AIBU to become vegetarian?

[comoneileen]

I recently came across post on Facebook about cruelty in the abattoirs.
Just thinking about it make me feel sick.
We have dogs as our best friends. They share our beds and become full family members.
Meanwhile pigs who have a very similar and playful character are being slaughtered for meat. More than 900 million farm animals are killed for food each year in Britain (www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/aug/28/fsa-4000-breaches-animal-welfare-laws-uk-abattoirs-two-years).

I have dairy intolerance and so has DD. And she is intolerant to soya too.
It is going to be very complicated to feed us on vegetarian meals and get a balanced diet! AiBU to become vegetarian?

I decided to become a responsible meat eater and reduce my meat consumption but due to the limits of my budget I still buy cheap meat and wonder what kind of cruelty was used against this animal killed for my dinner. And doing this does not feel enough.

Violife! They even do 'parmesan'.

A cat is a carnivore and giving it a vegan diet will kill it.

Humans are omnivores, must have b12 which only comes from animal sources. Supplementation, fortification or defecation - your choice...

Grumpy agree 100%

Grumpy the OP said they had hens, so presumably that's OK?

I agree that the whole picture needs to be looked at, however I still think being veggie is a good thing (even if being vegan is better).

Am I right in thinking there a quite a lot of environmental concerns over the production of soya?

Being vegetarian is 100% a good thing River it took me 20 years of being a strict vegetarian before going vegan.

I can't see the op saying she keeps hens, I do keep them as pets for my vegetarian children as I didn't feel right letting them eat eggs otherwise. We don't eat hardly any meat alternatives, nor do I eat any vegan cheese because it's shit

Wilmersburger vegan cheese is gorgeous! Also Sheese from the island of Bute, and Nature & Moi from France.

I have been vegetarian since the age of 13, then mostly vegan for two years. Instagram is a great source of ideas and motivation.

Go for it!

Justme thank you for that, I am not sure if I have tried Violife, may have done in the past, I don't have easy access to a decent wholefood shop so have been picking up whatever was in the supermarket. It has lead to pretty much giving up cheese completely because I refuse to buy palm oil.

I have used various 'milks' in cooking and on cereal but struggle with finding one that makes tea palatable, will try again with almond, might be some in the selection I bought last week, trying to buy 'milks' that don't have weird additives too.

I recall that when I first looked into soya, around the early 1990's, there was a lot of contraversial reading about GM soya (and rapeseed) and that the Japanese have a higher rate of stomach cancer because of their diet whereas we have a higher rate of heart disease because of ours.

Having said that, my takeaway tonight was tempura sweet potato, vegetables with tofu and sweet & sour tofu as we are lucky to have a Japanese/Chinese restaurant nearby and they also have a vegetarian set menu so we can eat out or in.

This might help www.vegansociety.com/resources/nutrition-and-health/vitamins-minerals-and-nutrients/vitamin-b12-your-key-facts/what-every-vegan-should-know-about-vitamin-b12

how difficult is it to get everything you need in a veggie or vegan diet if you are allergic to nuts? I am not severely allergic, but I avoid all nuts. I can be mostly veggie I think, but I think it would be difficult to be vegan.

I am a life long vegetarian, used to be vegan but changed because of family reasons. dont like soya, drink almond milk. Have a 14 year old vegetarian cat, perfectly healthy. Just do it.

Thebooks have a look here www.vegansociety.com/resources/nutrition-and-health

I don't cook with nuts as I have to share with someone that says they have an allergy, some of foods that are described as nuts are actually seeds which you may be able to eat so it isn't always straightforward. Not all nuts are equal.

The people who suggest a child going vegan is 'healthy' should be reported. I'm Asian, have an Indian family, and have seen the first hand effect of what happens when kids grow up vegan- (Anemia, not reaching full physical potential, intense fatigue, heart problems). There's a reason why sudden death is common in some predominately vegan cultures; it practically ran in my family until my gran's generation when we started eating eggs. Now there's not a single case of it.

There are lots of good reasons to be a vegetarian but reading about cruelty in abattoirs on Facebook isn't one of them. I used to work as a meat inspector at a number of abattoirs and even though I working alongside the slaughtermen on the line I never experienced any deliberate cruelty. I know that it does happen but I suspect it's extremely unusual. What you have to understand is that abattoirs are run as factories and everything is done as quickly and efficiently as possible. All the slaughtermen I worked with just wanted to get job done as fast as possible so they could go home. There would literally be hundreds of animals going through everyday and there simply wasn't time to waste time being cruel. It was in everyone's interest for the animals to remain as calm and quiet as possible. It was stun, kill then process as fast as possible.

