Any vegetarians? Should I become one?

[Alex K]

Thanks for the replies. For me, personally, calories count, but I don't count my calories. If I just did a vegetable and protein diet, no wheat, and no sugar, I woud lose weight. However, this medicine makes it hard not to snack.

Jace

I'm not sure what you mean... It's really the calory balance that determines whether you lose weight. Of course the usual carbohydrate like wheat and sugar with 350...500 kcal per 100g or so make it quite easy to take calories.

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Of course, if you have ethical issues with meat - you probably ought to stay away from soy entirely, but that's a whole different discussion.

I'd like to know what your take is on that, I've never really understood these objections

[Jackalope]

Won't someone think of the fungi!

I will, sauteed in butter and white wine.

[psychoslice]

I have schizophrenia and I am also a vegetarian, most psychotic drug can make you put on weight. When I was in the psych ward I noticed most people with schizo were eating a lot, as we could help ourselves to the kitchen. Myself being a vegetarian, I believe is the reason I keep weight of, I do crave more food but I fight against it, I have a few hobbies that take my mind of eating, being here on this and other forums also helps, as long as you are doing something and no thinking about food you should be right.

[JaceDeanLove]

I have schizophrenia and I am also a vegetarian, most psychotic drug can make you put on weight. When I was in the psych ward I noticed most people with schizo were eating a lot, as we could help ourselves to the kitchen. Myself being a vegetarian, I believe is the reason I keep weight of, I do crave more food but I fight against it, I have a few hobbies that take my mind of eating, being here on this and other forums also helps, as long as you are doing something and no thinking about food you should be right.

Nice to know there's another schizophrenic on here xD I have schizoaffective, technically.

Jace

[The Grand Nudger]

However, this medicine makes it hard not to snack.

Is that what we're calling reefer these days?

@Alex,
Soy is a massively important agricultural commodity. If someone thinks that they are reducing harm to animals (for example) by eating it - it's only because they haven't taken the time to research food production in exhaustive detail - making their line arbitrary and their stance empty in the eyes of someone who has. Would seem to me that someone who has an ethical objection to food production would be eating crickets and cardboard, but no..it's always the soy and the kale. When asked why they eat the soy and the kale instead of the bugs and the processed material, their responses will mirror those of the omnivores they constantly criticize in absolute ignorance/practiced indifference. I'm always open to an objection because it;s an issue close to my heart and it helps me hone my sales pitch - essentially, but I've been disappointed time and time again. I find myself having to argue -basic science- into the discussion with reliably low rates of success. Wide eyed and in defiance of simple facts vegetarians respond to me with "no, surely that can't be true!" -when I explain that there is no free lunch...when it comes to lunch - that nothing, not even livestock, has wrought more destruction and harm to animals than the growing of veggies.....since the moment we started down that road. That we tread it not because it is ideologically pure, but because we simply have no choice. In the parlance of my chosen field - we're obligate parasites, and vegetarianism doesn't ameliorate the harm that we cause simply so that we may continue to exist.

[LivingNumbers6.626]

Caloric intake and caloric deficit is what you gotta get obsessed about. Plus, how much exercise do you do? At the age of 16 you would be surprised how easy weight will fall off if you simply start a walking routine and work all the way up to running. It's cheap, too. Beside the cost of shoes, which most have, you wont have to worry about buying new or different food products or gym memberships. All you need is a road and your two feet. Then the diet changes will come naturally as you get addicted to looking better, which you will. I've dealt with weight problems my whole life, it wasn't until I got diabetes type 1 that I started to take my shit seriously.

[Alex K]

@Rhythm,

Ok... Now you've just stated that eating soy is bad for animals, but why? To be precise, why is it worse than alternatives?

[simplemoss]

I DO NOT reccomend veganism or vegetarianism too people with schizophrenia this illness causes rampant paranoia especially later in life. Being worried of what's in your food everyday, is the worst habit you can possibly start and is very likely too result in an obsession. Being watchful of what you eat can be helpful for regular people but schizophrenia is degenerative.

So what can start as simply avoiding red meat can result in you becoming an all organic gluten free veagan. I know a veagan schizophrenic who walks around with Goji berries because he irrationally believes its the only thing humans need too survive. It can eventually lead to you needing to be forcefed 3 times a day in a hospital.

I DO NOT recommend vegetarianism, or any dietary restrictions, for anyone with schizophrenia. You can however start a regular exercise regiment, joining a gym can be great, or even just starting something simple as taking a 5 minute walk everyday

[psychoslice]

But then if you have schizophrenia and your not concerned with what you eat, you will become big and fat.

[The Grand Nudger]

Ok... Now you've just stated that eating soy is bad for animals, but why? To be precise, why is it worse than alternatives?

Because it -isn't- an alternative, it's just a different path to the same outcome. It isn't worse, it's just no better (and keep in mind I'm being a little loose as "worse" isn't really a term I would use). We have two options when it comes to sourcing ag inputs, presently. Petrochem or livestock. We use petrochem because from one very narrow POV it's more efficient (in the short term, specifically)...but that incurs mind boggling harm on just about every living thing on the planet. If we used livestock (but went vegetarian/vegan) we'd need more livestock..and then we'd need to figure out what to do with that livestock that didn't involve eating it - which would be more wasteful still...and that waste would harm animals directly and indirectly (and is additional to the harm already caused by ag -no matter how we choose to do it-). It's a rock and a hard place because we don't live in an ideal situation - so there's simply no ideal solution. Most of us aren't really capable of directly influencing how much harm is done in our names to feed us, even if we can choose which group of animals takes the brunt of it (and that's just talking the lucky first worlders among the multitudes....most people have literally no purchase in this whatsoever). All of this doesn't even address how shady this idea of harm is to begin with, or the economic considerations, or, really, any of the complicated relationships that form the various production systems available to us.