[Poll] Changing your diet to mostly plant based

[cardboardtruck1000]

yummy   https://www.google.com/search?q=steak&rlz=1C1CHBF_enCA944CA944&sxsrf=ALeKk01Bs4crZ_khVnXJLdkoOXvM3IV4Xw:1622054119094&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjsosy8_ufwAhUKX60KHeKZDSwQ_AUoAXoECAIQAw&biw=1745&bih=886#imgrc=j1uCoDBdTB5wuM

[thrasher_565]

On 5/23/2021 at 2:53 PM, manikyath said:

in my (very uneducated) opinion trying to deliver a "vegan alternative" is already the wrong approach to take.

from my experience, giving people more options is the easiest way to make people change.

the people who will actively avoid non-meat options are people you arent going to convince either way, so why bother?

there is a diet that everyone can do is not eat. aka fasting. even 2 meals a day would be a big improvement. save money, time and when you do eat you can afford to eat heather. i think im gonna try a 1 meal day an see.

 

as far as  vegan w/e as long as it taste good and is cheap. i dont have to eat meat but its cheap.

[atxcyclist]

I consciously ate a mostly vegetarian diet for about a year and also cut out most dairy, this was several years ago. The idea was to lose weight and my belief and the advice of some peers was that such a diet would be a good way to do that. It was fine and I did lose some weight, but I dropped it because honestly I didn't want to be so diligent and rigid on my diet. Now, there were things I learned from that exercise that I still mostly follow, but I eat dairy and I eat meat just in lower quantities. I actually hunt for most of the meat I eat to cook, that's from a standpoint of it helping a managed ranch fill their quotas, but also because I can put a few hundred pounds of it in the freezer and it costs a few dollars in cartridges a year. I also don't feel as bad trekking out onto acreage and procuring my food through effort, rather than buying factory-raised meat as much. Hunting I'm sure is still majorly frowned-upon by vegans, but maybe a little better than factory-raised meat from an ethics standpoint?

 

The biggest take-away I learned from dieting was to cut beer out. I have maybe a dozen beers a year now, VS drinking a few several nights a week hanging with friends or watching movies. Beer is basically the emptiest of calories and drinking it while being sedentary is the worst. I take a whiskey on the rocks now, if I drink anything.

[kokakolia]

My 2 cents:

 

Shifting to a plant based diet is extremely hard if plant-based food options around you suck. 

 

I believe that everyone should consciously avoid supermarkets! They sell nearly rotten vegetables at ridiculous prices. Keep in mind that the vegetables you see on the shelves have been sitting in storage for weeks. Further, a lot of plastic waste is involved when shopping at supermarkets. The shopping experience at grocery stores punishes people for buying fresh vegetables. You have to wait in line longer, do extra work to choose, bag and weigh your vegetables. So you're influenced to buy prepackaged junk food out of convenience. 

 

My diet drastically changed once I made the conscious decision to shop at my neighborhood's farmer's market. Suddenly, buying vegetables is no longer a chore. The salespeople can fill your basket with kilos of vegetables in minutes. It's shockingly affordable if you buy seasonal vegetables. And best of all, the vegetables come almost directly from the supplier/wholesale market place without staying in storage for weeks. 

 

This leads to the inevitable conclusion that eating affordable fresh delicious vegetables is intuitive. The question of shifting your diet becomes obsolete.

 

tl;dr burn all supermarkets to the ground Boycott supermarkets 

[FloRolf]

On 5/24/2021 at 10:44 PM, gabrielcarvfer said:

If you're unhappy, try to convince China to stop consuming soy, as they are responsible for 70% of our soy exports...

eh, i think that's a little small minded. Saying it's the others fault is always easier than changing your own habits. 
While China does consume the most Soy, it's not like the others are innocent.

