im sorry, vegitarianism is the best i can do

i live in a farm area, and just last year the grocery store decided to carry vegitarian alternatives, but alas! still no vegan. id have to drive 30 min. (polluting along the way, mind you!) to get things like soy milk and non-dairy products.
right now, the only vegan progress i made is using margarin instead of butter.
id love to be vegan, but right now i have to rely on dairy.
sorry cows. at least im not eating you.
anyways, the point of this thread is this: ive noticed some threads started by 'budding' vegitarians, and replys by some vegans about how their not a 'true vegitarian' because they still consume dairy. you need to consider that some people cannot be vegans simply because its still an underground lifestyle and a lot of little grocery stores like mine just don't give a crap about about the treatment of animals because they probably slaughtered one at one point or another.
does anyone have any advice?

 

make your own food. a lot of vegan meals are homemade. just takes a little practice. there are a TON of great sites listed in the sticky threads at the top of this forum. educate yourself also about nutrition so you don't get sick. you're not an air plant most people assume i am when i tell them i'm vegetarian and eat very little dairy and eggs.. i think i'm about 98% vegan.. (go me!)


good luck ..

 

vegans that are mean to vegetarians suck
they should be grateful that they don't eat meat at least

however, it annoys the fuck out of me when vegetarians eat fish

 

First off, hi. I'm also a vegan so certainly this post is biased.

You do realize, of course, that the term vegetarian, when it was originally conceived, was synonymous with the term "vegan" which we use today. It included the exclusion of meat and all other animal byproducts from the diet.

But gradually, people who consumed no meat but still consumed animal products began to also call themselves vegetarian, and took the term over. As a result, the term "vegetarian" is no longer used to represent this practice.

In today's world, it is commonly accepted that there are many types of vegetarians. And I'm sure you have heard many of these different types. Lacto-vegetarian, ovo-vegetarian, pesco-vegetarian (correctly called pescatarian), and so forth.

The term "vegetarian," today, describes a person who consumes no meat, dairy, or egg.

There are many variants of vegetarianism that are not FULL vegetarianism, but are still vegetarianism nonetheless.

Think of the wind. It can breeze. It can gust. It can hurricane. All of these are still called wind. And yet, one might call a "full wind" to be a wind which blows with full force, like that of a hurricane. Gusts and breezes are still wind, but they are not a full, total wind.

And so, any person who consumes milk, cannot be a full vegetarian, they are a lacto-vegetarian. It is a type -- a variant -- of vegetarianism. And it is not full vegetarianism.

This is much like Internet access at schools which have a filtering system. It is still Internet access. But it is not full Internet access.

And it is important that we understand this idea of the exclusiveness of the terms "vegetarian" and "vegan," because right now some people are eating fish and calling themselves vegetarian, which is just plain wrong. Hence "pesco-vegetarianism" which, in reality, should be called "pescatarianism."

Hope this clarifies some definitions. No offense is intended.

Vegans or vegetarians who are mean to anyone -- who is doing their best to be kind to them -- suck.

This is why I would never join PETA.

You mean when pescatarians eat fish and call themselves vegetarians? ;D Yeah, me too.

I'm gonna have to argue with you here drumminmama, there are several exclusively vegan restaurants scattered across the globe.

We are on the rise! IT'S A NEW WORLD ORDER, I TELL YOU! Hehe ...

Words of wisdom!

 

I wuvs you

lets turn this into a PETA hating club

 

lol and be mean to PETA? They're just looking out for everyone's collective well-being, even if it is misguided.

Nobody ought to be hated. :H

 

what about the "week-end" vegetarians?

 

boo

they made those children's books talking about how mommies and daddies that hunt or eat meat may hunt or kill their pets though
that is so royally fucked up

 

so are you saying that was not chicken we had when i was six?....

 

I am saying that you should not try to make kids frightened of their parents
noone normal hunts dog or cat (they talked about daddy hunting your doggy and mommy cooking your kitty in the book)

 

They have a vegetarian diet only on the weekends.

At the end of every week they begin a vegetarian diet and at the beginning of every week they end that diet.

 

I too think it would help vegetarians & vegans on the whole if we could learn to see through the different labels & types of vegetarians and agree that ANY level of vegetarianism is healthier/better/whatever-er than most "meatosaurus" diets. I don't personally know many people who have changed their lifestyle to complete veganism overnight. Nearly everyone I've talked to seems to have taken the process in stages, and it can be disheartening to feel that you're on the right path and then be "shot down" by someone who's farther along in the process than yourself. Maybe we'll get to where you are someday and maybe we won't. But at least we're trying.

I'm a lactose intolerant ovo-vegetarian. Yup I'll occasionally bake something with milk, (soy milk doesn't work in all my recipes I've discovered) and I split a slice of my mom's lemon meringue pie with Dad earlier this month... so there was egg there too.

But while some people would look at that and say "wow, that's awesome that you've avoided so many animal products!" others would say "sheesh, why haven't you cut them all out by now?" And yeah, the negative reactions can cause a stubborn old goat like me to reconsider further diet eliminations.

One of my favorite quotes is "You catch more flies with honey than vinegar." And I think it works with vegetarianism/veganism too.
love,
mom

 

well, i drink rice milk as much as i can
just curious...why is it ok for babies to drink mother's milk when their young, and wouldn't children need the calcium in milk to grow? (im not trying to sound smart or anything, im just curious)

 

Well add another one to your list, homeschoolmama!

I totally agree. Just because some people (maybe I'm lucky?) don't have any problems going straight from omni to vegan, doesn't mean that other people should be held to that standard.

Omni to veggie is a sizable diet change. Omni to vegan is a huge diet change. Not many people have a body that can make such a big transition, especially as one grows older in years. For me it helped that I was already a big fan of exotic vegetables (YUCK!! OKRA!! lol) and stir-fry cooking.

I still miss Reese's peanut butter cups though. At least I can eat the plain peanut butter!

You know ... I love rice. And I love rice noodles. And I love just about everything related to rice, including soy sauce.

Yet, I have tried rice milk on 3 separate occasions now, from 2 different brands, and every time that I tried it, I've felt sick to my stomach or puked my guts out. Any idea why this might be? I am lactose intolerant but I don't think lactose is in rice milk.

Anyway -- drumminmama hit the nail on the head, a mother feeding her child is not cruelty, and it actually encouraged by vegheads. ^_^

 

ROFL!!! Okay, more flies with agave nectar then.

Lucyinthesky... last time I checked, the definition of a mammal showed that we ALL feed our young milk. I don't see anything unnatural there. According to the WHO it is recommended that women breastfeed their children for at LEAST the first two years of life. Worldwide, the average is 3-5 years. Yes, kids do need extra calcium to grow. It's just that here in the US most parents think that a cow is a better source than one's own mother as that calcium source once a child reaches their 1st birthday.

Rice milk - I thought it tasted like the smell of elmer's glue! Haven't been able to stomach it yet, though to be honest I stopped trying after I found soy milk
love,
mom

 

lol mama, i must have liked glue when i was a kid, cuz i love rice milk!

 

man i totally agree!

i gave up eating fish about 2 weeks into being 'vegetarian' [for 3 years now! w00t!], after i realised that they were living things that felt pain to. I geuss I just assumed that it was acceptable since I know to many people who do still eat fish but not meat.
still want to go vegan when i can afford it