Vegetarian

Vegetarian

Posts 1-10 of 13
  • Andreas Thaler
    Andreas Thaler    Premium Member   Group moderator
    The company name is only visible to registered members.
    How do YOU raise your children???
    Interesting question, I think.

    I have 2 children myself, aged 3 and 4. I eat no meat, but I do eat fish (never said I was consequent. But I can do without meat, but not totally without fish). My wife is a 'normal' person, as she also eats meat (and likes it a lot). I don't have a problem with that as long as I do not have to cook it for her or eat it with her and she does not slaughter any animals at home when I am around ;-)

    So ... what do we do with our kids? My wife definitely puts the children's well-being and health over considerations whether thou shalt or shalt not kill animals. And I agree with her, although I do not believe that you 'need' meat to lead a healthy lifestyle. But, I know that most children like to eat sausage ... I liked it myself until I made a conscious decision not to eat meat any more at about age 20-25.

    So, my point on this is that I do not want to force my lifestyle on my kids as they are not yet able to make a decision whether they want to stop harming animals and sacrifice a little bit of pleasure for that. When they are older, they will understand that I do not eat meat and why I do not do it. Then they can decide themselves.

    On a lighter note, I have a colleague and friend at work who is of Indian origin, his wife as well. They both are convinced vegetarians for reasons of personal conviction, and do not eat fish either. I think he eats eggs and cheese, but nothing that has to be killed. Still, he has a 3 year old daughter who likes to eat sausage ... and he and his wife support her in this (most likely in order not to make her an outcast in Kindergarten). Now how funny is that...

    Another example to the opposite is my neighbour ... who is a devout muslim. His smallest son (5 years old) knows exactly what he is and is not allowed to eat. He eats fruit, pastries and similar when invited at our place , but politely refuses candies (that can contain pig gelatine or similar). He does not do this grudgingly (at least not outward ;-), but he knows it is important for him for religious reasons and accepts this s his way of life. He does eat sausage and likes it, but he knows that there is sausage he can eat (the 'halal' version his parents buy at a Turkish shop) I have to say I am impressed with that.

    What do you think?

    Best regards,
    Andreas
    This post was modified on 17 Jul 2007 at 10:23 pm.
    • 17 Jul 2007, 10:21 pm
  • Andreas Thaler
    Andreas Thaler    Premium Member   Group moderator
    The company name is only visible to registered members.
    Re: How do YOU raise your children??? - a great tip: soy 'minced meat'
    OK, Sabrina gave me a great suggestion in another thread - soy minced meat.

    My kids really liked my spaghetti sauce that I prepared with it (to be honest, I also put a spoonful of sugar inside, which always helps to make spaghetti sauce more attractive to kids), and today we made mini-hamburgers together.

    After explaining to them, of course, that this is dried hamburger meat (as opposed to fresh one).
    Actually, it is also much more practical than fresh minced meat, as you do not have to refrigerate it - just keep it in your cupboard and prepare it with warm water 10 minutes prior to cooking.

    And (as far as I can recall :-) it tastes like real minced meat - which is, of course, not like very much.

    Best regards,
    Andreas
    • 13 Oct 2007, 01:10 am
  • Frauke Girus-Nowoczyn
    Frauke Girus-Nowoczyn
    The company name is only visible to registered members.
    Re^2: How do YOU raise your children???
    Andreas,

    do you think that if you explained to your children what this meat on their plate is - i.e. a beautiful and kind animal killed by humans just to give people the "pleasure" of eating it without any necessity - do you really think your children would want to eat it?

    I think that most children show the true nature of man - they are kind and generous. If you told them the truth, they would not want to eat any killed animal ever again. This is the greatest betrayal in my eyes, that we don't tell our children the truth.

    And why not raise them as vegetarians and let them decide later on if they want to eat meat?

    have a nice sunday

    Frauke
    • 01 Nov 2009, 06:15 am
  • Vishal Lakhanpal
    Vishal Lakhanpal
    The company name is only visible to registered members.
    Re^3: How do YOU raise your children???
    Hallo Andreas,

    i also come from india and very very strict vegetarian family(not vegan). My religious background does not allow me to eat animals ,eggs and fish. In short, i am not supposed(darf) to eat anything which has life. Even when i was a kid i had tasted eggs ,which was a sin. But i used milk products in past as there was no restriction on them as they do not cater to anyone's life. Here in germany ,i am trying to become vegan.I know lot of my friends ,relatives ,forefather etc .. who have never ever tasted animals ,eggs and fish. As Far as my personal experience is cocerned, one does not need eggs,meat or fish for healthy living. See elephant girrafe etc.. all are vegetarians.

    How you raise your children is your choice,i don't want much to comment on that issue.
    I had put forward my perspective about vegetarian life.

    The funniest thing here is that eggs and fish are vegetarian, but how????.This is bit funny.

    Greetings

    Vishal
    • 03 Nov 2009, 10:41 pm
  • Post visible to registered members
  • Post visible to registered members
  • Post visible to registered members
  • Frauke Girus-Nowoczyn
    Frauke Girus-Nowoczyn
    The company name is only visible to registered members.
    Re^4: How do YOU raise your children???
    Just one more remark from my indian friend, Dr. Nandita Shah. She says that when babies are fed meat for the first time, they invariably spit it out and their facial expression shows disgust. When the mothers insist they obviously get used to it, but the true reaction is to reject this food. I haven't had the possibility to check this, but maybe we all could sharpen our observation to find out if this is true.
    • 07 Dec 2009, 10:30 pm
  • Post visible to registered members
  • Andreas Thaler
    Andreas Thaler    Premium Member   Group moderator
    The company name is only visible to registered members.
    Re^5: How do YOU raise your children???
    Frauke Girus-Nowoczyn wrote:
    Just one more remark from my indian friend, Dr. Nandita Shah. She says that when babies are fed meat for the first time, they invariably spit it out and their facial expression shows disgust.
    I guess that babies typically would not be fed 'just meat' ... but rather a mixture of cooked meat, vegetables, sugar, salt, spices and whatnot to make it attractive to their taste. (The 'baby formula' that you can buy in little glasses). So I am not convinced whether this remark is relevant.

    If raw, unsalted, unspiced meat would be fed to the 'typical' meat eater, he would most likely also spit it out because it tastes quite disgusting.

    Best regards,
    Andreas
    • 08 Dec 2009, 5:06 pm