 

 

On 5/26/2021 at 7:30 AM, Gegger said:

vegan is another question, i like my ice cream and milk tea kek thanks.

yeah that's whats holding me back too. I'd personally love to go vegan but there's just so much stuff that would be either impossible to replace or would be hard to replace. 
going vegetarian was no issue at all for me, i only very very rarely look back. But i just discovered a vegan salmon sushi so the rarely might just drop to zero

 

 

18 hours ago, thrasher_565 said:

there is a diet that everyone can do is not eat. aka fasting. even 2 meals a day would be a big improvement. save money, time and when you do eat you can afford to eat heather. i think im gonna try a 1 meal day an see.

considering a huuuge percentage of the "western" population is obese, this would actually be very benefitial for a lot of things. I personally only have a cereal in the morning, then some warm meal for lunch and in the evenings somethig small like bread or a salad. I guess that's fine but you really don't need 2 big meals a day. 

 

11 hours ago, atxcyclist said:

but I dropped it because honestly I didn't want to be so diligent and rigid on my diet.

yeah my GF sometimes blames me a big because of my limited choices. For example we rarely eat greek because all greek restaurants here are very heavy on meat. However there are many more options now compared to a couple short years ago. Many restaurants now not only offer but also label their vegatarian options now. it actually became rather easy. 

 

9 hours ago, kokakolia said:

Shifting to a plant based diet is extremely hard if plant-based food options around you suck. 

sure depends on where you live but like i said above, There are so many possibilies now if you look closer.

Also while the supermarkets here are pretty good for vegetables, i do agree that getting stuff from a local farmer and seasonal is the best option. 

[JohnDeereBro]

10 hours ago, kokakolia said:

My 2 cents:

 

Shifting to a plant based diet is extremely hard if plant-based food options around you suck. 

 

I believe that everyone should consciously avoid supermarkets! They sell nearly rotten vegetables at ridiculous prices. Keep in mind that the vegetables you see on the shelves have been sitting in storage for weeks. Further, a lot of plastic waste is involved when shopping at supermarkets. The shopping experience at grocery stores punishes people for buying fresh vegetables. You have to wait in line longer, do extra work to choose, bag and weigh your vegetables. So you're influenced to buy prepackaged junk food out of convenience. 

 

My diet drastically changed once I made the conscious decision to shop at my neighborhood's farmer's market. Suddenly, buying vegetables is no longer a chore. The salespeople can fill your basket with kilos of vegetables in minutes. It's shockingly affordable if you buy seasonal vegetables. And best of all, the vegetables come almost directly from the supplier/wholesale market place without staying in storage for weeks. 

 

This leads to the inevitable conclusion that eating affordable fresh delicious vegetables is intuitive. The question of shifting your diet becomes obsolete.

 

tl;dr burn all supermarkets to the ground Boycott supermarkets 

The teacher: "That's nice sweetie. Now, would anyone else like to share during the last few minutes of story time?".

[kokakolia]

17 hours ago, FloRolf said:

sure depends on where you live but like i said above, There are so many possibilies now if you look closer.

Also while the supermarkets here are pretty good for vegetables, i do agree that getting stuff from a local farmer and seasonal is the best option. 

There are so many possibilities if you live in some parts of the world like India or you start cooking yourself! 

 

Vegetarianism sounds like an invitation to sell overpriced meat substitutes like Beyond Meat in Western countries. I can't believe how vegetarian patties at grocery stores cost so damn much considering they're made up of cereals/legumes and processed garbage. A100g patty of lean ground beef seems like a healthier and cheaper alternative

 

I'm just of the point of view that you should prioritize healthier foods over junk. And sticking to a strict diet sounds restrictive to me. 

[Computernaut]

I always find vegetables to be rather bland, and so I like the greater flavour density of meat. Animal products are also much more satisfying to me hunger-wise.

[tikker]

On 5/27/2021 at 9:51 AM, kokakolia said:

Shifting to a plant based diet is extremely hard if plant-based food options around you suck. 

