Vegetarianism/Veganism/Omnivore/...?

[Indisguise]

What are your thoughts and opinions on what to eat and why? Are you omivore? Vegan? Vegetarian? Fruititarian? Or what? 

And why? I personally eat everything, because I had some trouble with weight loss during the last 2 years, so I can't be too picky with what I eat; on top of that I work out a lot (cardio) and need all the energy and nutrients I can get my paws on.

 

I'd love to hear your opinions, this was inspired by a post made by @Orb

Quote

We kill animals and eat them sure, but it's deeper than that, it's really the movement of energy in the universe. 

[Orb]

@Indisguise

 

"I'm a humanitarian."

-Sadghuru 

[Indisguise]

"Isn't it? Hello?" 

*shakes head furiously*

[Orb]

@Indisguise  sounds familiar 😉

 

In all seriousness, diet turning into isms is a big misunderstanding, imo it should be encouraged that people discover what they want to eat for themselves simply based on how they feel. 

 

There are billions of humans, no way in hell that all of them will be suited to the same things. I mean shit if I'm not mistaken I saw a guy on YouTube who's a "breatharian" lol, apparently he hasn't eaten or drank anything for years.

[Indisguise]

Thank god all people don't want to eat the same things! 

1 hour ago, Orb said:

In all seriousness, diet turning into isms is a big misunderstanding, imo it should be encouraged that people discover what they want to eat for themselves simply based on how they feel. 

Yeah... But once you've chosen what you want to eat, you can classify it into an -ism. 

[Orb]

@Indisguise no need imo, why not just...eat?

Edited April 18, 2022 by Orb

[MazE]

I was vegan for a year. It was for the animals. I wanted to see if it's healthy too. It wasn't for me. I feel a lot better eating everything. It was a good experience though. I learned to enjoy healthy foods more and realized how dependent we are to animal foods. It's possible to survive as a vegan but it's a hard road. Not one that i'm willing to walk again even if this is selfish. 

Most of us are hypocrites. I don't think that i would be able to kill an animal to eat it unless it was do or die but here i am buying that chicken that someone else killed because taste, health and comfort are more important to me.

[Phil]

Vegetarian. Really just for how it feels. Ate meat, bread, sugar etc when I was younger. This just relatively feels better. Can’t really say there’s much of a green stance involved. Health as far as having colds or anything, and aging as far as appearance seem to be benefited but hard to compare really. 

[Indisguise]

12 hours ago, Orb said:

no need imo, why not just...eat?

It's just in order to communicate preferences. Doesn't really have to do anything with identifying as a vegetarian/vegan/whatever. 

 

10 hours ago, MazE said:

Most of us are hypocrites. I don't think that i would be able to kill an animal to eat it unless it was do or die but here i am buying that chicken that someone else killed because taste, health and comfort are more important to me.

Yeah... Reliable way for me to overcome this is by taking mushrooms😂 then I can't go into the super market and look at all the dead meat without feeling too much of a hypocrite, until I'm back to my normal, selfish, hypocritical self🙃 

 

8 hours ago, Phil said:

Vegetarian. Really just for how it feels. Ate meat, bread, sugar etc when I was younger. This just relatively feels better.

@Phil Have you ever eaten meat because you felt like it? By "feels better", do you mean health wise or also in conjuction with compassion with animals?

[Mandy]

No fixed rules but the only animal products I eat are fish, seafood and occasionally local raised poultry. I will make exceptions and sometimes eat stuff I normally don't at gatherings or while traveling. 

[Phil]

@Indisguise

Yeah. If I felt like it today, I’d have a steak. By feels better I mean in the same way it now feels better weighing 155lbs than it did at 210 lbs. Lighter, more energetic, etc. 

[MazE]

@Indisguise i would probably put them on my pizza.

