Please or to access all these features

Add post

Watch this thread

Save thread

Start a new thread

Flip thread

Hide thread

My feed

Active Unanswered threads

Getting started FAQ's

Unanswered threads Acronyms Talk guidelines

Hide shortcut buttons

Talk

Food/recipes

For related content, visit our food content hub.

Flip

1 2 3 4

Original poster

veggie dilemma

92 replies

ionesmum · 13/09/2002 21:58

I've been veggie since I was 18. Dh only eats chicken and fish but doesn't like most veggie things. Dd is having veggie and fish. Life would be so much easier for me when dd is a bit bigger if I ate fish too, then I could cook just one meal in the evening instead of two or even three. I do like and miss fish but I also have moral principles about eating anything that has been alive. Has anyone else gone back on being veggie? Or do other veggies think this is a terrible thing to do?

OP posts:

anais · 18/09/2002 20:14

It's a case of consumer power Tigger2! Yeah, most supermarket own-brands are non-tested, and some don't contain animal products which is wonderful

monkey · 18/09/2002 20:41

anais, I just wanted to say I was sorry for my post to you, I'm sure I came accross as really rude and I've been feeling bad about it ever since. I didn't mean to be offensive, harsh or anything else. Hope you'll accept my apologies for my brusqueness.

susanmt · 18/09/2002 20:52

I'm just interested anais - would you eat my eggs. Our hens are totally free range, can go in/out whenever they like, eat and drink when they like, and when they get too old to lay we are old softies and keep them anyway cos we have bred tham ourselves and are attached to them ! So NO animals die in the production of our eggs. We are a very small back-garden producer (for ourselves and neighbours) and of course, keeping unproductive hens means the whole thing is totally uneconomic, but we do it cos we like them and we LOVE the eggs!

anais · 18/09/2002 22:09

Monkey, no need to feel bad. As I have said before I believe in debates and to my mind that means we are allowed differing opinions. Although as I said I do agree with you, to a point...No bad feelings

Susanmt, to be honest I'm not a big egg eater anyway. The kids like them though! It's my dream to have a bit of land and be able to keep ducks and chickens and the like, so I guess the answer is yes, I probably would

Hevs · 19/09/2002 13:00

ionesmum - Assuming that you wouldn't want to submit your DD to a boring diet of fish you would still need to cook veggie meals some days. Perhaps you should buy a huge freezer and freeze loads of easily defrosted foods (pasta meals, fish/chick/veg curries, vegetable bakes & crumbles, etc).

There again, if all the cooking is making you miserable and you actually like fish, then you need to look deep in your heart to see if you can live with the moral compromise.

I've been veggie for 22 years now, but I'm lucky because my DH is happy to eat veggie stuff at home (as long as he gets his bacon sarnie at work) :-)

Hevs · 19/09/2002 13:09

There again, if all the cooking is making you miserable and you actually like fish, then you need to look deep in your heart to see if you can live with the moral compromise.

I've been veggie for 22 years now, but I'm lucky because my DH is happy to eat veggie stuff at home (as long as he gets his bacon sarnie at work) :-)

Original poster

ionesmum · 19/09/2002 14:16

Thanks, hevs. I hadn't though of veggie crumble, what a good idea! I can't master freezer cooking, I'm so scatty I'd probably give us all food poisoning!

OP posts:

AliJ · 19/09/2002 15:27

I was pure veggie from about the age of 15-18 - I started eating fish for health reasons but would never go back to eating meat - yeuch! My dd age 2 and my husband are enthusiatic carnivores - I do believe that kids need at least protein and white fish for good health

Jasper · 19/09/2002 20:26

AliJ I am very interested in your "yeuch " comment...
Loads of my pals are vegetarian ( as a result I love to cook veg. food for them) and I have never come across a vegetarian for whom giving up meat was much of a sacrifice. In other words everyone I have ever known who turned vegetarian did not like eating meat much in the first place.
I have not met one who is tortured by the smell of a steak cooking for instance because they would love to eat it taste wise but their principles forbid it.
I am not drawing any grand conclusion from this, it's just an observation .

sobernow · 19/09/2002 20:32

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

anais · 19/09/2002 21:11

Jasper, I used to like meat. I gave up purely for moral reasons. The idea of eating meat now makes me want to throw up, but at the time it was quite a big sacrifice!

Original poster

ionesmum · 19/09/2002 21:25

I agree anais. I loved bacon (the obvious one) but also casseroles and braised dishes. I never really liked roasts very much and find veggie burgers just as good as meat ones. The thought of eating meat now really makes me feel ill - I don't think I could chew or digest it - but some things were hard to give up. But I know many veggies who simply don't like meat.

OP posts:

Tinker · 19/09/2002 21:27

Is it really true that you stop being able to digest meat after a while? I do eat meat but not a great deal of red meat. However, had a horrible reaction to Steak Tartare recently which I put down to food poisoning. But could it just be that it was too strong somehow?

