What is your reason for being vegetarian?

[BigDGeek]

I still eat some meat but not much; I have almost completely eliminated beef and pork from my diet. The only meat I eat is chicken, turkey, and fish (I consider fish a meat because it's an animal). I try to keep my serving sizes down to 4 oz uncooked and I try to have at least a couple of meat-free days each week. I'm not sure I will ever go fully veggie but I think Americans eat too much meat and it is contributing to a slew of health problems in this country. Not only does eating a lot of meat contribute to obesity (too much fat/calories) and heart disease ("well marbled" = saturated fat), but the volume of meat that we eat is largely responsible for the cruel disgusting way that we raise and slaughter meat for consumption, and to a certain extent contributes to precocious puberty (studies have shown that hormonally treated beef/dairy contributes to the problem) and antibiotic resistant infections (due to us pumping these animals full of prophylactic antibiotics).

[LookinForMayberry]

I love meat, but I restricted my diet to non-meat (lacto-ovo vegetarian) over a month ago, because I got so fed up with reading about the inhumane, unsanitary, deceitful practices of our commercial food industry. I tried vegan, but couldn't do it. Though I am gradually weening myself away from eggs and dairy, too.

I would like to get to the point where I eat only the locally grown, organic foods from growers that I have assurances of ethical practices.

[ccornewell]

we did it for health reasons. our 8 year old still eats meat at his moms but loves facon, famburgers and fausage at our house. he goes nuts over an flt (fake blt). we have decided that about 75 percent of things in grocery stores should go away. i do eat peeps however, i love those baby chicks!