Hi, guys !
I was wondering... how many of you are vegetarians ? and why ?
Well, Im not a vegetarian. But I dont eat red meat either - just chicken, turkey, and fish. Not eating red meat started about two years ago after a cancer scare. My doctor said to stop eating beef as it could be a contributing factor. Original diagnosis was 100% wrong - never did have cancer. Still havent eaten beef since though.
I try not to eat mammals, except socially, so not to offend other mammals at the table 
So, I generally don't eat pork or beef, etc. because they are animal life that are close to humans.
I eat a lot of chicken and seafood, and a lot of veggie Indian food.
My favorite foods are Japanese (Sushi), Thai and Indian. I normally eat Sushi, Thai and Indian food every week.
Indian food is my personal favourite too. Apart from that, anything with chilli in it!!
I don't eat too much red meat (some steak now and again), normally chicken and fish, and veggie dishes too.
Bacon is nice too, although I generally avoid pork as it's too fatty...
I suppose I'm just fussy.
Cheers
ZB
I eat non-vegetarian occaisionally, either Chicken or Fish.
And Eggs being most friendly to Bachelors menu, as they are easy to cook and tasty to eat, you can find me most of the time having one or the other form of eggs.
Tandoori and Butter Chicken prepared with lot of pepper are my favourites. 
That sounds good, but a Chicken Vindaloo with Garlic Roti is more my scene!
Cheers
ZB
Well... it seems that are not so many vegetarians here... anyway, in case that someone is interested, I am a lacto-vegetarian... the ideea is that... i was curious how's the vegetarian life in other countries... and, in your opinion, is the vegetarian life style changing your mind (memory and all that stuffs...) ?
According to medical science, humans are more healthy when they consume "some" animal proteins, fats and other complex chemicals from animals.
In fact, strict vegans have to take supplements to stay healthy, from what I understand from my research into the subject.
Eat a nice piece of fish weekly to keep your memory and brain running well Fish can be very healthy and have lots of good amino acids and fats to keep you healthy.
Better to "eat a fish" than to destroy the health of a human, if you ask me. When was the last time a fish designed a vaccine or helped an elderly woman cross the road in a time of need?
I agree with everything Neo just said.
To commnt on your second question generally eating healty does also contribute to mental health, and congnitive reasoning, since among other things it promotes good circulation and oxygenation of the blood, both of which are major contributors to our ability to think quickly, process sensory input and concentrate.
I am not a vegetarian, but many people in my country are. And I would have to disagree with Neo about the supplements and stuff... I mean, there are many people who are completely vegeterian and in excellent mental health. The brilliant Indian mathematician Ramanujan was a strict vegeterian for all his life (short as it was).
Dear Blowtorch,
Thanks for disagreeing with me, but please allow me to inform you that you are not disagreeing with me, you a disageeing with the body of medical science. I simply am relaying the medical facts based on my research over many years.
For example from this MD reference:
It may be possible that cultures with years of experience in vegan diets have found ways to harmonize their diet to insure they get all key nutrients required for human health, however, this is not the natural bio-requirement for health, rather a diet based on spiritual v. human bioscience.
My comments are not meant to dishonor anyones spiritual lifestyle, but to simply point out that, at this stage of human evolution, our bodies to require nutrients that are naturally found from animals products.
A deep search of this topic tends to support the medical claims.
I admire people who live a strict vegan lifestyle, but they are going against, according to science, the natural requirements of the human body, and they must seek alternatives, via the food chain or supplements, to compensate for their honorable lifestyle.
Then again, an argument could be made that, if humans stopped eating all animals, that their bodies would evolve and adapt, which is also a very good thing! Perhaps come cultures have evolved toward vegan more than others?
Hi, Neo !
