How can you say you're a vegetarian if you eat fish? Not challenging you on this, but I would think that eating fish would negate being a vegetarian.

You're thinking of a vegan.

To quote the Timbuk 3 song: "If we are what we eat, then we're all dead meat."

Vegan does eat any animal products (dairy, etc.). Anyone who eats fish is not strictly vegetarian, they are a pescetarian.

I try to be good with sugar & salt ( I would prefer to eat none), but budget & time pretty much require cheap microwaveable. I do read labels, & other than the occasional Pizza no refined sugars in their various & many names, no MSG & I don't own any salt.

I know I still get way too much salt & fat though.

I relied on the health food industry much of my life, but they have gotten AWFUL on both sugar & salt.

Vegetarian is easier to say.

I couldn't resist!

My dad asked me, "What about the poor fish?--don't they have feelings, too?" I don't know, if you look at a shark, they don't look like they have feelings. I don't eat lobster or crab (or shark for that matter), just mainly salmon and tilapia. Tuna very rarely.

I used to do a pretty good job of staying away from pork--at one point I was working in the meat department of a grocery store--but where I'm living right now, there's this Cuban restaraunt up the street that has this awesome pork sandwich with onions and mojo sauce...

What I've found (after my doctor put me on cholesterol meds) is that it's not so much red meat, it's the fried foods and the sweets. The steak I have about once a week might be one of the most wholesome things I eat. It turns out that the foods that can really screw me up are the foods I didn't suspect--Publix sells a scampi sauce that's delicious, but a 10-ounce tub has something like 950 calories, 100 grams of fat and 250 mg of cholesterol--and that's just a sauce that you'd put on somethng else. Might as well have Twinkies and beer for dinner.

Pork is also the only reletively inexpensive red meat left (at least in the Seattle area)

I've never been a big fan, but i've forced myself to become a fan due to finances.

I thought pork was the other white meat.

I saw that one coming..............

I assume everyone has seen the infamous pork billboard from Canada. If not, please enjoy...
http://www.holytaco.com/pork-one-you-love/

Imgur link for those (like me) behind work firewall that blocks holytaco.com.

I can't believe the amount of spinach I eat now relative to only a few years ago... the widespread introduction of fresh-bagged spinach leaves makes for an easy add-in to sandwiches, salads, and many other dishes.

As a 20-year vegetarian and current health/exercise nut, I suppose I'd be remiss if I didn't throw in a few random thoughts.

When my wife (then fiancee) first became a vegetarian, I didn't think I could do it because I wasn't much of a vegetable eater. Turns out that's not really a requirement -- there's plenty more out there to eat than meat and vegetables. I've forced myself to eat more veggies as I've gotten older, but I'm still not crazy about very many of them. Yet I never go hungry. And there's a huge variety of surprisingly good faux-meat products that are readily available at the grocery store.

Tofu is excellent when it's prepared properly. I can't deal with the soft, eggy-consistency stuff, but when it's firm and well-seasoned (or included in a well-seasoned dish), it can be quite delicious. My favorite: lightly fried pieces dipped in Thai peanut sauce.

Until a couple of years ago, I was a big-time "junk food vegetarian." As long as it didn't have meat in it, I didn't care how much sugar or fat was in it -- I'd eat it. Blessed with a high metabolism, I figured I was lucky enough to get away with it. But turning 40 hit me hard emotionally, and I decided to start taking my health seriously. I pretty much cut out the sweets and fatty junk cold turkey (or should I say "cold Tofurky"), and I dove into three rounds of P90X in a row. I'm now 20 pounds lighter and in better shape than I've ever been. Eventually convinced my wife to do it, too, and she had the same results. Oddly enough, I don't miss the sweets at all anymore -- the occasional frozen yogurt suits me fine.

Fresh spinach pizza on whole wheat crust is pure awesomeness.

That's all for now...I think I need to go find something to eat!

I've never been able to do Tofu. For a few years in my 20's I was a fish/poultry type of vegetarian; & in those years I was also more strict than I am about refined sugar (in all it's forms), white flour & salt. I was also as much as 100 pounds lighter than today.......

Many years ago, after reading Sugar Blues, I stopped all forms of white sugar, white flour & salt & with no other changes of any kind took off 50 pounds in 2 months.

As I was saying to a cashier tonight, the only thing i can afford these days are those $1.00 Michelina meals which are full of salt & white flour (though some are actually sugar free)

I like tofu, but only when it is not being somehow utilized to simulate other foods--I enjoy using the word "toferky" in a sentence, but not actually eating it.

I've said it before, but I like how "tofurkey" is a spoonerism for "faux turkey."

Huh. I thought people ate tofurkey with a furk, I mean fork. Let me rephrase that.

OTHER people.

Not me.

Alan

My family and I love Tofurky, but I can certainly see how it's not for everyone. It's very salty, and the flavor does take some getting used to. Still, there are loads of other options. For example, we routinely make tacos with fake ground beef for our omnivore family and friends, and they can hardly (if at all) tell the difference. Having been raised as a meat eater, I would have had a really hard time converting if it weren't for all those "simulated" meats, which have only gotten better and better over time.

One of these days, as a complement to the "What are you listening to?" thread, someone should start a "What are you eating?" thread. ♫ I like food...food tastes good! ♪