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Thread: Veganism is NOT a diet

  1. #51
    I eve's Avatar
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    Default Re: Veganism is NOT a diet

    Plunder bunny, you say:
    I'd rather work in an african slum with prostitutes and drug addicts. I think humans have potential, but here and north america, many of them are walking zombies.
    Do you expect that they are different in african than in canada and Nth america? There are some people (I'm not implying you) who opt for work there in order to feel superior to those around them.

    Seaside, what you posted reflects my own views exactly.
    Eve

  2. #52
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    Default Re: Veganism is NOT a diet

    Yes. Mainly because i am quite sick of North America, and id rather to listen to North Americans come tell me they are sad because they cant look like a super model and buy a new sports car. Id rather people that werent quite as perversed with mass media and their own selfishness.
    I very much understand where your coming from, and im sure many people do do that for that reason, I just feel guilty living the way i do and want to stop once i am down my education and out of my house.
    "You'd better take care of me lord, otherwise you're gonna have me on your hands" - Hunter S. Thompson

  3. #53
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    Default Re: Veganism is NOT a diet

    Quote eve

    Seaside, what you posted reflects my own views exactly.
    Thanks eve!

  4. #54
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    Default Re: Veganism is NOT a diet

    Quote knittenkitten
    Thank you, Seaside. You (and so many others here) write eloquently and everyone is helping me think through these issues more fully.
    You're swelcome, knittenkitten. Thank you!

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    Default Re: Veganism is NOT a diet

    Agreed

  6. #56
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    Default Re: Veganism is NOT a diet

    Quote cog505 View Post
    I wish people would stop trying to justify veganism in a purely dietary sense. I think it devalues the cause. Whenever people ask me if I miss meat I say of course not. It's not like giving up cakes because you're fat or not eating wheat because it doesn't agree with you. Veganism has nothing to do with diet and everything to do with... compassion, respect, life, unselfishness, humanity etc... The taste of anything in my mouth for 5 seconds does not equate to the beauty and complexity of life.

    Veganism is not a diet
    This immediately made me think of this verse...

    Phi 4:8
    Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable--if anything is excellent or praiseworthy--think about such things. (NIV)

    As a Christian I don't see how you could 'think about such things' when deciding what to eat and how to live and still eat or use animal products. The caveat here being, I suppose, if you realize what eating or using animal products represents in terms of animal suffering, abuse, death etc. as well as the effects on everything else including our own health. Which is where I was until an embarrassingly short time ago and I would suppose most of the folks here were at some point in their past. It goes a lot deeper than just diet.
    pq

  7. #57
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    Default Re: Veganism is NOT a diet

    Quote Pilaf View Post
    Veganism is indeed not a "diet." A friend of mine the other day suggested my "vegan diet" isn't making me lose weight and "you should eat some meat and lift weights like you used to."

    I looked him dead in the eye and said "You have no idea of the deep philisophical and ethical roots to my Veganism". He changed the subject pretty quickly.
    Making you lose weight? That's just offensive. Is he ignorant?

  8. #58
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    Default Re: Veganism is NOT a diet

    Yeah - I'd be pretty offended if someone said that to me too.

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    Default Re: Veganism is NOT a diet

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    Last edited by xErasedCitizenx; Jul 20th, 2014 at 09:36 AM.

  10. #60
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    Default Re: Veganism is NOT a diet

    Well said.

  11. #61
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    Default Re: Veganism is NOT a diet

    I think there are two or three main reasons that some (luckily, only a few) people think that a vegan is someone who os concerned with food only.

    One is that people buy and eat food a lot more often than they buy eg. shoes or coats, so there's much more talk about animal products in diet than about animal products in clothes, furniture etc.

    The reason is the existence of the term (again, luckily used bu very few people) "dietary vegan" (we have a thread about this term here), which creates the impression that there are two kinds of vegans, the dietary vegans and the other vegans - but that both actually are vegans.

    The third is also a linguistic thing: it's the term 'ethical vegan'. Fist time I heard it (around 2002/2004) I asked what it meant, because being vegan has always been based on ethics, not on milk allergies or not liking meat. In one of the first printed articles about veganism, I saw someone write something a la 'let's hope a diet free from animal products diet proves to be as healthy as a diet with animal products in it'. They didn't really know back then.