You know... there are a lot of theories about vegetarians and their lifestyle, but almost all of this theories are not trying to find the trouth... these theories are trying to give an "excuse" for people who like eating meat (I don't intend to offend anyone). You know, those who are saying that a vegetarian lifestyle is not good are like "microsoft specialists" who insist that Windows is much batter then any other OS in the world. You know... in that is a little bit of trouth, but everybody knows that unix is much better, right ? The same is with vegetarian lifestyle. A strict vegetarian lifestyle can do a lot of harm, beacause the secret for a healthy body is not the vegetarian food, is the way you mix the vegetarian food. For example, as most of nutritionists insist, there are a lot of minerals/vitamins that cannot be found in vegetals (B12 is one of the best examples), but all of this minerals can be easily "achived" if you have a lacto-vegetarian or ovo-vegetarian diet.
With strictly vegan diets I don't agree either, beacause this can do a lot of harm, but if you chose an (lacto-ovo)-vegetarian diet everything is ok for your body and mind. Anyway, if you eat only fish and chicken is much batter then eating red meat and for your health... is enought to get rid of red meat. I don't eat eggs and meat (not even fish, chicken) for spiritual reasons.
For the record, I never eat red meat. But this is because I own a stove. I'm an omnivore. One exception: I shy away from beef because of mad cow disease. Those nasty prions freak me out. I will eat beef if it is served to me, but I never order it or buy it anymore. There is enough other stuff to eat.
I also take a daily vitamin pill. I invite my vegan friends to consider doing the same. Does anyone know if there is any spiritual reason why you couldn't take a vitamin pill?
No one else mentioned mad cow disease... Maybe I'm just being paranoid.
This site says: "The Edible-nest, Indian Edible-nest and Black-nest Swiftlets weave a nest from strands of saliva: the male regurgitates a long, thin gelatinous strand from salivary glands under its tongue which is then wound into a half-cup nest which bonds like quick-drying cement to the inside of a cave wall. Swiftlet nests are (usually) carefully removed from the cave wall. The nests are relatively tasteless and so are usually served in soup or jelly, mixed with chicken, spices, sauce or sweets."
Well to each his own I guess. But here's my question... clearly we omnivores can eat this substance if we want. Can vegans? Lacto-vegetarians? How about ovo-lacto-vegetarians? This is something I have always wondered about...
Well as I stated earlier -- no red meat for me. However, in light of what this thread has become, I have the following question.
How can one can one call himself/herself a vegetarian and use the term ovo or lacto or both. Clearly, these people fall into the category of omnivore (albeit they just limit the amount of animal intake they have). My assumption is that lacto refers to animal milk (I wonder how many coconut milk - vegetarians their are! 
)
Given the choice of Edible-Nest and Beef, I choose Beef - despite the threat of Mad Cow! I just dont think I could eat something like that. (To restate - To each his own I guess!)
Google, lacto-vegetarian means that food is selected from the union of {plant material} and {milk products}. You're talking like it's the intersection of those two sets. Some people just don't like eating corpses....go figure!
Here's a link that helps with the slippery terminology.
I meant that milk comes from animals (and some fruits like the coconut). I just dont understand how one can use the label vegetarian if they also drink cow milk, goats milk etc. But I am ok with those veggie eaters that drink soy!!! What a weird way to eat!
Precisely...hence the label lacto-vegetarian. You need some label... that seems as good as any I can think of. But if you have a better label, please share it. (Be nice...that wasn't a straight line 
)
Hi !
Well... yes, lacto-vegetarian means eating milk also, and I agree that somehow the term lacto-vegetarian and omnivore are the same... but this depends on the reason why the people are choosing this lifestyle... studying these words by the logical point of view, it's almost the same but in fact for your body is a very big diference. Meat can do a lot of harm to your body and it's also, somehow, useless (it has a lot of things that are not used by your body - about 20%) but milk... I can say that milk can't do so much harm 
and 99% of it is used by your body to grow and to keep a good health.
So, there is a difference betwen this two words... and, if you want, you can study more about milk, meat and vegetals and your subtle body. According to your subtle body (energetical body, aura and all that) milk and vegetals have almost the same type of energy and vibrations... but this is off-topic somehow
Hi !
You mean that... are people realy eating that ? 
I will certainly never eat something like that...