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Einstein
Tesla

Seriously, if those two believe its the right thing to do, then who are we to argue? I thought Vegetarians were silly when I was little, I saw it as a hippie thing, but then with quotes like above, I decided it was right for me. Its been a year and a half now, and I feel much better than ever before! I have a physical job, and am honestly fitter than ever.

While it's not particularly common to see, a number of plant based gelatin replacements exist, and, unlike a number of ill-conceived meat-product-replacements, there's no taste tradeoff. If the gelatin really makes that big a difference, the veggies will just add some seaweed to their soy beans.

With regards to the !kosher tag, I was surprised to find that kosher gelatins do exist, and that, through a technicality, properly prepared gelatins can be combined with dairy. From the above:

> But then again you mention spirituality in conjunction with food intake, which is definitively not related.

All the world's major religions discuss the importance of not defiling the Body Temple.

If you don't care for the moral reasons, there is also the health reasons to consider. Maybe you enjoy increasing your odds for disease -- that is your prerogative.

Everyone has to their own choice to make concerning their fate... but it doesn't change the fact that you are a product of what you eat, think, and do.

While we like to tell ourselves that tribal ancestors had a hard, short, brutish life, early contact with American natives tell quite a different story; that where the Spanish could expect to live to the ripe old age of 42, native peoples could expect to live to their 90's and some, even older, oweing to a extremely varied (largely but not exclusively) vegetarian diet; a diet consisting not only of staples available on the land but also of crops of corn and grains, meat from domesticated animals, gardens containing a dozen varieties of fruits and vegetables.

With regards to disease, there is no evidence that native populations experienced disease to any worse degree than did Old World populations; and the long life spans would seem to indicate that whatever diseases they did experience, they were sufficiently able to deal with.

And as for injuries experienced 'on the job' so to speak.. take a look at current statistics indicating how frequently people are physically injured these days. An 'easier' life doesn't necessarily mean fewer broken bones.

* Sidenote.. I really am a moron because I never save my research on this subject since it seems to come up so infrequently. I always end up doing it all over again whenver someone asks.. so before someone feels the need to 'attack back' so to speak [a common occurrance on Slashdot, apparently.. I will be visiting far less often, once this thread dies], try doing your own searches because my Google-Fu on this subject is somewhat lacking. The best resources I've read on this subject aren't online yet.

I agree with you in the sense that it would be fascinating to see how a purely vegetarian society is different (if at all) from our current mix of vegetarian and carnivores.

When you say "interaction with carnivores" are you referring to the exposure to food born illnesses, pollution, and energy comsumptions related to the meat industry? Or is it more the "accidental" things like getting beef broth in your minestrone, or biting into what you thought was a bean burrito but was filled with beef (true stories on my part).

Regardless I still disagree with your theory that the vegetarian diet has not been truly deemed viable. There are many people who are lifelong vegetarians for one reason or the other and the health benefits have been studied. I just don't understand questioning of the basic viability of a diet which has proven medical benefits.

One of the problems that I have seen over and over again with vegetarians/vegans is that their nutrition research has been anemic, or rife with dis/misinformation. Fortunately, my wife (she turned vegan at a very young age, 13) had parents that demanded she do the research in order to maintain a healthy diet. She did. And without a derogatory ping to mention, she is slightly overweight. It wasn't a health/weight issue with her, but rather a moral one, and she eats plenty. You see, being underweight has nearly nothing to do with being vegetarian: it is the result of an unhealthy diet, and your friends should take note of that. Unfortunately, as I stated previously, our society doesn't serve the proper vegetarian diet in a convenient way, and therefore much work has to be done on the individual level. Research, consult a nutritionist, etc... whatever you need to do, because just eating salads is going to produce an extremely unhealthy result, and I see it constantly to my dismay.

The health benefits (links with references to the studies done) are hard to ignore, and are readily available to peruse. I found those in one minute of googling. I can provide more in depth studies if one wishes.

Just to reiterate, an unhealthy vegetarian, just as an unhealthy meat eater is the result of a bad nutritional intake, but research over the last 30 years has shown that an all veggie diet can in fact reduce many common modern health risks (diabetes, heart disease, colon cancer, among others).

Kindly,
eclectic

Vegans eat shoes? yuck.

Presuming you're just ignorant and not trolling...

Veganism is, in the broadest sense, a lifestyle which attempts to minimize suffering caused to sentient beings. It therefore includes finding alternatives to leather in clothing (list is in dire need of updating), as well as using consumer products that are not tested on animals and that do not contain animal-derived ingredients.

I don't know many people that know about neopaganism

You probably know more Pagans than you think. Many are in the "broom closet", since in less cosmopolitan areas of the US, admiting to being Pagan or displaying a pentacle makes people think you worship Satan.

Would it be OK to kill human children in order to figure out how to quickly factor prime numbers?