[Please help!] My girlfriend became a vegetarian

What part do you not agree with me? I guess I didn't make it clearer.

Moes and FB should learn to accept each other being a vegan or not. Who knows, FB may help him to be more aware of his health. I'm never becoming a vegan. Never. I love meat too much to give it up but I don't eat it too often. It's always like that. My guy started eating more chicken because he wanted to lose weight and etc. We just happen to cook more chicken and fish than red meat at home.

So, try to see something good out of this, both of you moes and FB. Guilty tripping each other isn't NOT the way to do it.

 

Wow. Thanks.

Let me rephrase, then.

Humans are designed to eat meat. Yes, we do know other specific alternatives for B-12, etc. But a human can live on meat, alone. Vegetarians have to learn what to eat, ie. apples and lettuce aren't enough.

 

Woah, she went VEGAN? That's one helluva jump from eating meat/dairy.

I have two close friends who are not entirely vegetarians, more like pescitarians. One has a rule that if you look at it and it looks back at you with both eyes, it's off limits. Another will only eat what meats they'd voluntarily kill if they had to survive on their hunting skills. It pretty much limits them to fish and shrimp.

Both of my friends grew up eating meat, and gave it up in their young adulthood/late teen years. So they completely understand everyone's desire to eat meat, and don't preach about it to us. Our compromise is to eat at places that offer vegetarian options, so they get what they want and I get what I want.

 

Up to this point in my life, I have been an indiscriminate omnivore.

As I have gotten older, I am thinking more and more about "eating better". My dad had clogged heart arteries, so I am investigating how to avoid that for myself. Reading around I stumbled on: The Anti-Aging Plan: The Nutrient-Rich, Low-Calorie Way of Eating for a Longer Life--The Only Diet Scientifically Proven to Extend Your Healthy Years.

From the title, one can see that the authors have several plates spinning, Nutrient-Rich diet and Anti-Aging. I am interested in the former and not so much in the latter, though they are certainly interconnected. The main premise for the Nutrient-Rich diet is eating more vegetables, since they are high in nutrients and low in calories and thus nutrient rich. (The anti-aging premise is that vegetarians die in their 80s, that meat eaters die in their 70s, and that very few people make it to 90. The vegetarians die later since they get fewer deceases. Again, this is not my concern.)

The book appears to have convincing scientific research to back their premises. (Caveat: The authors may have been vegetarians, before they completed their research, i.e. they may have been looking to justify their previous life decision.)

Thus, I decided to start migrating from omnivore to vegetarian. I am eating less meat and more vegetables. I am attempting to limit myself to one meal per day with meat. That is my goal. If being a vegetarian was easier, I might consider making a complete break.

As an aside, people intersted in life extension might want to check out The Calorie Restriction Society. Their premise is to eat ~1500 calories per day. To make sure that they get the proper nutrients, they eat nutrient rich food. Studies have shown that people, who follow the diet from childhood, get fewer deceases, age more slowly, and live longer. These people are hungry all of the time.

 

Isn't she the number 1 fan of Wendy's chili ?

Also I've seen posts sharing her love for steaks, burgers etc over the years.

Sad indeed.

 

Julia Child fall in a faint.

French Onion Soup should use beef broth.

 

So...its not really so much about the cruelty to livestock.

More about being healthy, right?...nothing wrong with that. Pigs are really nasty animals to eat, anyway. Have you guys tried just eating much smaller portions of red meat? That way you get the flavor but you load you plate with plenty of veggies to fill you up.

 

Get a freezer, go find a rancher who you know treats his animals well and buy one from him. Go in half or quarter with someone if you can. The beef is better, it is usually a little cheaper (though it is a big up front cost), and you know that you are support good ranching practices.

On the other hand, isn't their some saying about cruelty being delicious, that's why veal tastes so good?

 

To some degree, but if you look at the paragraph I quote, the essence is: I know it might be wrong, but I'd rather not think about it because ignorance is bliss.

