Vegan / Vegetarian Goths

[SonOfLilith]

Who is living vegan / vegetarian? And why?

Ethic reasons?
Medical reasons?
Religious reasons?
Flavor reasons?
etc.

[Minyaliel]

I am, mainly because I just feel better without meat. And I rarely get sick because of the way I eat - my immune system is so strengthened that if I get ill, I can be sure it'll pass faster than normal. I have mono right now, unfortunately, I've had it for about a week now, but it seems it might be over in about two or three weeks. I "blame" my diet. On the bad side, you always risk getting an anemia. But, no real moral issues made me a veggie. I must admit, though, that after becoming vegetarian, I became more aware of the issues surrounding eating meat/ meat production etc. I'm glad I quit eating that stuff, although I of course respect you carnivores out there who choose to stuff yourselves with dead animals. Each to their own.

[mandy goes to art school]

I am a straightedge vegan. It's very easy for me because I live in practically the most hippie town in the southeast. I'm vegan for ethical reasons, but I find that most people try to convince me out of it. I get tired of trying to defend myself.

People say that it seems hard, and I used to be one of them, but there are so many great tasting alternatives out there I had to try veganism. It is definitely something to be done carefully. Making sure I'm getting all my nutrients and such.

[kaffeine]

Hmm for me it started with Vegetarianism when I was 16 because an ex got me into it. I had a lot of problems digesting food, and would have regular stomach aches all the time. Anyway, when I was vegetarian for about 11 months I decided to go vegan and see if it helps my digestive system and all. And it has, I've been vegan for 2.5 years now, and I feel much better. Plus I lost aout 20-25 pounds, so that makes me feel better as well. Although I had no clue I would lose so much weight. It's not only for health reasons though, I do love animals and try not to buy leather [unless there is no other choice]. It's too bad vegan shoes are so damn expensive and hard to find. =/.

[MissV]

I've been vegetarian since I was 13- that's 23 years. Which just sounds so odd, I can't believe how old I am. heh. I was vegan for about a dozen years. I would prefer to be vegan, but cooked vegetable proteins give me migraines. BAD, debilitating migraines. So I wasn't getting any protein for a long time. Most vegans get plenty from plant sources, in fact often too much because of all the soy, but the almonds I eat were about all I was getting. So after a *lot* of thought about it, I started eating eggs- organic, free range, unfertilized. I still feel really weird about it, but I realize I have to put myself first.

Why I'm veg? When I started it was for ethical/environmental reasons, and back then I was allergic to all raw fruits, plants, nuts, etc- it was an enzyme allergy. A weird one, yeah. I come from a very ill childhood, so it became a goal to get healthy and over time I made my body adjust to rawfoods and became a raw foodist (vegan) for about six months. I still have never felt that good. But I went back to eating some cooked foods, and do better the more raw I have in my diet. Basically, I don't really get colds or flus; it's extremely rare, whereas before I was vegan and incorporated raw I got sick all the time. I was a healthnut for awhile, but I've eased up on it.

Now, I'm vegetarian with the occasional eggs for very broad reasons. I don't do dairy. It's about the amount of suffering in the world, how much I choose to take part in that, and how much I can realistically not. So I try to be down to earth, take into account a lot of variables, and make choices that don't cross the lines I draw for myself.

I really do not care what other people do/eat. I prefer to date vegetarians, but only because the smell of meat makes me nauseous, and it makes eating together kinda blah.My family are all vegetarian, which makes holidays nice.

[davethedarklord]

Earth takes us in awhile as transient guests;
we live by our habit of eating, which we must unlearn.

[Jucudeno]

I am a vegetarian, myself. I originally conceived to do so because of religious reasons, but I couldn't bring myself to stop eating meat. However, after a deal of time passed with this reasoning, I began to become physically sick from eating beef. After I couldn't eat beef anymore, it wasn't hard to make the transition all the way.

I haven't had any health problems so far, but it is rather hard to keep up the vegetarian diet. As for ethical reasons, I might quote a poem by George Bernard Shaw.

"We are the living graves of murdered beasts,
Slaughtered to satisfy our appetites.
We never pause to wonder at our feasts,
If animals, like men, can possibly have rights.
We pray on Sundays that we may have light,
To guide our footsteps on the path we tread.
We're sick of war, we do not want to fight-
The thought of it now fills our hearts with dread,
And yet - we gorge ourselves upon the dead.

