Steele-Bike

OK, I am looking for my first cyber-beating here...

I am a vegetarian and have been for 6 years, and I am in good shape and healthy. I have had people tell me that one cannot be a vegetarian and highly active as they need animal protein for muscle endurance. I would say that I have more energy being a vegetarian. The reason I initially became a vegetarian, was because at the time I was living on a fast food diet and thought that if I took meat off my list of foods, I would have to eat healthier...it seems to have worked.

Does anyone agree that one can kick butt on the road/trail and then go home to a tasty pasta dinner?

dirtsqueezer

Used to get my butt-kicked 3 nights a week by my 230 lb. 45 year old Taekwondo instructor, the vegetarian. No problem with his strength or endurance. I'm just not creative or disciplined enough to cook or order vegetarian with any commitment

An aside - we were about 40 miles into our Sunday club ride and took a break at a quicky mart out in the sticks, for some reason I just had to get a corn-dog off those greasy spinning roller things. It was calling me….

Joe Pozer

Well, I do think that you can still kick butt and be a vegetarian. But I think that if you really want to kick butt, this is what you should include in your daily diet:




Oh Oh... Did I start another SPAM post?? :thumbdn:

Time for lunch....

Cheryl

Besides the fact that Pozer is a dead man....


My best friend is a vegetarian, she is @5'5" and 130# no meat or animal products AT ALL!! Not even veggies cooked where meat MAY have been cooked... She kicks butt!! Two or three centuries a season, plus the DOUBLE century last year.. Lots and LOTS of veggies, peanut butter (protein) and tofu.....

My feeling is if we weren't meant to eat animals, they wouldn't be made of meat......

JonR

I'm not a vegetarian, by choice. But protein is protein: it's a myth that animal protein is "necessary" or superior in some way.

The only danger I know about that strict vegetarians confront in their diet (I mean vegans, not ovo- or ovo-lacto-vegetarians) is a lack of vitamin B12. Supposedly this lack can be overcome by supplements.

Lots of tough vegetarians of various descriptions out there--as previous posters have testified!

LittleBigMan

If avoiding meat was a serious health problem, vegetarians would have died out...now, let's look at those folks who strictly adhere to the four basic food groups: hamburger, fries, Coke and apple pie. Let's check back in 10 years and see who's still living...


Looks like a pig in a tuxedo...
It'll be GOOD if it stays GONE.

JonR

Pete, haven't you heard about the revised "food pyramid?" It's now hamburger, fries, Coke, apple pie, and ICE CREAM.

Ranger Jake

Servus! (check my latest post on Office Rant for definintions)

I have friends who are unbelievably healthy and strict vegans and will be more than happy to reccomend that lifestyle to anyone who shows interest. What really bakes my noodle is why there are so many militant vegans out there. I realise that eating meat is my choice and the NOT eating meat is theirs, but why are they so angry about that? I have been drawn into arguments with these people (...say, how does a big steak sound... they ask) and have been called everything from a fascist pig to a murderer. Because I enjoy eating meat on occasion. Ah well...

I am on a bit of "meat fast" myself, as beef is not particularly safe to eat here in Europe and Hoof and Mouth Disease has shot the pork industry in the foot (no pun intended, but there should have been) and this has made poultry as expensive as gasoline as of late. Well, white aparagus season is starting so I will eat well.

I applaud you in your resolve Steele and wish you good health and good cheer in the future!

JonR

I certainly sympathize with you, Ranger. Some militants simply don't think their positions through very thoroughly.

Maybe I'd better leave it at that, though.

Rich

I'll just stick to being a meaty member (who still is by the way a Part Time Veggy!!!)

Rich

poptart

I'm vegetarian, but took a pledge not to be "militant" about it. For instance, with my own daughter, I told her "no meat in the house", but she was free to make up her own mind when out with friends.

I'd also like to add that there are plenty of "militant"(maybe "righteous" is a better word?) meat eaters out there who have also not clearly thought out their decisions. Many people just eat meat because it's "there" and "everyone else does it". It's very sad that we are raising a whole generation of children who think "chicken" is something that gets handed to you in a styrofoam box at the drive-through.

