Why exactly did you become a vegetarian?

Question

Because of the nutritional/health or animal benefits?

Or another miscellaneous reason?

Answer 1

I became a vegtetarian because I strongly believe in anti-animal cruelty. If we can have a chance at life, so should animals. They mistreat animals so badly when they are slaughtered. I also became a vegetarian because of the health benefits, and so I would no be taking in as much fats. Also, in meats, there are a lot of steroids and other chemicals that the farmers use to fatten up the animals, and that can be dangerous to eat.

Answer 2

A carrot looked up at me with woefull eyes and said it loved me and would I but be so kind as to bring its lifequest to fruition.

Answer 3

A carrot killed my dad.

I will not stop eating vegetables until my vengeance is complete.

Answer 4

I aren't one!  However I am a firm supporter of PETA!  (People Eating Tasty Animals)!!

Answer 5

I've been vegetarian for less than a month so I don't know if I've earned my stripes yet but I'll keep trying.

I became vegetarian after spending some time on this forum and listenting to differing points of view on vegetarianism. After years of scepticism and occassional meat eating I decided to give it a go for a week. However, I still refuse to wear birkenstock sandals, relinquish my bra or befriend a tree. =) The week has come and gone but I'm still vegetarian

(for now).

EDIT: Apres Vous, that was lovely, really heartfelt.

Answer 6

For me, it was mostly about health reasons and environmental concern. I went onto peta.com and it says being a vegetarian not only helps stop cruelty to animals, it also said it helps the environment. They dump the animals' f***s into rivers and clear rainforest land to raise animals.

I definitely wanted to do it though because of health reasons. My mom is a Diabetic so I, and my future children if I have any, can get the disease. It said that eating red meat can cause you to get heart problems, Diabetes and other problems.

Answer 7

I was a "vegetarian" for a month on a bet which I won...

blood doesn't burn. it's a liquid..it boils.. so much for grammar eh?

Answer 8

I went fifteen days without meat once. Tragic, eh? That was my second try. I realized that even though I wasn't eating red meat, I was still wrong because I drank milk and ate shrimp and crawfish(I would've eaten fish, but I don't like them) And I still paid for my lunch and just gave my meat to one of my friends, but I was still paying for it!

But anyways, the reason I became a veggie in the first place is that I saw a video on you-tube.com of how the animals were treated and I couldn't even look at a piece of meat without gagging for what felt like the longest time.

I quit because:

A) I'm a Popeye's freak

B) I have no self control

C) It isn't easy to find tofu in small town southwest Louisiana

D)My mom cooks meat every time she cooks.

E) I starting feeling weak and even blacked out once because I was iron-deprived.

F)Did I mention my self-control deficiency?

Answer 9

Because I listened to too many stoned liberals!!

Answer 10

Religion:Buddhist

Health:Meat has saturated fats that lead to health risk and problems like cancer and clogged arteries

Ethical/Moral:People were never meant to eat god's creatures proverb12:15 . I am a Environmentalist and Animal Activist.Totally goes against what I believe in.

Answer 11

i tried to become a vegitarian after i learned well saw death of animals. I stoped with meat but i became sick cause i was so used to the iron intake and iron pills didnt really help. But i admire most vegitarians

Answer 12

I was veg for 1.5 or 2 years before I became vegan. I became vegan while studying the environmental impact of agri-business. I realized how ecologically unsustainable a large scale omnivorous diet is to sustain globally. Producing meat places massive stresses on the earth's resources and the environment. I study environmental engineering and majoring in agricultural waste management. That along with the obvious ethical concerns about animal treatment are the main reasons I decided to become vegan. Some of my other reasons

1. Cruelty to Animals

2. Health

3. World Hunger

4. Worker Rights

5. Government Negligence

6. The environment

Reading some books by Peter Singer about ethics really changed my perspective too.

I also find my spirituality and diet to be ethically complementary. I believe that paganism teaches respect for all living creatures and reverence towards nature. In some way, my personal understanding paganism is that it is wrong to take any life, including the life of an animal. That's why I'm vegan, I do not wish to support any form of animal cruelty. My diet is simply another way of reflecting my moral and spiritual beliefs.

Peace )O(

Answer 13

My only friend was a carrot..and she stabbed me every time i ate a vegie...then she killed me and i eat veggies for revenge...

MWAHHHAHAHAA

true story

Answer 14

I became a vegetarian for many reasons. The initial reason that got me into it was the animal cruelty (both raising and slaughtering of the animals). I first started out with a "test trial" for a month, and after learning what I needed to eat, etc. After seeing a horrible video, I decided to do it for real. I could not keep eating meat after that. The reasearch that I did also gave me more reasons to do it. One of the biggest reasons is the environment and how eating meat affects poverty around the world. It takes so much more energy to raise animals than it is to just directly eat the food. If we as a country stoped eating meat, we could probably feed all the starving people in Africa...so I no longer wanted to have a part in the suffering of so many animals and people, so I made a pledge to not eat meat.

