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45 yesterday. Running total = 95, 252

Selective breeding and genetic modification are two very different beasts. Selective breeding ensures that particular traits become more prominent (for example, a less "stringy" mango) by breeding together varieties that possess said desired trait. It's perfectly natural. Genetic modification involves going down to DNA level and "splicing" new genetic information in there which can come from an entirely different organism. This would never otherwise occur in nature. ^ This. So you don't think fish tomatoes would occur naturally in nature?

My food is great the way it is. I wouldn't want someone coming in and hiding zinc tablets in my veggies, and I don't want people modifying my food genetically to contain more vitamins/minerals. Having a corporation in control of our food is scary! Especially one like Monsanto. No adverse effects after 15 years or so? How many smokers do you see battling cancer after a decade and a half? And lets optimistically assume that the GMO's we currently have are 100% safe, who's to say the next ones are? Thanks, but I don't wanna be their f***ing guinea pig. I used to work at a grain elevator in Ontario. Corn and soy for the purposes of animal feed. 100% GMO. I wish I had taken pictures to prove the visible reactions people have to.. handling pesticides, I would assume? I can't stress enough just how much our purchases effect others. That's a more than good enough reason for me right there not to support pesticide laden food when I have the choice. No animal products, No GMO's, Buy organic when we can

Hey! Welcome to the forum Where you heading to for vacation?

Welcome to the forum Who advised you to start eating chicken and turkey? It's incredible the wealth of misinformation some people have, isn't it

That sounds like quite the life Welcome to the forum.

March 18th = 50 push ups March 21st = 70 push ups Running Total = 94 967

Might take you a while to get to 1 million on your own 70 from yesterday. Running total = 94, 712 (Edit: I see I posted my 80 from the 11th already )

http://www.thelolshop.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/20120715-171045.jpg

It's a commercial, but I always laugh when I see it

I've been all over the place. I don't find that I lose respect for people, but at the same time, I've lost my understanding of them... I work with people who have severe health issues/weight problems. One of them seems to understand I know my health and nutrition information, but hasn't taken any steps to improve his health Can't push too hard because this person is my boss and when we discussed diabetes the one day, I non-intentionally, but definitely hit a nerve. I've been attending wakes in the community and I find it mind boggling how many of them have envelopes collecting for the Heart and Stroke Foundation... Heart disease? Really? With all the information out there, we're losing our family members to this? It's as ridiculous as losing someone to scurvy. As far as the ethics are concerned, I always seem to scare people off. I haven't yet found a way to bring that up without making people feel awkward and ending the conversation or having people out right attack me. It actually makes social interactions without the topic of veganism awkward because I'm always on guard. Now I just relax... My lifestyle is not the one in need of defending here. If people have questions, they'll be answered. If the want to know why I do this, I tell them it's 100% ethically motivated. The conversation goes as far as they're comfortable with. Once they leave with the information, it's up to them what they do with it. Then again, it always was, but at least their damn pride shouldn't be getting in the way.

Well I would say caring about others and what they do is precisely the reason I went vegan I do agree with you 100% about those who are closed off to the idea and aren't the least bit receptive. You've said what you could, no point wasting any more breath on someone with a death wish I don't focus on our differences when I speak to omnis, I focus on our similarities which there are often more of than not. I guess the way I see it is if the science says vegans live longer. If vegans are less likely to succumb to illness and therefore have a higher quality of life, aren't we kind of obligated to share this? Whether or not they decide to go vegan is entirely their choice, but they should at the very least be given the information.

Oh that's alright. I only has couple of posts

That's what I've found, also. Anything in high enough quantities is dangerous. Even water can be deadly if over-consumed.

Don't worry, be happy If we're hiking mountains, swimming and sun bathing, volunteering our time in the community, posting our amazing food pictures and fitness triumphs on facebook... if we're happy, healthy, and enjoying life to its fullest, who knows? Maybe we'll rub off on others. Then everyone can be happy and healthy

I've actually worked my way from the other end. I'll have been vegan for 4 years in May. When I first when vegan, I was very blunt, very argumentative, and extremely angry(in thought). The ONLY thing I was able to do, was to get a vegetarian friend to go vegan(being nice...), though I no longer look at this as my doing. I share information I've learned. What people choose to do with that information is up to them. If they go vegan, it's their doing. Anyhow! Over the first 2 years of my veganism, I pushed away most of my friends. I pushed away my family with whom I was staying with at the time, and the arguing got to a point where I decided to move away. It's not healthy for us to be like that We're going to end up making ourselves sick, then imagine what people would be saying. At this point in time, I find being a good example, speaking to people in a relaxed, non judgmental tone is best. I even go as far as to add humour to it. If we push people away, we can do nothing... Political and blunt approaches both get the information out there, but people seem to react worse(more defensive) to the blunt approach. Though I never sugar coat anything, I always get better reactions while being friendly. It also makes me feel better towards who I'm speaking with. Makes me more understanding and doesn't leave me feeling angry with the world and society I work in the meat department at a grocery store. I've had people come up and ask me about my vegansim, and I answer any questions they have. My mission is not to make them vegan by the end of the conversation. I've had several people come up to me and ask me about my diet, where I get protein, calcium, etc. Then we talk about the weather or cars What I've found really interesting is that these people walk away without buying meat... I even had one bring back his discounted packages of bacon and tell me he didn't need them. Did they come to the grocery store to speak with me? Of course not. They came to buy groceries, but after speaking to me they decide not to buy meat on that trip. I'm a volunteer firefighter. I spend a lot of time outside(in the summer) and make sure everyone knows how I love to be active. Even that, without words, answers a lot of questions. Obviously fit enough to be on the fire department, obviously fit enough to work all day and hike all evening, and when people see us at the beach, they can see that my partner and I are in shape. That's veganism!

Sorry you didn't make it in Would have started it. I wouldn't beat yourself up over it, though. There's been plenty of educational material on television that falls on deaf ears. Though it's nice to see vegans on T.V and get to get the message out there, I'm sure you can do just as much with people you run into day to day

I wouldn't say any animal products are healthy for us. In researching diet and nutrition, more and more it seems to be that higher meat intake is associated with higher rates of disease. While diets containing more plant foods are less likely to cause disease, they also have the ability to ease unpleasant symptoms of some diseases while reversing other diseases altogether. I think most people enjoy eating meat, and that's why they defend it. When the ethical/moral topics arise on the other hand(whether or not we brought them up ), "I like eating meat" doesn't seem to cut it. I think they just use "we need meat" as an obviously justified reason for eating it. Guess we're not good enough proof otherwise

Lol. I've had some of the same problems, myself I have a coworker who hates the fact that I'm vegan and takes every opportunity to attack it. I'm still trying to wrap my head around why people are so offended by our lifestyle choices... I do think it has something to do with warding off guilty feelings as stated above, but I don't think they see it that way while they're making excuses/formulating their own scientific evidence . Just have to find humour in the craziness, I suppose.

+80 Running total = 94,567

Hey, guys I thought I had joined this forum before but have since forgotten my username and password . I've been vegan for almost 4 years, though 3 of those were as a junk food vegan I've recently relocated to Atlantic Canada, got settled into a new job, started hiking and taking my health and fitness a little more seriously, and joined the local volunteer fire department. I've read through a lot of the articles and posts and find them motivating and really helpful

Welcome to the forum I had some chest pain issues myself before going vegan. Thought it was odd at 22 but it seemed to clear up just several months into my new diet. See you around the forum!

Welcome to the forum I've just joined myself. Somewhat new to fitness, but I've been vegan for 4 years and have studied diet and nutrition pretty extensively. Feel free to message me if you ever have any questions.