vegetarian when/how/why

What is your vegetarian history??.. How/why did you become a vegetarian?...
I was a vegetarian when i was younger, then i became a meateater.. Know i'm really trying to be vegetarian again. I feel so much better when i dont eat meat. .. Love

 

I became a vegitarian last year.
ethical reasons.

 

My mum made me phase it out slowly, so I started by stopping eating pork and any kind of 'restaurant' meat like maccas when I was 14, by the time I was 16 I can convinced mum to let me stop with all meat and I haven't eaten meat since 16, so that's 4 years now

It's for ethical reasons too, but I don't think I could go back now because I no longer see meat as food.

 

I was a veg*n for about 3 weeks in 1980.Peer pressure from my sister.Then I found I was allergic to eggs and milk, but had no problems with some meat.For years I ate certain meat and no eggs.Many vegans will tell you battery eggs are even less humane than free range meat.

 

I seriously became vegetarian about two years ago. Actually, it will be longer than two years on Thanksgiving I know that, I am not real sure of any specific date. Hell, for all I know this could be the anniversary.

I had never been a big meat eater. Oh, I ate a lot of it -- don't get me wrong. I just never really liked it. I was the rare kid that never had to be forced to finish his vegetables (except lima beans -- I still can't eat them alone UGH). It was a running joke my entire life that I wanted to be vegetarian and I tried it a couple of times during high school. I didn't get a lot of support from my family. They made a big joke out of it -- of course, I made a big joke out of it right back. I would preface every food I ate with the word vegetarian. Let me have my vegetarian pizza or let me buy some vegetarian lettuce. One day we were driving to the store and I told my sister I needed to pick up some Mountain Dew... sorry, I mean Vegetarian Mountain Dew. And we both said at the exact same time, "Yeah, don't want the one with meat particles in it." Yes, same wording and all including the use of the phrase meat particles.

So it wasn't too shocking that I wanted to become one. I was never real big on the ethical issue because it was not my primary reason but it did play a part.

How did I become one? I stopped eating meat. Uhm, then I continued my life like normal. This question is like the stupid question I always get EVERY TIME... "You don't eat meat? Well, what do you eat?" DUH!!! Everything that doesn't have meat in it. Seriously, there is so much food without animal that these people can't be serious when they ask that question. **sorry that rant is not at you... just got asked that question again today and I had to let off steam**

Note: Technically I am a pescatarian because that was the one type of flesh I liked. I eat fish about once a month.

 

On Earth Day about a year and a half ago I read this thing about what the meat industry did to the environment, and I'd always felt extremly guilty anyway about eating animals (not to mention I have some blood type that makes be feel REALLY sick everytime I eat meat) So I stopped. And I feel so much better now...

 

Bilby...I always thought you loved meat...
because of the whole meat thread thing...

 

I became one....wow...3 years ago? During my Freshmen year of Highschool. Why? Because of health reasons, and because of how the animals are treated. I just couldn't go on saying that I loved animals yet still eating meat.

 

i became one 4 years ago, and vegan a few months ago. it was about the animals for me, then i learned i was helping the enviroment too and that made it even better! plus when you have to think about what you eat you tend to eat healthier and it just makes me feel good!

 

It'll be my first anniversary on 11/12/04 --> in 11 days.
Mainly ethical reasons.

 

Chain of events.....
Age nine
Tried to go veggie, having read about it in a magazine and thought it sounded really cool. Didn't last because I didn't know what it really meant and was tricked back into eating meat.

16 ish
After discovering here and the Phoenix family began my earnest hippy phase. The idea of vegetarianism niggling away in my brain for ages. Did the reasearch and had perfect reasoning, just didn't take the leap.

26th June 2003
My mother had gone shopping and I came home to find meat lying around the kitchen. Not sure why but I just couldn't face eating it. Tried to explain but my parents didn't take it on board until I refused the meat and lived of crispy pancakes* for nearly a week.

Year and a day later
My folks decide that vegetarianism is a lifestyle choice rather than passing fad.

Mainly for ethical reasons.

*Cheese filled pancake type food product. At that time the only veggie thing in the freezer I could cook.

 

i became a vegetarian in 1997. so what that is like ... almost 8 years. recently i started going vegan. now that has been difficult. i became a vegetarian mainly for health reasons. yuck! just thinking what hormones and other chemicals they put in meat now adays makes me sick. but as of late i have been seeing the other side of animal rights...i've seen pictures where cows, chickens and pigs all share one pen and its like a 5ft. by 5ft. that saddens me. and also i believe in reincarnation...so i do not know if i am eating a past relative or not.

