I know you guys hate this shit but....

as most of you know, I eat fish... but I'm leaning towards becoming vegetarian again, like I always planned.

But I get asked alot "whats the difference between eating fish and land meat", and my biggest deal is health. I get that natural high after I eat fish, I never did with meat. Meat made me weak. But I find it easier to give people one liners when they aqcuire about my eating habits, because I can talk circles around the subject, and give you reasons to eat fish and not to. I can contridite myself easily, and I'm a self admitted hypocrite, which I think everyone is if they get honest with themselves. So call me on my shit if it smells like shit, but my new line is "they don't raise their young".

Am I wrong? Dish it out, but politely please. I didn't come here to be an asshole and I don't want to hear from assholes, though I know I just may.

I think I'm gonna switch to land meat just seems gross to me. case closed no debate. I always get asked this shit before I eat and that pisses me off.

 

do what you want be your own person

 

your right

I just analyze things. I guess it's a hobby

 

Fish (can be) rich in omega 3 fatty acids and b vitamins...which are extremely good for your nerves and your state of being...

Fish can also be very rich in mercury which literally demylinizes(sp?) the nerve sheating and attacks your nervous system. Fish is a very limited food now i in my opinion..you have to be very careful about what fish you take in and know where it's coming from, and there's not many kinds that aren't contaminated and also contain omega 3's.

Wild alaskon Salmon is good but some salmon is allowed to be labelled wild when it's really farmed, and farmed fish is extremely unhealthy to consume...so I really try to steer away from fish because you really don't know what you getting anymore.


Grass Fed Beef can be have some omega 3 if its grass fed but I personally couldnt bring myself to eat part of a cow. It just doesnt seem natural. If I suddenly found a dead cow one day, it would take a lot of guts for me to get a piece of that animal and prepare it for food......so I don't think it's a very natural instinct in most people...

Eating fish for a high seems like a not sustainable way to go in the long run...It's very heavy and acidic and doesn't contribute to health if you over-eat it, which goes for any meat. If you feel good when you eat fish you probably should take a good B vitamin supplement(newchapter organic acids) to reverse deficiencies and start investigating different herbs that nourish the nerves and brain...

I recommend being very careful about what meat you consume and starting up on organic hemp or flax seed oil for omega 3....also flax seeds and hemp seeds, more flax in the beginning but hemp for maintenance as you go on. Their both complete protein too if you do the whole seeds..and it's very rare that they aren't certified organic, so you almost always know exactly what you are getting.

 

you recommend that for going back to vegetarianism or for either which way?

and I eat sushi, which I think is very high grade fish, since they serve it raw. And occassionally cooked catfish.

Where i'm moving to, in mississippi, which is basically as country as you can get, unless you just want to eat lettuce and hushpuppies and baked potatoes, thats all there is.

I hate that about moving there. here there's indian food, sushi, thai, ethopian, but down there, there's just catfish hushpuppies lettuce (with maybe a slice of tomatoe) and baked potatoes. lol no lie. every fucking restaurant. IT'S ALL THE FUCKIN SAME!!!! and they serve fuckin bacon on their salads (I didn't know that the first time I ordered a salad down south). At wendy's you can't get the salad without, not that they have one. they're excited they just got a taco bell!!! gross!!!!!

and I really don't like cooked fish . It's hard to imagine being completely vegetarian or vegan there.

 

Uh, right ... what exactly do you want me to say?

Seriously I don't entirely get what you're saying. I personally don't see the diffrence between eating fish or meat (all sentient beings to me), can get by without either and am perfectly content.

Still it's your life and your call to make; and I commend you for being honest.

 

I eat only fish too...so is my family dr.
I get shit all the time too, but you know what?
We have to worry about what to eat, and not them.
They dont feed us, so it shouldnt be their place to ask Qs...hell at least we are eating healthy.
Beef, chicken, pork, and other land mammals that others eat is so ... hormone pumped and the animals before they die are usually tortured to death and killed slowly.

So no debate, be who ya are, and people need to worry about what shit they are eating & not everyone else.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
walk in peace

 

I can get where you're coming from, being that I ate fish, eggs and dairy, but still identified with the vegetarian lifestyle, for a few years. Looking back now, I can see I was very conflicted for that time and always seemed to be making excuses for myself. Yes, I was a hypocrite, because of my biggest reason for my choices (while I am into the health aspect, the thing that got me to quit "meat" was objecting to the industry - the same industry that produces dairy and eggs). But it was always my eventual, and the way I saw it, inevitable, plan to go vegan. I should also point out that in all that time calling myself a vegetarian but still eating fish, I only ate wild Alaskan Salmon (a bit of a vice for me for a long time, in fact) that I prepared myself. I don't think I ever committed that cardinal sin of telling a host or server that "I'm vegetarian" and then eating fish. For the purposes of eating anything prepared by someone else, I WAS a vegetarian.

