For the past few years I haven't really liked meat. I eat it, though. I've always felt bad for the animals, even though I'm fully aware humans are meant to consume meat and dairy. I recently learned that meat consumption accounts for almost 18% of carbon emissions (transporting the meat, and growing grains to feed the animals).

The thing is, I want to be well informed before I claim anything or do anything. Anyone want to answer some questions?

Are veggie burgers/tofurkey/that sort of thing healthy?

I'd still eat eggs (well egg whites). They're a good source of protein, right?

Protein shakes....good, correct?

I've heard that it's very hard to remain full on a vegetarian diet...truth or BS?

Since I take a multi-vitamin, is iron even an issue?

Being 14, how do I tell my extreme carnivore parents I don't want meat? And how do I tell my friends parents that I won't eat the dishes they serve (I eat away from home about once a week). What do I do when I go away for a week with a friend?

If anyone (current or former vegetarians especially) has any tips, they will be appreciated. Thanks!

Mikaela,

My daughter, 15, has also been battling the idea of going vegetarian. We had this conversation today, in fact. To answer some of your questions. There are many different types of vegetarians. A true Vegan does not consume any meat, fish, poultry, poultry products, milk products, etc. Other vegetarians choose not to eat meat, fish, or poultry; however, they consume poultry products and dairy products. In our house, we tend toward the second one. We do not eat meat or poultry; however, we consume seafood, eggs, cheese, milk, etc.

We eat veggie burgers, boca burgers, etc. I also drink soymilk, which is actually very good. Make sure you eat all kinds of beans and bean products. Eggs are still a good source of protein as is peanut butter.

Once my oldest daughter, meat and potato gal, leaves home, our whole family will probably go completely vegetarian.

Make sure you research it very carefully and sometimes it helps to give up meat and meat products gradually. Good luck to you! Stay healthy!

Thank you. I adore veggie burgers, always have. They taste so much better (except the ones at Ruby Tuesdays, which are gross).

Mmmm soymilk. Another yum.

I'm not looking into going vegan, especially not just yet...I'm going to at least switch to organic dairy/eggs, though (preferably free range eggs), though.

Thank you very much!

Ugh I didn't even think of the whole Sunday thing...my dad makes a big fish dinner every Sunday...if I don't like what's being cooked, I don't eat...so normally I eat it anyway. I'm not looking forward to waiting until 9 when I go to my mother's place to have dinner.

*Women of child bearing age DO need to be careful with iron intake! Iron is lost because of menstruation each month and puts you at higher risk of iron deficiency anemia. You can do a search online to look at all of the symptoms, but they include shortness of breath, feeling lightheaded, weakness, and cold hands and feet.

That being said...

It may be true that meat sources of iron are better absorbed by the body, but you can certainly get it from other places. Cereals and breads are fortified with extra iron. Beans, spinach, and tofu are some excellent non- meat sources. Try pairing the iron rich food with something with vitamin C to boost absorption of the iron (spinach salad with mandarin oranges).


Good luck!

as long as you make sure to eat a balanced diet, plenty of resh fruits and veggies, tofu and soy are also great, you should be fine.
my sister decided she would be a vegitarien when she was 12, but she was a junk food veggie, and thus ended up with a weak imune system, mood swings, and rotting teeth, so you do have to be careful.

I was vegetarian for much of high school (I'm just graduated college) and my biggest issue was iron intake, I was definitely not getting enough. Given, I wasn't really a "smart" vegetarian and my eating habits were not as good as they are now, so that majorly contributed to the problem. I've been considering going vegetarian again, for both health and personal reasons (in addition to animals being like, so fucking cute, my boyfriend is a life-long vegetarian and I cook a LOT of his meals anyway) but my iron is the biggest thing to watch. ESPECIALLY while your hormones are normalizing (god, that takes forever), you should really watch the iron intake, perhaps take an extra supplement, and you may want to consider starting (if you aren't already), birth control, so your period will remain stable during your transition away from meat. Mine got pretty wacky when I didn't eat meat, and that coupled with random illness made my really regular cycle go beserk. Talk to your doctor if you're really concerned, but dietary supplements can work too (eating lots of spinach is SUPER fun, and I mean it...it has calcium, too!!!)

