ADVICE FROM A NON-VEGAN 1. It may be easiest to gradually become vegan - start by going vegetarian and then progressing. Because 2. DID YOU KNOW HOW MUCH SHIT HAS ANIMAL PRODUCTS IN IT? My favorite - white sugar! White sugar is purified by sifting it through bone char. Bones are an animal product and not vegan. Also on this "fun not vegan foods" list: gelatin, whey, almost all bread/baked goods (but not all), chocolate of course, certain red dyes (made from beetles!), certain food flavorings (including my favorite, beaver anal gland - which is used to give things a raspberry flavor), anything containing casein, whey, gelatin, the afore-mentioned white sugar, and so on. SO 3. Get ready to do some serious, serious label-reading. ALSO 4. Don't trust restaurant food that "looks" vegetarian. French onion soup? Delicious, and full of veggies! But - traditionally made with beef stock. Any soup at a restaurant is probably made with meat stock. 5. Get ready for people to ask you ridiculous things. When I was vegetarian my aunt asked me if I still ate pie. I asked her if the pie had meat in it. (I was a sarcastic vegetarian.) 6. Try and make sure you eat a lot of protein. I had a friend who was vegetarian and was ordered to start eating meat due to an iron deficiency. (She went pescatarian.) Veganism isn't my thing - but good luck. Oh, also, some people will refuse to date you because of this life choice. That's okay. There are also vegetarians and vegans who don't like to date meat eaters. Cuts both ways, just don't be that offended when it happens.
Not an altogether ridiculous thing to ask, as the best pie is made with animal lard, or butter at the very least (although I understand most vegetarians still consume butter). I've not tasted a vegan pie crust that I thought was much better than slapping some fillings on cardboard.
Thanks for that advice. You aren't a vegetarian no more, are you? Why did you stop? As for people asking me ridiculous things, I hope they will! There's a lot people around me don't know about that I can tell them. It's one of the reasons I think such a decision can really make a difference.
Careful with that. I've found that many vegans and vegetarians assume the rest of us aren't vegan or vegetarian because we don't know the impact of our choices on the animal kingdom... when in fact, we don't care. Starting the conversation necessarily requires you painting us as either (A) ignorant or (B) callous. Meanwhile, we're just trying to have lunch. I have several friends who are vegetarian. We can share a table without any problems - we've even had conversations about vegetarianism. Vegans are trickier. There's more of a moral judgement in veganism that tends to color any conversations about food.There's a lot people around me don't know about that I can tell them
To add to this, "care" can mean many things. I may care about the wholesale pollution of the environment, overfishing of oceans, seas, and gulfs, and excessive CO2 production from an over-consumption of meat while also not caring whether or not I indulge in taking the (delicious) profits away from the (literal) worker bee. Then there's also "care but don't think it'll change anything" camp, which I can never decide if I'm actually inside or not... Or hell, "care, but am incapable of being a purist for one reason or another".
Hi kleinbl00, it's been a while. I think we can all agree that murder and rape of human beings is morally wrong. There's no question about that. Every civilized society agrees that violence towards human beings is absolutely disgusting and should be avoided and prevented. There are not "many dimensions" to it. Yet, when it comes to beings which are totally defensiveless and speechless, because we happen to not be in the receiving end of their abuse, all of the sudden morality has "many dimensions". I say, there are only as "many dimensions" to animal rights as there are excuses to keep on doing something for personal pleasure which is in essence abusive and repugnant.