Plant based eating and veganism

Quote are starting to make more vegan products you have to check the label. I use puy lentils instead of mince, I usually add a teaspoon of marmite if making shepherds pie or spaghetti sauce, has B vitamins and gives a savoury taste.

Quorn not Quote!

we used to make Bolognese with lentils when daughter became vegetarian. And now, I use half lentils and half mince and lots of other veggies- trebling the number of meals it makes.

Yes I make lentil and vegetable mix, and add marmite, or pesto. Very flavoursome and filling.

I have often thought about being vegetarian, but I'm afraid I'm a bit too black and white.I know that I would find it extremely difficult to,give up dairy produce, and it seems to me that the dairy industry is worse than meat production morally, so,I continue to eat meat, albeit from local,organic sources. I never eat chicken unless I've bought it myself and know where it's come from, ( as far as is possible), and eat local free range eggs. I feel far more guilty consuming milk and cheese than eating e.g. free range pork and lamb, and wish I was strong minded enough to give it up.

I love almond and cocunut milk, a carton lasts me ages and I don’t miss dairy milk at all. I have a weakness for cheese??‍♀️ so I now just don’t buy any as the vegan ones I have tried really didn’t hit the spot. I have had to go cold turkey (excuse the pun?) on cheese?

I decided to become vegetarian in January this year and while researching healthy ways to be meat free I came across a film of how dairy cows are treated. It really disgusted me - as did my (wilful) ignorance for all these years.
No more dairy products for me since, I am proud to be vegan and am enjoying learning all sorts of new recipes.
Once you've seen the cruelty, it cannot be unseen.
'If slaughter houses had glass walls, we would all be vegetarian' (Paul Mcartney) . Add dairy farms to that!

We’re all lucky to have the choice of what we will or won’t eat anyway. We wander into any supermarket and can choose whatever we want and indulge our appetite or our moral superiority.

It’s worth remembering parts of the world where there is no choice. If there’s food then you eat it. If not you go hungry.

Yes it’s all about choices and we are privileged to have those choices. We can feed our appetites in numerous ways. Not sure about moral superiority though, does that come in a family sized bucket?

DH and I are gradually phasing out animal meat in favour of vegetarian and vegan alternatives. We do not intend to become complete vegans but envisage a time when we will rarely eat animal flesh and dairy. One of the main reasons we will not become completely vegan is because we keep hens and personally we see no major issue with eating the eggs they lay. Our hens are healthy and well cared for and will lay eggs even if we didn't want them to! I love meat but don't feel that slautering living creatures just for food is any longer defensible.

Geri it certainly does!

But being 'lucky' enough to be able to wander into any supermarket and choose to buy what we want (which is not true for everyone in the UK by a long way) surely carries a responsibility with it to choose wisely and in ways that will benefit the most as well as benefit the planet and the animals whose flesh we perhaps choose to eat.

No one is forcing anything on anyone, you can ignore the hardliners if you want but also think about what you choose to eat. Over reacting suggests a pricked conscience, maybe allow that to gently lead you to a healthier way of life. Those living in 'unlucky' (?!) countries ironically probably have a healthier diet consisting of smaller portions, grains and vegetables with just a little meat. The evidence is out there concerning diet and chronic illness but you can of course decide you don't care. No problem!

Is this really a thread about the pros and cons of veggie v vegan v meat eating as a personal food choice. Assuming we are allowed choices? It all seems a little like hard line politics to me.

Seriously , and perhaps embarrassingly(sorry), but when I make leguminous food I get flatulence(wind). I understand this is a common problem for veggy people . I need to know if human intestines become accustomed to the vegetable protein and deal with it more efficiently.

There's quite a lot about veggy flatulence on the Web. Here is one of them:

happyherbivore.com/2012/01/flatulence/

Here's a good link:
nutritionstudies.org/avoid-gas-bloating-plant-based-diet/

Azie what colour is the sun on your planet?

How weird it must be to think that those in poorer countries where people are starving have a healthier diet ??

I don’t think the poster above meant people who are starving .. maybe people who have fewer choices can still have a healthy, if not healthier, diet. It doesn’t have to be super processed food versus starvation. Think the U.K. in WW2 when there was rationing. People weren’t starving, had fewer choices than we do now, but in many ways had a healthier diet.

geri I doubt whether anyone who has bothered to post on this thread eats very much ‘super processed food’.
The wartime diet was only healthier because people had very little sugar in their diet.

Geri or perhaps she was being deliberately obtuse.

Actually jane I believe that's not true - the wartime diet was very carefully planned to provide a balance of all required nutrients, it was not only the lower sugar.

humptydumpty what about all the margarine that people had to eat instead of butter?
War-time margarine was full of trans-fats that have now been banned because of their association with heart disease.

jane, I don't know about that, only that people had a much healthier diet then. Maybe it was because the diet was better-balanced?

I don't suppose people ate a huge amount of trans-fats during the war, despite margarine, because there were no highly processed foods available, unlike today.

Humptydumpty there is a lot of evidence that consuming trans fats found in margarine and other processed foods increases risk for both cardiovascular disease and diabetes.
In what ways was the war-time diet better balanced?
There is not really a consensus on what a properly balanced diet is, anyway. Many people don’t agree with the NHS recommendations for low-fat, high carbohydrate diet for a start.

Many people suffered from deficiencies as a result of wartime shortages. There might be a rosy view of digging for victory but rickets, scurvy and anaemia were common place in towns and cities.

Why do you think children were fed supplements like Parish's food and cod liver oil throughout the fifties?