows are creating a huge amount of methane. If everyone stopped eating meat for only 1 day a week, it had the same effect as every car on the planet running with a hybrid engine.
-> The environment near lifestock-farms is strongly challanged and usually the ground water quality suffers from it.

- The conditions of animals are unimaginably bad. watch those horror documentaries - they are real, I've seen it myself. (not going into details here but: Animal-corpses just rotting there on the ground between others, chickens with chronic pains on there beak (cut off, so they dont pick at each other), bad air/no light/no room to move)

These are just basic things for becoming vegatarian. But why vegan?

- Animals are no "product". For Egg-Production hundreds over hundreds of male chickens are just thrown into shredders.

- Cows are artificially kept pregnant so they keep on giving milk. There are occurences where they are milked till they bleed.



These are just a few reasons. You may say:

"But I am on the top of the food chain, I have the right"

-> Yes you are. But you are there because Humans' most important tool is the brain. Sustainability and using ressources carefully without having to enslave whole forms of species should not be something considered normal, if there are other ways which are better for you and the planet

"But that Pig would eat me too, if it could"

-> So what, you are able to choose and inform yourself.

"I need meat and dairy for a healthy diet"

-> A quick google search will show you a billion healthy and interesting alternatives. Even if you are afraif of soy products (there is a stupid rumor that it has dangerous hormons - it has not.), you can eat healthy and with huge diversity.

"If you dont eat meat, why would you eat tofu/seitan/etc to replace meat?"

-> You dont replace meat, you just fill the components, which are generally filled with meat in an omnivore society. Being vegan/vegetarian does not mean "just leave the meat out", you can basically have the same type of recipes, if you want to.




Thats about it. Being vegan/vegetarian is forward thinking, being sustainable is something everyone should strive for. Giving up meat is easy enough, if you just think about it a little and you do so much with little effort.

I don't know any vegans myself. But my sister is vegetarian.

Personally I could live being a pescetarian. But even that is too hard. I'd have to avoid all BBQ parties.

I thought that would be hard, as well. But there are plenty of super-delicious alternatives you can consider. Industry-Products and home-made products, both.

 

[Like the hat?]

can someone post a good source of vegetarian/vegan recipes? Preferably ones that don't use some sort of faux meat.

 

[Majmun]

Thats about it. Being vegan/vegetarian is forward thinking, being sustainable is something everyone should strive for. Giving up meat is easy enough, if you just think about it a little and you do so much with little effort.



I thought that would be hard, as well. But there are plenty of super-delicious alternatives you can consider. Industry-Products and home-made products, both.

I tasted the vega "meat" my sis is eating. It's vile.

 

[Damon Bennet]

can someone post a good source of vegetarian/vegan recipes? Preferably ones that don't use some sort of faux meat.

There is this thread, i like to link to:
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=422905

there are some recipes and ideas etc. But if you google "vegetarian recipes" there are loads of dedicated blogs and websites with great ideas

I tasted the vega "meat" my sis is eating. It's vile.

some really is. but there are good industrial products like this:

but yeah, I prefer homemade stuff, too. Its just convenient.

 

[Like the hat?]

thanks for the link. I'd like to eat less meat, but would prefer not to just substitute it with a fake meat-like product.

 

[Famassu]

My wife is allergic to the protein in milk so she can't eat any dairy and my brother has been a vegetarian for 18 years, so I come across a lot of vegan propaganda. A lot of it is really misguided and not very convincing.

Because eating meat is not at all ecological, it's destroying the world. If everyone was at least a vegetarian (or ate way less meat, like only once a week), that would solve a pretty large part of the world's problems.

Also, it's easy to be a vegetarian. My vegetarianism started simply from participating in a "be a Vegetarian for one month" challenge and while I thought it would be hard, it was super-easy, and I've been on that path ever since. You really don't need meat in your food to make it good, people who think so are incredibly childish.

 

[ThingontheFloor]

thanks for the link. I'd like to eat less meat, but would prefer not to just substitute it with a fake meat-like product.

If you're interested in an actual cookbook, I can't recommend the Veganomicon enough, it's awesome. http://www.amazon.com/dp/156924264X/?tag=neogaf0e-20

It does use vegan staples such as tofu, seitan, tempeh, etc., but is rare that it tries to make them replicate meat exactly. But it covers a large variety of recipes from soups, burgers, salads, pastas, desserts, etc. I find myself cooking out of it at least once a week.

Very good information Damon. I'm constantly stuck in a position online but mostly in real life where I would like to explain where my beliefs come from, and how it's based on real problems that our world is facing, but I don't want to come off as "preachy" or that I'm somehow better than that person. I find that's the easiest way to turn someone off of vegetarianism or veganism, moreso than the food.

 

[Mimir]

If you're interested in an actual cookbook, I can't recommend the Veganomicon enough, it's awesome. http://www.amazon.com/dp/156924264X/?tag=neogaf0e-20

It does use vegan staples such as tofu, seitan, tempeh, etc., but is rare that it tries to make them replicate meat exactly. But it covers a large variety of recipes from soups, burgers, salads, pastas, desserts, etc. I find myself cooking out of it at least once a week.

