My Dr just told me the other day that it was most likely the animal protein but she said dairy is ok.
This is what I would LOVE to say to your doctor: "Riddle me this...how do you suppose the animal protein is different in dairy products versus flesh?" (It isn't!).
Rather than giving each link, I'll just say that I googled "kidney stones dairy products", and read the first full page of articles. It is interesting reading, and to recap, it looks like the medical community first told their patients with kidney stones to cut out the dairy products, but no longer. The calcium is actually good for kidney stone producers, just not the animal flesh. I have no family history AT ALL of kidney stones anywhere, so what I put into my mouth HAS to be the culprit. I learn so much on this site, so I will be interested to hear if y'all have other places for me to look with regard to this issue. Thank you!!!
My 19 yr. old college step daughter is vegetarian...or so she claims..
well, except....flank steak ~ she loves Angie's flank steak..but other than that...oh....except Mickey D's chicken mcnuggets...she loves those....but other than that she is all...oh wait, except for my bow tie pasta casserole with ham...she just loves that....but other than that she is all vege....oh wait....she craves IN-N-OUT burgers when in school in NY...so she always has that when she comes home...other wise she only eats veggies and fruit...well except for...
turkey...because that is good for you...oh and bratwurst...she loves that...oh and hot dogs...if they are turkey.....
I learn so much on this site, so I will be interested to hear if y'all have other places for me to look with regard to this issue. Thank you!!!
It's my understanding that there are different causes of kidney stones. Your doctor should give you a strainer to pee in when you pass the stone, which will catch it. Your doctor would then have the stone analyzed to learn what it's made of, which would determine which type of stone it is. Only then would you know whether to avoid dairy, etc.
I am vegetarian because after years of not eatting beef or pork I decided to lose chicken and fish as well. The hardest part was giving up the fish because I love seafood, but animal protein just isnt a necessity for the body and in fact it makes your body work harder. So after all these good reads, I decided to try it, and now I love it. I wont ever revert back to eatting meat.
My anxiety is NON EXSISTANT, during TOM, I have no cramps, no bloating, no gas, nothing.. no cravings.. everyone I am around is sneezing coughing congested.. not me Being a Vegetarian can and will do great things for the body. I dont eat dairy that often, but since its not ruled out completely I dont consider myself a vegan, but that is a direction I would like to go I can only imagine it gets better
My reason for being a vegetarian pretty much begins with a cooking class. A kid brought in a deer that he'd field-dressed and butchered to class and I was one of the ones who was supposed to help cut up the meat for stew. I stood there, horrified, as they started hacking into these joints and tissues (thankfully there was no hide or hooves or head, or I'd've killed him) and just seeing this poor deer minding its own business before being shot for sport. I burst into tears and ran into the bathroom and refused to come out again.
I got out of the class and spent the next three months weaning myself off of meat, with the last official meat-eating day being Thanksgiving. Over the next few months I ate meat maybe once or twice, and as far as my counting goes, I haven't eaten any in about eight or nine months, and don't miss it at all.
I feel really bad sometimes that it took something like that to shake me. I'm a nature lover with tendencies to cry when I see roadkill on the highway, so it should have been an obvious thing to go vegetarian earlier. My sister gave up beef (cows are cute!) and my mom is trying to transition my dad into red meat, poultry, pork, and fish once a week, and the rest of the time eating meatless meals.
I love not eating meat. I am lacto-ovo, but I try to find cruelty-free and organic dairy and egg sources. I'm also trying to help my family eat organic and find cruelty-free and free range meat sources.
I've struggled with my wieght all my life. I became a vegetarian when I saw the Body Worlds exhibit in Philly 2 years ago. The exhibits showed me just exactly what I was doing to my body by eating unhealthy. I then read the book Diet for a New America by Tim Robbins. That did me in. After about 1 month of being veg I found my brain so much clearer. I felt better, had more energy.
has anyone else noticed by chance the change in your well -being? I just am always in a good mood, Ive noticed that only the big things get me down, and the trivial stuff doesnt phase me at all. Hmm.. to two might not be related but I have found a huge difference in how I handle stressers.
I've been a strict vegetarian for 12+ years now. I never like meat as a child and rarely ate it, when I was 19 I offically stopped eating meat and even began reading labels to make sure I wasn't eating any 'hidden meat'.
For me, there are several reasons. First, the idea of meat is just repulsive to me. I don't like the taste or the texture, and just thinking about eating the flesh of another animal makes me sick to my stomach.
Second, I do love animals and I don't understand why I should kill another living creature for food when I am perfectly able to sustain myself without their suffering or death. I wouldn't eat something that I wasn't willing to kill myself.
Third, and this was just a bonus as I learned more about it, cattle production has a devestating impact on the environment. The methane alone is a reason many become vegetarian for environmental reasons.
Now, my weight has changed greatly (120 - 311 lbs) - so I have been both thin and obese as a vegetarian. This is due, in no small part, to a 10 year struggle with an eating disorder... but that is beside the point. My point is that a vegetarian diet isn't necessarily a healthy diet. It is simply meat-free.
I always get confused when people say they are vegetarian but they eat fish and chicken. LOL Not eating red meat doesn't make you a vegetarian, not eating any meat at all does. And not eating any animal byproducts at all makes you vegan. I don't eat gelatin or eggs... but I do eat some cheese. So I am not vegan.
