Opinion
Being vegan
Asaf Harduf
Published: 09.09.12, 11:04
Comment Comment
Print comment Print comment
Back to article
48 Talkbacks for this article
1. *Waves delicious smelling steak in front of Harduf's face*
Vlad   (09.09.12)
You want it, you know you want it, you cannot resist, sooner or later you shall submit to the awesome delicious powers of meat.
2. How to tell the difference...
Ariksan ,   Zurich   (09.09.12)
between a vegan and a vegetarian? Don't worry, the vegan will tell you that he's one!
3. reconnecting is easy...have some meat feel better soon! ;-)
(09.09.12)
4. Vegans and vegetarians have an increased risk of strokes and
Rivkah   (09.09.12)
heart attacks from a lack of Co-Q-10 and other essential nutrients that are more abundant in eggs and meat. There is also the lack of essential fatty acids in a vegan diet unless a person eats walnuts since that nut has the three essential fatty acids like meats. Co-Q-10 is one of the three building blocks of the heart, the other two being Taurine and L-Carnitine. This is according to Dr. Bill Campbell Douglass II's medical newsletter (M.D.).
5. If God did not want us all to eat animals then why did He
Eat Meat and Thrive ,   Haifa   (09.09.12)
If God did not want us all to eat animals then why did He make them out of tasty meat?
6. Eating vegetables and fruits only ....
Iranian Hunter   (09.09.12)
is great for health, is possible and is better than eating meat only. Research proven this, the tanakh and bible proven this by the story of prophet Daniel (did not eat meat at all because Persia serves all meat, not just kosher) and the story of Adam and Eve ( the first vegan couple). To all vegans and omnivore i say, enjoy the food ! I personally eat vegetables, fruits and eggs a lot. I wish fruits and vegetables are more cheaper, i would definitely eat more veggies and fruits.
7. 30 Years a vegetarian and i feel great
David ,   Haifa, Israel   (09.09.12)
i was wondering in those meat commercials on tv they show the perfect family eating a meat dinner together, ahhh the bliss of a perfect family, but why not show them slitting the throat of the cow so people really know what how the food on their plate got there. Compassion for animals is not a subject for hatred or jokes, someone who is compassionate to animals is generally compassionate towards his fellow human beings.
8. Your disconnect is self imposed
Devorah   (09.09.12)
Do your friends and family feel disconnected from you because you are a vegan? If not, then why are you allowing these feelings so much space in your head?
9. Just love all 5 posts! Not 1 sympathetic meat eater ...
(09.09.12)
in the bunch! Good it is about time we stopped being sorry a$$ed and apologetic for our meat eating ways! :-)
10. if we were all vegan what would happen to the animals?
zionist forever   (09.09.12)
If we all became vegans or even vegetarians those nice little chickens and cows would not be running around freely having happy lives and being able to feel safe no nasty human is ever going to eat them for dinner. What would happen is those chickens and cows would never be born because farmers would never spend money to raise the animals. Vegetarians & vegans always seem to forget the little fact that nobody would bother to raise the animals if non of us ate meat Economics would come before the desire to have cows and chickens living long happy lives. Man is a natural carnivore and I am glad of it because I could never manage without my meat.
11. I am a Vegan too
takan ,   Eilat   (09.09.12)
which means I do not eat anything that has an ass hole (lucky for most talkbackers...). #1 Vegan is not about taste, it's about respect for the animals. #2 I hope every vegan tells his story 10 times a day to 10 different persons, not for some kind of self-righteous feeling, but to promote a more natural diet. #4 Wishfull thinking convenient to make you feel good about eating dead animals. You can be vegan and healthy. And to all of you, that meat taste and smell you love so much is the same when you cook human meat, or cat and dog meat (which they eat in Japan). Animals have a soul and feelings too. Just go see the way they are treated before they land in your plate.
12. Vegan Ideology not the diet is a problem
Paul ,   Jerusalem, Israel   (09.09.12)
Eating Vegan for health benefits is not bad, The problem is that rarely do vegan's educate themselves enough to know how they differ from non-contemporary vegan cultures (of which they try to emulate), nor what nutrients and necessary amino acids the body cannot manufacture on their own without animal sources of any kind. But, the main problem with vegans is their tendency to consider animals as having the same value of life as a human being. So much so that if they had to choose between running over their own Mother or a snake on the road, they would experience emotional trauma. No joke!
13. Negative talkbacks
Natalie elgrod ,   Raanana israel   (09.09.12)
This is a well written piece, from the heart, and in no way preaching his vegan life. So why the negative talkbacks?
14. submission to meat
nicodemus ,   miami florida   (09.09.12)
Hi, Vlad the Impaler,you are disgusting and want everyone else to eat meet so you don't have to feel guilty. In India alone there are some 400 million vegetarians.
15. story
Sara Sawochka ,   Portage, IN USA   (09.09.12)
Your story is so touching. I like how you expanded on the loneliness vegans experience when not with other vegans. It saddened me to think that you feel that just by being vegan it's not enough. The animal's lives you're saving is enough and also you are taking the first step to do more. Those donations you make help the animals. Promoting veganism/vegetarianism and meatless Mondays will go a long way in the future to changing people's lives. You never know which person's life you are going to change, possibly instantly, to switch to not eating meat. Thank you so much for your article. I thoroughly enjoyed it.
