Are you a vegetarian, or do you eat meat?
I used to be pescetarian: basically veggie plus seafood.Unfortunately, for medical reasons I had to finish that about four years ago, and return to an omnivorous diet after thirty years away.It’s been an awkward adjustment. I’ve found some meaty things I really like.Steak pies or casseroles with thick, unctuous gravy—yum!Properly crispy bacon, unlike the soggy floppy stuff of my youth.I’ve discovered venison, and like it.Really, really good slow-grilled burgers, the ones that drip oily haem out of the far end as you eat them.(And not the really cheap and nasty flash-cooked stuff the big burger chains sell. Grey cardboard patties? Who ever thought those were tasty? There’s a reason why they throw so many sauces and fillings at them.)Largely, though, I’m eating meat because I have to, not because I want to.
Why are you a vegetarian but not a vegan?
Selfishness and laziness.I completely agree with veganism. I abhor the cruelty of the dairy and egg industries. And I don’t have any real ‘arguments’ as to why I think vegetarianism is ‘better’, because I see veganism as vastly morally superior.Veganism is more work. To make it healthy, you need to consciously think about protein intake, iron, calcium, fat. I went plant based for around six weeks and felt weak and lethargic a lot of the time. It probably wasn’t anything that couldn’t have been fixed with a visit to a dietitian and a nutrition plan, sure. That’s just, a lot of effort, you know? I’m a busy gal.The kicker is the restriction, however. You need to refuse a lot of treats. I have experienced disordered eating in the past, and it’s difficult to distinguish between the voice telling you not to take the brownie because it has eggs in and baby chicks had to die for them, and the voice telling you not to eat it because it’s unhealthy and impure and oh my god why did you do that you have NO self control you fat bitch. Veganism and disordered eating can be closely connected, because a plant based diet is inherently restrictive, and because of the clean eating wellness avocado HCLF chia seeds!!! types who demonise animal products for (dubious on the evidence front) health reasons.Ultimately, I am in conflict with the concept of labels. Admittedly, before I went veggie, I was eating more meat than I thought I was. Purposefully deciding to stop eating meat actually made a significant difference to how much I consumed, and I became a lot more aware of the ethical issues with meat/dairy/eggs in the process, because I decided to stop dismissively tuning out those crazy vegans without listening to them. The label of vegetarianism was helpful to me. However, when it comes to veganism, at this stage, I am not going to go the whole way. I am basically-plant-based-ish, but you know what? If I really want the buttermilk blueberry pancakes, I will order them, and I refuse to feel guilty about it.I am currently in a really good place mentally where I am eating intuitively and listening to my body, and I want to separate food from guilt. It’s selfish, but it’s what I need right now.
What local vegetarian (not vegan) food can I eat while visiting your country as a tourist?
I will personally prepare you the dupčiaky (mashed potatoes with sauerkraut) if you come to my country. It’s suitable for both vegetarians and vegans. Alternatively, I can prepare you also halušky, if you don’t insist on it involving the sheep mammary gland secretions. I can make it look like vomit in vegan version, too (again, whatever meal is made purely out of plants and mushrooms is suitable for flesh-eaters, vegetarians and vegans alike). And I can make it remarkably tasty - or you can visit Vegalité, where they also serve it and have mastered it, actually.lol
Non-Vegetarians.....How often do you eat vegetarian meals?
Sometimes I think that people that ALSO consume meat are portrayed (by the vegetarian community) as caveman like creatures that spend their days ripping legs off chickens and cows and consuming them as fast as they can kill them. But, I suspect that the reality is that most people probably don't even consume any meat for close to half their means in the course of a week. For my own curiosity, I categorized each meal I ate over the course of a month. What I found was quite interesting. Total of 84 meals based upon 3 meals a day, 7 days a week for 4 weeks. 60% of my meals did not include any meat and were vegetarian 40% of the meals were vegan (did not include any dairy, honey either Of the 40% that did include meat, half of those meals were meals where meat played a minor role (small amount of meat in a meat sauce, stock for a soup, small amount of meat in a stir fry) So, my question is, how heavy is meat consumption for a typical person that includes meat in their diet?
