Meat Vegans and the like quick question....

[Ririon]

Pounds and kg mean nothing to me, I have no frame of reference for them. I need some sort of real-life comparison. How many human heads is 14 pounds?

I hope you are a pathologist, if the weight of a human head is your link to "real life"...

The weight of one liter (sorry: litre) of water is the real-life comparison most metrically-minded people use.

 

[tkingdoll]

I hope you are a pathologist, if the weight of a human head is your link to "real life"...

The weight of one liter (sorry: litre) of water is the real-life comparison most metrically-minded people use.

Hee hee. No, I just used it for a giggle. I can think in pints of milk though.

 

[Ririon]

Hee hee. No, I just used it for a giggle. I can think in pints of milk though.

English humour... A pint will weigh slightly more or slightly less than 0.5 kg depending on your longitude. Beer drinkers should have well calibrated arms for that. Bottled water is even better. In the USA (at least the western states), the bottled water is almost always metric, even though beer and soda is sold using ye olde units. How does that work out in England?

Completely useless trivia: A curling stone weighs pi stone.

 

[joobie]

well, in this part of the US you can certainly buy a liter bottle of water, it also comes in gallon, pint, half-pint, and 20 and 24 oz sizes. all of these will have the metric measures one them though, although i doubt many people pay much attention to them.

when i was a kid in elementary school (early 80s) they made us learn the metric system since we were allegedly about to switch over. i really wish they'd just made the switch then, because it would have made college a smidge easier.

 

[Terry]

Vegetarians aren't real people.

Oh? What are we then? The first up against the wall when the revolution comes?

 

[tkingdoll]

Oh? What are we then? The first up against the wall when the revolution comes?

No, you're first to get eaten in a plane crash survival situation.

 

[Gravy]

I'm omnivorous and 18 stone, but the stones are pumice, so it's not as bad as it sounds.

 

[CACTUSJACKmankin]

I'm an omnivore myself. I couldn't become vegetarian because I don't like enough fruits and vegetables and I don't liked tofu and beans either. You can't just drop meat cold turkey and subsist soley on apples and cabbage. You still need a source of protein, which is what the tofu is for. BTW even though our ancestors were originally hebivorous, meat eating goes back at least to homo erectus, about a million years ago. There's a difference between natural and primitive. Animals eat each other, and I'm an animal, so why can't I eat animals?

I am an animal welfare advocate, I get free-range chicken when I can. Objections to slaughter and processing methods (including my own) are generally more aesthetic than moral. I agree that veal are generally not treated well so I don't eat veal, they're chained and all that and I would feel guilty about eating something young anyway (I don't eat lamb either).

Bees are not harmed in order to make honey and cows are not harmed for milk. They just do what they do, except for cows which get hormones, but I ain't giving up pizza and cream cheeze bagels. Eggs aren't young, they aren't fertilized. Eggs are basically menstruations (and tasty ones at that).

Raw food people are just out there. I've heard people say that when you cook food it alters it chemically (which isn't wrong), thus rendering it toxic (which is wrong). I'm not making this up. Any detrimental effect from the process of cooking are far outweighed by the fact that it kills bacteria, thus making it much safer to eat, and consequently tastier.

 

[Mongrel]

I'm an omnivore myself. I couldn't become vegetarian because I don't like enough fruits and vegetables and I don't liked tofu and beans either. You can't just drop meat cold turkey and subsist soley on apples and cabbage. You still need a source of protein, which is what the tofu is for.

Learn how to cook? There are many ways to cook Tofu, beans, mushrooms, dairy products or Quorn.

The tastless white chunks of goop that are normally served to you when you're given Tofu are a far cry from what you can get it to do if prepared properly. Quorn doesn't have much flavour either but since it's directly marketted as a meat substitute you shouldn't have too many problems buying a normal cookery book.
BTW - what sort of 'beans' don't you like? There's a quite a few varieties, and a seemingly near infinite way of preparing them. Don't like Lima beans on the side? Try them in a mediterranian tomato sauce. Chickpeas not good in a bean salad? Grind them for hummous or get a spicy Dhansak on the go.

