anyone want to talk to a new vegetarian.(only been one for about 2 minutes)

i just got done watching a short film called 'meet your meat'.
it was pretty horrible and showed the conditions that the animals are in.
i have decided that i am done with meat.
well, i am still going to eat fish so i don't know if i will truly be called a vegetarian...
would it be vegan? i don't know.
i do know that this guy is done with beef, pork, chicken, turkey....

anymore unless i am eating fresh cuts of meats i get headaches...anything that has any sort of processed meat gives me a pounder.

those are the two main reasons right there.

what made you become a veggie/vegan? do you notice that you 'feel' better/more healthy?

i can't lie...i love a good steak and had one last night but i can NOT support the conditions in which these animals are put through...i can't do it.

well, i guess i can't be in the club.
according to this
en.wikipedia.org...

i will fall into the pescetarian category

Good for you Boondock.

I have seen docs similar to the one that you referenced and frankly I was disgusted.

However I am a total hippocrite in that I still eat chicken, and the occasional steak. i dont know how I could ever become a vegan, but if I were smart I would do it.

Win/lose situation for me

I quit eating meat for health reasons, but I am certainly more sympathetic towards the ethical arguments against eating meat. That short in particular is harsh and makes me feel good in my choice, even though that not why I stopped eating meat.

Good on you, boondock. It's very hard at first and easy to slip up when you're not paying attention simply due to force of habit, but stick with it and explore foods, you'll find there's an abundance of healthy, tasty and filling foods out there that you don't really have to feel guilty about.

As for your question about feeling better...

I feel awesome since I changed my diet.

I saw a similar documentary a few years ago about how animals are treated, and for me, this was an awful sight.

I didn't, however, give up eating meat - although I eat it a lot less than I used to.

What I did, was only buy organic, free range meat from a reputable local butcher who used local meat - he's awesome and is quite happy to tell you which farms he gets the meat from - you can even go and have a look at the conditions if you want to go that far.

I know not everybody has this option, but free range, organic meat is available nearly everywhere.

If you buy meat from a supermarket, ask where it's from.
If you buy chicken, check the knee's - if they are bruised or dark don't buy it.

Fish has it's own problems in some countries, due to pollution in the oceans - best advice is to eat it sparingly, same as meat.
Try and find cheese that doesn't contain rennet.

And most important, never ever buy processed meat - it's mostly reconstituted - which means this:
In the slaughterhouse, when all the good cuts have come off, they use high power hoses to get the rest of the meat off the carcass, this meat is collected, along with minced up offcuts (ears, eyes, genitals, tails etc) and then pressed to make the slices you find in packets of processed meat - this includes burgers and sausages.

If you really want to go veggie, there's lots of good substitutes, but they need a lot of flavouring.

My advice would be eat meat sparingly, and only from a source you can trust.

I want to be a vegetarian... or seafoodatarian... whatever lol.

I find myself eating meat less and less these days, though I still like seafood. I find it hard to keep away from meat though, since there just aren't a lot of options. I mean I can only stand so many salads in a week. I bet it's easy in India, where there's all sorts of good vegetarian resteraunts and dishes to choose from.

It still bothers me knowing that a couple goats I raised from birth when I was a teen were cut up and sold as meat. They were so friendly and trusting.

I understand your problem, I've been through the same thing.

The problem is that meat is tasty, and substitutes can't replicate that taste - but as I said in my previous post, there are things you can do.

There's also lots of recipes on the web for indian veggie food that are delicious, but are a bit heavy on the spice side.

One of my ex g/f's was indian, and a great cook so I can thoroughly recommend it.
Have a browse, but be aware that many of these dishes may be heavy on spices and herbs that you're not used to - but it doesn't take long, and a bit of experimentation will get you at the level of spices etc that you're comfortable with.

Im also cutting meat out of my diet. I've been eating fruits mainly ,for the first two days I had the worse migrain . Another thing I've noticed is that my sense of smell has gotten 10 times stronger .My skin is starting to also clear up.

Well I finally did it... a little over 2 weeks ago I completely cut meat out of my diet, except for a burger I had when I visited my parents for Labor Day.

Ya know what? I feel great. In fact I didn't even enjoy that burger very much. I eat a lot of seafood and vegetables now. I don't even have a desire to eat meat anymore.

I know some would say "but fish are alive too!" Well that's not really my reasoning. I understand we're omnivores and need protein to stay healthy. I just can't support the meat/milk industry after seeing how those animals are treated.

Not saying I won't eat meat, just not the kind you'd buy at the store. At least with free-range meat and hunted meat, the animals got to experience life... rather than rotting in cages from birth until death, and tortured in some cases... all just to increase profit.

I'm cool with the circle of life, but IMO the majority of the meat/milk industry stretch the concept a bit too much.

Great, That's really good way of good at it.
Be carefull of too many fruit sugars though, they gave me a false perception.

Although I have to say that today I had a splurge - sometimes meat just tastes good.

Had beer too - and there's lots of chemicals in beer - then again, i spose that's the point