Why do people decide to become vegetarians, it sounds like it is a pain in the butt, so many questions about?

Actually it's not difficult at all.. you exclude meat from your diet and replace whatever nutrients you may miss out with plant foods.. A little bit of talent and/or Imagination in the kitchen helps too

It gets complicated when websites such as the one posted above by another poster start meddling and introduce "allowed/no allowed" to eat items as if they are some sort of all powerful, legal authority.. Also when the fanatics start nitpicking other people's choices because they want to jealously protect the label they have arrogated unto themselves..You said it yourself.. those who scold others for breaking the imagined "can/cannot/allowed/not allowed" mantra. Basically discouraging rather than encouraging those who might be genuinely interested to try the lifestyle.

I became vegetarian very recently and the two main reasons were -

1)I have become convinced humans are not designed to eat meat and it's harmful to us.

2)After reading about the cruelty and abuse that goes on in all parts of the meat industry from the way the animals are kept,through the food and hormones they are given, through to the slaughterhouse, I feel eating meat is morally wrong as well as unnatural and unhealthy.

It's early days for me but I don't think being vegetarian is difficult. There is a lot of information out there and a huge range of foods you can eat to make sure you get a balanced and healthy diet which are readily available.

It's not a pain in the butt at all!

It's actually very easy. You just don't eat meat. The only times it's tough is when you have to read labels for animal products, which can be hard since companies don't have to point out if they're vegetarian or not.

Think of all the foods that aren't meat - bread, pasta, veggies, fruit, tofu, beans, etc. We eat all of those. Unless you're vegan, too, you can eat eggs, cheese, honey, etc. There's a LOT of food out there to eat.

There are a lot of reasons to be vegetarian. It's healthier, it helps to stop animal suffering, it's better for the environment... What could be a better (and easier) way to help all three of those areas?

There are a lot of resources on vegetarianism. I suggest these ones:

http://www.vegetariantimes.com/2007/pdf/vegetarian...

http://www.goveg.com/ (be wary, though. PETA isn't the most respectable organization. Their website has good basic information, though. Look to the left of the page for it.)

http://www.mercyforanimals.org/VegKit08Web.pdf

Good luck in your information search!

well living life is difficult, too. but here you are. still living. it's the same thing. people do it for different reasons. college is hard, but yet people still go. that's a choice. is it not? it's not mandatory. being vegetarian means different things to each vegetarian. besides meat being unhealthy and all the diseases associated with eating meat, i did it because i think the the way animals are treated before they are slaughtered is ridiculous. there's no reason to torture a living creature. there are still a lot of foods vegetarians can eat. foods can be altered. things left out or off of certain recipes. i ate meat for my whole life. sometimes it's difficult BUT i have been vegetarian for a year now. why turn back. i like being vegetarian. there are vegetarian recipe books. websites. do you think that there are only recipe books for meat eaters? by your questions it seems you probably eat meat every day with every meal & that you couldn't possibly picture yourself going ONE meal without a meat product.

did u know meat fillers are washed in ammonia? how about when one cow is contaminated with e coli, it spreads to other cows. they are forced to live in their own feces. chickens are made into a huge birds unnaturally just so the industry can sell larger pieces of chicken. cows are fed corn which isn't what cows are suppose to be eating. lame and diseased cows are still slaughtered. it takes more grain to feed the cows than the meat that's being made.

mad cow disease can take years to show up and kill a person. the more and more i learn about meat, poultry, seafood, and pork, the more and more i am glad that i am vegetarian. the only reason crops are contaminated with e coli is because of the run off from cow/slaughter farms. the food industry doesn't care about the people. they only care about how much money they can make off consumers like you.

Its not difficult to become a vegetarian.

All you need to know what kind of amono acids in which amount your body needs and then look up which alternative food sources are there besides meat.

Most people think of protein solemly in meat terms but you can get it from nearly everything.

There is a lot of misconception about a vegetarian diet..like its unhealthy or difficult or unnatural. Its neither, easy und has been practised for centuries. In some counties there are up to 80% Vegetarians. In most Western world around 10 %.

Its a cultural thing to regard Vegetarianism as weird..in other countries people regard meat eaters with dis- taste. I would find some religious based food restrictions much more difficult to follow

I don't think it's hard at all. I recently became an ova-lacto-vegetarian full-time a few months ago and have found many meatlike substitutes to fill the gap in my diet. There is little that cannot be replaced with a death-free alternative. My most recent success was making seitan pepperoni for a pizza that fooled everyone else that was eating it! If you're creative and don't mind experimenting in the kitchen, it's a breeze.

It's not difficult, and it's really not a pain in the butt. The idea of what we have is different of what other's think of meat. It is a personal choice. I'm a vegetarian and I very much enjoy it.

lots of people go veg bc they love NOT to harm animals, some go veg to get healthier. It's not a pain, there are so many resources (online & recipe books, etc). Veg's can eat tons of stuff, there are so many veggies and grains, and fruits, and nuts, and soy, and legumes. Sooo much to choose!

GO Veg!

It's not hard. Many people want to be careful though. It can be dangerous, just like every diet, if you don't watch it. Just eliminating meat out of your day, won't make you be vegetarian. One has to make up those. So, it's not hard... but we want to make sure we're doing it healthy.

Some people think its sick to eat animals...

And others actually get sick eating them..

Its the thought of someone actually killing the living creature that you are now eating...

And yes, you can get very sick from not eating meats and very weak.. But now they make special pills for people like this...

Veganism is a way of living which excludes all forms of exploitation of, and cruelty to, the animal kingdom, and includes a reverence for life. It applies to the practice of living on the products of the plant kingdom to the exclusion of flesh, fish, fowl, eggs, honey, animal milk and its derivatives, and encourages the use of alternatives for all commodities derived wholly or in part from animals