My least favorite "meat eaters" are the hypocritical ones...you know the ones who eat animals but would NEVER kill one??? I actually admire the farmers and hunters(for food not sport), as they are intimately involved with the life/death cycle of the animal and understand the concept of "sacrifce". Each time one decides to consume flesh a life has been given and , I think, one should be mindful of that(of course I believe that one should be mindful of LOTs of things...but that's a bigger topic).

Then there are the "righteous by omission" meat eaters. You know the "ugly Americans" who are disgusted that *some* cultures eat <gasp> DOG...as they chew away on their ham sandwiches? Or the "I only eat chicken" types who look down their noses at the beef-eaters? I have to chuckle to myself and think of the line from "Animal Farm"---"all animals are equal....." hehehe.

IMHO as usual of course!

~poptart "i'm not vegetarian because i love animals, it's just that i hate plants"(anon?)

Hunter

" I actually admire the farmers and hunters(for food not sport), as they are intimately involved with the life/death cycle of the animal and understand the concept of "sacrifce". "

Thanks! We also as farmer's are alot of times forced to kill out of neccesity. Not only to eat mind you but as prevention. For example I shot a buck two years ago that was in the melon patch. We had most of them already sold, and he and his close friends and relatives thought they were good. Well out of neccesity he had to go out of 60+ plants we harvested 3 watermelon's, 6 cantelope's and 3 honey do's. So it was the deer or our livelihood. Bonus was we got free meat for a long time.

fubar5

I don't care one way or the other. Whatever floats your boat. But I think it's kinda stupid when people go on a diet or become vegitarian to lose weight, but exercise is not part of their weight loss plan. They may lose a few pounds by eating better, but the only way to really lose weight is exercise. I usually tell people, start excersizing, and then customize your diet for the activity.

LittleBigMan

The biggest problem with a diet high in meat is that it has few, if any, fruits, vegetables and whole grains. Also, meat tends to accumulate more man-made poisons than vegetables. Plus, it is cheaper to eat foods grown from the land than to feed an animal and kill it for meat.

Some say a vegetarian diet lacks proper nutrients. This may be true about poverty-ridden peoples who eat only corn and beans. But the typical vegatarian diet is rich in a wide range of nutrients. The typical American diet, which lacks vitamin, mineral and phytochemically rich vegetables, is the substandard diet.

In moderation, meat can be a healthful part of one's diet. In excess, meat can lead to disease and premature death. I don't know anyone who eats "too many vegetables."
In defense of meat eaters, I once listened to a vegetarian explain all the above arguments against eating meat, plus many others. At one point, they mentioned a book called "The Secret Life of Plants," in which plants were "scientifically" studied and found to have a consciousness.

"What happens when you cut one," I had to ask.

"Plants know the difference between being whacked down in anger and being lovingly sacrificed in the circle of life," they said, or something like that.

:confused:

Now all our vegetables have to be not only "no additives," and "organically grown (manure)," but also,
"lovingly harvested."

JonR

I wish I had a dollar for every time I've passed this advice on to co-workers desperate to shed a few (or many) pounds. Talk about blank stares. This is something people definitely don't want to hear.

Oh, now and then they'll seem to see the light. For a day or two they'll go "walking." Which probably means slowly, with the dog or a child, around the block. "Phew!" comes the report next day. "My feet got hot!"

Back to the recliner.

One big advantage of getting rid of your car, as I did in 1982, is that you will definitely end up walking more. You will probably learn to walk faster. You will likely never be very much overweight, if you have anything like a normal life.

Oh--sorry. A normal life, in America, means you have at least one, preferably two or three, cars....

fubar5

I think that is the team USPS rider Kevin Livingston wound up on.

technogirl

Joe P, how can we possibly give up SPAM???? Ah, I've limited my meat consumption a bit, but in the process discovered some really interesting foods! I have tofu lightly fried with olive oil in the morning with wheat bread, almost every morning. It's mainly because I found out that I'm allergic to eggs (kind of a bummer), and it's a pretty darn good substitute.

I really admire vegetarians--I can't seem to entirely cut off the meat supply, but I generally think that's because as I always say, "I love food, and food loves me!"... I'm an EEFE...equal opportunity food eater!

Joe Pozer

Didn't the McCartney team disband this year?

fubar5

Dude, it totally sucks to be Kevin. He'll be against Lance in the Tour. You know he originally left USPS to ride for some team where he would be the main man. But that team folded, and now he winds up on Telekom...oh how it sucks to be him