No way! At least not for me. ;D I'm a meat eater and milk drinker, proud and healthy.

But for the sake of argument...

I found some quotes on the net which reflect thoughts against strictly vegetarian diets, for the most part.

"A vegetarian diet doesn't make any sense. Meat is an excellent source of the iron and protein children need, and to take milk away from children -- I think that's really dangerous. Milk is needed for calcium and vitamin D."
 
Experts expressed concern about the ability of small children to consume calories and fat to sustain normal growth on an all-plant diet, as well as the diet's adequacy in supplying recommended amounts of such essential nutrients as calcium, riboflavin, vitamin D, iron and zinc and possibly even protein.
 
These experts also said that having to follow a vegetarian diet free of dairy products could place undue social pressures on children, few of whom like to be different from their friends.
 
"Raising children on an all-plant diet can be done, but it would be like climbing Mount Everest," said Dr. Michael Georgieff, professor of pediatrics and child development at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis.
 
"It would take an incredible amount of planning and balancing of nutrients."
 
Georgieff, who wrote the chapter on vegetarian diets in the American Academy of Pediatrics nutrition handbook, said a strictly vegetarian diet "involves very significant risks."
 
"It would probably provide only about 60 percent of a small child's calorie needs and maybe the same proportion of protein and would require supplementation with vitamin D, calcium, iron and zinc."
 
Dr. Marc Jacobson, a specialist in adolescent medicine at Schneider Children's Hospital in New Hyde Park, N.Y., said, "If a strict vegetarian diet is part of someone's long-term culture, the kids grow fine, though not as big.
 
"But for those who became vegans recently, I can't say it's dangerous -- but there are risks."


What do you think?

As Vincent Vega said in Pulp Fiction:

Bacon tastes gooood. Pork chops taste gooood.

Oldie but goodie:

http://www.vegetus.org/vegtoon/tofu.htm

Sorry, reading this post reminded me of something:

KEZIAH:No, thank you -- I'm a fruitarian.

MAX:I didn't realize that.

It is left to William, who has been set up here, to fill the pause.

WILLIAM:And ahm -- what's a fruitarian exactly?

KEZIAH:We believe that fruits and vegetables have feelings so we think cooking is cruel. We only eat things that have actually fallen from the tree or bush -- that are, in fact, dead already.

WILLIAM: Right. Right. Interesting stuff. (pause) So these carrots...

KEZIAH: Have been murdered, yes.

WILLIAM: Murdered? Poor carrots. How beastly.


Fruitarian, Vegetarian, vegan whatever. Give me my meat. I tried vegetarianism and you know how I felt? HUNGRY!  ;D

Edited because whosoever's site I pulled this from evidently didn't check for typos.  :)

I've known a few vegans growing up, and one of the reasons listed by a couple for going vegan was they felt it was wrong to kill another living thing to eat it.

Last time I checked, weren't plants living breathing organisms?

I'll have the meat, please! Veggies are good for us, yes, but I don't think I want to try and live as a vegetarian. All the vegetarians I know are sickly looking anyway.  :P

Diet?  Ha ha ha.  I'm one of those people that will never EVER have to worry about dieting, or at the very least least until I hit middle-age, which by my estimation won't happen for another four thousand years.

We have a friend who doesn't eat meat but he also doesn't eat veggies.  So what does he eat, you ask?  Mostly pasta and soy products. No fish either.  His wife has to be very creative when slipping in veggies to supplement his diet.
He's not trying to make any statement with his diet.  Meat just doesn't agree with him but he doesn't like the taste of just plain veggies.  His wife followed this diet for quite awhile but had to adjust her diet when she became pregnant and has so far kept to a fairly normal diet.  
Yuck!  I can't imagine being so limited as to what I'm willing and able to eat.  I like a little of everything. :)

I'm not a vegetarian (I eat fish), and I do not consume milk at the advice of my doctor.

Quoting:These experts also said that having to follow a vegetarian diet free of dairy products could place undue social pressures on children, few of whom like to be different from their friends.
End Quote

Should we also encourage them to drink and smoke when they are teens so they'll fit in as well?

Quoting:Milk is needed for calcium and vitamin DEnd Quote

It is just as easy to get Calcium and vitamin D from vegetables and sunlight.

