Reply #19: You missed a lot of what I said

[unpossibles]

First of all, I slowed and eventually stopped eating meat because I could not afford it. I was poor. Yes, I was in college, but I was also working one FT job and sometimes a second PT job to do so, often night shifts. I had zero free time, not much money, little sleep, and I worked physically demanding jobs to put myself through college.

I lost weight because I could not afford to eat out, and realized that the cheap shit out there at fast food joints is (a) not really that cheap and (b) horrible for you. I can make a huge pot of soup, pasta, vegan chili, and all sorts of food for less than a "value meal" and with far fresher ingredients, and it lasts for days. I was not supported by anyone, was not on a trust fund, nor was I eating organic although I did like to go to farmer's markets when I could. Again, most veggies and grains are cheaper than meat, more filling, and better for you.

Did you even read my post?

I realize I was outside of the norm, but I am sick of people saying that they cannot afford to eat non-fast food, not because I do not realize real hunger and poverty nutrition problems exist, but because I could not afford to not cook or to eat poorly. I was later motivated partly by health problems in my own family and my own weight to stop eating meat and to just eat better and reduce my fat, corn syrup and sodium, but the reality of it was simply that even before I started thinking of it that way, I was regularly eating 20 cents worth of generic pasta with a little bit of oil on it and some onion and peppers for meals because it was all I could afford and made more than one meal for almost nothing. Eventually I got better at making good quality cheap meals, and the few times I could afford to eat out at fast food, I realized how crappy the "food" really is and how awful it made me feel.