When u first went Vegetarian or Vegan how did u feel?..?
I felt great right after, and not just physically. I knew I was doing something that would help animals which made me feel great emotionally too. The only problem I'm still having is that I eat a lot of sugar so sometimes I still feel kind of sluggish. Just be really careful going vegan, you need to know what you're doing or you can get really sick. My sister was vegan for a while and she had to go back to being vegetarian because she wasn't doing it properly. You should read some vegan books, skinny bi*ch is supposed to be sooooo good. Good luck :)
Vegetarians/Vegans: Do you ever think about eating meat?
When I first became vegetarian, over 20 years ago I missed salty dry meats, like bacon and the crispy ends off the turkey roast things my mum cooked. After I decided to stop eating meat I tried a small piece of crispy turkey about a week later and stopped eating tuna (which I used to like) about a week after that. I have rarely thought about meat. It doesn't disgust me too much, but BBQs smell terrible, when I walk past butchers, or fish shops they smell repulsive. Occasionally some meals with meat in smell nice, I think its the combination of meat, herbs, veg, etc and reminds me of times when I was a kid. One of the only times I ever really reconsidered being a vegetarian/vegan was when I had three chipmunks (that I was given) and two of them ate the small one. I was really shocked, they had food, I let them run all over the place, why would they do that? Well I started thinking why should I care about animals when they act like that? Animals are stupid, animals are brutal and cruel to each other, why should I care about them... etc. Well I didn't sleep that night, I had been veggie for about 18 years at that time and I was really in turmoil. Then I realised that I wasn't going to let 'stupid, cruel animals' set my standards of behaviour... and of course I started to remember there were many reasons to be veggie. It was almost like 'renewing my vows'. I have dreamed about eating meat a few times, more of a mild nightmare!
Before you went vegetarian or vegan, did you honestly not KNOW that animals died to provide food.....?
I guess...there's a couple things. When you're raised and taught that something is "normal", you generally accept it without much question as a child. While you grow up and everyone else does the same thing you do - eating meat and dairy in this case - it just continues to fly under the radar of your "awareness". I used to make the rude ignorant comments some omnivores make like, "Mmmh, I love steak". I ordered my steaks rare, very pink, even though most of my friends were grossed out unless it was cooked well. So did I know the pink was blood? ...Yeah. But I don't think I really connected the fact that the piece of flesh on my plate used to be an intelligent, loving animal. I also didn't have ANY idea that "farming" was what it is today. I still believed chickens, pigs, and cows came from farms like the one in the movie "Babe". I went vegetarian after a few things happened at once. I read "Fast Food Nation" for my ENG201 class in college. People on campus were handing out pamplets about going veg which included information on factory farming. I accidentally stumbling upon articles online about how much healthier vegetarianism was for you as well. And I ate a BBQ hamburger pita only to realize that I liked everything about the meal except the meat. That's when it clicked. After diving into the vegetarian diet, I did my research and found even more appalling information on the meat and dairy industry. After more reading, I went vegan.
At what age were you when you became a vegetarian or vegan?
