Why are you a vegetarian?
 

I've been slowly getting boobalah to increase the veggie portions of our meals. Unfortunately, his idea of veggies includes potatoes. I don't want to become a vegetarian, but I want to incorporate more into my eating plan. I've started, except for today because I forgot them, adding them to my lunches.

My younger DD became one because of some excess baby weight. She was quite successful. She does eat some seafood, cheese, eggs and poultry but that is it.

Her friends bacame vegetarians in high school because they went to an animal rights rally. Not sure if they will eat eggs or cheese, but no dead animals for them.

A former coworker is Hindi and that is part of his religion.

So, have you always been one? Did you do it for weight?

TIA.

Hi mare,
I've been a vegetarian for about 1-2 years (can't remember *lol*). I still eat fish and seafood, though.
In the beginning, the reason that I stopped eating meat was to lose weight. I never really ate a lot of lean proteins when it came to meat, just a lot of fast food. I also noticed that whenever I ate meat, I felt really heavy and bloated.
It definitely helped the weight come off, and somewhere along the way, I made the decision that I would rather not kill an animal to eat it...so I stuck with it.
I know that it seems hypocritical to not want to kill an animal, yet still kill fish and other seafood. I've struggled with this issue, and I try to only eat this meat from the most sustainable sources. I don't believe that my healthy diet would continue to be successful without those sources of protein in my diet (I know that it is possible in theory, but I'm speaking in terms of personal choice). For now, this is what works for me.
Best of luck!

I am not a vegan or a vegetarian anymore but I was both once upon a time and I am trying to go vegetarian again. I keep away from red meats. I eat chicken occassionally and seafood rarely so because I eat another living thing I am not a vegetarian.

Originally I started out as a vegetarian for animal rights. I still feel it is wrong to eat another living thing just as it is wrong to eat another human. I feel they are pretty much on the same level. I went vegan partially for animal rights as I had read more into it all, the process and the way animals are treated to get milk, eggs, etc. but I also did it to lose weight. I weighed 200 lbs and got down to 140 in only a few short months - so close to my goal. Due to certain problems (not health related) I let go of my vegan/vegetarian lifestyle and the weight came back very very quickly.

I also figured out with my vegan diet that it made my blood sugar problem disappear which was nice. Since going back to being a partial carnivore, that problem is back. Both vegan and vegetarian lifestyles are so much more animal friendly and so much healthier.

I wouldn't consider anyone who still ate chicken or fish to be a vegetarian. Just because you minimize your animal proteins doesn't mean you are a vegetarian and just because you want to increase your vegetable intake doesn't mean you need to be a vegetarian.

I don't consider myself to be a vegetarian or vegan but for the past few years, I have definitely cut down on my meat consumption. I had also definitely increased my vegetable consumption. I was having difficulties on cutting down on my dairy consumption. That was until I started reading about the negative health issues with eating any kind of animal protein, especially dairy.

So I haven't eaten meat regularly for quite a few months and I haven't eaten any animal products (meat, dairy, eggs) for the past month. I really enjoy the food I'm eating and I feel a lot better which will just generally lead me to continue eating how I have been. Maybe one day I will decide I'm a vegetarian or even vegan but I'm not there yet.

Anyway, I would definitely encourage you and your family to eat more plant based foods and to minimize your animal product consumption but then again that doesn't have to mean going vegetarian.

Some wonderful resources are vegan cookbooks and vegan websites such as fatfreevegan.com and there are tons of others out there. They will help you make creative, animal free meals.

Overall, I have to say I don't know if I've ever enjoyed my food as much as I do now.

Thank you ladies. I really don't want to become a vegetarian because I do like to have meat. I don't always have it everyday, but do have it often. Red meat is seldom. I'm trying to convince boobalah that 1 or 2 meatless dinners per week would be a good thing. However, I have to get him out of the mindset that meatless does not mean macaroni and cheese, lasagna or even pizza that we make ourselves.

I have to find some way to keep it interesting as well. After all, one can only eat just so many salads.

Why do people think that if they are cooking for a vegetarian that it has to be a salad? I'm going to have to resurrect my black eyed pea salad. That was good.

I'm off to visit some websites now.

Thank you again.

