How long have you been veggie?

Nature Boy

Just a poll to see how long people have been veggie, I know a few people who used to be veggie for a long time and gave it up.

Any people here who've given up being veggie and why?

feelthegrease

ive only been a veggie since the summer, but i spent a long time building up to it...for about a year until i finally stopped eating meat i was thinking about it, and making veggie meals several times a week...and i cant see myself going back, although i do have friends who were vegetarians for years and have started eating fish. but i never liked fish anyway

Nature Boy

I can never understand the thing about fish. Why do people only eat fish but not any other animal?

Blub2k4

There was a myth about that fish don't feel pain, dunno where it came from, possibly fishermen like meself trying to convince themselves that if fish were put back after catching that no harm was done.

I have heard people say that don't think pain in a creature who memory lasts 4 seconds is that signifigant.
I think anyone eating less meat is a good thing.

Oobie

18 years and counting! Never liked fish either.

Nature Boy

Has anyone noticed any health problems after going veggie? That question's especially for peolpe who have been veggie for a while.

Oh and in case it's not obvious, vegans are included in the "How long have you been veggie" poll!

Tar.Aldarion

Moonbaby wrote:

I have heard people say that don't think pain in a creature who memory lasts 4 seconds is that signifigant.

Then again, I believe they thought it was 3 seconds, and well it is a complete fallacy.
In fact, fish are even said to eavesdrop on each other in studies.

Just a poll to see how long people have been veggie

A few years, the problem I had becoming one was the only food I truly like is meat. One day i just flat gave it up and said I would stop eating it and either starve or eat foods I don't like.

I can never understand the thing about fish. Why do people only eat fish but not any other animal?

Also, because of health benefits, people believe that fish are a super-animal or something. Because of the breaking down of some chemicals in them though, there are some better alternatives.
Fish is certainly more healthy that eating way to much red meat.

There was a myth about that fish don't feel pain, dunno where it came from, possibly fishermen like meself trying to convince themselves that if fish were put back after catching that no harm was done.

I remember some quote about somebody that thought this, caught a fish, and from then on became vegetarian, it's a bit of an odd myth to have around.

nando

Veggie for 12 years now.

Had always felt bad eating animals but actually originally stopped eating meat to annoy my mother when I was 11. Thought about it lots then and decided I would keep it up for better reasons, especially since I had no problems with it.

I've never had any health problems because of it and my iron levels are always high when I go to donate blood. My dad likes to blame any minor illness I may have on my lack of meat though.

I don't eat fish but those of my veggie friends who do, say it is because they are veggie based on the animal's quality of life, and therefore have no problem eating sea fish since they are free before being caught.

Dr.Louis

Been a veggie all my life- almost 18 years now! Never been to the doctor in my life- and no, not because im stubborn, because I've never needed to lol!

rockbeer

Nature Boy wrote:

I can never understand the thing about fish. Why do people only eat fish but not any other animal?

FWIW, I eat wild fish but no other flesh... because I won't eat any animal that was farmed, nor any animal that I'm not prepared to hunt, kill and prepare myself. I don't believe it's inherently wrong to kill for food, but I do have a major problem with modern animal farming.

By the way, I don't call myself a vegetarian. Never understood how people can call themselves vegetarians and then say "Oh but I do eat fish".

Nature Boy

rockbeer wrote:

Never understood how people can call themselves vegetarians and then say "Oh but I do eat fish"

I don't know why, but that drives me insane, especially after i became veggie. It seems as though people just don't know what a vegetarian is. I think non-vegetarians who call themselves vegetarian give proper vegetarians a bad name. Everone always asks me if i eat fish (and sometimes chicken!) even if i've told them 50 bloody times! simply because they're confused about what a vegetarian actually is!

Conar

Nature Boy wrote:

I don't know why, but that drives me insane, especially after i became veggie. It seems as though people just don't know what a vegetarian is. I think non-vegetarians who call themselves vegetarian give proper vegetarians a bad name. Everone always asks me if i eat fish (and sometimes chicken!) even if i've told them 50 bloody times! simply because they're confused about what a vegetarian actually is!

I call myself vegetarian all the time because pescatarian just isn't understood.
Its also because its easier to tell my daughter to tell peoples parents etc that she is vegetarian. That way they don't get confused and give her chicken or sausages at parties etc.

I was born into a vegetarian family but I started eating meat when I was 20ish for a year or 2 then settled down to pescatarianism. I just hated eating out and being limitted to the single veggie dish as was often the case.