I know there have been prosecutions for cruelty in abattoirs so I know it goes on but I don't think it's common despite what it might say on 'Facebook'
I'd be far more concerned with the cruelty involved in transporting livestock hundreds of miles to the abattoirs.

By the way living on almond 'milk' will give a child rickets. The posts on this thread are making me furious!

Fleur that is anecdote, of course people bringing up a child vegan shouldn't be reported. What they do is research the subject properly. I would be more tempted to report someone forcing an obligate carnivore (ie a cat) to be vegan.

FACT: drinking almond milk does NOT give you rickets. Its scandalous saying that without any sort of evidence.

It DOES. I know this because several Indian kids at my DN are being treated for it, and the NHS had to come in for an 'education' session about vegan foods. Fortified Soy milk is ok, but they specifically recommended against almond milk for kids saying it doesn't have enough vit d or calcium and can cause rickets.

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/24726668/

www.thh.nhs.uk/documents/_Patients/PatientLeaflets/paediatrics/allergies/PI308_Calcium_VitD_Sept16.pdf

The latter is an NHS doc. Clearly shows that enriched almond milk is ok, but the nurse who gave us the presentation said almond milk enriched to that level isn't consistantly available in the UK.

suppermummy cats cannot be veggie they need taurine! Please start feeding your cat meat!!!
www.google.co.uk/amp/www.telegraph.co.uk/pets/news-features/can-dogs-and-cats-be-vegetarians/amp/

Cats need meat!!!!!!!

YANBU to go veggie if you want, but please please please don't bore everyone within earshot or every acquaintance on Facebook with it, no one else cares. If a veggie friend tries to convert me they know full well I will go out and shoot something just to shut them up.

Also please do some serious research before making / encouraging children to do it. Kids / teens need correct nutrition and cutting out a massive food group is extremely bad for them. Even if they appear okay now they will be storing up problems for later. An adult body can withstand a lot of abuse and poor nutrition without becoming ill for a long long time, children can't. Unless for are an incredibly knowledgeable dietician / scientist then please be very careful.

My dsis is a veggie. She is one of the most knowledgeable people I've ever known about food and works very hard to eat well. Just cutting out meat is not good enough.

Almond milk has bugger all calcium in it so if you drink that as a replacement for milk then you will get rickets when you get older unless you find a way to get the required level of calcium. Again, many veggies or vegans just cut out the stuff they don't want to eat and dont bother thinking about the nutrients they are missing and need to replace.

Cats / dogs NEED meat. Your cat supermummymust be a miracle of nature (or actually be very unhealthy).
Animals mask pain or illness INCREDIBLY well as in the wild to show weakness is a sure way to get predated upon or loose your place within the pride / pack / social group which ultimately may threaten your very survival. By the time an animal shows signs of illness then it has usually been unwell for a very very long time. They can live with quite surprising levels of pain / illness / distress for years without owners ever knowing.

I'm willing to bet your cat isn't as healthy as you think.
There's a name for that - animal cruelty.
Ironic when you're probably veggie on 'animal welfare' grounds isn't it,

I wish more people would do their bit!

If you want to go veggie, then do so, but please don't turn in to one of the obnoxious ones that gets on a pedestal and lectures everyone around them.

"Doing your bit" can mean a lot of different things for different people. Not everyone wants to give up meat eating. Helping to move towards buying meat raised in humane conditions is a more realistic step than expecting everyone to give up meat eating. And it can be about more than just meat. Recycling is one thing. Or encouraging people to either grow their own, or buy their fruit/veg from small suppliers, rather than the big supermarkets. Just because you have chosen the meat eating issue as the one to obsess over, doesn't mean others aren't doing "their bit" in ways that differ from yours.

My DD recently did the same and so far it's going well. It has meant that as a family we are eating less meat as it's easier to make one vegetarian meal than make 2, though often I do. It means that when we buy meat we can choose organic, fairly treated animals. Can anyone tell me if my DD is correct in her assertion that KFC and Subway use only Halal meat? I'm not sure many people know this and it would definitely put lots of people off as the slaughter is less humane.

www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2014/may/07/halal-meat-restaurant-menus-humane-slaughter

Found my answer.

So, ALL chicken in Pizza Express is Halal! NOT detailed on the menu or website but it's not a secret apparently. As for Subway, only selected stores are Halal and also don't serve pork, details on website.KFC are trialling Halal meat in a huge amount of shops, details on their website.