 

I believe that everyone should consciously avoid supermarkets! They sell nearly rotten vegetables at ridiculous prices. Keep in mind that the vegetables you see on the shelves have been sitting in storage for weeks. Further, a lot of plastic waste is involved when shopping at supermarkets. The shopping experience at grocery stores punishes people for buying fresh vegetables. You have to wait in line longer, do extra work to choose, bag and weigh your vegetables. So you're influenced to buy prepackaged junk food out of convenience. 

 

My diet drastically changed once I made the conscious decision to shop at my neighborhood's farmer's market. Suddenly, buying vegetables is no longer a chore. The salespeople can fill your basket with kilos of vegetables in minutes. It's shockingly affordable if you buy seasonal vegetables. And best of all, the vegetables come almost directly from the supplier/wholesale market place without staying in storage for weeks. 

 

This leads to the inevitable conclusion that eating affordable fresh delicious vegetables is intuitive. The question of shifting your diet becomes obsolete.

Exactly. You can't expect to get rid of (plastic) packaging without "sacrificing" some of your convenience by having to pick and weigh it yourself? I wonder what people will do with the 2 minutes of their life they save by having to hand pick a few apples, put them in a bag and weigh them. It's probably because I grew up with it, but I honestly don't understand what the big deal about that is. If I'm at a market and I want a specific amount, I'll ask the seller and otherwise who cares. If anything you have the opportunity to pick which one you want instead of getting whatever.

26 minutes ago, Computernaut said:

I always find vegetables to be rather bland, and so I like the greater flavour density of meat.

That's what using herbs and spices is for though. This is the other side of the problem: some (most?) people can't (be bothered to) cook. You can't boil a carrot and expect magic. Veggies simply need some help from time to time (meat as well for that matter).

[kokakolia]

17 hours ago, Computernaut said:

I always find vegetables to be rather bland, and so I like the greater flavour density of meat. Animal products are also much more satisfying to me hunger-wise.

You have to learn Indian cuisine then. Many western countries have lackluster vegetarian recipes. Indian cuisine is the most convincing way to learn how to appreciate vegetables. It's full of flavor and color. The other issue is that some "vegetables" are more filling then others. It's important to consume beans, lentils and chickpeas to feel satiated. If you only eat tomatoes, cucumber and iceberg lettuce you'll be starving. 

16 hours ago, tikker said:

Exactly. You can't expect to get rid of (plastic) packaging without "sacrificing" some of your convenience by having to pick and weigh it yourself? I wonder what people will do with the 2 minutes of their life they save by having to hand pick a few apples, put them in a bag and weigh them. It's probably because I grew up with it, but I honestly don't understand what the big deal about that is. If I'm at a market and I want a specific amount, I'll ask the seller and otherwise who cares. If anything you have the opportunity to pick which one you want instead of getting whatever.

I love the old method which worked since the beginning of mankind: open markets. The seller literally fills your bags full of groceries in minutes, and with a smile.

 

I'm sorry but having to weigh your own vegetables is a pain in the butt, especially if you live in France. Since self-checkout has become a thing, stores realized that customers were weighing 1 apple and purchasing 5. So weighing your own vegetables is a no-go, a cashier must weigh your vegetables instead. There are fewer cashiers available compared to 10 years ago as well. So if you commit the sin of buying anything in bulk, you'll have to wait 15~20 minutes in line instead of using the speedy self-checkout. And cashiers are slow AF in France. This is of course less of a problem with giant supermarkets, but then you have to trample over people and waste hours finding all of the foods dispersed over 80 aisles, 20 of which are just wine, dairy and charcuterie. 

 

I'm also the kind of guy who doesn't believe that choice is necessarily a good thing in the context of consuming food. I'd rather choose between 5 or 10 great products rather than 1000 mediocre products you hesitate to trust. So please give me "whatever", especially if that "whatever" is guaranteed to be delicious and worth my money. 