I went vegetarian in 2013, a month after I turned 15. At that time, I realised that it simply doesn’t make sense to eat animals if I love them and why would I pay someone to kill them and cut them into pieces if I would never do anything to harm them? Nobody in my family believed I’d never eat meat again, which made me even more detrmined to do so. They told me I had to start cooking for myself, that they wouldn’t cook for me, that it’s my choice if I don’t want to eat with them.I went vegan in January 2015, when I was 16. I watched a documentary called Food inc, through which I’ve found out that animals are not only harmed because people eat meat, but animal cruelty is also involved in the production of dairy and eggs.At that time, my parents thought being vegan means that you’re in a cult. I’m not even kidding, I wish I was. My dad didn’t speak to me for a month, my mum started crying when I told her. They didn’t buy food for me. But I’m a very stubborn person, so I got through it. My mum made me go to a nutritionist, she was quite weird to be honest. She was vegetarian then, and now she says how eating meat is awesome and healthy. But she told me that I should watch that I eat enough foods with high nutritional value and that I should get blood tests regularly. That put my mum at ease, at least a little bit, at least she wasn’t thinking I was killing myself by being vegan anymore.It got better, gradually, and within half a year, my parents were willing to buy soymilk and other stuff when they went shopping. They gave me a limit on money I spend on food which they’d pay for me.Fast forward to now, my parents think I’m the healthiest one in my family (I get blood tests like twice a year and they always showed perfect values), I sometimes cook for them and they sometimes cook for me on the weekends, they’re excited when they se a new vegan product and buy it for me.. everything got so much better than I ever expected, even though it took my family a bit longer.What also helped was that I started climbing about half a year after I went vegan. I quickly became better than others and I joined a local team. That made my parents feel better, because they could see that I can do such a challenging sport and be vegan at the same time. They were also very much surprised that I was able to grow muscles while being vegan :D
Are eggs and milk considered vegetarian or non-vegetarian food?
First of all there should be a fine line between the definition of vegetarian food and non-vegetarian food. Some people just define it on the basis of non-living and living things without even wondering that the things they have eaten till now to survive i.e. green leafy vegetables were also living at some point of time.Now here is how I define veg and non-veg things. I am a non-vegetarian and I eat much of chicken, fish and goat. Which I consider as non-veg. Why? Because they had emotions, they had a life, they were killed and above all they suffered a pain about which no living thing on the earth could tell or describe. So here is what veg and non-veg really mean to me.Now coming to the question. Are eggs living thing? Yeah sure, it is a single cell. But do you consider it as non-veg? No. You can't. I agree it came out of a chicken but so do milk from cow etc. And as mentioned in the question eggs are infertile, so you are not disappointing a chicken as it was not expecting a beautiful chick out of that egg. Neither does it have any emotions nor suffers any pain. It is manufactured to be eaten just like farms produces green leafy vegetable.Things said above are all logical and sensible to me and are completely my views. Its up to you to agree or disagree.Although some religions consider eggs as non-veg so they should stick to it, nobody is forcing them.( Eg. even early Christian Church believed that earth was flat but it was proved to be wrong.) There are some things in every religion which are not logical but its ones belief in his/her religion which makes them follow it. So I don't intend to hurt religious sentiment of anyone but for me eggs are veg.
If you get arrested and you're vegetarian/vegan, will the jail serve you vegetarian/vegan food?
If you get arrested and you're vegetarian/vegan, will the jail serve you vegetarian/vegan food?In Sweden they will, and it won’t taste worse or be of lower nutritional value than the regular food.First of all, being in jail means you’re simply kept off the streets* so that you won’t interfere with the investigation. Sure, there has to be at least some evidence against you, and the crime in question has to be severe enough for a prison sentence of one year or more to be a possibility, but you’re very far from convicted and many—if not most—of those in jail are released without any trial.There’s also the fact that when you’re in custody—be it in jail or prison—you’re no longer fully legally responsible for your own health, and if they don’t make sure you’re served meals that you actually find acceptable to eat you’ll most likely leave out essential parts of them, which means you’ll eventually get sick from malnutrition, thus become entitled to compensation.The way to get this compensation is through the courts, which means that it will be way, way more expensive for the state even in cases where it’s not granted, so it’s better for everyone to let people in jail and prison keep to their preferred diet.* In the English I learnt, jail is pre-trial and prison is post-trial, although in the US at least, people who should be in prison are often kept in jail after trial too because the prisons are full. Informally, the word “jail” is often used for both prison and actual jail.In Swedish, the divide is there in both formal and informal language and we don’t have that overpopulation problem, so before trial you’ll be in jail (häkte), and you will go to prison (fängelse) after trial, as soon as transport can be arranged.