He's trying to 'win' in that he wants to have an answer that will allow him to keep eating meat without feeling guilty. And you obviously didn't understand my point. The philosophers and lawyers you "whoopee" are people who eat meat. My point was that there are a lot of really smart people who eat meat who can't come up with, in their OWN judgment, adequate defenses of the habit. Here's another one of Wallace's points:

"Still, after all the abstract intellection, there remain the facts of the frantically clanking lid, the pathetic clinging to the edge of the pot. Standing at the stove, it is hard to deny in any meaningful way that this is a living creature experiencing pain and wishing to avoid/escape the painful experience. To my lay mind, the lobster’s behavior in the kettle appears to be the expression of a preference; and it may well be that an ability to form preferences is the decisive criterion for real suffering."

When you hear about what goes on in slaughterhouses, what happens on the killing floor, how animals are treated, the reality of that suffering is VERY hard to rationalize away. My point wasn't "I'm right, you're wrong, you should be vegetarian," my point was that as a rhetorical situation, one side is heavily outgunned. If he's going to try to find a reason to defend his habit beyond his own preference, it will be very difficult.

I NEVER said he was wrong. I said that everyone I know, whose job is to come up with good reasons for doing things, has trouble coming up with a solid defense of our current meat-eating practices that they find satisfactory, EVEN THOUGH they still eat meat themselves. I'm not talking about the issue in terms of right and wrong, but in terms of what he can expect if he tries to substantively answer the arguments on the pro-vegetarian side. Like I've said above, when you read about what goes into making the burger on your plate, it's VERY hard to answer it. He should accept that, and not worry about trying to justify what he does, or think about how he can switch his diet.

Just read his post:

The word "threatened" implies that he feels uneasy because of her choices. When you feel "threatened" by someone else, you're letting their choices upset you and sow the seeds of conflict.

 

I'll bring some deer meat that my mom has killed herself with her bare hands (she's gangsta like that) and had prepared into deer everything. Thats if it is the cruelty issue. Health... I think deer meat is better for you. Maybe. Maybe no. Just dont want to? Thats fine too.

 

You wouldn't call killing something with your bare hands cruel? It couldn't be a very quick or painless death.

 

Damn, after all this talk about omega 3, I was going to cook some eggs.

For those who can't stand seafood, are eggs and meat the only alternative sources for omega 3 oil?

Spoiler

 

I was joking about bare hands. Rifle.

 

and by rifle i now mean rocket launcher. Very tender

 

vegetarians=owned........

 

Perhaps a similar situation here, but 10 years down the road. It can work as long as you continue to talk about it and make sure that there's no resentment building up over the choices that you make.

My gf and I have been living together almost 10 years now. When we first met, she didn't eat red meat, pork, shrimp, or lobster, but she did eat chicken and most types of fish. Then, for a variety of reasons -- health, perceived cruelty to animals, reading a book called Fast Food Nation , etc. -- she cut out chicken after we'd been together about 2 years. She's very outspoken about the animal cruelty angle, and it's not something I like to think about. I like animals and don't want to think too much about from where the delicious steak or burger is coming. The important thing though is that I've remained open to considering it. It's still a choice I make to eat meat.

Moes, not sure who does the balance of the cooking between you and FB... but with my gf and me, it's 100% me. It's been a challenge. I frequently make 2 meals, one for me and one for her -- and I've learned to make some amazing vegetarian dishes that I normally would never have tried. It's also opened me to eating more regional/ethnic foods that I might not have explored otherwise. I can go a few days without eating any meat, but I always go back. That she travels alot for work makes it easier -- BBQ and burgers during the week, a few Indian, Thai or other veggie dishes on the weekends.

We continue to talk about it from time to time, and she doesn't resent me at all for the choices I make. She doesn't try to change me, but she notices and appreciates it when I suggest a veggie place for dinner for the sake of simplicity/compromise.

Being challenged like this is a good thing. You'll appreciate it down the road.

 

you're right...I think I mistakenly said chicken in my earlier post...he may have read it from there.

moe, there's all kind of things like this that if she really wants to be strict about, she is going to have to watch out for. cooks are always trying to throw bacon or fats or other stuff onto a dish,sauce, etc. she'll have to start duoble checking a lot of stuff, which is fairly painful.