h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

What is that textured vegetable protein stuff made from then? Is it nuts? Aren't there other non-nut sources of protein?

These sort of things are usually made from soya beans aren't they?

WebWitch, you must know some very rude people! As for eating more meat than my grandparents, I can honestly say I don't and I never have.


Alji the Magus

Vegetable rights -
(long live the army of the 12 parsnips)

Humaniterians.. eat humans ( same guy who wrote Pie in the Sky)

Re: TVP: It's made from soybeans.

Re: Rude people: I honestly don't think they intend to be. But food is a hot button for most people in some way or another - it's bound to our cultures, our families, our level of comfort with our bodies, and so on, and so the most reasonable of people can become very defensive when the topic of food comes up. Also, many of the rude behaviours I described are dismissed as "only a joke", in much the same way that sexist, racist, or other derogatory comments are made - if you object to them, it's not that the person who made them might be at fault, it's your fault for being "touchy" and "having no sense of humour". It's an excellent cop-out. I know I feel very uncomfortable when I've made an assumption about someone based on too little information; I get extemely embarrassed when my knee jerks, and so I try to deal with other peoples' knee jerks as politely as I can.

Re: "we" eat more animal products: Perhaps I should have been clearer and said "the general public in the US and UK"; it was not meant as a specific "we" (or a royal "we" - or even a fun "WHEEE!")

I got a virtual tapeworm which allows the title of we.. alternatively you could always claim editorial press pass glory...

Re: "reverse" host embarrassment: I've never had an omnivore expect me to provide them with meat. I have, though, had the experience of having people round at my house for a potluck making comments such as "I think I'll wait for the real food to be put out"; I've had people pick over the food I've provided and and pull faces when they know what's in it (what is so odd about a chunky pasta sauce made from aubergine, garlic, pepper, salt, onion, and a dash of chili sauce anyway?); and I have even had people turn up and say "I'm going to McDonalds. Back in a minute." The hazards of hosting people you don't know well, eh?

More common is people simply being freaked out at the IDEA of an animal produce-free meal, and preferring to bring meat with them to cook in my home. Now this puts me in a quandry: The smell of cooking meat or fish makes both me and my husband feel sick. For us, it has a similar effect as smoking in a house - it smells bad, and it lingers in all the carpeting and upholstry. Plus, sometimes people let the juices spill in our oven or on the stove and we get to clean it up. Again, these are people we don't know well. We still haven't got up the nerve to ask people not to cook meat in our house, as we're afraid of being seen as uptight or judgemental, so we gag and suffer for a few days.

Re: Relying on nuts for protein: There are a variety of protein sources. I tend to rely more on vital wheat gluten and beans as specific sources of protein, with nuts and seeds lower down my list; of course, many people eat too much protein, but if you're eating a healthy, well-balanced diet, the chances of protein deficiency are small. Funnily, the only person I know who is allergic to soy is an omnivore, and so are the only 4 people I know who are allergic to nuts (specifically peanuts). Allergies are such weird things.

Well where I live we must be more tolerant of people because we don't make jokes about their eating habbits. No one I know has ever made a remark if I have taken a plate full of veg and passed on the meat.

My grandson is allergic to soya and dairy products.

Coeliac disease is a another food allergy and the effects are chronic.
The gut walls are damaged due to sensitivity to gluten, which is a mixture of proteins found in some cereals, particularly wheat.
Because of this damage, the gut cannot take up food and this causes diarrhoea and malnutrition.


Alji the Magus

Sadly, I've experienced this both in the UK and US. That said, people I hang around with on a regular basis are just extremely nice and considerate, so they more than make up for the occassional idiot

Coeliac's awful - I was shocked to discover how many people are diagnosed as having Irritable Bowel Syndrome and other such problems when they're actually suffering from Coeliac. There doesn't seem to be much awareness of it generally, and I only found out about it a few years ago because I was checking out IBS (my mother has been diagnosed with IBS, but won't trouble the doctor for further testing). This is one of the reasons that whenever we have a potluck dinner involving people we don't know, we ask everyone to label their food carefully - you never know what people are allergic to! And isn't it _amazing_ what you find in food once you have to start reading the ingredients???

I found a type of wax in some sweets that is used in paint and that they put PLASTIC in to Irn-Bru !

I thought that it was made from girders?

But seriously, that's horrible.
When did everyone here turn veggie? For me it was about 2 months ago, and I haven't had the urge to eat meat at all !

A quote in my student diary:

"I'm not a vegetarian because I love animals, I'm a vegetarian because I hate plants"
-- A. Whitney Brown

Growing vegetables require more energy than grazing cattle?
Well that does stand things on their head Alji Have you ever had to look after a huge herbivore, let along a herd of them.
All those pesticide sprays. antibiotice doses. Sheep through dips, Vet, getting them to the abbatoir.
Being ripped off by the corporate supermarkets.

You have to grow stuff to feed them in winter too.
I think it's a fact you get more protein from an acre of crops than you do an acre of cattle or sheep.
An acre of crops will also feed more people than an acre of meat.

Reading Howard Lyman's 'Mad Cowboy' (http://www.madcowboy.com/) horrified me. His description of the vicious cycle of chemical farming (he used chemicals, then needed more chemicals to counteract the chemicals; then needed more chemicals to put back the nutrients in the soil that had been lost from using the chemicals; and then he had to sell the farm like most of his ranching and dairy-herding neighbours because the cost of chemical farming was overwhelming) was appalling. Right now in Oklahoma, there is a fierce debate over the environmental devastation and serious health risks caused by a whole state's dependence on intensive livestock-rearing. On the one hand, it's the only way people know to earn a living, on the other hand, it's literally killing tham. Weirdly, here in New Jersey there are more CSAs (Community Supported Agriculture, basically organic crop farms supported by co-ops) than you can shake a stick at; in OK, a state that's largely rural farmland, there are... 2. Bizarro.

Isn't it something like 15-20 times more poundage of grain can be grown on one acre than cattle can be raised? Or something like that. And some ridiculous amount more water is needed for livestock than crops.

They're some of the reasons I became veggie

Webwitch
The area I live in in UK has been through the decline of farming, the ones that have survived and seem to be flourishing have gone over to organic. I get my organic milk and cream just across the road now.
There's still that awful calf issue with milk , but at least the poor beasts don't get to become chemical factories.
There's a school of thought that persistent use of organophosphate pesticides may be the link to why the UK developed mad cow disease - (no way am I attmepting to spell bovine spongilsadkjrgfklreng)
I think it is fact that a vegetarian world would be able to feed it's people more efficiently. But I also suppose that part of our success as a species is due to the fact that we can eat almost anything. (success in terms of still being here )

If I could find a tasty alternative to chicken, turkey and pork pieces I would happily become almost vegetarian. But I ain't eating carrot soup for every meal.

Try Quorn! Its lovely, and really tastes like meat !

Can you cook it like meat too? Like do stir fry and things for instance?