BellaOnline Forums Food and Wine Vegetarian What kind of vegetarian are you, and why?

I'm not sure what category I fall under in terms of vegetarianism, but I do still consume some dairy (eggs, a tiny bit of milk, cheese, yogurt) and have fish once or twice a month. I used to be a huge meat eater, but always felt guilty about it...as with Danielle who posted before me, I'm a huge animal lover as well, and always carried that guilt around over enjoying steak or chicken. The problem was, I never seemed able to have the willpower to cut meat out of my diet. But that big push came almost four years ago when I was faced with a serious illness. I decided to cut meat out of my life for a short time, and once I did, never went back. I'm ashamed to say it took a personal reason such as that to prompt me into switching, rather than the plight of the animals themselves...but I do believe everything happens for a reason, and one of the reasons I wound up with illness was to give me that final push to follow what my heart believed all along.

There is also something I saw one day, a few years before I became ill, that still haunts me...and every time I think about missing that steak on the bbq, this vision reminds me of why I remain vegetarian. I was cycling to work one day and had to stop on a side street to fix the chain on my bike. While I was fumbling with it and concentrating on not getting covered in grease, I had the most eerie sense that I was being watched. So I stopped and looked around, and that's when I noticed the truck which was parked across the street. It was sitting in front of an old meat processing plant, and in the truck there must have been 8 or 10 head of cattle. I could see a couple of them staring over at me, so silent...not making a single sound. I went over to the truck and peered in at them, then reached up and touched the nose of one of them. He looked back at me, his huge brown eyes so gentle and trusting. And it struck me at that instant what was happening...they were waiting to be unloaded, to go into the plant and be slaughtered. I felt complete panic overcome me for a moment, and I desperately wanted to open the back of the truck and release them all. But there was nothing that would save them; they were in the middle of the city and there would be no place for them to go. I cried for them, and the silence that surrounded them was heartwrenching. Every once in a while I'd hear a soft breath, or the movement of a hoof upon the bottom of the trailer, but that was all. It was as if they knew they were meeting their fate, and had become resigned to it.

I cannot judge anyone who chooses to eat meat of any kind, or denounce it as wrong - after all, I was a meateater myself - but I wish there was a solution to the conditions we raise animals destined for supermarket shelves, and the way they meet their deaths. At the very least, I wish they could be provided with good lives for the brief time that they are here.

I am vegan and have been since 1993, vegetarian since 1976. I started for health reasons and continue for the same reasons. I do get a kick out of folks who say they are vegetarians, but eat some sort of flesh.
A dead animal is a dead animal and my stomach is not a graveyard for them

I've been lacto ovo for many years now. Wasn't ever crazy about meat but stopped eating it mainly due to the cruelty of the meat industry. A meat based diet is also much harder on the environment and it just seems wrong to base the majority of one's diet on meat.

I buy only organic cage free vegetarian fed hen eggs, and buy as much organic growth hormone free cheese as I can. Don't drink milk but buy organic for the spouse. Try to buy animal products mostly from good sources. Don't like giving money to @ssholes.

Ooh, pondlady, I love that saying about your stomach not being a graveyard. I think I'll put that on a button. (I collect vegan buttons.)

Also I agree about the people calling themselves veggie and still eating "chicken" or "fish." THAT'S NOT A PLANT. Have you guys heard of flexitarians? The people who eat meat but also "eat vegetarian food?" I think it's ridiculous. If you eat vegetables and also meat, does not mean you get some special name. My fiancee came up with a saying: "Fish is still meat, don't cheat." I thought that was a cute saying and will put it on a button.

Flexitarians??? Sounds like a new age religion.

I'm Vegan. It's the friendliest and healthiest diet. I can get all nutrients I need from plant foods. I can live without the flesh of animals, so I do not see the point in them suffering so that I can eat.

Laura, great to see you back. I, too, am vegan and have been since 1993, vegetarian since 1976. I agree with you re dead animals. I can't imagine eating them.

Thanks Jan. I can't imagine it either. Becoming vegan is one of the best things I have done.

I have been a vegan for about a year, and I was a vegetarian for several years before that. I became a vegetarian after seeing a pamphlet distributed to me by a cool hippie guy outside of a New Age store. I was so appalled by these images of suffering animals that I stopped eating meat that very day.

I made the switch to go vegan fairly recently, also due to a concern for animal rights. I feel happier and healthier than ever before!

I am a new lacto-ovo vegetariana. I only eat dairy products and no eggs, meat, fish, chicken. I got my boyfriend into being a lacto-ovo vegetarian. We both agreed that it is just nasty, wrong and just not right to eat meat. Does anyone agree?