I think the key as others have said is eating healthy sources of protein such as beans, tofu etc... I tried going veggie twice, once when I was a teenager (eventually gave up that time due to harassment from my mother to eat the same as what she was cooking for everyone else!) and then last year for about six months. The second time I replaced meat with the likes of cheese, eggs etc. which turned out to be a bad idea as my cholesterol shot through the roof!!! I'm not a big fan of beans or tofu or soy so I eventually went back to eating fish and then poultry as sources of protein that aren't high in fat, to try and get the cholesterol under control.

Sometimes I think I should try again (and try a bit harder too!) - if you are looking for inspiration this article is very convincing:

http://www.flex.com/~jai/articles/101.html

And this is what convinced me to go veggie the last time... I am still boycotting KFC for life, very disturbing:

www.kentuckyfriedcruelty.com

Ew, KFC's nasty. So greasy...

Thank you guys so much.

Oh, I guess I forgot to mention...spinach is up there with carrots and broccoli for my favorites! So eating that is absolutely no problem. Yummy!

For the iron thing, I'll look into supplements and such. I know I felt 10x better when I started taking a multi-vitamin, and when I mentioned that my mother suggested I might have had a very mild iron deficiency that I didn't notice. Who knows?

I think I'm going to slowly cut down on meat consumption (like, right now, I'm only going to eat it for 1 meal a day max...I never have meat at breakfast anyway).

I became a vegetarian almost two years ago. For lent I decided to give up meat. Then, two weeks into lent, a friend sent me a link of a PETA movie. I watched it, and since that day I decided that I will no longer eat meat.
Because of medical reasons I have to start eating fish once in a while. But I have given up red meats and poultry/game.
Although I'm not a vegan, I do like cook vegan dishes once in a while. Just because I want to know if they taste any better or worse! So far I have made Meat-less Loaf and it turned out delicious. I made vegan lasagna, also very good. My husband, a meat eater, loves to try new stuff.
I also have other vegan recipes.

Funny how I became a vegetarian and I gained 10 lbs (when I thought I needed to loose weight). Stress and too many calories was the problem.

Now I need as much help as I can to loose 20 lbs. It's going to be hard. But I have to do it!!

I use a lot of vegan cheese. Or vegetarian cheese.
Soy milk for every recipe (and my husband won't drink regular milk any longer).
Soy ground meat. I make empanadas (turn over) with it. (I'm an argentinean!)

Good luck everybody!!

ONE THING YOU ALL FAILED TO MENTION is the amino acid profiles of vegetable proteins vs animal proteins.

"Protein" is a group of amino acids. All the amino acids are lumped together on the nutrition label as protein, so you don't really know which amino acids you are consuming without further research.

Animal sources such as meat, poultry, eggs, fish, milk, and cheese provide all of the essential amino acids. All essential amino acids may be obtained from plant sources, and even strict vegetarian diets can provide all dietary requirements, provided they are based on a variety of whole plant foods. No plant to my knowledge has ALL the essential amino acids.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Essential_amino_acid

In other words, if you go Vegan with absolutely no animal sources, you've got to be very careful that you mix up your veggies so that you consume all the essential AAs. You can't rely on soy or vegetable based protein powders because they are not a complete source of protein. If you want to go Vegan, I'd highly recommend you buy a book on the subject so that you're doing it right.

If you need amino acids in your diet. You don't need to eat meat.

Use Bragg Amino. You can buy it at any natural store or natural section of your supermarket.

Bragg Liquid Aminos is a Certified NON-GMO liquid protein concentrate, derived from healthy soybeans, that contains the following Essential and Non-essential Amino Acids in naturally occurring amounts:

16 Amino Acids
Alanine
Arginine
Aspartic Acid
Glutamic Acid
Glycine
Histidine
Isoleucine
Leucine
Methionine
Phenylalanine
Proline
Serine
Threonine
Tyrosine
Valine
Lysine

visit: www.bragg.com

My veg colleagues frequently show me that same PETA video. It only makes me hungry.

