Ever considered becoming vegetarian?

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I tried it for a little while after seeing the Charlotte's Web movie, but nope. I don't like eating a lot of carbs (bread stuff), I don't like fruit very much, and I can't afford delivery fees to get fresh veg all the time since I'm too agoraphobic / PTSD to shop for my own groceries in person or at farmers' markets. That means I'd be living on frozen veg and that just ain't gonna cut it. I already don't eat enough as it is.

Yes.

But nothing to do with environmentalism, animal rights, spiritual practices, or whatever activism, religious or belief-based related reason or some dietary fad related to losing weight.


I hadn't had much progress in learning how to consume vegetables yet because it's just not a habit of mine growing up a picky eater.

Dietary change isn't as simple, there are discrete processes are involved that many guides either ignore or ignorantly not mention.

Mine happened to include acquiring tastes that either cannot yet learn to tolerate and take it, WHILE reducing certain foods I'm likely addicted to or even dependent on its comfort, and figuring logistics related to both isn't very possible.

I would need to accomplish this before my mid-30s preferably.



When push comes to shove with my health due to family histories of cancer, diabetes, cardio issues...

But also just as cautious on going full on restriction because I'm very sure I need more of those vitamins that plant based diet do not provide enough.

So it's likely that I'm not going all out unless I find that meat, poultry, etc. For whatever amount of it or in a certain window of time is actually some sort of gastrointestinal trigger for me.



I don't want to be like my dad, my paternal aunts, their cousins, and most of my grand parents and grand uncles/aunts.

And after years of watching a good portion of that side of my family's health history, diet, habits and how some of them are aging and dying.

Their metabolism sucks.
It's possible the reason why I'm having a whinny body is coming from them.

Their habits sucks. Heck, even working out might not enough; their vices and prone to addiction to smoking and drinking sucks.

Even that's not enough; their diet sucks.
And I'm not surprised even if they're young and taking care of themselves well and still has an inefficient metabolism.

Their genes sucks. I want to be beyond whatever happened to them.
If becoming a vegetarian is a way to go there in breaking family cycles related to food, health and defying genetic destines, so be it.

Why can't I inherit the full set from my mom instead of only the inability to look fat and the cursed upper respiratory issues?
They tend to live longer and their bodies aren't as stupid "sensitive"...

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For me, the environmental argument is the most compelling. It's undeniable that industrialised meat farming is terrible for the environment.

But as always, that argument gets conflated with the ethical argument, which I don't accept. I've seen meat produced in a way that's fine by me, ethically. Grass fed, slow raised, slaughtered with as little stress on the animal as possible. I've no problem with that. Yes it's space intensive and expensive, but the product is much more nutritionally dense and better for you.

I don't see why it has to be all or nothing. We could do a lot to reduce the environmental impact of meat production by limiting the sale of low quality meat products. We don't need to all be vegetarians, we could just make junk meat (the stuff that's produced in megafarms that's pumped full of growth hormones) unacceptable, or just unacceptably expensive. That would be an improvement.

We've become used to having cheap meat available to us at all times, every meal, every day. It's cheaper to buy a McDonald's burger than a decent pan steak. It doesn't have to be like that. We could eat much less meat, less frequently, and have it be better quality meat with health benefits rather than risks.

But the argument always gets reduced to "Vegetarians want to steal your bacon sandwich" vs. "Meat is murder"

^Not only that but monocrop farming is highly damaging to biodiversity.

Put simply, I don't believe there is a way to sustainably, and healthily, feed the current human population. There are just unsustainble ways and unhealthy ways.

I meant to say in my earlier post - although I have strong opinions on this subject, I don't really care how people choose to eat individually. If you choose to be a vegetarian, more power to you.

Personally, I choose to be omnivorous because I believe that's how we evolved to eat. I think the importance of animal fats and organ meat in our diets is underestimated and can't be substituted.

This year I've made a conscious effort to eat much less processed and cured pork. This is because I share DNA with relatives who ate lots of that stuff and died of colon cancer. But also because I just really like pigs, they're more intelligent than other farm animals, more like dogs really. So while I've never seriously considered vegetarianism, I'm trying to eat less pork and would like to cut it out completely.

Sometimes I feel like I can't possibly love animals if I'm not vegan.

But If I became vegan, that would mean that I must really hate plants.

Hmm...

I may consider going pescatarian for health reasons.

And it's entirely doable within my entire household to do so.
My mom may need it, too, and I can see how I can convince her; especially it's a type of diet with all the stuff that she really likes.

My dad, too, if he ever comes.
My sister could do whatever she wants with it, but I'm sure she won't protest and will likely take it.

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No. I already have a restrictive diet (no eggs, no rice, no alcohol, no fish) due to allergies, so why would I want to restrict it more? The only seafood I will eat is deep fried butterflied shrimp, as I can have those in very limited amounts. As my late father once said “I would rather die with a smile on my face from eating a nice steak, than to live to be a hundred with a permanent frown by avoiding what I love.”.

I've often thought that going vegetarian or at least reducing meat consumption would be good. It doesn't have to be a big thing but just seems practical with respect to less harm to animals, climate change and overconsumption. Kind of been far too busy with other personal stuff to make that change right now though.