    Still - today, some people (again, very few) suggest that a vegan is someone who eats vegan food, but that a person who "seeks to exclude — as far as is possible and practical — all forms of exploitation of, and cruelty to, animals for food, clothing or any other purpose" shouldn't be called a 'vegan', she should be called an 'ethical vegan'. If they would succeed in changing the definitions this way, veganism would have turned into a diet (in most people's eyes), and vegan (in the original and commonly used definition) would be a 'minority within a minority'.

    Veganism is becoming more and more commonly accepted, and I understand that maybe it's tempting to 'hijack' the word and turn it into a non-ethical thing. But: it wouldn't be... ethical to do that!

  12. #62
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    Default Re: Veganism is NOT a diet

    ...another classic thread resurrected

    Once, I was invited to crash on the sofa of a flat of AR activists in Bristol so that I could make the coach for a big demo along with them early next morn.

    They: young, on benefits to support their full-time activism, clad in black with piercings and punk hair, radical music scene, tip of a flat

    Me: chirpy American housewife with a taste for Pimms on the terrace

    Question: we share the same lifestyle?

    I flatter myself to say we do! What else would I call it? I sometimes refer to Veganism being my criteria for choosing a lifestyle.
    Doesn't sound very punchy; anyone offer a better soundbite, please?
    the only animal ingredient in my food is cat hair

  13. #63
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    Default Re: Veganism is NOT a diet

    When I went vegan, everyone thought that is was just a diet and that I was going to keep following this for a while, and then go back on eating meat, dairy and the other animal products. It took them some time to realize that it's not only the diet, it's a lifestyle for me and something that I care about, that means something to me. Anyway, I usually don't say I'm vegan if it's not necessary or if the person I'm with doesn't find out, and one reason for this is exactly that fact: they begin asking me the same questions again and again and they think it's just a diet or ask me if I don't miss meat, cheese and the others, or even cakes or ice cream(they just can't understand that there are sooo many vegan cakes and sweets recipes ) so I prefer to not reveal this if it's not necessary.
    "We all love animals. Why do we call some "pets" and others "dinner?" - K.D. Lang

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    Default Re: Veganism is NOT a diet

    Just curious what do you call someone who doesn't eat meat, milk, and cheese? Understand that being Vegan is a lifestyle and more than just what you eat. A diet is a : food and drink regularly provided or consumed b : habitual nourishment c : the kind and amount of food prescribed for a person or animal for a special reason d : a regimen of eating and drinking sparingly so as to reduce one's weight. So to say someone is eating a vegan diet to lost weight is one thing and to say someone is eating a vegan diet to be healthy (avoid cancer, heart disease, stroke etc) is entirely different. My whole issue with this concept is this, when I first started eating a Vegan Diet it was strictly for health reasons, this has changed as I learned more about animal cruelty, but my point is that it always seemed stupid to tell people I was eating a Vegan Diet (I wasn't trying to lose weight) instead of just saying I was Vegan (Because I wasn't I just ate like one). Is there another word out there...

  15. #65
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    Default Re: Veganism is NOT a diet

    Hi beachbum.

    I don't think "eating a vegan diet" necessarily implies d rather than a or b, although some people may take it that way.

    I may be wrong but I think the main objection that is being voiced in this thread is to people calling themselves vegans when they are only doing the food part, and not avoiding other uses of animals (clothes etc). The idea is that veganism is by definition based on an ethical objection to the use of animal products, so it follows that an adherent would avoid all uses of animal products as far as possible, not just for food.

    Some people may object to the term "vegan diet" on these grounds, as well as to the term "dietary vegan". I think I have seen "strict vegetarian diet" suggested as an alternative to "vegan diet" although if you asked for a "strict vegetarian" meal in a restaurant what you would get is anyone's guess in my opinion Personally I am happy with the use of "vegan diet" "vegan meal" etc regardless of the other habits of the person who is eating it, but I wouldn't call a person vegan unless they were trying to avoid leather, wool etc as well.