Also, I know you aren't a weightlifter, but if you were you would struggle to get your protein requirement with veg protein alone.

Remember that most protein utilization from plants hovers around 50%, so you need to eat twice as much to equal the protein you get from delicious beef.

There is no way I'd get to 200 grams with veggies, I'd have to eat 5 cans of beans every day. My wife would divorce me.

Yep, yep. Most plant protein is embedded in layers of cellulose, which must be physically stripped away during the digestion process in order to make the protein available. Us humans aren't very efficient doing that; it works better when you have multiple stomachs (grazing animals).

The utilization is much higher when you eat isolated vegetable protein, because the protein has been mechanically / chemically stripped from the plant. Basically the digestion has already been done for you; all you have to do is absorb it into your bloodstream!

Isn't whey protein made from milk? Because I'm -not- going vegan. I'd like to switch to organic milk (if it wasn't so damn expensive) though. So, if I'm vegetarian, I can have whey supplements in a glass of milk, right? Because I enjoy those.

Anyone have a list of what veggies contain what amino acids? I really only eat broccoli, spinach, corn, and carrots (and tomatoes...but they're berries, not veggies...). I need to mix it up some more.

Hence the reason I suggested you buy a book. Nutritiondata.com has a AA breakdown for most foods.

Whey is milk derived, so it should have a complete AA profile. If you're going vegetarian for animal abuse reasons, you should go to PETA's website and see what goes on at dairy farms though. The babies are locked up in crates from birth and sold to slaughter for veal. Any males left over are thrown in a pit (mas grave) and shot. No animal industry is going to be 100% animal friendly.

Ewwie...know any cruelty free brands?

I haven't had veal or lamb in about 10 years. What they do to the baby cows (not sure about lamb, but they're too cute to eat) is just plain wrong. I mean...they're so cute and helpless...and they just...ugh. People make me mad.

No.

Honestly, being capped with a gun at an early age is one of the least cruel ways to go. It's better than being bludgeoned until knocked unconscious, throat slit and hung on a meat hanger until it bleeds out, which is how they kill horses at some slaughter houses. It's cheaper to hire someone to knock them with a hammer than it is to buy bullets.

Hey there... I'm not a vegan... but have a few friends that are SERIOUS vegans... and almost totally raw... I've learned in the last few months that a proper vegan diet will not be cause for malnutrition... and even a bodybuilder can be quite successful...

My favorite reads on this are EAT TO LIVE and Green for Life

The Eat To Live book is often recommended to people on the brink of death do to terrible food lifestyles... who are on their way to triple by-pass etc.. IT is strictly Vegan for a 6 week duration... and although the Dr. (furman I think) would prefer that everyone stay vegan realizes that many won't and addresses the ideal way to bring animal products back into your diet if you're going to eat them.

Green for life has an amazing story attached to it as well... I highly recommend... and I have to say... my friends that follow these... are about the healthiest looking people I know... with amazing skin and both are quite athletic...

Check it out!

I'm sure there are a couple people out there that might be able to get big. I assure you it is incredibly expensive, they are an extreme case of impressive biological utilization, and they aren't "successful" in the classic sense of the word.

You can be plenty healthy eating animals too. It's worked pretty well for most of us humans that eat smart.

Well of course people can be plenty healthy eating animals.... I'm a meat eater and quite healthy... However, the individual starting this thread was looking into going Vegan or a percentage there of. Hence my recommendation. If you're going to go vegetarian... one should do it with a foundation of intellegence... and not just start eating carrots and hope everything pans out... (not that anybody suggested that)

I suppose depending on where you live would direct the cost of your food. I just checked my freezer... a lb of Chicken cost me $3.29/lb (per the label)... and a lb of frozen broccoli (organic as it where) $2.50 per lb.

Green for life makes some interesting notations... one being the science often uses chimpanzees to study on as they are the closest to human being... but no one looks at their diet which is for the most part vegetarian... so here we are testing heart meds on them to see how they respond... rather than looking at why they don't have heart attacks... just interesting to me...