Quoting:If a strict vegetarian diet is part of someone's long-term culture, the kids grow fine, though not as big.
End Quote

That is just not true, I was raised on a vegetarian diet as a child, same goes for my cousins, and the smallest of us is about 5'11, 185lbs. I played hockey as a child and never broke a bone in my body, except my nose a few times.

I loooooooove a big juicy tender steak.  Nothing beats it.

I loooooooove a big juicy tender pork chop.

Oh and ribs, don't even get me started on delicious ribs.


Personally, I don't think I could ever become a vegetarian.  Besides the fact I looooove meat, it seems like they spend so much time trying to make their statement known, that it looks like too much work to me. ;)  Not to mention having to eat soy.  Ugghh.  :P


When I am on my death-bed, put a cold beer in my left hand, a big porterhouse steak in my left hand, and I'll die a happy man. :D

Growing up, the only meat my parents allowed me to eat was fish. When I was a teen I used to eat some meat when my parents weren't around. I would eat small things like pepperoni on a pizza, or a hot dog ( I'm not sure if this is technically considered meat). But a couple of years ago I was celebrating a friends birthday when all the guys were having a T-Bone, so I thought I would give it a try. My god I was sooo sick, I had the worst case of indigestion in my life. My body was going through hell, it was a combination of the runs and constipation at the same time. Sorry, I know that's disgusting, but I will admit the steak tasted amazing.

I'm a "fleshitarian", I keep my diet to strictly meat and meat by-product.  I find it cruel and wasteful that people would choose to pull beautiful oxygen producing plants from the ground and leave those gas and waste producing, foul smelling creatures roam freely.  If you want to save our planet do the world a favor and eat. ;)

Not me! Although I don't drink milk, I do use it on my cereal and I love cheese and yogurt. Plus meat has always been a major staple of my diet growing up. I grew up in the south where you have fried chicken for breakfast!  ;D

I think I would go crazy if I were a vegetarian.  And besides, meat is the only known source of vitamin B12 in the diet, and meat is the only quality protein source, although legumes can provide protein, meat does a better job.

Give me meat.  I'm a carnivore and happy with it.

But... I think an adult going all diet would probably be healthier.  Especially if it was a strict no meat/no dairy diet.  
To begin with, you'd have to be careful about what you buy (no jello, for instance.)  Simply paying closer attention to what you eat would make you healthier, in my opinion. You would probably eat a lot fewer processed foods, which couldn't hurt.  And you might save a buck or two... pound for pound, beans and rice are ridiculously inexpensive when compared to meat.

Not me, no way...love meat.

Quote of the Day

While watching Conan Obrien tonight, I just heard a funny quote by Ted Nugent that is relevent to this thread.

Nugent was doing a cooking segment from his new book and this was said...

Conan: "Ted, what would you do if your kid said, Dad, I'm a vegan..."

Ted Nugent:  "Conan, I would slap the livin s%#^ out of him...And if Paul Mccartney(a vegan) came here I would make him a damn salad and tell him to eat it and sing." :D


Anyway, I thought you guys would enjoy that, I know I did. :D

The Jonman likes meat....mmmmmmmmmmm....

I do not consume red meat or pork. However, I eat PLENTY of poultry & fish.  The rest of my family will eat it, but I don't simply due to personal reasons that have nothing to do with slaughtering an animal.  I have been like this for about 7 years.  About two years ago, I tried eating a couple bites of a Burger King hamburger (it smelled so good!) and it made me very very sick.  So, therefore I will just stick to turkey & soy burgers!   :)

Oh yeah...I do eat dairy & drink skim milk (i don't like thick milk).

I'm not a vegetarian myself, but I know several people who are true vegans, in that they don't consume animal products at all. It's a very serious lifestyle choice to make, and the one who makes it must be very well-informed. My friend Rob, who is a drummer in a death metal band, has been a vegan for over a decade and is perfect health. He doesn't try to push his lifestyle onto anyone else, but if I was ever going to become a vegan, he would be the one I would get advice from because he's extremely well-informed about it. As for dairy products, there is quite a large number of people who are lactose intolerant in the community and simply can't eat or drink products made with animal milk. By the way, the anti-milk faction's rhetoric that ingesting milk from another animal is detrimental to human health is a giant furphy. If milk was hazardous to human health, humans would have stopped using it thousands of years ago.