You don't eat meat anymore? What's wrong with you??!

[HAULIN3]

I'm Vegan!!

Watched "Forks over Knives" on Netflix and changed my diet the next day!  Proud to say It's been 18 months!!

[brewer12345]

I'm Vegan!!

Watched "Forks over Knives" on Netflix and changed my diet the next day!  Proud to say It's been 18 months!!

And today I sighted in my new to me 38 special carbine for use as a squirrel and rabbit rifle this fall.  Its a funny old world...

[mikefixac]

I'm Vegan!!

Watched "Forks over Knives" on Netflix and changed my diet the next day!  Proud to say It's been 18 months!!

I'm amazed at how many times I've heard this story. I would love to know how many this has happened to. I wish this movie would go mainstream.

[dweebyhawkeyes]

I think less (not "little") of vegans because the decision to eat a vegan diet, though it may be well intentioned, can only be arrived at and sustained through intellectual negligence or arrogance (notice, NinetyFour, that I am specifically talking about veganism, not vegetarianism, in my posts). Making an arrogant or negligent decision, to me, is the best evidence that a person may be arrogant or negligent. This is why I reject the "prejudice" label (defined as making a judgement without cause). The point of my last post wasn't to insult you, although I admit I wasn't trying to avoid it (I was annoyed with your response). I wanted to point out that you demonstrated both negligence (misrepresentation of my arguments) and arrogance (condescension; historical ethnocentrism, for lack of a better term), helping to illustrate that there is some validity to my argument (i.e., veganism suggests underlying intellectual laziness or arrogance).

Eating meat is not uniquely human. Raising animals and preserving, preparing, and sharing their products, and the cultural practices that surround these, are fundamentally human. If you cannot agree with this, let's just go our separate ways. I promise that I won't start any wars while you're not looking.

Hey garth, guess what? I've been vegan for over five years because the diet change was the simplest and safest way to end my cystic acne. I'll eat the occasional chicken egg and cows' milk-laced sweet treat in social settings, but for the most part I just remember pain and pustules when I look at animal products! Sure, I watched the slaughterhouse videos; I have a butcher friend who tells me stories... so I can absolutely see where ethical vegans are coming from. My own choice has more to do with my hesitance to take Accutane than "intellectual laziness", but I still don't like that you're looking down your nose at an entire group of people. So no, I still don't agree with you, and I don't give you permission to decide for me what is fundamentally human. I maintain that you should put more effort into understanding others, as people are far too complex to judge character from a single dietary choice. Love you and have a nice evening!

[G-dog]

The first thing people always think is.. what a weirdo why do you care about the animals so much? Honestly I'm not doing it for the animals.

You are doing it for the animals, just it's the ones you are FEEDING, vs. the ones being eaten.

I have no good retorts for you, I am still an omnivore.  But good for you!  Miss manners and others often recommend a standard response to intrusive questions, like 'why do you ask?'  Really rude questions may get a tilt of the head, a stare, and 'Really?'

You just need to try to read the intent.  Many you can probably ignore and they'll just keep jabbering away anyway.

[mikefixac]

I'm overjoyed this topic gets discussed. Today I read a positive article about veganism in a right wing magazine. Written by Matthew Scully who wrote a marvelous book called "Dominion".

Do you happen to have a link to that article? I'm very interested.

Here it is: http://www.nationalreview.com/article/376215/lessons-noah-matthew-scully

[G-dog]

However, I did spend hours and hours arguing with my mom about nutrition before giving up after she tried to make points about the nutrition content of Hot Pockets and Mountain Dew (yes, she really did)

I know this had to have been stressful at the time (or still), but hahahahahaha! Nothing like arguing that Mt Dew and Hot Pockets is a healthy diet!

[clarkai]

Cooking with 90% vegetable products at home and indulging in the odd cheeseburger when on the road or out with friends is one of the finest diets I have ever encountered or utilized. highly recommended.

I'm a vegan myself, but man, if people adopted your philosophy en masse, what a difference it would make to their health, wealth, and the environment.

yep. was vegan for about a year and I loved it. Work environment caused me to change to a more meat and dairy based diet. I don't know if you had a trick to stop this, but when I was Full Vegan I would eat 6-8 times a day AT LEAST.  had to constantly fuel the furnace.

I found loading up on the good fats + protein + fiber helped a lot with long term satiation. I make a simple avocado & tofu curry, which fills me up for a good long while. Also, when I make smoothies, I add coconut milk in, which is great. Bowl of brown rice + kale + lentils + lemon tahini sauce is another good one. 

I think it's pretty common to eat a low fat diet while vegan, but I eat what would probably be seen as a lot of good fats (olive oil, nuts, seeds, avocados, etc).

[Squirrel away]

Hmm, I would never think to put avocado in a curry. I might try that. :)

[Adventine]

I think less (not "little") of vegans because the decision to eat a vegan diet, though it may be well intentioned, can only be arrived at and sustained through intellectual negligence or arrogance (notice, NinetyFour, that I am specifically talking about veganism, not vegetarianism, in my posts). Making an arrogant or negligent decision, to me, is the best evidence that a person may be arrogant or negligent. This is why I reject the "prejudice" label (defined as making a judgement without cause). The point of my last post wasn't to insult you, although I admit I wasn't trying to avoid it (I was annoyed with your response). I wanted to point out that you demonstrated both negligence (misrepresentation of my arguments) and arrogance (condescension; historical ethnocentrism, for lack of a better term), helping to illustrate that there is some validity to my argument (i.e., veganism suggests underlying intellectual laziness or arrogance).

Eating meat is not uniquely human. Raising animals and preserving, preparing, and sharing their products, and the cultural practices that surround these, are fundamentally human. If you cannot agree with this, let's just go our separate ways. I promise that I won't start any wars while you're not looking.

Hey garth, guess what? I've been vegan for over five years because the diet change was the simplest and safest way to end my cystic acne. I'll eat the occasional chicken egg and cows' milk-laced sweet treat in social settings, but for the most part I just remember pain and pustules when I look at animal products! Sure, I watched the slaughterhouse videos; I have a butcher friend who tells me stories... so I can absolutely see where ethical vegans are coming from. My own choice has more to do with my hesitance to take Accutane than "intellectual laziness", but I still don't like that you're looking down your nose at an entire group of people. So no, I still don't agree with you, and I don't give you permission to decide for me what is fundamentally human. I maintain that you should put more effort into understanding others, as people are far too complex to judge character from a single dietary choice. Love you and have a nice evening!

A civilized response to a condescending post. Makes me smile.

[cpa cat]

I think veganism is misaligned with our humanness. We all know that we are omnivores biologically, but veganism also undermines cultural and historical aspects of humanity. It rejects where we came from and what helps tie us together. I see the disparity as large, arrogant, and offensive.

So I personally feel some of the most awesome attributes of mankind are adaptability and tolerance. I'm not quite understanding why you feel it's okay to decide someone is "less human" because of his or her choices; I believe we are more than our biology.

I want to second Dweeby here. Humans eat anything. It's part of why we've managed to spread ourselves to all corners of the globe and beyond. If you stuck humans on an island with no animals and no trade, those people would become vegans. They would still be tied together as a people. They would still have food-traditions. Despite never knowing what meat tasted like, they would still be human and they would have a history and a culture that is as rich as any other civilization that has ever existed.

In our current land of plenty, we humans have a lot of choices about what we eat. Choosing is just another part of our culture and humanity.