Like carrion crows, we live and feed on meat,
Regardless of the suffering and pain
We cause by doing so, if thus we treat
Defenceless animals for sport or gain,
How can we hope in this world to attain
The PEACE we say we are so anxious for.
We pray for it, over hecatombs of slain,
To God, while outraging the moral law
Thus cruelty begets its offspring - WAR"

[Linen]

I was a strict vegetarian for eight years, from ages 15 to 22. When I got married my husband sort of pushed me into taking a bite of his hamburger, and when I actually liked it I felt pretty guilty. So for the last year I've not been a vegetarian, but I still don't eat much red meat (it makes me feel heavy, sick, and bloated). I probably only have red meat once a month or less. I have turkey or chicken about twice a week. As far as seafood goes, I hate it and haven't had any since I was 10.

Other than that I still eat a lot of Morningstar Farms products and other veg products. I hate the taste/smell/texture of fishy stuff. I really want to go veg again for both health and ethical reasons, and in general it would be easy for me to stop cold-turkey again (no pun intended), but my husband is an awesome cook & he's big into meat, so I know he might try to tempt me a lot.

I'm not sure what to do. The only problem I had when I was a vegetarian was that I would eat an excess of bread and cheese sometimes, so that wasn't really healthy either. At least when I have turkey or chicken it's usually lower fat than pigging out on bread & cheese lol.

[Crying_Crimson_Tears]

I'm a vegetarian. Not a very strict one though. I still eat eggs and chicken and fish. My father says we can't afford me to go full vegetarian because of the supplements and other things we would have to get for me to reach my daily dietary requirements. So I only eat white meat, and not too often. But my dad did get me some veggie chips, and only stuff that was fish or chicken which is good. I mean I hate the thought of eating an animal, it almost makes me sick. But I can only do so much. I like eating less meat though, I feel so much healthier for some reason.

[Delkaetre]

I'm a meat eater, but many of my friends at home are veggie. One of my favourite cafes is too, and we're always careful not to bring gelatine products in. I do find it irritating when I get holier-than-thou vegetarians telling me my lifestyle is wrong and that I'm horrible, immoral and lacking in all human conscience for eating dead things (after all, I don't try and convert them to eating meat so they shouldn't go for me), but that's only an over-vocal minority- most veggies are sound people.
And veggie food is rather yummy if I'm feeling a bit illish and want something lighter or healthier than red meat.

[Godslayer Jillian]

Haha, I love when a holier-than-thou vegetarian begins to talk to me about my diet.
I always use an argument I heard in John Doe.
I tell him first "Have you ever wondered if your sweater (or shirt) was made of Australian wool?"
He generally says a variation of "No. What does it matter?"
And I say "Well, Australia allows farmers to kill hundreds of kangaroos every year. Farmers consider them plagues to the fields of their flocks."
They generally shut up.

[DarkHeartedDemoness]

I don't eat meat because I don't want to. That doesn't mean you shouldn't. I'm fully ok with making dishes for meat-eaters that contain meat. I just don't want to eat it myself.

[CptSternn]

Salad is what food eats.

[DarkHeartedDemoness]

Well, golly, aren't you clever?

Sternn, you just posted that so that you could be the disagreeable minority, didn't you? I just got finished saying that I'm making my choice and I won't belittle you for yours... And you belittle me for mine.

Props on being one of the most small-minded people I've ever "met".

[She_Is_My_Sin]

I eat fish, but even so I don't have it often. Apart from that my diet is meat free. I decided to give up meat on the health benefits. Firstly I gave up red meat. Soon after I got myself off the chicken too. I'd like to try giving vegan a go, just to see what it's like. Meh, maybe when I'm older.

[Crying_Crimson_Tears]

I hope to one day give up on eating chicken and fish and just be full on vegetarian. I don't eat a lot of fish and chicken now, but my dad says I need to. And I am only 14, (15 in a week!!!) so he can kind of still tell me what to do. I don't know, I also like fish and chicken, so it might be hard to be a vegetarian.

[DarkHeartedDemoness]

I feel a lot healthier since I stopped eating meat... A lot of that's because now that I've cut meat out of my diet, I have to really think about what I eat in order to keep my meals semi-balanced. Some of it's because a couple of my old favorite meaty dishes were really unhealthy. And I'm sure a lot of it's a state of mind... But the point is, I'm feeling better about myself.

[CreepyTendencies]

I haven't touched red meat for about 10 years now for several reasons. First off, I don't like the taste of it. Also, I tend to have a "meat is murder" kind of attitude. Furthermore, I found that I simply felt better when I avoided red meat. However, for quite a while I still ate chicken and turkey.

I've always been allergic to shellfish, so I've avoided fish altogether my entire life.

