Are you veg/(raw) for health reasons or ethical reasons?

[Analeah]

Just curious if more people decided to go veg/(raw) for health reasons or more for ethical or environmental reasons etc. I know most everyone would probably say both lol but I am going to make you choose whichever you feel is the most relevent! (I know I am horrible) :p

[Curtis]

lol no you are not horrible :) Health comes first for me but the more I study the other issues fall into place.

[glad_2beme]

health for me

[tglasco4]

Hi Analeah,

Health would be number one. A clear mind helps me see the importance of the others :) .

Peace.

Also, I saw your new pic, you are a pretty young lady!

Todd

[Analeah]

Awe thanks Todd that is very sweet of you to say. I hesitated to put pic up because I took it just after getting out of bed and had no make up on which I used to prefer in pictures of myself.

It seems like they kind of go hand in hand and I think many people initially chose one reason but then learned about the benefits of the other. For myself definately ethical reasons but learning about all the health reasons is always very helpful especially when explaining to others.

[Fragola]

Ciao Analeah,
I become vegetarian first, then vegan and raw, mainly for ethical and environmental reasons, but obviously I am happy to be so good with myself too. If for some odd reason I will need to eat meat or fish for my health in the future, I don't think I would be able to do that.

[Analeah]

Yeah I am definately with ya there. If meat was proven to be healthy etc I still wouldn't eat it but that is just me.

[Rawkinlocs]

I chose health reasons first and foremost. The ethical side is coming around, especially when viewing things on Peta.

Analeah, you are beautiful and have no need of make-up!

[Analeah]

Yes the peta videos are quite horrifying aren't they! Have any of you guys read "The Food Revolution" by John Robbins? If you're looking for a good book to read I would highly recommend this. If I had to choose one book for the whole world to read I think it would be this one...

Rawkin you are incredibly sweet to say that! You are so beautiful yourself!

[vegangelist]

i started juicing for my health (which was real bad) and quickly became vegetarian out of that almost by accident (b/c i had always said that i would never want to be vegetarian and limit myself that way), that soon led to vegan (another thing i said never too...giving up the dairy was mentally hard). at that point tho, i was starting to read more and more about the ethical issues. after a while i was vegan for my health but continued on that path for ethical reasons. now, if going back to meat would not destroy my health, i would still stay this way. obviously, there doesn't seem to be any real ethical reason to jump from cooked vegan to raw...so, naturally that aspect is again for my health.

book i recommend for the whole world: dominion, by matthew scully

i have not read it all yet, but i love it thus far. partly b/c he is not radical. he is just a regular guy that seems to have concluded these things almost by accident, not b/c his parents were overgrown hippies, or some crazy outlandish philosophy you know-he is just a regular guy, and he makes good spiritual, philosophical arguments. unlike some "fringe" types, his arguments are logical and thought out, thought-provoking and thus, can speak to the educated, not just the emotional (i feel that I am a combination of both of those things and can switch between those two driving forces, but many people seem to be one or the other, or many people try to speak to only one or the other aspect in others) types.

kristi

[qetta]

I became vegetarian and then vegan for ethical reasons, no question. There's no going back from veganism for me. So that was for the animals.

I am now going raw for health reasons. So that's for me.

And the fact that both veganism and rawism are beneficial for environmental reasons is great, too, but that's more of a side benefit for me.

[Analeah]

yeah I am with you on that one, for me I am veg for ethical reasons but raw for health reasons....well said quetta ;)

[Rawism]

Health/Vanity Reasons.
The eczema on my chest was too unattractive for me. :p

[VeganWannaBe]

ditto quetta ...

[Olive]

I agree with qetta--veganism for the animals and the planet and raw for me!

[rawvegirl]

Whenever people ask, I say it makes sense on all levels to me. But if I had to pick...
I went vegan for ethical/environmental reasons, but raw mostly for health reasons. Although for me, it's really hard to separate the issues; they're so intertwined.

[Penni]

I would have to say for me, its religious and then the health. But to me spirit and body are both spiritual. I am LDS. I know that I read many posts that talk about how many feel more spiritual. It is spiritual.. It is right.