Face it your attitude is the same as vegetarian never eating meat because "I had a Doner Kebab once and didn't like it, therefore I don't like meat"

 

[Ceritus]

Vegetarianism is healthier than I thought according to wikipedia if done while taking the right supplements.

I discussed this with my mother and she stated, "I don't want to take any supplements just so I can prove that you don't need supplements to survive while eating vegan."

I said you could most likely survive on the vegan diet but probably not as long as a vegan taking supplements.

Then I also explained to her that it wouldn't prove anything unless she had the proper tests done in a controlled area bcause a testimony means jack. She was boggled by that, but I think it is beginning to sink in.

 

[elaine]

Yep. I'm a meat-eater. That's never going to change. When the steak hits the table, it had better still be mooing.

Having said that, though, mongrel is right about tofu. It is incredibly versatile. I like it.

 

[dogjones]

English humour... A pint will weigh slightly more or slightly less than 0.5 kg depending on your longitude. Beer drinkers should have well calibrated arms for that. Bottled water is even better. In the USA (at least the western states), the bottled water is almost always metric, even though beer and soda is sold using ye olde units. How does that work out in England?

Completely useless trivia: A curling stone weighs pi stone.

Easy way of converting litres - pints:

"A litre of water's a pint and three quarters; a litre of wine is simply divine."

Ohhhhhhhhh... crazy English.

 

[GreyPilgrim]

English humour... A pint will weigh slightly more or slightly less than 0.5 kg depending on your longitude. Beer drinkers should have well calibrated arms for that. Bottled water is even better. In the USA (at least the western states), the bottled water is almost always metric, even though beer and soda is sold using ye olde units. How does that work out in England?

It's a comfort thing I guess. It feels more British to 'nip out for a pint' than to 'nip out for a beer'. Our speedometers show Miles per Hour and Kilometres (Kilometers?) per hour, but out road traffic signs only show MPH. No one I know refers to distances in KM, only miles, and I have difficulty thinking in KM. I suppose one day they'll drag us kicking and screaming away from imperial measurements, but we will fight them to the last man, because there will always be a place in our hearts that is forever England.

And we shall weigh that place in stones, not kilograms. And measure it in hectares. Not square Kilometres.

Come on, we've only just managed to decimalise our currency...

http://www.predecimal.com/predecimaldenominations.htm

 

[Ririon]

Easy way of converting litres - pints:

"A litre of water's a pint and three quarters; a litre of wine is simply divine."

Ohhhhhhhhh... crazy English.

A litre of wine is bought in a duty-free shop. Simply divine, indeed!

 

[illwafer]

im gonna go make a general statement and say the being vegan isn't healthy, and it's worse than being a vegetarian.

now that i got that out of the way, i would recommend that you look at the stuff your mother eats. take a look at the ingredients. does it seem healthy? the vegans i know eat a lot of chips and crackers and their faces look like Skeletor.

her saying meat is bad for you is either:
1. paranoia.
2. misleading.
3. a lie.

if you eat meat like dr. atkins wants you to, high in saturated fat, etc., then it is bad for you. if you eat properly prepared lean cuts of beef and chicken, and almost any kind of fish, you will be hard pressed to find many things healthier.

personally, i believe a "whole foods" diet is the healthiest. the ingredients are not "processed" and you don't have be a chemist to read the ingredient list.

if i didn't have to eat animals, i wouldn't. i can sympathize with her if her plight is to save the animals, although it might just be simple paranoia. if she's going to be vegan, she should really focus on getting fresh, whole foods in her body. she should also see her doctor annual and let him/her know about her lifestyle and monitor her blood.

 

[Rat]

And we shall weigh that place in stones, not kilograms. And measure it in hectares. Not square Kilometres.