I don't know what else to say.... I live in Tennessee and there are lots of vegetables. I don't eat out, but maybe a couple times a year. Sure some people think I'm a freak - but around here I'm usually regarded as a freak long before eating habits arise in conversation. Friends and people are always happy and more than willing to make veg*an options at parties and gatherings. Among the people we usually socialize with we are rarely the only veg*ans anyway. But even among omni families, half the population grows some sort of veggie garden - that says something doesn't it? And there is plenty of southern cuisine to build on - beans and rice, cornbread, delicious spices... YUM!

About sushi - a lot of sushi is prepared with shellfish, which in my understanding are usually bottomfeeders and more contaminated than other options. Being prepared raw, IMHO, isn't a point for it. I think I can see where you're coming from, but the fact remains that on this planet water is water, everybody lives downwind, and the water is contaminated. Fish are getting the brunt of a lot of pollution. Maybe with some luck and a lot of people working really hard we could improve the situation, but for the time being I don't see where would be the safe line to draw on fish, so I'm glad I personally cut them out of my intake entirely.

Sorry, I realize this post is a jumbled mess. I guess I just have a lot to say on the subject!

 

your right. I am conflicted. I don't know why I'm having such a hard time with this.

I think I'm going to quit the fish.

I wish someone would of debated my comment on they don't raise their young. are they really that sentient then?

 

Nemo's daddy wasn't =D

 

haha. but seriously noone has an opinion on that? do I have to find an anti-vegetarian forum to get some perspective!!

the whole reason I started eating fish in the first place is to get perspective on my initial reasons for going vegetarian, since I'd get confused when people asked me what was wrong or unethnical about eating fish. I just wasn't sure.

I always planned to go back to being a vegetarian when I figured everything out for myself. Not what peta says, or my vegetarian friends say, but what I say!! I have learned alot in this time, even though the practice of consuming fish conflicts me. I still want answers!! damnit. if it pisses you off I'm asking this here, it's only b/c you don't know! too many people in here get way too touchy when the subject of fish comes up.

I understand mercury. I understand overfishing. I understand the coral reefs being destroyed. But I do not understand how they are sentinent, since they do not raise their young. Yes they might feel physical pain being pulled up out of the water but thats life, and death, and neither frightens nor bothers me.

A dog is emotional, just look into it's eyes, cows will babysit each other's calves, and chickens will speak to their young while still in the egg. what do fish do, that would be considered emotional. that would actually make them more than just a food source, or the floating vegetables, that you all hate to hear. (and I believe plants feels pain too, so I don't buy that argument)

I'm asking to be persuaded here, if anyone is willing. I think this is the last question I have before becoming unconflicted, and sure of what I'm going to do, which I think is gonna be reentering the world of vegetarianism, with the answers I need for myself, and everyone else that fucking always asks me what the hell I'm doing.

come on now.

 

alex you little booger! you're everywhere!!!

 

I mean it all depends on what you're doing it for. If you stopped eating meat for health reasons then eating fish is fine because its super good for you (if you don't eat the high mercury ones too often). But if you're doing it for animal rights reasons then I don't see the difference. The point is, its whats important to YOU.

 

The way I see it is this: No matter how much we study or what we do, we will never really KNOW what it is, or how it feels, to be a fish. We can't really know how sentient they are. Your argument about plants feeling pain is interesting, and applies here. This is just something destined to be outside our realm of experience. We can never REALLY know. So what can we do? We can be thoughtful and intentional in the way we live our lives. You have a choice of where you find certain nutrients in your diet, and on this most basic level you will never really know how it feels to be farmed and harvested - whether as a beanstalk or a fish. But you know that you can live a vital healthy life without fish. You cannot do that without vegetable/fruit/grain/plant matter. So you can eat both A and B or you can eat just A, but you can't eat just B. Where and how do you do the least damage?

Just a little thought for food...

 

lol but no thank you.

but plants move, they follow the sun, and many if you touch them will move. some even eat bugs. and I'm sure there's probably some that will move away from your touch.

i'm not a botanist. so I don't know.

But I am one of those wacko's that thinks the planet is alive, as well as ourselves. I have high reverence towards mother earth. I think humblebee was inquiring about that. Think native american beliefs. I have more spirituality than that, but it'd be a long post and I'm kinda cranky right now.

 

I was a pescatarian once...as the years passed i thought more deeply, searched further, and reached the conclusion that fish would be out of the diet...then i became vegan a few months later...

My point is thats how it had to be for me, i was pacing myself, and during the time i was eating fish i genuinely believed it was healty and alright. And so I dont have problems with people who ARE questioning and searching, who are making choices in the right direction or who care, who dont eat any other animal...

Perhaps its part of a progression for you, or perhspas youll remain where youre at. Either way youre making a difference, to the planet, to your body, to the animals, and that is positive in my book. Your informed choice. Its respected

 

By the way i do personally believe it is wrong to needlessly murder and consume a fish (and kill all the other creatures in the fishermans net or get so much mercury in your system)
And i also see the fish struggling for air as its dragged from the water as the same as drowning a land mammal in water
And fish are actually very complex creatures, and like most beings on this planet are greatly underestimated
Fish are also seen as mystical, meaningful and magical creatures in many arts and beliefs

BUT i guess my point was at least youre doing something. And asking. And its your choice