  16. #66
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    Default Re: Veganism is NOT a diet

    Just curious what do you call someone who doesn't eat meat, milk, and cheese?
    Herbivore? Plant eater? Or simply a vegetarian/one who lives on a vegan diet/a vegitan?

    it always seemed stupid to tell people I was eating a Vegan Diet (I wasn't trying to lose weight) instead of just saying I was Vegan
    But it would also be 'stupid' (and disrespectful towards the definition of vegan) to say that you are a vegan when you're not a vegan...: if someone in the future would manage the convert the meaning of 'vegan' to be something which is only about diet, vegans would have to create a new term which covers what 'vegan' covers today.

    Plus, it's not more difficult to say "I eat vegan" than to say "I am vegan". Lots of people already eg. eat low-carb food, Mediterranean food, South Beach diet, Atkins diet etc, without calling themselves Lowcarbers, Mediterraneans, South-Beachers or Atkinsers without any problems.
    I will not eat anything that walks, swims, flies, runs, skips, hops or crawls.

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    Default Re: Veganism is NOT a diet

    Quote beachbum View Post
    Just curious what do you call someone who doesn't eat meat, milk, and cheese?
    I think the accurate term would be a strict vegetarian.

    Normally you wouldn't need "strict" since vegetarians don't consume meat, milk and cheese but mainstream usage of vegetarian has become to mean ovo-lacto-vegetarian, and to many people even pesco-ovo-lacto-vegetarian.

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    Default Re: Veganism is NOT a diet

    Huh, I've seem to have given this thread new life by being an unintended foil to the subject, so.... Not sure what it's like in Europe of other areas outside the progressive US (eye roll), but here in most places (like 60-70 percent of the country) they don't even know what a Vegan is so generally it's easier to say you're a vegetarian (which usually gets you a really weird looks which I follow up by saying I'm from California) and in the places they do know what a Vegan is it is a whole new discussion to break down exactly what kind of vegan you are. So for someone who is eating a vegan diet (and seriously what is wrong with someone stealing the word, I mean really folks there not eating animals which is good right?) to say they are an Herbivore (could we get more pretentious than that), eating a vegan diet (begging the question: oh really why do you do that, oh because you want to live longer then why the second scotch), or a strict vegetarian (I can see the confused looks now) is really a bit much when all you really need to tell some concisely is that you are a Vegan so they don't serve you something with milk, eggs, or cheese in it. I see no harm in that and really is just splitting hairs and possibly a little elitist.

  19. #69
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    Default Re: Veganism is NOT a diet

    The word 'vegan' has a specific definition that includes obstaining from using all animal products, so you can't call yourself a vegan if you only eat a vegan diet. If I was a dietary vegan, I would just say 'I don't eat animal products' or 'I eat a plant based diet'. I don't think it's elitist to point out when someone is using a word incorrectly, or to require that they use the word correctly when there is meaning behind the word. What if you met someone who called themselves a christian, but later told you they don't believe in god? You would say 'well, you can't be a christian then!' because belief in god is a necessary condition for being a christian, as is not wearing animal products for being a vegan.
    It is just like man's vanity and impertinence to call an animal dumb because it is dumb to his dull perceptions ~ Mark Twain

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    Default Re: Veganism is NOT a diet

    There is nothing elitist about being a consistent ethical vegan. All this dietary vegan crap we are getting from Oprah, Clinton and in the media just shows how self-absorbed humans are. Taking a small subset that benefits them of what vegan is about and to hell with all the others that are put through a horrible system because of their half-assery.

    There is no such thing as being a dietary vegan. It does not compute.

  21. #71
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    Default Re: Veganism is NOT a diet

    I'm all in favour of people eating vegan food even if they don't avoid leather etc and aren't into the ethics of it - the net result is good for animals, and the people may start to think more about the ethics later. And if they have to say they're vegan to get a meal in a restaurant, I don't really care about that either.

    However, I think it's good to be clear that the ethical position, with the lifestyle implications, is part of what it means to be a vegan.