It is a pet peeve of mine when meat eaters are very forceful in challenging my beliefs. People I don't even know want to know why I am vegetarian and seem defensive about their meat eating. I'm not saying that is what this post is about... because it obviously is not. But it made me think of all the times I have had to defend my choice to not eat meat - as if it effects anyone else! I'm not sure why that is... None of my friends or family members are vegetarian, and I have no problem with it. That is their personal choice. I never give them a bad time, or ask them to justify their decision to eat meat. In fact, my husband is a big meat eater...
Anyway...I'm going off in a tangent. I enjoyed reading everyones responses.
Myrtle, I hope you don't think that by creating this thread that I was in any way attacking anyone for being a vegetarian. That certainly was NOT my intention.
I want to thank everyone for your responses.
Now I have to figure out how to keep it interesting.
I can't speak for anyone but myself but I don't feel anyone was being attacked.
I am glad we have this discussion going. It's nice to see what reasons others have for changing their diets, regardless of if they are vegetarian, vegan or just eating less animal products on occasion.
Thanks, Soul. I was starting to feel that I had insulted some of you and that bothered me.
Myrtle, you mentioned that you gained a ton of weight while being a vegetarian. May I ask how? I worked with a gentleman who is a vegetarian because of his religion. He said he never worried about a weight problem because he is a vegetarian. However, before he left the company, I noticed that he was gaining weight. He didn't eat cheese, his wife did. They did not eat eggs because they saw it as taking a life. He didn't care for milk but she drank it. He wouldn't eat chocolate but would eat sweets that didn't contain eggs or milk. How could he have been gaining weight?
Again, I'm not trying to challenge anyone's eating style. I'm just in the dark and would like to understand more.
Thanks, Soul. I was starting to feel that I had insulted some of you and that bothered me.
Myrtle, you mentioned that you gained a ton of weight while being a vegetarian. May I ask how? I worked with a gentleman who is a vegetarian because of his religion. He said he never worried about a weight problem because he is a vegetarian. However, before he left the company, I noticed that he was gaining weight. He didn't eat cheese, his wife did. They did not eat eggs because they saw it as taking a life. He didn't care for milk but she drank it. He wouldn't eat chocolate but would eat sweets that didn't contain eggs or milk. How could he have been gaining weight?
Again, I'm not trying to challenge anyone's eating style. I'm just in the dark and would like to understand more.
Thanks again for all the responses.
I agree with Soul, Mare. I don't think you offended anyone. It think she was just lamenting on how vegetarians are constantly subject to judgement and sometimes even combativeness on what boils down to just a personal decision. I think it was just a general complaint having nothing to do with your post.
Heck, I even get those arguments and I can't even call myself a vegetarian! I don't rely on meat as a part of my diet and people see my lunch (avocado, grape tomatoes, veggie stirfry, carrots, etc...) and will grill me to pieces about my diet. I'm considering going veggie in light of some things I have read. I'm finding that the environmental impact of animal consumption is simply unacceptable to me considering our current state of affairs. There is no need that I can find and it seems pretty detrimental at that to continue a meat eating diet.
My father has been a vegetarian for years, starting when he read Fast Food Nation. That spurred him delving very deeply into research on the subject and he hasn't looked back. He is also the best cook I know.
Knowledge is power, Mare, and I applaud you inquiring on the issue.
Now, why is your friend gaining weight? There is plenty of junk food and processed and refined foods that are perfectly vegetarian friendly and I've definitely seen my fair share of unhealthy vegetarians. Also, you can over induldge on anything and gain weight. I've been known to go overboard on completely raw foods and I come up a couple of pounds heavier. It's all about finding the balance.
There are tons of calorie rich vegetarian foods. Things such as nuts are extremely calorie rich but some vegetarians can overdo it on sugars and fats resulting in weight gain.
Even a raw vegan diet can result in a weight gain due to nuts and seeds.
Mare – No, no, no… not at all!! This is a great thread, and very interesting to read. I’m sorry, I tried to make it clear in my post that this thread obviously was not about attacking people for choosing to be vegetarian. I sincerely apologize if that didn’t come across quite right. (Tone is sometimes a tough thing to convey in posts.)
Thanks, Junebug and Soul for helping to clarify for me. (BTW, Junebug, I agree with your dad! Fast Food Nation is a great book! It’s a bit heavy, but well written and life changing for many who read it.)
As for your question about how I gained weight as a vegetarian… I gained weight and lost weight as a vegetarian. It had nothing to do with the fact that I was vegetarian, and everything to do with the fact that I was bulimic. Even when I had the purging under control, I didn’t have the binging under control. (That was the eating disorder I mentioned.)
As the others have mentioned, you can gain weight eating almost anything. Meat isn’t the only thing that is unhealthy in large quantities. Processed sugar, breads, chips, the list goes on and on. I could eat 20 lbs of tofu a day and gain weight. No, really, I could eat 20 lbs of tofu...
Not eating red meat doesn't make you a vegetarian, not eating any meat at all does. And not eating any animal byproducts at all makes you vegan. I don't eat gelatin or eggs... but I do eat some cheese. So I am not vegan. 
