Vegetarianism

Kohadre wrote: What needs to stop is the stigma agaisnt those who choose vegetarianism or veganism, somehow the culture I am surrounded by sees those individuals as weak, sickly, and unnatural on a disgusting scale.

Saying I'm a vegetarian to anyone planning a meal will almost always and immediately make you a pariah.

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Except that many vegetarians do the same thing. I will go as far as to say that in my experience vegetarians are far more judgmental than any omnivores I know. Social media is full of holier-than-thou vegetarians claiming they know better than the rest of us. If you have special dietary needs, regardless of what they are, its YOUR responsibility to be accomodating, not the person planning the meal. By demanding accommodation to satisfy your choices, you are being selfish and equally judgmental of others. The stigma is encouraged by vegetarians who thrust their belief on others and then react as victims when others don't adjust accordingly.

I had a friend who became vegetarian and suddenly started trying to guilt trip everyone... When he became a vegan his pedestal became so high it's a miracle he could see any of us.

I know some lovely vegetarians, but the guy above was not.

Frafe Rucá wrote: In my opinion, human being was born omnivorous and humans need eating all kind of food, vegetable, fruits, meat, cereals... I mean, the human was so low on the food scale untill he started eating meat and its life expectancy was like... around 1/4 of century, even less.

That changed for two reasons, one is human going higher on the food scale, the other that by eating meat humans could grow stronger and get more nutrients needed for a their bodies, their muscles and even their immune system.

I am going to have to respectfully disagree there. The reason we are living longer is due to our brains. Our thinking brains made it possible for us to become higher on the food chain because we learned to build tools, weapons, and equipment needed for hunting and more efficient food gathering.

Our brains are also why we have had major advancement in medical treatments and care. A little over a century ago getting pneumonia, the flu, or even a high fever was a more than likely death sentence than not.

I will agree there are some very unhealthy vegetarians. I have met several that live on bread and cheese and wonder why they feel terrible. As with any diet choice education is key and knowing what your body needs is important.

The stigma that vegetarians and vegans have to deal with comes from both sides of the argument. Some people just have to voice their opinions and sometimes it is done rudely. I think the most important thing is that we should all be mindful of our food...where is comes from, how it effects our bodies, how it effects our environment, etc.

Personally, I have been a vegetarian for over 20 years, 3 of those years I have been vegan. You would not be able to tell if I didn't say anything. I am strong and healthy. I don't force anyone to cater to my diet in anyway, in fact I am the only one in my household that eats a plant based diet. I do it for many reason both a mixture of my personal ethics and health, but I see no reason to belittle anyone who eats meat.

Again, I think it more important to be mindful than to argue which side is right or wrong. One choice does not fit all.

Figment wrote: I am going to have to respectfully disagree there. The reason we are living longer is due to our brains. Our thinking brains made it possible for us to become higher on the food chain because we learned to build tools, weapons, and equipment needed for hunting and more efficient food gathering.

Actually, Figment, science has occasionally pointed that things went the opposite direction . It's thought that regular consumption of meat allowed early humans the fuel necessary to support such large brains, and that cooking food makes more of those nutrients available.

steamboat28 wrote:

Figment wrote: I am going to have to respectfully disagree there. The reason we are living longer is due to our brains. Our thinking brains made it possible for us to become higher on the food chain because we learned to build tools, weapons, and equipment needed for hunting and more efficient food gathering.

Actually, Figment, science has occasionally pointed that things went the opposite direction . It's thought that regular consumption of meat allowed early humans the fuel necessary to support such large brains, and that cooking food makes more of those nutrients available.

Im not sure how cooking food makea more nutrients available, when from all I have learned when you heat food you are slowly destroying the nutrient and vitamin content within it.

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I believe this link will be of some interest. It's the concluding article of a series, if you really wanna bury yourself in the details then be sure to check out the previous parts.

Kohadre wrote: Im not sure how cooking food makea more nutrients available, when from all I have learned when you heat food you are slowly destroying the nutrient and vitamin content within it.

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It seems that there are some aliments that have "antinutrients" (Antiproteins, antivitamins, etc) that, when exposed to heat, it innactivates. For example, eggs are a good source of proteins, but it also has antiproteins that reduces the quantity of proteins your organism get. If you heat the egg (Boil it, make an omelette, etc) you destroy the antiproteins and you get more nutrients. That happens with a lot of aliments.