I would imagine that a person is successful in their accomplishments with regard to their physique if they are happy with it... and since in the "classical" sence of the word would mean to have a favorable or desired outcome... that's a fair assement.

Regardless... the most important thing is that you are infact healthy... and if you feel like crap (emotionally or physically) eating meat... then do what you need to.

I work at KFC, and I just saw that website about the cruelty... lets just say many emails just got sent out and petitions were signed.

It's horrible. The reason why it affects me is because I live sorta on a farm... no cows or anything, but we have chickens running around the place. I love them cause they're so cute. They're like pets. No one really thinks you can have chickens for pets because most people think they're just for food, right? Well for me they are cute little things and I've come to adore the species. I knew that KFC kills the chickens but I didn't think it was so bad, to be spitting tobacco on them, cutting their beaks of, having their legs and wings broken, and spraying paint into their eyes - not to mention the burning off their feathers.

It's horrible I feel really sad now.

I love chickens. My neighbor had a few (I don't think she was allowed, but whatever). Absolutely adorable!

My aunts guinea hens are adorable, IMO. She says they're so ugly they're cute. They're a little...uhm...challenged, though...they keep going into the woods and losing a member of their group, when there's plenty of food and such on the 5 acre farm.

I want to go be a pest in front of KFC, but we don't have one around here.

I also recommend the book Eat To Live!
It was a great resource for me.

Aww that sounds cute how they go wondering around. I know what chickens are like, how they're curious. But its sad to hear they keep losing a memeber. And yeah there's food right in front of them.

We have a little chicken coupe, but at night time somtimes something would kill them because we'd find one gone every now and then. So we've had to build a fence around that area so we lock them up at night and let them roam free during the day. Pretty sad really, now we're done to around 10, when there were heaps more

I love them, they are curious little things. Apparently I read an article today (look up the hidden lives of chickens in google) and it says they are basicly smarter than dogs, cats and monkeys I guess, also smarter than a baby human (you know little kids can be really smart at times). Chickens can deal with cause and effect, they can remember things and such.

I looked up more videos on that campaigin to stop KFC, and to see those undercover videos made me cry. Especially when the person said they can't have dust baths. That really made the tears come because every now and then I see the chickens here go and bury themselves in dirt, kicking it around, it's really cute yet strange lol. So... it's sad to know that alot of chickens won't experience that.


I thought it would be funny if one day I went to work, had my uniform on and all, then also had another badge on saying "KFC Cruelty, stop cruelty at the KFC slaughter houses!" lol. What would customers do???


One thing though I wish people would realise, is that some people take it out on us, and our bosses, but we are just employees.... we work there because we need money. It's not us that do it or set the pricing of chicken or anything like that, it's the top of the chain; the head boss who's in charge of slaughtering the chickens and who actually does these cruel acts.

I don't imagine it's just KFC. I grew up in Alabama with tons of "chicken houses" around, and I've heard plenty of stories about how they get slaughtered, and I've witnessed the deplorable conditions in which they're raised.

Unfortunately I can't stomach being and advocate for PETA, etc, because it would make me so depressed dealing with that stuff I'd probably shoot myself. I know it's not the right answer, but the sanest thing for me to do is to not think about what goes on behind the scenes. If I had to kill my own food you better believe I'd be a vegetarian. Killing / murder isn't a fun job, and someone has to do it. I just wish there was a more humane way to care for the animals.

High-larious. You work at a KFC yet cry about animal cruelty? You do understand the definition of hypocrisy right?


CM, I made those statements in regards to a vegetarian bodybuilder. I meant that a veg bodybuilding would be incredibly expensive. Consuming a clean diet that has a lot of veg protein would probably be more costly than just eating chicken breasts until you explode.

A successful bodybuilder would be one that has achieved in competition. I think finding a successful veg heavyweight bodybuilder would be a rare thing indeed. If there is one, I'd be intensely curious as to his/her diet, and what it cost to support it.

You know... I have a friend that competed for a while (I think he was in highschool at the time)... and he said he was vegan for a full year... I'll ask him about it... because yeah... I'm curious too...

I don't know of anyone in the mags that could be pointed to...

I"ll get back if I can find someone in that arena... Later!