Penni

[FEELIN'GOOD]

Also Health for me :D

~Melissa~

[RawTruth]

After I read Frances Moore Lappe's Diet for a Small Planet, I stopped eating beef. She explained how many bushels of soy and grain it took to produce one pound of beef -- and the amount of people who could be fed from the bushels vs. the one or two people who would be "nourished" by the beef. So, I guess that was an ethical reason because I was concerned about hunger in the world. But, what also swayed me was learning how many millions of acres of land the diary/beef industry wasted in the world to both grow the food that's fed to the cattle and that's cleared in sensitive rainforest to produce Big Macs. So, that's environmental.

One day I was clearing off the plates after dinner and, as a picked-over chicken breast landed in the trash, I saw, instead of the bones, a dead bird laying there. In my trash -- like I'd killed it. Yuck! Okay, so I have an active imagination. But, then my growing list of reasons included ethical re: animals.

Then, I realized that I was feeling so much better. I was running effortlessly, I had more energy, I just basically felt great. So: add health to the list.

At that time, I was living in San Diego, which had (and still has) a strong community of health-minded and veggie people. There was even a macrobiotic take-out place close to my house. So I gave up dairy and become macrobiotic.

Voila! Here I am today. My path was different than most here, I think, because it didn't start out for health or weight reduction. But, going raw, of course, was absolutely for health.

p.s. I'm glad this thread has been rediscovered. It was started before I joined the forum, and I don't spend much time going through old threads. So ... thanks to Penni :)

[caramba]

Can I answer "all of the above". Ethical & environmental reasons have always been in my mind, but I guess it was when realised the health implications that I actually took the plunge...Interesting...the selfish reason was the one that motivated action....hmmmm

[flutterfly]

For health but like others have said as I go on I do see the other points more clearly.

[chilove]

i've been a vegan for years for ethical reasons. i went raw for health reasons.

[Sharon in Colorado]

I hope I don't offend anyone when I say this! I just can't see anybody going raw for ethical reasons realistically. I know a lot of people go veg for political and ethical reasons. And many vegs are very unhealthy, even over-weight.

If any of you read Shazzie's reasons for going raw, she did it for health reasons, even though she became a veg for ethical.

It almost seems too logical for me on the surface - most people doing it to be ethical aren't thinking about themselves, they are thinking about animals. But if you were to go deeper, going raw would be the ultimate ethical way because grains are grown primarily for animals. Dr. Graham once wrote that a fruit tree takes up the same amount of room as a cow but feeds a hundred times more people. Eating raw cuts down on consumerism and waste. Look at all the litter from vegetarian foods...it's packaged just as much as conventional foods. But I feel that most people miss that when they go veg for ethical reasons.

By the way, I went raw completely for health reasons, but now that I am raw, I can see and understand how it would be not only ethical but conservative and practical toward taking care of the Earth that was given to us. I also think that some (not all) vegetarians, mainly the militant ones, look at raw fooders with a little bit of an attitude. This has been my experience on some vegetarian boards. It's almost the way SAD people look at vegetarians.

[Amethyst_Rain]

for me it was defenitely ethical reasons first, but the more i got into it, the more it became all of the above...but the ethical still remains the most important one for me :)

I mean the vegetarian thing is for ethical and raw for health :)

[RWB]

Health reasons only. Though I am also curious and experimental by nature. :D

[Enki]

for me it was ethical reasons my motivation!

peace

[THX-1138]

I didn't vote because I would say all of the above, since veganism, and to a lesser extent raw foodism is an all-encompassing philosophy.

[Wendy]

I became vegetarian for ethical and health reasons (I wanted to be healthY!) and I have become raw because I hate to cook. I am finding I am spending more time in the kitchen as I learn (v. vegetarianism) but I am thrilled when the recipe tastes great! I would say ethical is very important to me because probably if eating vegetarian harmed animals and was unhealthy for me, I wouldn't do it!

[rawpriestess]

10 years ago I had a vision, and I knew I would never eat meat again,

so ethical reasons for vegetarianism,

then I had a terrible feeling in my body, and woke up one morning knowing I was 100% raw,

so health for raw.

I think this sounds like most people on this post.

How marvelous.

[inahd]

i don't think any of these choices properly categorize me.... i was born vegetarian, as a hare krsna, and now am raw for health reasons i guess... put me down for religious though

[Wendy]

Yesterday I had an insight. Even doing raw, if I process more, like doing the tortillas (which I LOVE by the way) I still have food loss. If I process in my vitamix, I still have food loss (meaning food gets stuck at the bottom I can't use or stuck on the Teflex). When I just eat the food, without processing, raw, there's very little loss, and that makes sense to me!!