  22. #72
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    Default Re: Veganism is NOT a diet

    Quote harpy View Post
    I'm all in favour of people eating vegan food even if they don't avoid leather etc and aren't into the ethics of it - the net result is good for animals, and the people may start to think more about the ethics later. And if they have to say they're vegan to get a meal in a restaurant, I don't really care about that either.
    I'm all with you. 1 million people who reduce their animal take with 50% is better for the environment than 15,000 vegans reducing their animal intake by 100%, "part time vegans" as a group are more important than us. The main thing for animals isn't to qualify for the vegan label, but not to be killed and harmed.

    There's no such thing as a dietary vegan (AFAIK; only The VeganSociety insist that there is), but when you write "All this dietary vegan crap we are getting from Oprah, Clinton", CoolCat - remember that we may see in the future that what you describe as crap and half-assery may have helped more animals than a small group of vegans being so 'pure' that they get tics if they discover that there's a few micrograms animal-something in their soap... Puritanism for the sake of puritanism has no value.
    I will not eat anything that walks, swims, flies, runs, skips, hops or crawls.

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    Default Re: Veganism is NOT a diet

    You can't apply maths to suffering. It's not better to only cage and abuse 100 non-humans animals than 1000 non-human animals if you are one of those 100 non-human animals. People doing things halfassed will not get applaud by me. They are not "saving" 900 non-human animals, they are responsible for hurting 100 non-human animals.


    It's not about being purists. It's about trying to do the right thing. And knowingly and willingly putting non-human animals through horror and suffering when it can easily be avoided is simply not right.

  24. #74
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    Default Re: Veganism is NOT a diet

    Personally I feel it's more a question of encouragement than applause - if "part time vegans" feel encouraged they might go the rest of the way, whereas if they get the impression that their efforts aren't worth anything there's a danger that they might decide not to bother at all.

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    Default Re: Veganism is NOT a diet

    Quote CoolCat View Post
    You can't apply maths to suffering. It's not better to only cage and abuse 100 non-humans animals than 1000 non-human animals if you are one of those 100 non-human animals.
    100 animals suffering is better than 1000 animal suffering even it isn't better for those 900 who still suffer - so you can apply maths to suffering...


    People doing things halfassed will not get applaud by me.
    FAir enough - but it's better than Clinton etc are eg. 50% vegan than not vegan at all for those animals which didn't suffer, and they won't know if you are applauding anyway....


    And knowingly and willingly putting non-human animals through horror and suffering when it can easily be avoided is simply not right.
    We all agree in that.
    I will not eat anything that walks, swims, flies, runs, skips, hops or crawls.

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    Default Re: Veganism is NOT a diet

    I think you made a mistake in your math. That 900 wouldn't be suffering if 100 is better than 1000 if I understand what you tried to say... But that isn't the point.

    We are talking about individuals here, they are persons like you and me, and like the neighbours dog, or the cat living here and the cow down the street... Every single one of them has the right not to be born into slavery, not to be subject of abuse and exploitation... it doesn't matter if there are 100, 1000 or billions. "better" or "less worse" have no meaning to them.

    This is the welfarist vs abolitionist thing I guess.

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    I no longer tell people that I'm vegan. I just say I'm a fussy eater or that I don't like the thing they're offering me. I am so sick of pitying looks, and people saying how hard it must be for me, or having to explain why I'm vegan, it's so much easier just to say that I'm fussy/picky.
    Recognize meat for what it really is: the antibiotic- and pesticide-laden corpse of a tortured animal. ~Ingrid Newkirk

  28. #78
    Ex-admin Korn's Avatar
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    Default Re: Veganism is NOT a diet

    Quote CoolCat View Post
    I think you made a mistake in your math. That 900 wouldn't be suffering if 100 is better than 1000 if I understand what you tried to say...
    Imagine 1000 animals suffering (or 100% of the number we're looking at). Then comes some 'halfassed vegans' in the population, you use your term, and manage to reduce that number from 1000 to 900 animals. Now 'only' 900 hundred animals are suffering (or 90%). That's doesn't help the animals which suffer much, but it means everything to the animals which doesn't suffer anymore. It matters a lot for them, it's very major change, a major 'point' for them that they aren't first put in a cage and are killed when someone want to eat them.