Thus, it wasn't too far of a stretch for me to become vegetarian a few years ago. After doing a ton of reading on the subjects of animal rights, healthy eating, and the meat industries, I found vegetarianism to be a comfortable lifestyle for me. I still eat some dairy, but I avoid eggs. I would love to one day go completely vegan, however I don't find it feasible at the moment. Embedded dairy is difficult to avoid, and I simply don't have the time and patience right now to cook everything at home by hand. I don't doubt that it will happen once I'm done with school though.

[Godslayer Jillian]

Haha, this line I'm about to say is supposed to be just funny, so I apologize if someone finds it a little wrong:

Real goths love to feast on the bloody viscerae of innocent creatures.

[BlackButterfly]

Heh... I like my bloody viscerae lightly seasoned, thanks...

Seriously though, I don't eat as much meat as I used to, but sometimes I am overwhelmed by the terrifying urge to inhale a pile of bacon.

Since I grew up on Southern cuisine ("soul food"), I learned to cook everything in meat (sounds funny, but I'm serious!)--using fat to fry, butter and gravy on EVERYTHING, and seasoning your veggies with the broth/drippings from the meat dish you cook (sounds yummy, don't it?). Tastes awesome, but you pay for it in the end (no pun intended).

Honestly, I find nothing wrong with eating meat, but I think it's healthier to eat more fresh veggies.

Here's my funny quote (no hard feelings attached): "If God didn't intend for us to eat animals, they wouldn't be made of meat."

[Linen]

Originally Posted by Crying_Crimson_Tears

I'm a vegetarian. Not a very strict one though. I still eat eggs and chicken and fish. My father says we can't afford me to go full vegetarian because of the supplements and other things we would have to get for me to reach my daily dietary requirements.

When I first went vegetarian (unfortunately I'm not currently because I do eat chicken & turkey and I very rarely eat red meat now) I was about your age - 15. I'm sure your dad is looking out for you, and I'm not saying you should do what I did, but for my 8 years as a strict veg I hardly ever took my vitamins constistantly and they were just regular multis - not special supplements. I haven't ever had any major health problems although I did have slightly low iron a couple of times from not supplementing it. I seemed to get along OK though.

[Crying_Crimson_Tears]

Yeah, I love my dad. I know he's looking out for me. Which I think is a really good thing. For now I'll eat the meat when he wants me to, but otherwise, I do not plan on eating meat unless I have to.

[we_are_138]

Originally Posted by BlackButterfly

Since I grew up on Southern cuisine ("soul food"), I learned to cook everything in meat (sounds funny, but I'm serious!)--using fat to fry, butter and gravy on EVERYTHING, and seasoning your veggies with the broth/drippings from the meat dish you cook (sounds yummy, don't it?). Tastes awesome, but you pay for it in the end (no pun intended).

That's exactly how I grew up. My family is from Mississippi. (we moved to central new york because of how insanely "Progressive" Mississippi is HAH) So when I tried to become a vegetarian when I was 12, it didn't exactly go over well. I was a vegetarian for about a year but I wasn't doing it right. My parents did not think it was a healthy choice.

Crying Crimson Tears: Yes, that's same thing my parents did. And if you're a vegetarian, and you eat right, you won't need to take "supplements" You'll be perfectly healthy. And yes, you're right, your dad is just trying to look out for you. Meat is such a big part of a lot of cultures, and so some people believe that you actually have to have meat in order to be healthy. Eventually, and it may take a little while, he'll begin to understand. My parents did, and now they help me fix vegan food for holidays and stuff!

I finally went vegan I guess when I was 20. LOVE IT. Mostly for moral, economic, and environmental reasons. Crap, you name a reason to become vegan and that's me. I think someone posted up there that they were a straight edge vegan. Well so am I. But being straight edge and being vegan to me have absolutely nothing to do with each other.

I'm not the most "strict" vegan there ever is. For instance, I'm starting to on rare occasions cook pancakes that have free range vegetarian fed hen eggs. Simply because I think that if a hen happens to lay an unfertilized egg that someone could eat it and it would be morally acceptable. But it really depends on whether the hens are being kept purely for that reason, are they allowed to go around and have little families and act as they please. ugh, it's such a delicate situation. But cowsmilk will always be a big no no for me. So, yeah, I'm mostly vegan (:

[Crying_Crimson_Tears]

My dad has been most helpful at least. He goes shopping every other week and he always gets me the right foods. Like just chicken and fish and such. He gets me a lot of veggies and such as well. So it's all good. I am not very strict on being vegetarian, I am almost afraid to because I still like eating fish and chicken. I refuse to eat red meat though. So I guess that's okay, I am considering drinking soy milk too. But only if my dad says we can afford it, it's expensive I guess.

[korinna5555]

im a veggie! ohhh and they have the BEST fake "chicken" nuggets.....taste like the real thing

soymilk=THE BEST