Twink · 19/09/2002 21:36

Tinker you must have missed the article a few months ago in either Guardian w/e or Obs magazine about the two guys who went to Thailand on an investigative health trip which involved lots of hoses and water, who were convinced whole pieces of steak were re-emerging into their shower tray...

(Sorry eveyone that was probably a bit more than you needed to read)

WideWebWitch · 19/09/2002 23:01

Twink, I saw that article, it was GROSS!!! But interesting.

anais · 19/09/2002 23:09

I had a vegan friend who was quite ill (food poisoning type symptoms I believe) when his food was 'spiked' with meat.

Original poster

ionesmum · 20/09/2002 11:22

I can believe it. Meat is very hard to digest because of the fat content - hence the tradition for serving sage with turkey, apple with pork and rosemary with lamb, all of which help to break down the fat and help digestion. Pulses are hard to digest because of the fibre content which produces the opposite effect from meat! I don't think my stomach could cope with the animal fat and I know I'd get terrible indigestion if I tried to eat meat. Also, I know someone who had ear trouble after resuming a meat-based diet because her jaw wasn't used to chewing tough meat.

OP posts:

floops · 27/09/2002 22:17

we are all veggies who eat fish. We get so much stick from friends though re: how can you do that to your children? They all think that they will not develop properly (and this is from professional people alot who are health care professionals). Does anyone else get hassled in this way? (incidentally we never start the topic of conversation they all seem to pass judgement unprovoked)

SoupDragon · 27/09/2002 22:49

This is probably the right place to ask something that's bugged me for ages : How do vegetarians justify eating an egg when it's a potential chicken?

This is not a dig - I'm genuinely curious about this!

WideWebWitch · 27/09/2002 23:51

Floops, yes I have had this, I think I commented further down the thread. For me the best way of handling it has been to be well versed in all the nutritional facts and stats and therefore to be able to argue my case well. Sometimes I can't be bothered though since A) I don't want to argue and B) It's NONE of their business! BTW my ds is veggie, I'm not.

sis · 28/09/2002 15:12

I am a vegetarian and basically,it is a bit like giving to charity in that I try to do my bit, even if it won't cure all the ills of the world and I do not pretend to be perfect in anyway - including my principles on not eating meat or fish. So, for example, I eat eggs but not meat - no justification necessary other than lack of willpower to cut out eggs, but I do have the willpower not to eat meat so I don't eat it.

I,m not sure if I have put this very well - I wish I could explain things as well as Marina, Tigermoth, Wickedwaterwitch, Aloha etc...

jasper · 28/09/2002 15:18

flopps I am astonished people say this to you.
My two best friends are raising their kids as vegetarians and I would never pass comment.
One of them has the baby with the funny shaped head ( nothing do with vegetarianism)- see other thread - and I am absolutely tying myself in knots about how to discuss this further with her as I do think there is a real cause for concern about this.
I guess it is hard to determine where concern about lifestyle choices ends and real worries begin about problems related to the health of your friends' children .
Maybe my dear friend thinks it is outrageous that I voice my concerns about her baby's head

jasper · 28/09/2002 15:18

sorry, Floops

Rhubarb · 28/09/2002 20:30

I have to say that I agree with you all that you should be able to bring up your children however you want. But..... I hate it when veggies say to me that I am not giving my child a choice by giving her meat to eat - that I am forcing my beliefs onto her (they say much the same about religion). Do you not think that by giving your children meat you actually are giving them a choice? At least then they can turn round and say "I don't want to eat that" whereas if they have never had it, they wouldn't know if they liked it or not. And should they wish to try it when they got older, their digestive system would not be used to it and less able to cope?

A little boy at our toddler group is being brought up a vegan. I don't know if this is anything to do with it but he is very pale and though he is 17 months, I used to think that he was only 12 months and was stunned when he recently said 'hello' to me. It's awful when the children get their biscuits and drinks as he is not allowed to have anything. The look on his face as he watches the other children devour their treats is heartbreaking. Do you not think he should be allowed to make his own mind up on this, how can he have a choice when he is denied the right to try these foods?

Original poster

ionesmum · 28/09/2002 22:52

Rhubarb, I personally would have doubts about raising a child as a vegan. However, I don't have a problem with raising children as veggies - several of my schoolfriends had parents who were veggie for religious reasons but they all ate meat with no adverse effects. I don't see that it's any different from raising your children not to be veggie - you do what fits in with your beliefs and lifestyle. My dd is having fish, and tonight I did give her a bit of chicken,but only because she has a delicate tummy amd I don't want to give her too many pulses yet.

Soupdragon - re eggs, very few are fertilised, if any. So long as my eggs are free-range and organic, I don't feel bad. I feel far worse for owning leather shoes, but it's not easy to get decent non-leather ones IME.

OP posts:

Flip

1 2 3 4