    But that isn't the point.
    It's a major point for the animals who don't suffer anymore! If one billion animals are killed for food etc, and the number is reduced by only 10%, that as much as 100 million animals which aftee this change do NOT suffer instead of suffer. How can that not be a point for these animals. Likewise, if 100 million humans suffer today and the same humans don't suffer next year, that's also a major 'point', even if it doesn't match someones ideology.

    it doesn't matter if there are 100, 1000 or billions.
    Lack of suffering matters immensely for each of the 100 000 000 animals which do not suffer. My point is that what matters the most is to reduce suffering - not if someone can label himself a perfect vegan. Of course eg. Clinton isn't a vegan if he still use animal products, but it's a lot more important that he has reduced animal s suffering by reducing his intake of animal products massively and because he's a well-known person who influence others. An interesting thing here is that he didn't drop using animal products due some Peta naked-stunt, but because of info which documented that changing his patterns would improve his health.

    All this dietary vegan crap we are getting from Oprah, Clinton and in the media just shows how self-absorbed humans are.
    They didn't invent the self-contradictory and misleading term 'dietary vegan'. They may have seen that some Vegan Society employee has used it on the VS site.



    If the world is moving towards being more.... vegan-like, and fewer animals suffer due to what you call their 'crap', the reduction of animal suffering is still great news for animals. But seriously: Blame it on whoever it is inside The Vegan Society who insist on using the term 'dietary vegan'... if someone has picked that term up from their site - they probably use it without knowing better.

    The Vegan Society is a small group, but it's still too bad that some people inside that group want to turn veganism into something which is only about food. You may have seen other threads about the same topic here. The 'vegan' concept is being worked against from the inside, so to speak, if the lobbyists succeed. In terms of real life actions, of course eating is a major part of being vegan, but it's unethical to try to hijack an organization and grab the term 'vegan' an make it into something else. It's a clear parallel to the Peta/porn(etc) topic here: if someone wants to make a food-only organization, focus on trying to make people go vegan, why can't they do that instead of trying to do it in The Vegan Society's name?

    I applaud Clinton & Co for giving veganism a lot of media focus. It's a great move in the right direction, so I can't call it crap. We'll se a lot more if it in the future, which makes it even more important to keeping the term vegan intact. Shame on The Vegan Society for being on the wrong side here.
    I will not eat anything that walks, swims, flies, runs, skips, hops or crawls.

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    Default Re: Veganism is NOT a diet

    Quote Korn View Post
    My point is that what matters the most is to reduce suffering - not if someone can label himself a perfect vegan.
    What matters is to end suffering. And people following a vegan diet out of selfish reasons does nothing for that. The big shift can only happen [if it ever will] when people acknowlegde that what is going on is wrong. And 'dietary vegans' fail in that by creating - easily avoidable - demand. It's not about obtaining the perfect label at all, it's about doing the right thing.

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    Default Re: Veganism is NOT a diet

    Quote CoolCat View Post
    What matters is to end suffering. And people following a vegan diet out of selfish reasons does nothing for that.
    How did you come to that conclusion (and why is this important)? If you see a deer, are hungry, but do not kill and eat it because you have read that red meat is bad for your health, how can that *not* a difference for the animal?

    If person A plans to kill person B, but drops the idea because he needs to reach a train, person B will still be *not* suffering from his violent ideas - he may not even know that he has them. People who eat vegan for health reasons make a major difference for animals even if the animals don't know that.

    The big shift can only happen [if it ever will] when people acknowlegde that what is going on is wrong.
    Of course acknowledging what's wrong is important. But it's a lot easier to accept vegan viewpoints if you already are off animal products. Plus - all those who say that they love animal products, understand that it's wrong and press 'Like' on vegan/AR friendly pages on Facebook don't really make much difference for the animals if they keep using animal products. Actions are more important than words.

    Another aspect relevant to all this is that someone understand everything there is to understand *and* avoid animal products may still push people away from veganism - if he has a grumpy, people-hating approach. He may technically be a 'perfect vegan', but if he keeps giving veganism a bad reputation, his pushing of non-vegans away from their interest in veganism may result in more, not less animal products being used. The end result is more, not less suffering.
    I will not eat anything that walks, swims, flies, runs, skips, hops or crawls.

