A small factor in my reasoning for becoming a vegetarian has to do with health, but it mostly has to do with how I feel about factory farming and the serious impact it has on the environment, not to mention the inhumane treatment towards animals. After reading a few (completely non-biased I might add) books on factory farming, I really just can't look at a slice of ham and not think about the awful treatment that pig went through just so I can eat it, when I can easily make a meal without it. And then I think about the impact that the factory it came from has had on the environment, and I really just lose any craving for meat whatsoever :-P I think the only thing I miss is the convenience of it - like when I'm at restaurants or something.
Well, there are plenty of non-factory farmed meat options. You can get lots of free range meats at places like Whole Foots and Wild Oats. Now, I realize even Free Range doesn't mean what it used to, but it's a huge step up from the factory farms.
I also know exactly what you're talking about with soy - I'm not saying that I add it in to every single thing that I eat. But many people, when they find out someone is vegetarian, immediately try and make vegetarians look dumb by saying "and where do you get your protein? where do you get your nutrients?" without realizing that those proteins and nutrients can be attained through soy products.
Right. but beause that is such a default answer for vegetarians, they over rely on Soy. Which is bad times for you in the long run.
Eat lots of nuts, whole grains, brown rice, whole wheat pasta, dark green leafy veggies (buy fresh and try steaming instead of boiling whenver possible, cause most of the good stuff is water soluble and leaks out when you cook it).
But yeah, you don't need meat. I tried doing the vegetarian thing for about 4 months last summer, just to see what it was like. I knew it would be short term, but I wanted to experience it and see what it was like.
It def wasn't for me, but I learned a LOT in the process.
Most of the food I eat I prepare myself. I buy a lot of fresh produce and mix it with other foods. For example, I have boxed dry mixes for veggie burgers and mock taco-fillings, but I only eat a small-regular portion of them and have fruits, veggies, and beans for the bulk of my meals.
Good girl ^_^
Plus, learning to cook is always a valuable skill.
If you ever get into gardening or want to try it (after college, obv) let me know. I actually grow about half of what I eat during the summer and I can a ton of stuff for winter too.
I also buy about 75% of my groceries from the organic section. Being a poor college student it gets kind of difficult, but I do as much as I can afford.
Yeah. That's understandable. Even *I* don't buy organic in some things because of the cost. Like, organic milk is clearly better, but it's more than twice the price for the same amount and I have a hard time justifying the cost difference especially when the conventional is local.
And in some cases the organic version is actually worse... like, all of the organic apple juices I find are made from concentrate and rehydrated with organic cane sugar. I buy fresh press conventional instead, because less processing is more important to me than organic.
It's a weird balance. But if you're intersted, there is a great newsleter I get (http://www.centerforfoodsafety.org/index.cfm) that does a really good job of helping you figure out what is in what foods and boxed food items. It kinda tells you which brands are full of GMO's and who likes to hide unhealthy things and play games with labels. It's also really good about keeping you informed on what is going on in government regarding food safety issues.
It's not nutty left-wing liberal, either. It's pretty balanced.
edit: I didn't want this to sound preachy, but I had a friend who was a vegan in college and he ended up in the hospital for malnutrition because his heart was int he rigtht place but he didn't educate himself first. He just jumped into a bad idea.
I'm definitely going to check out that newsletter. I did research before making the decision to be vegetarian, but like you said a lot of food that claims to be healthy really isn't - you really have to research each company you buy from - I find myself reading the nutrition labels even more carefully than I did before I was vegetarian. It's very easy to eat a lot of "empty calories" which I don't want to do.
I get what you're saying about non-factory farmed meat, but where I live in upstate NY, there aren't any specialty-food stores close enough that I could buy from. The closest we have is Wegmans, which is a chain grocery store but has a decent organic section. I never ate that much meat to begin with, so I don't really miss it at all.
And I eat plenty of nuts and whole wheats - I actually have a small container of unsalted almonds that I bring with me everywhere for when I get a little hungry. Everyone laughs at me but it's a good way to get good nutrients and it keeps me from eating potatoe chips all the time. And I'm obsessed with whole-wheat pasta. One of my friends introduced me to it last year and I've never gone back to regular pasta. Even my mother, a full blooded Italian swears by it :-P.
For the gardening thing - you're talking to a country girl, I've been gardening since I can remember :-P On of my jobs when I was a kid was to pick the tomatoes and shell the peas. This year my roomate and I are in an apartment and are going to try growing our own herbs.
I understand what you're saying about your friend. I definitely do not want to become vegan without doing a lot of research first. I figured I would do the vegetarian thing for a year, and then if I wanted to try a vegan diet. You can be a vegan and be completely healthy, but you have to know exactly what you're doing and know exactly what foods to eat every day. I would never do it without becoming well educated on it.