My family, not so much me as I don't look after myself very well, are extremely healthy and always have been. Vegetarianism definitely works well for them.

***EDIT***
Just out of interest, do vegetarians here eat eggs?
That question will probably annoy some people but I had to ask.

Tar.Aldarion

It varies from person to person.
If you eat eggs and dairy you are an ovo-lacto vegetarian.
Ovo being the egg eating part and lacto the dairy.
I eat eggs but they have to be from somewhere I know.
None of this caged stuff...

Oobie

Like Nando, I never had any health problems and my iron levels are always high when I donate blood. Fish eating people are kown as pseudo-vegetarians according to vegsoc.ie because they don't understand the concept of vegetarianism.

Nature Boy

I hate the words "pescetarian" and "pseudo-vegetarian" and "semi-vegetarian" and "pesco-vegetarian" and so on cos they're just plays on the word vegetarian.

If they really want to have a word for themselves it should be a completely different word.

Tar.Aldarion

Pescetarian is a different word.

Nature Boy

Tar.Aldarion wrote:

Pescetarian is a different word.

I mean one that doesn't sound like vegetarian

sweet-rasmus

Nature Boy wrote:

Everone always asks me if i eat fish (and sometimes chicken!) even if i've told them 50 bloody times! simply because they're confused about what a vegetarian actually is!

when will people ever learn?! i find them to be the most annoying questions ever!

rockbeer

Oobie wrote:

Fish eating people are kown as pseudo-vegetarians according to vegsoc.ie because they don't understand the concept of vegetarianism.

Can't log on to vegsoc.ie - '502 Bad gateway' - so I may be taking their bizarre-sounding statement about 'the concept of vegetarianism' out of context... Did you mean vegetarian.ie?

But that sort of thing makes me laugh. Didn't realize that vegsoc.ie were the authority on what vegetarianism is. I always thought it might mean different things to different people, and that people might have different reasons for being veggie. Obviously I was wrong and will defer to their superior knowledge.

Actually I hate this whole ideas of labels. Vegetarian, vegan, fruitarian, why does it matter what you call yourself? Every time you eat something it's a choice. I try to make good choices most of the time, but I'm not going to kill myself for not always making the perfect choice.

Nature Boy

rockbeer wrote:

Actually I hate this whole ideas of labels. Vegetarian, vegan, fruitarian, why does it matter what you call yourself? Every time you eat something it's a choice. I try to make good choices most of the time, but I'm not going to kill myself for not always making the perfect choice.

I don't think anyone has a problem with people choosing what they want to eat. The point is that some people associate themselves with the incorrect "label".

I call myself vegetarian because my diet just so happens to fit the definition of the word vegetarian, which can be found in any dictionary, encyclopedia, website etc, not just vegsoc.ie!!

Peanut

rockbeer wrote:

...
Actually I hate this whole ideas of labels. Vegetarian, vegan, fruitarian, why does it matter what you call yourself? Every time you eat something it's a choice. I try to make good choices most of the time, but I'm not going to kill myself for not always making the perfect choice.

Kindof agree with you there but we need labels as practical groupings for stuff... so if we see 'vegetarian' on a menu or something, then we can have some sort of consensual definition as to what that is.

rockbeer

Nature Boy wrote:

I don't think anyone has a problem with people choosing what they want to eat. The point is that some people associate themselves with the incorrect "label".

I call myself vegetarian because my diet just so happens to fit the definition of the word vegetarian, which can be found in any dictionary, encyclopedia, website etc, not just vegsoc.ie!!

As I noted in an earlier post, I don't describe myself as a vegetarian because I eat fish from time to time, and to me vegetarianism is a flesh-free diet. However, IMHO, the point is that other people don't always see it the same way, and it's impossible to say precisely what the label means.

It's not as black and white as you imagine. There really isn't a single, simple, unambiguous definition of the word vegetarian. Dictionaries are full of grey areas. For example, the Britannica states '(a diet) consisting wholly of vegetables, fruits, and sometimes eggs or dairy products'. Similarly, from the Oxford Compact: 'a person who abstains from eating meat, and sometimes also fish, eggs and dairy products.'

Sometimes? When exactly?? Who determines what's acceptable??? And so the semantic arguments begin.

This is why I don't like the whole labelling thing.

On a tangent, the whole 'why fish?' thing is quite interesting. Historically, the essential nature of fish has often been regarded as being very different to that of land-dwelling animals. These beliefs usually had no biological foundation, but they have become deeply ingrained into our culture. The cathars and other gnostic christians ate no meat, but were happy to eat fish as they believed that they reproduced asexually. Completely misguided from a modern perspective, but the perception of fish as somehow 'different' persists.