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    Default Re: Veganism is NOT a diet

    We're talking about people who are on a vegan diet but still wear leather, wool, silk,... or have stuffed deer heads on their walls because they like them. That you cage and abuse a non-human animal for her milk, his/hers meat, his/hers skin, to ride him/her or have him/her entertain you makes no difference. The overal number of non-human animals this person uses might be less, but they still have poor ethics and intentional cause harm to others.

    About pushing people away from veganism. If you are willing to hurt others just because some vegan was rude to you then that says more about your ethics than it reflects badly on that rude vegan. We are all responsible for our actions, and hurting others because someone was rude to you is just pitty behaviour.

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    Default Re: Veganism is NOT a diet

    my veganism did start as something i was doing for my health, not for ethical reasons. i never intended it to be a diet though, i intend it to be permanent. and the more i read about the cruel things they do to animals the more i seem to care about it. i care more about the negative impacts on health, the economy, and the environment. sometimes i can still walk past a mcdonalds and feel a little craving for it (probably because i am a rather new vegan). then i think about all the many awful things that happened to those cows. the craving goes away in an instant. so do i miss meat? the answer is im conditioned to think i do, but then a more analytical thought process kicks in and says heck no! i am not on a diet. i am vegan for my health, for the economy, for the environment, and for all those animals that die in the worst possible way.

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    Default Re: Veganism is NOT a diet

    I completely agree with you. The diet is only a partial part of the 'veganism' lifestyle and any 'vegan' who claim otherwise don't truely understand what the vegan lifestyle is. If anything, it is a lifestyle! It affects everyday dicisions, affects your beliefs and views. It becomes a part of who you are and how you run your life, your constantly on the look out (regarding food, clothes and products) for possible animal products. Not only this, you are constantly learning new things. etc. the list goes on!
    The love for all living creatures is the most noble attribute of man.
    —Charles Darwin

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    Quote trinity73x View Post
    my veganism did start as something i was doing for my health, not for ethical reasons. i never intended it to be a diet though, i intend it to be permanent. and the more i read about the cruel things they do to animals the more i seem to care about it. i care more about the negative impacts on health, the economy, and the environment. sometimes i can still walk past a mcdonalds and feel a little craving for it (probably because i am a rather new vegan). then i think about all the many awful things that happened to those cows. the craving goes away in an instant. so do i miss meat? the answer is im conditioned to think i do, but then a more analytical thought process kicks in and says heck no! i am not on a diet. i am vegan for my health, for the economy, for the environment, and for all those animals that die in the worst possible way.
    I always thought that it's the eating of animals that causes people to lose their morals, not a lack of morals that causes people to eat meat. So your post kind of confirms to me that not having meat opens your eyes and mind

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    Default Re: Veganism is NOT a diet

    Yes splodge and trinity, I agree it can open your mind in a way. It's been a while but I think while I was eating animal products I resisted thinking too much about where they came from (so as not to feel bad all the time) but once I stopped there wasn't that resistance.

    As I may have mentioned earlier in the thread I initially cut out dairy products partly because I seemed to have become intolerant to it (I already knew about the case for veganism but hadn't thought enough about it, I suppose). But then having discovered how unnecessary it was I understood that there was no justification for it (or other use of animal products to satisfy human preferences etc).

  36. #86
    RubyDuby
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    Default Re: Veganism is NOT a diet

    I work with someone who calls herself vegan, but is really just a "pure vegetarian". It's really weird, because she is super strict with what she eats, but as far as buying leather and things like make-up and cleaning products her stance is that she just doesn't think about it... as though she can't just start thinking about it. That's generally her answer for anything she doesn't want to think about/change. It's pretty annoying because you can't really argue with that.

    The truth is, I have never insinuated to her that she is not technically vegan. It took her years to finally make the step from vegetarian and I certainly don't want to discourage the new diet. Hopefully one day it will all click... in the meantime I have to deal with things like finding sticky traps for the mice problem. (which I promptly throw away)
    Each snowflake in an avalanche pleads not guilty.

  37. #87
    baffled harpy's Avatar
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    Default Re: Veganism is NOT a diet

    I agree you probably just need to wait for it to "click", but it's frustrating isn't it? I guess in the meantime you can flaunt your vegan shoes, clothes, make-up etc. to show her how much nicer they are...