 

i have been bouncing back and forth with being a veg*n since '94, but my daughter decided after hearing the whole mad cow thing last year that she wanted to go veg so i did too. i've been reading alot more on the issues surrounding meat and environmental issues this time so i can't look at eating meat anymore without being sick/angry

 

I became a vegetarian almost a year ago.
The main reason I did was for health reasons.
Then I started looking at PETA and decided I definitely was never going to eat meat again because of all the inhumane things they do to the animals.
These forums also helped me become a vegetarian.

 

i think its really messed up what these companies do to these animals

 

At age 11, in 1996, i stopped eating beef in a response the the BSE crisis. I got used to eating w/o meat, and a year later, I was making myself some bacon, and i became disgusted, all of a sudden, that I was eating an animal. I decided to go vegetarian, since the thought of meat was disgusting to me. I still had issues with it, especiall ywhen it wasn't blatantly meat, as in a curry, or processed, so i had cravings. But age 12, I went vegetarian, and i'm 19 now, and I'm still vegetarian. I get a feeling that vegan isn't all that far on the horizon. I've never been big on dairy, and i'm really starting to turn against dairy. i opt for water-based ice lollies instea dof ice cream, and I opt for subway instead of cheese pizza.

So I guess i'll end up being vegan.

Anyway, it took my parents some time to realise that I'm in it for the long haul, and it's not just afad. My mum was talking to some colleagues awhile ago. One of their daughters was goin gvegetarian, so my mum mentioned that she had a vegetarian son. "He'll be eating meat again within a few months" was their response. So my mum just said "i doubt it, he's been veggie for years now."

I can't remember exactly when i went veggie, bu tit was around April/may of 1997. In two and ahalf years, I'll be celebrating ten years. I know someone my age who's been veggie for 11 years. her whole family is veggie too. dammit. I wish my family was like that!

 

I've been a vegetarian for about two years. I never really like meat growing up (which was an abomination in my family, considering they're all farmers..you know...with cattle and the like...but whatever) so it wasn't too hard for me to make the complete switch. The only thing I really had to 'give up' was eating chicken.
But then I saw that 'Meet Your Meat' thing. Giving up chicken became very easy then.
Anyway, the main reason I don't eat meat is because I'm not comfortable with knowing that the thing I'm eating was once alive, with feelings, thoughts, emotions, and what-not.
So...yeah...groovy.
THE END.

 

I initially became Vegan two years ago as an experiment to see what I could cook Vegan so I could send the recipes to my mother. My father was on a Vegan diet as part of an alternative treatment plan for terminal brain cancer. He ended up being allergic to the medicine that was meant to go with the Vegan diet, so his Vegan phase was brief.

Anyway, while surfing the Internet looking for Vegan recipes, I ended up at several Vegan and animal rights web sites, and reading about A/R & Veganism, coupled with seeing the stark and horrifying images of the reality of factory farming changed my life. It was at that point that I realized that I could no longer eat animals.

I pretty much made the change overnight, without any kind of transition period, and that has worked very well for me (although I know that my approach would probably not work for everyone). I continue to be Vegan for health, environmental and ethical reasons.

 

i became a vegitarian about a year ago, around by 13th birthday... i've been eating a lot of dairy products and peanuts and vegetables and stuff. i eat patties that contain no-meat what-so-ever. and i feel really relaxed and lesa guilty that i was eating actual living creatures

 

I've been mainly vegetarian ( with a few backsliding moments) since 1989. My two daughters were raised "meatless". Any backsliding ended last December with mad cow and when I read Fast Food Nation. In the past year I have stopped consuming dairy products also. I believe that we are connected to every living thing and it makes sense to eat living food...ie fresh -organic if possible vegetables and whole grains and fruit. I think it is the number 1 best thing you can do for yourself. The advice I would give is read some books about sound nutrition. Superfoods RX, Gary Null, Andrew Weil all have sound nutritional advice and can be easily modified for a vegan diet. It isn't just about feeling bad for the animals ( although it is a compelling reason), it is about what nature intended the human animal to consume. The food industry does not care what your health is like and 90% of what is in the supermarket is NOT real food. I'm glad to see that so many young people are interested in this type of diet and commend you all.