MSG Anyone?

[blackcrystal22]

I wanna hear why your a vegitarian! Please.

OOOkayy.
Animals are virtually my life at this point, and my beliefs contribute. I do not believe that death is negative and actually find many positive aspects of it. The reason I'm a vegetarian is because I disagree with the way that the animals are treated while they are alive. The whole 'they're gonna die anyway so lets treat them like their already dead' doesn't sit well with me. Plus I never really enjoyed eating meat that much..
What most people don't get, is that if I went out and hunted and killed an animal, I would eat it. When you hunt you look for the 'older' animals and animals that have been wild all their lives and have not had any torment. When killing, it's usually as quick as virtually possible.
:]

This has nothing to do with being vegetarian, it has to do with a poor diet. I have been vegetarian, almost vegan, for 5-6 years now and haven't had any health problems besides a couple that are not diet related. The foods you listed would be bad for anyone to eat, not just someone without meat in their diets.

And the human body does not need meat to survive, you just have to be smart about your diet.. but you meat eaters also need to be smart about your diet! Just because you eat meat does not make you healthier than people who do not, in most cases I eat way better than anyone I know who eats meat. I'm lucky, I have a Sprouts and a Whole Foods within 2 miles of me and we get organic fruits/veggies delivered to our house so it is easy for me to eat healthy without eating meat.

I think I worded that a little wrong. Those processed foods were examples, not major parts of my diet. Unfortunately that is what my mother buys because it's inexpensive, and it was in my pantry when I was reading labels. Ever since I've become a vegetarian, I have learned to eat much healthier.. and a whole lot less fast food and fried foods. The problem with me getting large amounts of fruit and veggies is that they don't last very long, and I don't eat very much. They also aren't cheap so having all my veggies rot within a week isn't good news. :[
All my previous health problems are gone, I no longer have vitamin deficiencies, but now I have to be more careful with this MSG thing.

I think Lena nailed it. You can get all the nutrition your body needs from a vegan diet, but all the processed foods you named sound like you have a lot of changes to make. You should do a search for raw vegan diets to get a good understanding of which foods are needed for all the different nutrients and proteins you need to stay healthy. You're not even vegan, so it should be really easy once you have an understanding of what your body needs and which foods provide what. It's a shame that most processed foods are so unhealthy and use so many goofy ingredients when it seems like most of them shouldn't have to, but that's how it is.

Or you could just make up a plate a couple of times a week with greens, a baked potato and a medium rare filet mignon. Maybe a little cottage cheese... no msg there. The steak could be replaced with a nice trout filet even. You can start making a lot of vegetable based soups with beans and lentils, eat salads and yogurt with flax, hemp seeds, chick peas, grated almonds etc. There's plenty out there to have an unlimited vegetarian menu that gives you everything you need.

Mmm, that reminded me of hummus for some reason..
Thanks for the suggestions, I love soups so I definitely will look into making bean/lentil soups like that. It's about time I get a more varied diet anyway.. I donno about the filet though.. blech.

Everybody should try and avoid eating MSG anyways. It's actually got an addictive quality to it. Fast food joints have it in ALL their food. KFC is the worst if anybody is interested. Not only is it found in SO MANY foods you shouldn't eat, but it also makes you want those unhealthy foods even more.

Have you ever eaten a lot of food from a restaurant that seemingly was very salty and made you very thirsty? That's what MSG does. It comes in a form similar to a salt and when it's used in fast food it makes you more thirsty and addictive.
It's all for flavor and all against health. :[

Edit: Also, I buy a lot of miso products and vegan noodle mixes. Sometimes they all taste the same.. and not very good, but there are the occasional delicious ones that I love! Mmm.