I second the Veganomicon. I've liked everything I've made out of the book so far. One of the authors, Isa Chandra, posts some recipes online here, including some samples from the Veganomicon.

 

[Alucrid]

I could probably not eat meat, whatever, that's easy, but I couldn't forgo leather.

 

[snacknuts]

I'm not vegan. My wife's best friend recently switched to veganism (along with her husband and kid) and was recently telling my wife about how great she feels, etc. My wife got off the phone with her friend and got on the computer to do some research on it.

Thirty minutes later, she had printed out some tips on how to perfectly grill various meats. I love that woman.

 

[shadowsdarknes]

I could never give up chicken nuggets.

 

[Damon Bennet]

I could probably not eat meat, whatever, that's easy, but I couldn't forgo leather.

then do it. Everyone does what he could. Hell of everyone just started to eat less meat, that would be great too.

you dont need to be fully vegan or vegetarian to contribute to the cause. if you stop eating meat now, you automatically do a good thing, even if you still buy leather products.

 

[Szu]

I'm about as vegetarian as this woman.

Seriously, I cut down on my red meat intake, but I still eat plenty of chicken.

 

[Cheech]

I limit my beef intake to once a week, but chicken and greek yogurt are staples for me. Having worked on a local chicken farm, I can safely say that not all chicken farms are the horror festivals that various groups portray.

The thing that the dude posted above about just throwing males "into a shredder" is ridiculous. We (humanely) butchered ours for Campbell's soup. When the animals would pass away, we'd dispose of them ASAP, because you don't want insects and whatnot finding homes and spreading to the other chickens.

I was a teenager when I worked there, so I didn't do anything involving butchering the chickens. I love animals, I really do, but I had no issues with how the animals were butchered. With chickens, they are decapitated and bled out very quickly. Very, very fast death.

Anyway, I think my experience on that farm is why I feel comfortable eating chicken.

 

[Damon Bennet]

I limit my beef intake to once a week, but chicken and greek yogurt are staples for me. Having worked on a local chicken farm, I can safely say that not all chicken farms are the horror festivals that various groups portray.

The thing that the dude posted above about just throwing males "into a shredder" is ridiculous. We (humanely) butchered ours for Campbell's soup. When the animals would pass away, we'd dispose of them ASAP, because you don't want insects and whatnot finding homes and spreading to the other chickens.

I was a teenager when I worked there, so I didn't do anything involving butchering the chickens. I love animals, I really do, but I had no issues with how the animals were butchered. With chickens, they are decapitated and bled out very quickly. Very, very fast death.

Anyway, I think my experience on that farm is why I feel comfortable eating chicken.

yes ridiculous, isnt it

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sqx6FVTdOUw

(i know its not always the case, but closing your eyes is not really helping here)

 

[Majmun]

I'm about as vegetarian as this woman.

That's hilarious. My ex-gf asked the McDonnalds staff if there's pork meat in a chicken nugget.
Such a turn-off.

 

[TimeKillr]

I can't be a vegetarian.

Why? It's simple - I have a huge soy protein intolerance. Whenever I ingest soy protein (in any form whatsoever!) I get hit with massive migraines.

When I say massive, I mean "I'm unable to function at all".

Sooooooooooooooooo yeah. About 80% of all vegetarian/vegan meals are inaccessible to me.

 

[Captain Sparrow]

I love these threads. Only vegetarian here, too weak to go fully vegan as of now, but I consider it for the future.

Ok eating meat is:

- Unhealthy if you eat it every day. Cut it down to twice a week.

- Killing nature.
-> For 1kg of meet, the animals need 10kg of cheap soy wich is grown in deforested rainforest areas.
-> Cows are creating a huge amount of methane. If everyone stopped eating meat for only 1 day a week, it had the same effect as every car on the planet running with a hybrid engine.
-> The environment near lifestock-farms is strongly challanged and usually the ground water quality suffers from it.

- The conditions of animals are unimaginably bad. watch those horror documentaries - they are real, I've seen it myself. (not going into details here but: Animal-corpses just rotting there on the ground between others, chickens with chronic pains on there beak (cut off, so they dont pick at each other), bad air/no light/no room to move)

These are just basic things for becoming vegatarian. But why vegan?

- Animals are no "product". For Egg-Production hundreds over hundreds of male chickens are just thrown into shredders.

- Cows are artificially kept pregnant so they keep on giving milk. There are occurences where they are milked till they bleed.



These are just a few reasons. You may say:

"But I am on the top of the food chain, I have the right"

-> Yes you are. But you are there because Humans' most important tool is the brain. Sustainability and using ressources carefully without having to enslave whole forms of species should not be something considered normal, if there are other ways which are better for you and the planet

"But that Pig would eat me too, if it could"

-> So what, you are able to choose and inform yourself.

"I need meat and dairy for a healthy diet"

-> A quick google search will show you a billion healthy and interesting alternatives. Even if you are afraif of soy products (there is a stupid rumor that it has dangerous hormons - it has not.), you can eat healthy and with huge diversity.

"If you dont eat meat, why would you eat tofu/seitan/etc to replace meat?"

