Any vegetarians here?

[Greenport ferals]

On a different note, I was at Hannaford on Sunday and bought a tofurky.
Anyone else like it? To me, it is just the bomb.

[LunaTheHimmydoll]

I love Tofurky! I had some for Christmas dinner yesterday. And since I am the only vegan/ vegetarian in my family, I have tons of leftovers!

[cinderflower]

Originally Posted by tigre86

^ Don't forget beans! Beans are an excellent source of protein. Since I'm not a vegan, I also eat greek yogurt to get protein. I've had no real problems getting enough protein in my diet. I think that's one of the myths of being a vegetarian. I initially gave up red meat too (for health reasons mostly) but I eventually took it all out of my diet. Meat just doesn't agree with my body so I don't miss it. I advocate a balanced diet more than a vegetarian one (though I think it'd be great if everyone went meatless at least once a week!).

Great to meet other vegetarians here! I know some vegans believe that it's wrong to own a cat or dog because you're still supporting the meat industry. Really depressing thought so I'm glad to see I'm not alone in being a cat lover as well as a vegetarian.

you know, the feline need for flesh is just nature, even if the pet food industry has morphed into something so far from nature it isn't funny. i know some people advocate a vegetarian diet for their cats but i don't fall into that category. so i'm not going to feel guilty about their food, also because i don't think pet food drives factory farming. well i don't know about the more holistic brands but i'm not really going to get into that because i'm sick of it. but i think being vegan/vegetarian and loving animals kind of goes hand-in-hand.

i love beans. i've had carnivorous friends who were convinced that i wouldn't be able to cook them without a ham hock or pork butt and they were absolutely stunned. i was cooking some that were almost done, and a friend of mine said, "omg that smells so good," so i said, "eat some." she did and went back for seconds and she said, "i was totally prepared not to like these because i thought they'd be bland as **** but they're really good." and that's just using onions, beans and salt. i can get fancier but a lot of times i don't.

Originally Posted by Whaler

not sure what you mean specifically. if you are referring to calcium, vitamin d and b12 then yes, i agree. although if you do eat a somewhat diversified diet it really isn't an issue.

yes, i was specifically talking about b-12. after about 20 years of being vegetarian, i had a severe deficiency and my doctor thought i had pernicious anemia. the good news is that your body stores enough for about 10 years before that starts showing up. i took shots, no biggie

as far as balanced, you're a runner and you even know how many grams of protein you need a day, but you'd be amazed at how many people don't think about things like that. you need about twice as much as most people. i've had to double up to your range to heal from surgery, and seitan is very helpful for boosting pre-albumin. i've gotten low on that too, a normal range is 18 -35 and mine got down to 4, but i was in the hospital for a long time (2 months) and they weren't feeding me anything i could eat. you wouldn't believe how many doctors i've fought with over what i eat but the new ones are way more oriented toward animal-product free diets.

Originally Posted by AdoptAnAngel

Hi Cinderflower,

This isn't soy-based but have you ever tried Daiya? It seems to be the most popular "cheese" among vegans where I live. I have yet to try it myself but from what I hear, it actually melts, too. Daiya - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I admit: I'm no longer vegetarian. I was for 8 years, but seafood eventually got to me. Mussels, crabs and shrimp. I know it's shellfish of me but what can I say.

hi! i haven't but i'll look into it. i was raised in a kosher household so i didn't eat seafood until late in my teens, (got that from hanging out with people who "used" lol) but i was never overly fond of it. that's for other reasons that i won't bring up because i'm not out to spoil your enjoyment of it. and weirdly, i never ate bacon. i have a feeling that if you never eat it, you don't know what you're missing and you don't care.

there are a lot of other things on this thread i wanted to address but i can't remember who said what. what was the significance of a lamb liver on your car seat? the equivalent of throwing red paint on people who wear fur?

and when it comes to leather: this is how i see it but i've been wrong a couple of times in my life (<---more sarcasm). leather is a by-product of slaughter, and the animal was killed for meat so that's just using all of the animal. right? i mean, if they kill it for their hide and throw the meat away, that seems different because it wouldn't have been killed at all. but if it's already dead, it's just using something that would otherwise be discarded. (some people might argue that with pet food--however, rendering plants do so much to inedible garbage that it gets into a completely different area. some things are just supposed to be thrown away and not eaten or used.)

i know in a perfect world, no one would eat cows and pigs and chickens, but i don't really foresee veganism ever being the norm. so in that world, leather would be an abomination but since it's already there, is it really so wrong? i know buying it is supporting animals who were probably killed from industrial cruel conditions, but if they were humanely butchered, would it be different? that would mean you can't have a down comforter (which i don't have anyway because i'm sure if i did, one or more of my cats would pee on it) either. it all gets so complicated. and i'm not going to start looking for vegan dryer sheets either (bounce and probably other brands use beef tallow and don't list it as an ingredient) because i have to draw the line somewhere. and that line comes somewhere around my lip balm, dryer sheets, leather jacket and cat food.