  38. #88
    RubyDuby
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    Default Re: Veganism is NOT a diet

    haha, if only.
    Each snowflake in an avalanche pleads not guilty.

  39. #89
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    Default Re: Veganism is NOT a diet

    I also know someone who started eating a vegan diet. I started up a conversation with her about some vegan shoes I'd seen and her reply was "Oh I still wear leather...."

    I left it alone, this person is fairly open minded so hopefully she will realise she can extend her diet to other areas of her life. To me, it's hypocritical to call yourself a vegan if you wear leather/use animal produtcs etc. The same way I felt hypocritical when I was just vegetarian and selfishly ignoring the suffering still going on.

  40. #90
    fortified twinkle's Avatar
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    Default Re: Veganism is NOT a diet

    I have a very close friend who is vegetarian, and who will buy non-tested stuff if we go shopping together but I think genuinely forgets that animal testing exists otherwise. It always makes me sad to see all the Unilever and similar stuff at their house
    "If you don't have a song to sing you're okay, you know how to get along humming" Waltz (better than fine) - Fiona Apple

  41. #91
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    Default Re: Veganism is NOT a diet

    I've been a vegan for 30 + years, and I still have to watch my weight though!

  42. #92
    baffled harpy's Avatar
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    Default Re: Veganism is NOT a diet

    Hello there veryan (is that right?). Great that you have been vegan for so long. I agree it doesn't work too well as a method of weight control

    As a long-standing (though not necessarily old!) vegan perhaps if you have time you could provide crocus with some additional reassurance in this thread:

    http://www.veganforum.com/forums/sho...068#post693068

  43. #93
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    Default Re: Veganism is NOT a diet

    Hi Harpy, I tried to read the thread, but seems that my membership is not fully activated yet....will do hopefully in time

    best

    Veryan

  44. #94
    Ex-admin Korn's Avatar
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    Default Re: Veganism is NOT a diet

    I tried to read the thread, but seems that my membership is not fully activated yet....will do hopefully in time
    Hi Veryan - and welcome! You need to join a so called Permission Group to get access to some of the subforums here.
    I will not eat anything that walks, swims, flies, runs, skips, hops or crawls.

  45. #95
    baffled harpy's Avatar
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    Default Re: Veganism is NOT a diet

    Yes, sorry - you need to join the "moan zone" for that thread Veryan. Shout if you have problems finding it, but I think if you follow Korn's link you'll be able to.

  46. #96
    Haniska's Avatar
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    Default Re: Veganism is NOT a diet

    I'm always seeing people on late night talk shows saying "I'm vegan but I eat fish."
    Nah. You're not vegan.

    I try to keep it to myself since its not productive, but I really want to shout sometimes:
    "My mom is small and she eats meat!"
    "Maybe if you want to be healthy you should eat ANYTHING besides Ramen and soda!"
    it is wrong for a man to eat anything that causes someone else to stumble

  47. #97
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    Default Re: Veganism is NOT a diet

    Veganism is my lifestyle. I believe it to be a link to perfection and peace

  48. #98
    Bad Buddhist Clueless Git's Avatar
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    Default Re: Veganism is NOT a diet

    Quote prudence View Post
    Veganism is my lifestyle. I believe it to be a link to perfection and peace
    I like that you called it a "link" prudence
    All done in the best possible taste ...

  49. #99
    Vegan Princess BellaTanie's Avatar
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    Default Re: Veganism is NOT a diet

    It truly is Prudence (:
    Tanya

  50. #100

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    Default Re: Veganism is NOT a diet

    To many people, veganism is just a diet. Your beliefs may be different, but I think it's wrong to impose them on other people. We're all individuals, and all unique. You don't "own" veganism, so have no right to judge what others believe it to be for them. Your beliefs are very valid, but so are those who think differently. Over the years I've noticed that the one thing that puts off many potential vegans is that they think they have to conform to some standard that doesn't suit them. The start being vegan, but then get attacked for not doing it for the right reasons or whatever. We should welcome those who are striving to become vegan, as they likely will stick to it if they are encouraged. They will go back to being non-vegan if they are preached at that their veganism is wrong.

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