[Asayake]

I was a vegan for 4.5 years for the animals and it worked well in the beginning but the last 2 years I was getting worse health. I was very skinny despite eating a lot of food because the healthy vegan foods generally don't contain a lot of calories(exceptions exist like avocados and nuts). I was having low energy and if I worked out or went for a run I would often catch a cold the next day because my immune system was so weak. I was also getting progressively worse eyesight and floaters(probably vitamin A deficiency, look up which vegan foods contain vitamin A and you'll be shocked at how easy it is to eat a varied vegan diet and still miss a regular vitamin A source as a vegan). And even many of the most common vegan foods that do contain vitamin A like carrots or sweet potatoes needs to be eaten together with something fat like avocado or vegetable oil because vitamin A is a fat soluble vitamin. eggs, milk, organ meats are the best sources for vitamin A because they contain everything needed to optimally absorb the vitamin, nowadays I take cod liver oil as a supplement a couple of times per week and I have no floaters anymore, my vision is improved and is even more clear than I ever remember it being.

 

I have more energy now that I'm not a vegan, . I do some type of exercise 5-6 times per week and my recovery is so much better than when I was a vegan, it's not even comparable. Animal protein also contains more of the amino acids that are most important for building muscle, it is a lot higher quality protein than plant proteins in that sense. Also many vegan protein sources such as chickpeas are not actually very high in protein but more of a carb heavy food because the quality of the protein is not the greatest. Beans, tofu or tempeh are the best of all the vegan foods I found when it comes to protein quality. And because most of the healthy vegan foods don't contain a lot of fat it is difficult to get in enough calories to maintain an active lifestyle. I was eating chickpeas and potatoes to the point of getting heartburn because of overeating and I will still be steadily dropping weight and losing muscle.. Not saying it's impossible to gain weight as a vegan just it takes a lot more effort than as an omnivore where you have a lot more calorie dense foods to choose from. Another thing that comes to mind is that creatine is only contained in animal products so without supplementing with creatine monohydrate you miss out on the mental and strength pros of creatine as a nutrient. There are probably many more nutrients you miss out on if you eat no animal products since nutrition is so incredibly complex.

 

In my opinion, whole food plant based eating which many vegan doctors and nutritionists will say is the best thing for longevity is so mainly because it restricts the amount of calories you are able to eat so it keeps you from becoming overweight which is the main cause of most killer diseases. Being overweight causes inflammation, diabetes type 2, cardiovascular disease, cancer etc. But being overweight as whole food plant based eater is almost impossible unless you're eating tons of avocados and nuts. But the fact that not being overweight increases your longevity does not mean that a whole food plant based diet is the best diet to thrive on. There's a reason the best competitors in most sports are not vegan. If vegan food gave an edge for physical & mental performance everyone would be getting on it. There are exceptions though, some sports require you to be extremely lean(ultra marathon for example) and people who compete in these sports can benefit from eating more plant based foods. At the same time there are also many people that eat a ketogenic diet in those kind of sports because it trains the body to burn fat. It does not mean that's the healthiest option long-term, it just keeps you from becoming overweigh which is the worst for health.

Edited April 20, 2022 by Asayake

[Annie]

Omivore.  Tried veganism and it hurt my body.
 

[Tarak]

I lived on a diet of pasta, cheese and meat for about 10 years, no fruits, no vegetables. I was never sick, by the way and never went above 70 kg (BMI was exactly 20).

Nowadays I eat less meat (~2 times a week) and eat fruits and raw vegetables daily.

I tried quitting meat altogether, but became very weak. Two times 50-100 g a week seems to be what I need to be strong enough.

[Phil]

If anyone’s interested in trying vegan (raw foods, enzymes, etc) but would honestly rather have a peanut butter & banana chocolate shake… 

https://www.actualityofbeing.com/the-loophole-shake

[Orb]

@Phil peanut butter is miracle food, put 6 tbsp in my shakes, thats almost 600 calories in a shake!

[Phil]

@Orb

That’s a lot of peanut butter! 😮 Might be a lot of sugar, but depends on the peanut butter I guess. Weird, but I recently learned peanut butter is a very American thing. 

[Orb]

@Phil I'm American 😎💪.

 

Oh I get peanut butter with no added sugars. Also I make sure my peanut butter has only two things in the ingredients: peanuts and salt lol.

 

Peanut butter with no added sugars actually slows down the absorption of sugar because of the high amounts of fat in it. 

 

So I mix it with two bananas.

[Baller]

In my opinion, it really does depend on the physiology of the individual.  It's for some people, not for all or even most.