I suspect that you mean we'll measure it in acres. A hectare is 10000 square metres. Whereas, as all of us who own The Wall know, an acre is the area of a rectangle whose length is one furlong, and whose width is one chain. A furlong, of course, being 1/8 of a mile, or 220 yards, and a chain being 1/80 of a mile, or 22 yards, or the distance between the stumps.

Cheers,
Rat.

 

[GreyPilgrim]

I suspect that you mean we'll measure it in acres. A hectare is 10000 square metres. Whereas, as all of us who own The Wall know, an acre is the area of a rectangle whose length is one furlong, and whose width is one chain. A furlong, of course, being 1/8 of a mile, or 220 yards, and a chain being 1/80 of a mile, or 22 yards, or the distance between the stumps.

[Accept Ignorance]Doh. I paused when I got to that and thought 'hectares..acres...hectares...acres...' If only I had looked it up. I could have saved myself a red face...Ignorance pointed out and accepted humbly. [/Accept Ignorance]

 

[Mongrel]

im gonna go make a general statement and say the being vegan isn't healthy, and it's worse than being a vegetarian.

now that i got that out of the way, i would recommend that you look at the stuff your mother eats. take a look at the ingredients. does it seem healthy? the vegans i know eat a lot of chips and crackers and their faces look like Skeletor.

Not trying to be rude but how old are the vegans you know? I've known quite a vegans and whilst you do need to take a look at what you're eating to make sure you're getting your full complement of vitamins and minerals it's easier than many people believe, I think it's only B12 that's a major problem and there are many supplements for this.

On the other hand many of the people I knew who turned vegi\vegan to fit in at college or University are the ones who subsist on chips, baked beans and the odd vegi sausage, and yes, that's not a healthy diet for anyone. Most of the people who fitted into this category didn't\couldn't cook, were living away from home and thought that "not eating your greens" was some form of rebellion.

if you eat properly prepared lean cuts of beef and chicken, and almost any kind of fish, you will be hard pressed to find many things healthier.

Once again, you couldn't live with just this diet. Any foodstuff in moderation is good for you in some respect, there is no 'Ultimate' healthy food, even a proper Full English breakfast isn't going to hurt if you don't have it too often.

 

[DJ Hexadecibel]

As for me, well, I think it was best said in "The Lion King." 'Tis the circle of life. . .life MUST end for life to continue. Also, just because a lifeform doesn't have a "face" or "feet" doesn't mean it doesn't suffer pain and death, there was a study done in a midwestern university about it. A psychology professor posited that if animals could feel pain, why not a plant? Several of his students, (with a knowledge of botany, no doubt) argued that plants don't have the receptors to record such stimuli. So, using an EKG connected to one of his bamboo plants, the professor plucked a leaf from it. When he did so, the meter jumped. Fascinated, the students watched as he plucked another, and the meter jumped again. A sceptic in the class objected, positing that the physical shock of physically pulling the leaf off was registering on the EKG, as would a shockwave.
Interested, the professor proposed testing his hypothesis further, by measuring a reaction with no direct stimuli. He had his students draw lots, and the the shortest had to go to the classroom after hours and "murder" one of the bamboo plants. That's right, he/she had to destroy, mangle, burn, uproot one of the plants in plain, ahem, sight of the other.
When it was done, the students were marched in front of the "witness" and when the "murder" walked past the plant, the EKG went berserk. . .

I was told that story in high school Science Fiction class, and I've yet to find any data corraborating any part of it. Still, it does point out that the salad you're eating used to be something's offspring, and probably something's progenitor as well...Circle of life.

 

[mumblethrax]

It's amazing how the same fallacious justificative arguments reliably emerge, even in a discussion (mostly) confined to the supposed health benefits of veganism.

Me, I think those benefits are confined to the indirect effects of thinking about nutrition, which is the sort of thing vegans should do if they want to avoid malnutrition. I suppose there's less chance of contracting some of the nastier varieties of food poisoning, too. Nothing to write home about.