16. All nonsense talkbacks
Sagi   (09.09.12)
from people who understand nothing about biology, anatomy and nutrition. Man is not a natural carnivore. Consuming food from plant sources only does not mean that one will be lacking in essential nutrients and amino acids, quite the contrary, one is guaranteed to get all the requirements from a plant only diet and in much better quality than from meat. There is only one exception and that is B12. The reason for this is that our soil has become so depleted that this vitamin does not transfer itself from soil to plant in sufficient quantity. Meat and dairy consumption is the number one factor in all modern day ailments and is the main cause of cancer,atherosclerosis which in turn leads to heart problems,irritable bowel syndrome and a long list of others, including obesity which in turn causes diabetes. I am a lifelong vegan,73 years of age,full of life and free of illness and can run up a staircase like a ten year old. Many of those who joked and laughed at me are pushing daisies.
17. Oh, please
Sarah B ,   U.S.A. / Israel   (09.09.12)
I am a vegetarian. I am not a vegan. I am healthier than most vegans, who either have to take massive quantities of vitamin supplements or deal with incredible deficiencies. You have a choice. You can eat two eggs, or you can eat 40 ounces of green beans, or 15 ounces of spinach and 12 ounces of collard greens. I'm actually considering broadening my scope to include fish. Which would make me a "piscatorian." I have never cared for beef, lamb, veal or poultry. I do like fish, and there really is no substitute. All you have to do is make sure you purchase fish that is responsibly farmed. Raised for slaughter, as it were. But that is exactly what we do with corn, beans, tomatoes and other edible foods. How do we know that the corn doesn't cry when it is torn from the stalk? Does the soy bean scream in utter pain when it is ripped from its vine? Get real, folks. Everything in balance. Do you want to eat food, or consume sixty or seventy pills a week?
18. Write an article that shows how corrupted Western "Veganism"
(09.09.12)
extends people's lives. and then may-be I will think about taking this whole corrupted Western "Vegan" story into account!
19. Traditionally Jews ate meat only on Shabbat
Wally ,   Auckland   (09.09.12)
The rest of the week it was the custom to grab a bite and focus on work, meat was something special, for Shabbat meals. This seems to me to be the best way to go. Follow our traditions wherever practicable (but not be legalistic about it, allow freedom for others to be flexible according to their lights).
20. 7 David: You should move to India where cows are worshipped.
(09.09.12)
21. It's just nature..
Nico ,   The Netherlands   (09.09.12)
Carnivore beasts eat also meat. Humans just happened to love both meat and vegetables. What's wrong with that? It's just in our nature, nothing else.
22. What is vegan?
Nickjagdeo ,   Trinidad   (09.09.12)
I get that vegans (or at least Harduf) is against animal cruelty - hence he refuses to eat meat, animal by-products such as milk, etc. - but this article seems meandering and lost. I applaud your stance, but your logic for going vegan makes no sense. Notwithstanding the enormous health problems which accompany adopting a vegan lifestlye (as listed copiously above by other more astutely health conscious commenters), how does Harduf reconcile in his head that his self-imposed meat exile helps animal cruelty causes? He said it himself in his article: it doesn't. And what about people who are cruel to animals that aren't raised as a food source: pet cruelty, animal testing in labs, etc.? How does his being vegan help with this? I'm not vegan or vegetarian, but I feel that my determination to eat free range, to adopt dogs from pounds, to protest against seal, whale and dolphin slaughtering does more for animals than his refusal to eat meat/milk products... I'm just saying...
23. To: No. 11
Sarah B ,   U.S.A. / Israel   (09.09.12)
Are you absolutely, positively certain that the vegetables you eat do not scream in complete and utter agony when they are ripped from the earth? How? They are living things, are they not?
24. y r all the veggies so angry? r they missing their meat?
(09.09.12)
25. 11
zionist forever   (09.09.12)
Animals do not have souls & feelings, they have instincts. You can treat a pet dog wonderful give him a happy but it is still instinct that governs his life same way you have a pack of wolves, their instincts tell them what to do. When it comes to eating instinct will tell a carnivore to find a source of meat and a herbivore to find the nearest plant. Humans can eat anything they chose and we are also designed for eating both meat and vegetables. Humans have free thought we can decide to do or not to do things and we have feelings and souls. Humans are a unique creature.
26. A very high carb diet this veganism.
Israeli ,   Haifa   (09.09.12)
If I ate only the foods he listed, I'd be obese within one year.
27. But what do his dogs eat?
marcohoe ,   San Francisco, USA   (09.09.12)
Are his dogs vegans too?
28. # 26 Nonsense
Sagi   (09.09.12)
29. To: Sagi at No. 28
Sarah B ,   U.S.A. / Israel   (09.10.12)
Actually, it's quite true. Vegans are more likely to develop chronic anemia, Type II diabetes and obesity than both vegetarians and omnivores. The simple fact is that veganism cannot provide a balanced diet and does not provide the necessary proteins that human beings need, unless eaten in extraordinarily large quantities. High carb diets are very bad for you. Human beings emerged from hunter-gatherers. Doesn't that tell you something? Like, what survival requires? Me, personally -- I don't like meat, and I don't like poultry. I eat fish, and I drink milk, consume milk products and I love eggs. I have a very dear friend who is a dedicated vegan. She's been hospitalized three times in two years for severe vitamin deficiencies and anemia. Nothing extreme is ever good. Balance is all.
30. to 25
iselin ,   Oslo, Norway   (09.10.12)
Have you ever had a canine or feline companion? Anyone who has ever shared life with a dog or cat knows that they have feelings - my dog and cats know when I am down or don't feel well and they stay by my side. They have compassion - when my elderly cat was very frail, my younger cat cleaned him and covered his piles in the litter box, and believe me, they weren't best friends in his younger days. Instinct had nothing to do with it. That is only one example. You say that animals don't have souls - how do you know that? Any proof? So arrogant man to think that he is above all other living beings. I am humbled by the love of my animals.
Next talkbacks
Back to article