-> You dont replace meat, you just fill the components, which are generally filled with meat in an omnivore society. Being vegan/vegetarian does not mean "just leave the meat out", you can basically have the same type of recipes, if you want to.




Thats about it. Being vegan/vegetarian is forward thinking, being sustainable is something everyone should strive for. Giving up meat is easy enough, if you just think about it a little and you do so much with little effort.



I thought that would be hard, as well. But there are plenty of super-delicious alternatives you can consider. Industry-Products and home-made products, both.

I believe a lot of those "sustainability" points are also affected by the fact that the world has 7 billion people.

Raising cows is not destroying the world. 7 billion people are.

 

[Szu]

That's hilarious. My ex-gf asked the McDonnalds staff if there's pork meat in a chicken nugget.
Such a turn-off.

Well, this reminds me of another blonde woman.

 

[Dunk#7]

 

[Soybean]

I can't be a vegetarian.

Why? It's simple - I have a huge soy protein intolerance. Whenever I ingest soy protein (in any form whatsoever!) I get hit with massive migraines.

When I say massive, I mean "I'm unable to function at all".

Sooooooooooooooooo yeah. About 80% of all vegetarian/vegan meals are inaccessible to me.

It's easy to avoid soy if you just stay away from processed foods (which is advisable whether you're vegan or not). Even if you want a fake meat product, seitan is made of wheat protein, not soy.

I believe a lot of those "sustainability" points are also affected by the fact that the world has 7 billion people.

Raising cows is not destroying the world. 7 billion people are.

This may be true, but plant foods -> humans is still inherently more efficient than plants -> cows -> humans.

I still eat meat. My wife is vegan, though, so I'm very sympathetic.

 

[Damon Bennet]

I believe a lot of those "sustainability" points are also affected by the fact that the world has 7 billion people.

Raising cows is not destroying the world. 7 billion people are.

Thats right. Still:

10 kg soy = 1 kg meat

1 kg soy = 1,8 kg tofu


while i am not that much of a fan of tofu, it still is over 10 times more sustainable than meat.

 

[dark10x]

Thats about it. Being vegan/vegetarian is forward thinking

I don't think it's fair to lump those two together.

Eating vegetarian is a healthy alternative but there are plenty of sources that indicate that eating vegan really is not.

Do as you like, though.

Why? It's simple - I have a huge soy protein intolerance. Whenever I ingest soy protein (in any form whatsoever!) I get hit with massive migraines.

I don't have that issue, but some of those soy products cause digestive problems for me. I tried eating a lot of this stuff once as a diet experiment and it caused all sorts of problems and resulted in IBS-like symptoms which took months to solve. I've tested some of this stuff at various points beyond that and the results are always the same.

 

[Deleted member 1235]

Thats right. Still:

10 kg soy = 1 kg meat

1 kg soy = 1,8 kg tofu


while i am not that much of a fan of tofu, it still is over 10 times more sustainable than meat.

gives men breasts

fuck soy.

Heard it's not flash for the environment either.

 

[TunaMarshmallow]

.

 

[Derrick01]

I had a girlfriend who was one of those annoying vegans who try to force you to be one too. I played along at first but after a week of eating that crap I lost it and ended it. You only live once so I'm not going to spend it eating stuff that makes me want to vomit.

 

[Trurl]

I can't be a vegetarian.

Why? It's simple - I have a huge soy protein intolerance. Whenever I ingest soy protein (in any form whatsoever!) I get hit with massive migraines.

When I say massive, I mean "I'm unable to function at all".

Sooooooooooooooooo yeah. About 80% of all vegetarian/vegan meals are inaccessible to me.

Your protein intolerance would certainly make being a vegan difficult as it would prevent you from eating a large portion of the convenient industrial vegan foods. Assuming you could manage the inconvenience, though, it's entirely possible to craft a vegan diet that avoids soy which is healthier than most other vegan diets.

 

[Damon Bennet]

gives men breasts

fuck soy.

Heard it's not flash for the environment either.

its not, but soy for human > soy for meat for human.

and the "gives man breasts" thing is a widespread rumor. I just recently did a little research and all studies that suggest that it "might" have an hormonal effect, are somehow related to meat-related companies and lobbies.

I found out, that there are the so called isoflavones in soy, but it wont have any effect on you, if you eat/drink it in a way that integrates in your normal diet. If you ONLY consume soy all day, I dont know.

I had a girlfriend who was one of those annoying vegans who try to force you to be one too. I played along at first but after a week of eating that crap I lost it and ended it. You only live once so I'm not going to spend it eating stuff that makes me want to vomit.

I know right, vegetables, fruit and crops for example are disgusting. how could anyone eat that stuff

 

[andycapps]

Thats right. Still:

10 kg soy = 1 kg meat

1 kg soy = 1,8 kg tofu


while i am not that much of a fan of tofu, it still is over 10 times more sustainable than meat.

Tofu in comparison to meat has much less protein. I'm not speaking in terms of sustainability, but the amount of protein is pretty lacking in tofu compared to meat.

6 oz steak - 48 grams of protein
7 oz chicken breast - 60 grams protein
6 oz tofu - 13.8 grams of protein