Answer 15

My body stopped being able to digest meat.  Then there was the chicken head incident at McDeathburger.  Then I read "Fast Food Nation."  One day I got so disgusted with some wings I was eating I decided to go veg.  A few months later, after finding out about the horrors of the dairy and egg industries, I went vegan.

Answer 16

First ethical/spiritual, then health. Now it's environmental. My blood burns at how many pounds of grain it takes to make only a pound of dead flesh.

Answer 17

Nice one, with carrot killing his father.. lol, but actually I became vegetarian because of the cruelty of how animals are killed... I completely stopped eating meat, then everone would be like: if its how cruel they treat the animals, why don't you just eat animals that are not tortured to death, that do not suffer, and I decided I would eat that, but later I discovered that meat, for me, seemed gross...... i couldn't look at it, its just i don't know.. terrible.

Answer 18

I could never separate cute furry little animals from the ones on my plate that I would eat. It seemed so weird that I loved animals so much yet I would eat them but I could never bare to watch an animal get abused or killed. It seemed so hypocritical and I had tried to be vegetarian twice (lasted 6 months and then 1 year) and this is my third try and its not hard at all!! My husband eats only fish he catches (I don't) so meals are easy and my best friend is also one so I am surrounded around support!!

Answer 19

I became  a vegetarian for ethical reasons. I love animals and value their lives. My family would much rather make a turkey, or any animal, part of our family rather than eat it. Also, it's better for your health and the environment.

Answer 20

I was an ovo-lacto vegetarian from the ages of 14-17 because it went along the lines of my belief in Wiccanism at the time.  However, my heart wasn't in to the whole religion so I started eating meat again after a weekend of hellish stomach pains from my first meat after 3 years.  

After that I would still eat vegetarian meals more than meaty meals because it was what I was use to and I loved veggie burgers, vegetables, and pasta.  All this took place from 17-23 years old.  

One fateful night in late February or early March of 2007 I was sitting down in front of the TV and watched an oh-so-riveting episode of Dirty Jobs with Mike Rowe on the Discovery Channel.  The episode centered around a pig farm near Las Vegas.  The slop that was served to the pigs was rotting, leftover chum from endless Vegas buffets.  Hot Dogs, salad turned liquid, even human waste from the hotels septic and refining systems.  Then Mike Rowe, the host, was made to work on the baby pigs.  He had to take garden shears and cut the tails off, slice notches in their ears, and castrate the males.  All of this is standard practice and done without anesthetic, mind you, and they were showing it all in detail on TV.  I was shocked.  The pigs' cries were enough to examine my meat-eating habits and proclaim myself "vegetarian for life".

The next day, it was slow at work, and I took it upon myself to look upon the wealth of knowledge that is the internet and research "meat processing".  The material that came up was truly horrific and showed insider footage of slaughterhouses and feedlot conditions.  As well as how the lives of dairy cows and egg-laying hens are played out.  It was enough to turn me vegan.  I then proclaimed myself "vegan for life".  

Now let me tell you, that unlike my teenage vegetarian years, this isn't a fad.  I have seen so much blood, guts, gore, and torture, that I know better this time.  This time is for real because my morals and ethics as a compassionate citizen of Earth were shaken and stirred to the point of epiphany.  

During that 24 hour period that I went from ambivalent meat-eater to passionate vegan, I said to myself, "I don't know how I'm going to do it, but I'll be damned if I let another animal suffer in my name."  

I am not an overt animal-lover, but it's only fair in my eyes that every creature live a full and happy life without disease, confinement, torture, slaughter, or exploitation of any kind.  

As I was researching over the next few days, I learned how to eat nutritious and delicious vegan foods that any meat-eater would be envious of.  I don't crave a single thing, be it cheese, milk, eggs, meat, honey, or any other animal product, because I have seen that foods can be good and satisfying as a vegan.  And no, I don't eat only apples and twigs!

Over the next few months I phased out products tested on animals and things like non-vegan sugar and bleached flour.

With vegetarianism, and especially veganism,  comes a lot of frustration.  Frustration from wanting change to happen as soon as possible.  Frustration that others can't or won't see what I have seen.  But with this frustration comes massive joy.  I have never been so enthusiastic about a decision I've made.  I have never been so happy in my life as right now, as a happy-go-lucky vegan.

With time I grew more patient and see that leading by example is a great way to live rather than being confrontational.  I see that small steps really do have an impact.  "A watchpot never boils" is a phrase that comes to mind.

I am now a happy, involved, informed vegan member of society.  I only have 16 months under my belt but I know that this new way of living is exactly what I needed to feel fulfilled.

Sorry this is so long, but you did want to know "exactly" why I became a vegetarian.

Answer 21

Well

A) At school we had to handle dead animal bones, and intestines extremely gross

B) Becasue I love animals and found out that each  vegiterian saves 100 animals a year so if some one is a vegiterian all there life they can save alot of animals

C) to prove to people that I can

D) To be diffrent and not follow the crowed