[Greenport ferals]

Cinderflower, your post was very good and it is apparent you strive for a balance. I would disagree with one phrase, however. "Humanely butchered" is an oxymoron if there ever was one.
I know; I grew up on a farm and we actually did our own butchering. I think some people try to make themselves feel a little better knowing an animal had a decent life if it was raised on a small farm, was pastured and looked after as an individual - all our cows were - but in the end it is killed much like any other cow. It's a sad truth that I know only too well, and is one of the main reasons I'm a vegetarian.

But these are difficult things, and I don't mean to bring the thread down.
It's lunchtime and I think I will have some tofurky.

[gosha]

I wanted to be vegetarian but could only last for 6 months, I was craving meat and eggs so bad that I had dreams about chicken wings and when someone was cooking I was like a drug addict salivating and just want to go get some of that. I never ate cows or pigs anyways, but I love chicken and sea food. I gave up on vegetarianism but I only buy free range chicken or wild caught fish for my family and my cat. I guess not everyone could be vegetarian.

[maggie23]

Originally Posted by Greenport ferals

It is wonderful stuff. Good beekeepers are careful not to squash any bees when working the hives. I loved my bees and would never hurt them. My partner and I had 55 hives at our height of production. The only times bees would die was inadvertently, when they clung to the frames and went along for the ride to the honey house. We used air pressure to remove as many as we could as we worked each hive, but couldn't get them all.

We always left the bees more honey than we thought they'd need for the winter. If they didn't make enough for their own needs, we fed them.

Even as a vegan, I would not feel hypocritical about eating honey. The relationship between bees and beekeepers can be beneficial to both.

glad to hear this. i do only buy honey from local farmers and not the big factories believing that the locals would be more caring with their bees. would love to try it myself, but am too scared of being stung, AND it seems like so much work! but i would love to have more bees just in our yard because i assume they'd help pollinate everything in our veggie and flower gardens each year, too. and DUH! i'm so stupid. i always figured the honey was their waste and didn't use it for energy themselves. thanks for enlightening me!

and thanks to tigre86, too. i try not to feel too bad about having the leather shoes, etc... from my pre-vege life. certainly the last thing i want to do is just throw away or waste those items that i did buy before. it will feel good to not buy these things ever again at least.

[tigre86]

^ You're welcome. And it's good to know you're taking care of the environment by not throwing out perfectly good items in favor of new ones.

Thanks for the info about honey Greenport ferals, I already buy local honey so I'll just continue to do so in the future. Happy bees produce better honey imo anyway. The store-bought stuff is just awful.

Never had a tofurkey, I wouldn't even know where to buy one where I live, lol. I just had vegetable pot pie, corn, sweet potato casserole, and rolls for Christmas. This was my first ham-less Christmas so I'm still trying to figure out what to replace the meat with--tradition wise.

[cinderflower]

here's a store locater for turtle island foods (they make tofurky if you want to buy one) Tofurky

there are a lot of alternatives to a ham or turkey and some of them are really good. when you start buying meat analogues, it can be hit or miss. the biggest problem i've had was that some of it was just too salty. and the vegan boca burgers tasted like crap to me. i mean, seriously terrible. i almost always buy morningstar farms or gardenburger®.

i had a bad grocery store experience with tempeh once, so i want to try it again. it's fermented tofu but it was in a ready-made dish from the deli. i didn't read closely and thought it was just tofu. it tasted like mold, and i'm not sure if it was just not good quality or if it's a strong taste that has to be acquired.

you can also make a nut loaf, which is a lot like a meat loaf, only cashews or something similar.

[Arianwen]

I've already confessed to being a carnivore but I love a lot of vegetarian food - tofu on the other hand leaves me cold. I also really dislike the "fake meat" products - if I'm having a veggie dish then I want it to taste of vegetables or nuts or whatever.

[Whaler]

Originally Posted by cinderflower

yes, i was specifically talking about b-12. after about 20 years of being vegetarian, i had a severe deficiency and my doctor thought i had pernicious anemia. the good news is that your body stores enough for about 10 years before that starts showing up. i took shots, no biggie

as far as balanced, you're a runner and you even know how many grams of protein you need a day, but you'd be amazed at how many people don't think about things like that. you need about twice as much as most people. i've had to double up to your range to heal from surgery, and seitan is very helpful for boosting pre-albumin. i've gotten low on that too, a normal range is 18 -35 and mine got down to 4, but i was in the hospital for a long time (2 months) and they weren't feeding me anything i could eat. you wouldn't believe how many doctors i've fought with over what i eat but the new ones are way more oriented toward animal-product free diets.

due to being rather physically active (along with not being as young as i used to be ) i take 1000 % of the u.s. rda for b12. people always try to justify the "need" to eat meat by citing b12. it is a rather laughable argument and certainly shows a lack of understanding of what it is and where it comes from. it is ironic, at least imo, that so many people have tons of knowledge about tv shows or the nfl or some celebrity etc., yet have zero knowledge of basic human physiology. isn't your own health worth taking the time to do a little bit of reading?

i have a basic rule regarding doctors, if he/she does not recommend probiotics when prescribing an antibiotic i know that that doctor just isn't for me. you are right that there are a lot more doctors now that seem to grasp things better than even 15-20 years ago.

what was the significance of a lamb liver on your car seat? the equivalent of throwing red paint on people who wear fur?

glad i am not the only person that isn't sure what exactly that meant.