Nature Boy

rockbeer wrote:

it's impossible to say precisely what the label means.

It's not as black and white as you imagine. There really isn't a single, simple, unambiguous definition of the word vegetarian.

That oxford compact definition is too weak. But I think it can be agreed that in general, the definition of the word vegetarian is that it's a flesh free diet (at its most basic).

I don't think there's a point in one person having a definition and another having a different definition, because what's the point in using the word if everyone has a different meaning for it?

rockbeer

Nature Boy wrote:

I don't think there's a point in one person having a definition and another having a different definition, because what's the point in using the word if everyone has a different meaning for it?

My point exactly. What's the point in using the word...

That's the nature of words; they're imprecise and their meanings evolve over time as a reflection of useage. They're only symbols after all, which leaves them open to interpretation. That's fine for creative writing and general conversation, while disciplines where precision matters e.g. sciences and technologies tend to create their own terms with very specific meanings, often misunderstood and misused by the rest of us, but properly understood by those who need to work with them.

But when it comes to labelling people, I think you're looking for the impossible. How can you hope to achieve a definition that everyone agrees on? Who decides what is the correct definition? The millions of 'fish-eating vegetarians' out there certainly wouldn't agree with either you or me. Absolute definitions require universal acceptance, and that just isn't going to happen. There isn't a 'word authority' who decides these things: the meaning of words is determined by useage. And very often, by prejudice.

Even before I started eating fish again I pretty much stopped calling myself a vegetarian. I got completely fed up with people leaping to their own misguided conclusions about my beliefs and my attitude towards them. Funny how hostile and defensive some meat-eaters can get when you mention that you're a veggie

Tar.Aldarion

yeah sometimes it goes like: Vegetarian huh? YOU THINK YOU ARE BTTER THAN ME.
Me: Well, from that response, yeah...

(:


I prefered when we were called pythagoreans, and I want that name back.

Nature Boy

rockbeer wrote:

My point exactly. What's the point in using the word...

That's the nature of words; they're imprecise and their meanings evolve over time as a reflection of useage. They're only symbols after all, which leaves them open to interpretation. That's fine for creative writing and general conversation, while disciplines where precision matters e.g. sciences and technologies tend to create their own terms with very specific meanings, often misunderstood and misused by the rest of us, but properly understood by those who need to work with them.

But when it comes to labelling people, I think you're looking for the impossible. How can you hope to achieve a definition that everyone agrees on? Who decides what is the correct definition? The millions of 'fish-eating vegetarians' out there certainly wouldn't agree with either you or me. Absolute definitions require universal acceptance, and that just isn't going to happen. There isn't a 'word authority' who decides these things: the meaning of words is determined by useage. And very often, by prejudice.

Good point, I suppose if enough people want to include fish eaters as vegetarians then that's what'll happen.

But to avoid the confusion we all have to deal with, i think there should be two seperate words.

rockbeer

Tar.Aldarion wrote:

yeah sometimes it goes like: Vegetarian huh? YOU THINK YOU ARE BTTER THAN ME.

Exactly. And often followed in short order by the accusations of hipocrisy and inconsistency. AREN'T THOSE LEATHER SHOES YOU'RE WEARING?

As though the only alternative to absolute moral purity and cleansing the world of all ills was to partake fully in it's destruction.

I must have forgotten signing the form where I promised to justify all my choices to any meat eater who happens along with a chip on his or her shoulder.

Tar.Aldarion wrote:

I prefered when we were called pythagoreans, and I want that name back.

Yeah that's a good one. Demands to be taken much more seriously than 'vegetarian' IMHO. And because nobody thinks they know what it means, they'd be much less likely to jump to conclusions

Peanut

rockbeer wrote:

...I must have forgotten signing the form where I promised to justify all my choices to any meat eater who happens along with a chip on his or her shoulder.

lol :rolleyes:

...Surprised at the number of people answering 16-20 in the survey, I would have thought most of the responses would be for the lower ranges.

Mentalmiss

rockbeer wrote:

Exactly. And often followed in short order by the accusations of hipocrisy and inconsistency. AREN'T THOSE LEATHER SHOES YOU'RE WEARING?

The reply is "Yes but I do not intend to eat any shoes today"

Tar.Aldarion

Dear simu once asked me by mistake, when enquiring about my vegtarianism on a lovely rainy Galway afternoon, '...and do you eat leather shoes?'
Much laughing.