Istanbullfrog wrote:
pictish wrote:
Quote:
I must observe that being a vegeterian is a quite troublesome and costly route to take. You must take supplements and also plan out each meal to make sure that the contents are sufficient for your nutrition.
I am THE least organised person I'm aware of, a vegetarian, and 6 foot 3 at the young and beautiful age of 16.
Vegetarianism takes no effort (or never has for me) past 'No thanks, I'm a vegetarian'
Except for watching which shoes or boots you wear, and which products you use (shampoo, conditioner, soap, body wash, shoe polish) on a daily basis, etc, etc, there's more to being a vegetarian than just not eating a slab of beef. The jello stuff got alot of my 'vegetarian' friends by surprise.
Bleh. Gelatin. That is in way too much stuff. Altoids, marshmallows, candy, film...
Being a vegan has not been difficult at all for me. I have trouble in resturants, though, but I can usually modify things and ask a lot of questions. ('Can you take the cheese off this? Does this have butter in it? Can you check if the bread has this or this in it?')
A vegan, vegetarian, or omnivore's diet could be equally unhealthy or equally healthy depending on how you eat. Parents who raise their children omnivorous could have their child be underweight just as easily as parents who raise their children vegan if they do not feed them right. I mean, after nearly two years of no meat and probably two months of no dairy or eggs, I have lost weight...but because I've been *trying* to.
That one test was conducted on African schoolchildren who had a HORRIBLE diet. No one is saying that veganism is the healthy way to go if you live in a 3rd world country and eat beans and corn, or whatever it was that their diet consisted of. If I see significant evidence that American children on a *healthy* vegan diet still are not getting enough nutrients, then I'll believe it.
Generally I've felt a lot better about myself and a lot healthier without these products, and I guess I'm still technically a child. I went vegetarian when I was eleven, nearly twelve, and vegan at thirteen. My diet as a vegetarian wasn't very healthy because of the ammout of chocolate, etc., that I've consumed my entire life, and I was overweight or very close to being overweight for a long time. (Something like a BMI of 24.9 when a BMI over 25 was considered overewight.) I've eaten a LOT less since going vegan simply because so much of it isn't available to me, and that has definetly been an improvement on my diet.
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(Although my friends still make fun of me for immeadietly locating what of my favorite sweets were vegan. Lol.)
B12 is, as far as I can remember, the ONLY vitamin that vegans cannot get through a diet without supplements and fortified food, but there are plenty of fortified soy milks, cereals, etc.