Ovo-lacto vegetarian for the last 26 years. Why is multi-faceted.
1. Read the book "More With Less" - stewardship of Earth's resources is a biggie for us. 10 lbs. of grain= 1 lb. of beef. I'd rather eat the lb of grain. And yes, we donate the remainder of our food budget to a world-hunger organization.
2. DH is in the medical profession. All of his medical journals in the early 80's were full of articles about DDT and mercury in fish, hormones in poultry and the horrors of red meat.
3. Became pregnant with DS #1. After 2 miscarriages, I was extra sensitive about EVERYTHING I did. Realizing that I was part of the first junk-food generation scared me. I definitely did not want to bring up a child on the diet we were eating.

That being said, it is easy to gain weight as a vegetarian. Eating too much of healthy foods still packs on the pounds. Beans, grains, dairy, desserts, etc. eaten in large portions caused both DH and I to be overweight.

I'm vegan because....
 

....On the CaloriesPerHour website I learned about Joel Fuhrman's book Eat to Live. It was so convincing and made complete sense to me about how what you eat directly relates to how your body operates.

I've been a vegetarian for years and plan to go vegan soon but it had nothing to do with weight loss. It had to do with animal rights. You know the whole story.

I have been a lacto-ovo vegetarian for about two-and-a-half months now. I had been trying to wean myself off of meat for about two years, but have finally just gotten it done and am not looking back. I had three main reasons:

1. If you read the books about what kind of food that you should be having for your particular blood type, I am A+ (I love to write that!:D)(I digress)...and I should not have any meat for my particular blood type.
2. I am a calcium oxalate kidney stone producer, and meat protein is BAD for me. I have been producing two stones a year for the past five years and have learned through extensive PAIN, questioning many professionals in the field, and my own research, that animal protein is NOT good for me.
3. I went to one of the vegetarian websites looking for recipes and found pages of mistreatment of animals. I couldn't bear to read what happens to animals that are being prepared for slaughter, so that sealed the deal for me.

I am now on the vegetarian diet for Metabolic Research Center, and am losing weight, feeling WONDERFUL, and happiest of all, that I've given up meat. So, that's the long and the short of it.

chopin,

Just curious with your stones, do you find the animal protein in eggs and dairy to be a problem for you?

Sorry to jump in on this thread since I'm not a vegetarian but.
I've gotten kidney stones a couple of times this year and both times it was when I tried a high protein/low carb diet so I'm starting to think that there is a connection between meat and stones also. I just started looking into this I'm looking to start cutting meat out more and more.

There's a definite connection between animal protein and many health conditions, but kidney problems top the list of people who should avoid or at the very least severely restrict all animal protein.

I'm not a vegetarian, but I'm going to jump on in here anyway. DH and I eat very little meat. I mean, I think I've had red meat maybe 3 times in the last year, chicken a little more then that, and we do eat fish. My biggest issue with meat has to do with the fact that animals that are treated poorly end up being bad for you. Factory farmed meat has a terrible nutrition profile when compared to humanely raised meat (I know some will disagree on varying levels~this is my interpretation of the information I've seen.) But, finding the "good" meat is hard and it's really expensive, so we don't eat much meat. Not too mention that most people in the US consume too much protein anyway.

Plus, vegetarian food is varied and delicious! There is so much more diversity in vegetarian cooking! Dinner doesn't need to be a slab of meat, a starch, and a vegetable. That's just not my thing. Vegetarian cuisine is not only yummy, but most of the time it's easier on the bank account too.

nelie - What a good question!...I had not even THOUGHT about the correlation of the animal protein in eggs and dairy. Everything that I have read thus far led me to believe that it was the protein in the actual meat that was producing my stones. I also know that salt, dark green, leafy vegetables, certain berries, coffee, chocolate, etc. are also not good for me as they are high in oxalate, so meat is not the only culprit.

Eggs, cheese and cottage cheese are the core of my protein for both breakfast and lunch now, so now I'm really wondering if I'm eating as healthy as I thought I was. I am on a quest now to find out about dairy and eggs. Thank you so much for bringing that up!