 

My point is: I spend less time and money shopping at open markets; the quality of the products and service are superior to grocery stores. I feel stupid every time I buy vegetables, meat or bread at grocery stores. 

 

 

[tikker]

1 hour ago, kokakolia said:

I'm sorry but having to weigh your own vegetables is a pain in the butt, especially if you live in France. Since self-checkout has become a thing, stores realized that customers were weighing 1 apple and purchasing 5. So weighing your own vegetables is a no-go, a cashier must weigh your vegetables instead. There are fewer cashiers available compared to 10 years ago as well. So if you commit the sin of buying anything in bulk, you'll have to wait 15~20 minutes in line instead of using the speedy self-checkout. And cashiers are slow AF in France. This is of course less of a problem with giant supermarkets, but then you have to trample over people and waste hours finding all of the foods dispersed over 80 aisles, 20 of which are just wine, dairy and charcuterie.

Ah yeah we have more self-checkouts here as well. Everything goes by weight though, so you can't hit "1 apple" on the display and bag 10. You put your apples on there and hit the kind of apple you have, then it determines price by itself. Inside the supermarket you can still get a stickers, so it doesn't completely eliminate it, but as you say most people are too lazy to weigh them and hit a few buttons to get that sticker. If you buy in bulk of course you'll spend a long time at the till.That time would otherwise be spent traversing the markets or traveling between various grocers, so I still don't think they are a hassle (over here at least). More a luxury "problem".

2 hours ago, kokakolia said:

I'm also the kind of guy who doesn't believe that choice is necessarily a good thing in the context of consuming food. I'd rather choose between 5 or 10 great products rather than 1000 mediocre products you hesitate to trust. So please give me "whatever", especially if that "whatever" is guaranteed to be delicious and worth my money. 

My whatever wasn't regarding choice, but regarding your comment on freshness and supermarket stuff having been in storage. I meant to say that the "hassle" of bagging your own stuff gives you the opportunity to pick whatever looks best to you instead of getting whatever freshness is in the prepackaged bag.

 

Markets can definitely be super cheap. Sometimes problematically so lol. Like I could get a pound of limes at the market for the same price as 2 in the super market, but what am I going to do with all of those.

[Beerzerker]

On 5/26/2021 at 12:30 AM, Gegger said:

personally, i don't have any problem with going vegetarian itself, but the "veggie patty" type stuff near me is still mostly...like sawdust. vegan is another question, i like my ice cream and milk tea kek thanks. while there is the impossible burger and other similar things, they are usually about 2x the price of meat, and only at stores we don't go to often. in addition my family usually doesn't cook with ground beef much, its mostly whole pieces(if that makes sense), so we do not really have a use for the majority of the plant based meat that is available. as stated earlier, we don't go to the stores that carry plant based meat often, it is usually not worth it to make an additional trip for 1 item. as for the eating out part, asian restaurants usually don't have plant based alternatives, or are like the aforementioned sawdust variety.  

 

tl;dr - vegetarian - yes, vegan - no; good plant based price/availability; many sawdust like plant based things;

Funny you should mention that about sawdust.
Years ago McDonald's introduced a burger called the "McLean" and it earned the nickname "Sawdust Burger" because according to many that's what it tasted like.

 

On 5/27/2021 at 12:46 PM, FloRolf said:

considering a huuuge percentage of the "western" population is obese

Me - No way I'd go veggie by any means.
It's true the majority of Westerners are overweight but I'm not one of them, in fact I can't seem to put it on or keep it if I ever do so I'm clearly not afflicted with obesity.

[Colonizor48]

Humans are at the top of the food chain. Such is life. We are the apex of evolution. therefore we dominate all else. Such is how natural selection and evolution work. At the same time we cannot dominate so much that we hurt ourselves in our shortsided stupidity and must preserve nature and stuff whenever it benfits us. But there are solutions other then going vegan. I for one am quite invested in artifical meet.