2muchbackend - I produced a kidney stone after two weeks on Atkins, and I produced a stone after about three weeks on the South Beach diet. I finally decided that I was the one that had to be proactive in finding out what was causing the stones. I hope that you can find out what is causing them for you, because we both know the PAIN involved, don't we?

chopingirl, I have been lucky were I've not felt the stone passing I don't know if I ever will but I fear for that but the pain I get in my kidney's is horrible I've ended up in the hospital once and I've had to take pain pills for it. My Dr just told me the other day that it was most likely the animal protein but she said dairy is ok. So hopefully the stones don't get bigger!! I just need to learn how to eat correctly now and hopefully get it figured out.

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!).

I'd be interested to hear what they say. :dizzy:

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 could give you more...but I think you get it ;)

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.

http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/kidney-stones/DS00282 is a great source of info on kidney stones, hopefully it will help :)

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 just realized what a big hippie I am... ^_^

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 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.) :hug:

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...:o:D

Thanks, Myrtle.

Thanks again for the answers. I just thought he was kinda reaching when he said he would never have to worry about weight gain when he's clearly put on 2 sizes in his pants. It's good to know that I wasn't losing my mind.

Oh yes, cheese is what did it for me. As a kid, I snuck cheese sticks out of the fridge all the time. Anything creamy like macaroni-and-cheese or chicken and rice made with lots of oil was pretty much what did it. I don't think I'll ever become vegan, but I do want to find some cruelty-free, humane, organic dairy companies out there. If I have to wait until I own my dream organic farm, so be it. :moo:

I had no idea we had that emoticon! It's ridiculously cute!:hug::carrot:

Oh, and I have noticed that ever since I went vegetarian, I have been feeling better, and it helped me snap myself out of my depression and graduate from high school with honors when I was in danger of not graduation at all. I never thought it would have been my vegetarian diet, though, but that's awesome!

Honestly I think if someone is on a clean vegetarian diet it would be next to impossible to gain weight. Everything I eat is primarily broccoli, carrots, snow peas, sugar snap peas, cucumbers, zucchini, raw spinach, water chestnuts, salsa, (oil free), beans, and typically 1-2 cups of whole grain a day. ( no bread, but brown rice, and oatmeal), very little nuts. I eat when I want to, I dont have cravings. If I feel the need to have something sweet, vanilla soy milk and a banana satisfys ( i dont look at this WANT as a craving, because it doesnt overwhelm me, and I dont HAVE to have it.. I want it). I eat a ton of fresh fruits, i dont count calories and I dont limit myself to how much to eat. I feed my body when Im hungry and I stop when I am full. Since 11/02 Ive lost 15lbs.

I'm a vegetarian of 20 years. I just joined MRC two weeks ago and was told they could accommodate vegetarians. When I started using the HSNs, I read the label and discovered they contain gelatin - animal bones. How did you deal with that issue?

I don't know what MRC or HSN are, but presume they are pre-packaged diet meals? I try to eat as little processed food as possible, to me that would include any of those meal plans, so I'm not familiar. If you find you absolutely need to have your meals pre-portioned for you I'd try to find a more veg friendly plan, I'm sure some must exist that don't rely on nasty byproducts like gelatin.

As far as gaining weight as a vegetarian, I imagine it comes down to portion size in some respects....for example, a bowl full of pasta with tomato sauce may be a vegetarian meal, but it can be a pretty hefty calorie count if you have a large bowl (say, like most Italian restaurants here serve...you could eat for a week off of one serving!) vs. a regular portion size.

Don't think it's right to kill animals
 

That about sums it up. It's also why I do not wear leather, silk or wool, etc. Been that way 21 years. Decided to go veggie when I was 19.

Hi Michelle :wave:

Glad to hear you're giving this another shot! It can be hard being the lone vegan in an omnivorous world, I know it took some maturity (and a lot of learning) on my part before I was ready to commit. But now it is so easy, as natural as breathing. I can't imagine ever not being vegan now. Everyone has their own set of circumstances and challenges, I found it really helpful to join an online community of vegans to share (and sometimes vent) with, and get support. It's nice to feel like you're not alone.

Good luck! Hope you find the help and support you need.

I have been a vegeterian for a while. For me it has to do with the animals.I find it repulsive to eat anything that had a face.However not liking to cook,I do eat alot of high calorie foods.I cook anything that is easy pasta,rice,baked potatoes.
I do eat the Boca products too,but they are not filling for me. Does anyone have any suggestions on easy vegeterian meals?Or maybe a cookbook with easy recipies? Thanks:)