Vegetarian diet. Where do I start.

[3 Justin 3]

Vegetarian eh?

Look at this and tell me you would rather eat a carrot.

[Caged Great]

Originally Posted by 3 Justin 3

Vegetarian eh?

Look at this and tell me you would rather eat a carrot.

Yes, although the pastrami would be the one that I would probably choose of the three.

[burn_this_city]

My uncle was vegeterian for 30 years before his kidneys shutdown and he almost died. He wasnt smart about it, you really have to be careful that you're getting enough protein ect.

[FlameOn]

Originally Posted by Regulator75

Start by removing your testicles.

[Boblobla]

[redforever]

How about discussing your concerns with your doctor as well as asking them to refer you to a nutritionist?

[troutman]

Barley and hops.

[TheSutterDynasty]

Becoming a vegetarian does not protect you from eating poorly.

In fact, along with some deficencies (iron, protein, calcium), if becoming a vegetarian means you're eating more refined/simple carbohydrates (ie to substitute meat with), then chances are the diet will be even more detrimental to your health.

Cutting out one or two entire food groups is never a good idea.

[scotty2hotty]

I would think very carefully before becoming a vegetarian for health reasons. I can (almost) understand it for moral reasons ...but there is very little GOOD scientific evidence promoting the health benefits of vegetarianism.

Would it surprise you to know that the consensus now sweeping across the cardiology world is that processed carbohydrates are the number one cause of heart disease, NOT the intake of saturated fat?

Don't get me wrong, fruits and vegestables are obviously very imprortant for health ...but lean, grass fed, free range, omega 3 rich, antibiotic and hormone free animal protein sources are absolutely vital to your health.

Rice, nut, pea, tofu, etc are 'third world' proteins as far as your body is concerned.

Grab a book like The Primal Blueprint for a fun read about this sort of thing. Or get Good Calories, Bad Calories by Gary Taubes if you really want to geek out on it.

Obviously do whatever you think is best. I am not a doctor. I am, however, a biologist with a keen interest in this topic and I've tried to study it with an objective mind over the past 15 years. I can also unequivocally state, at this point, that cutting meat out of your diet is not the answer to curing heart disease.

[Devils'Advocate]

People who are vegetarian for health reasons are more likely to be healthy than the average Joe, just because the average Joe doesn't do much of anything for 'health reasons'. Typically, health-reasons vegetarians watch what they eat and exercise more.

You are completely right that being a vegetarian doesn't automatically = healthy diet.

I was a 350 pound vegetarian eating mostly pizza, pasta and pie.
I am now a 160 pound vegetarian eating mostly beans, broccoli and bananas.

I don't buy that 'lean, grass fed, free range, omega 3 rich, antibiotic/hormone free anmial protein' are ABSOLUTELY VITAL. If it were, then I, as a vegetarian, should be dead. But so would 99% of the meat-eaters out there since very few spend the extra cash for grass-fed, free range, etc. Vital means 'absolutely necessary' which is obviously not the case.

FYI - I am a vegetarian for moral/environmental reasons. However, I don't feel that I am deprived in any way for not eating meat, and like I said earlier in this thread, my doctor said I was in absolutely perfect health and I feel like I'm in perfect health... best health I have ever been in.

[Coach]

Originally Posted by Devils'Advocate

I don't buy that 'lean, grass fed, free range, omega 3 rich, antibiotic/hormone free anmial protein' are ABSOLUTELY VITAL. If it were, then I, as a vegetarian, should be dead. But so would 99% of the meat-eaters out there since very few spend the extra cash for grass-fed, free range, etc. Vital means 'absolutely necessary' which is obviously not the case.

+



=

Awesome

That'll put some hair on your chest.

[Devils'Advocate]

Actually, as an ethical vegetarian, I think hunted meat is better than factory farmed meat. The animals may meet a cruel end to their life, but have a fairly free existence before then. Factory farmed animals have a cruel life AND a cruel end.

When I attended the joint Nova Scotia Environmental Network / Aboriginal Network conference when I was in my early 20s we were going to have it be purely vegetarian for environmental reasons, but for cultural reasons we changed it to vegetarian or hunted meat.

[hatty]

I have been a vegetarian for my whole life too. So 24 Years. What everyone is saying is right about the protein and iron. I am working out so I get alot of my protein from just proten shakes or things like black beans or lentils. Some of the soy product isn't bad as well. You can get soy chicken and whatnot and throw that into a pasta with some seasoning its alright. I find costco has the best veggie burgers because theirs are just soy, it has a combination of rice, beans, soy and lots of other things mixed in to make up the burger. Take iron supplements.

[Coach]

Originally Posted by Devils'Advocate

Actually, as an ethical vegetarian, I think hunted meat is better than factory farmed meat. The animals may meet a cruel end to their life, but have a fairly free existence before then. Factory farmed animals have a cruel life AND a cruel end.

When I attended the joint Nova Scotia Environmental Network / Aboriginal Network conference when I was in my early 20s we were going to have it be purely vegetarian for environmental reasons, but for cultural reasons we changed it to vegetarian or hunted meat.

I agree (obviously haha). I have a few vegetarian friends that are absolutely against anything hunting related. Look, whether you like or not people are going to eat meat. Now would you rather have that meat honorably hunted down as our ancestors did it? Or maybe a cow standing on a conveyer belt while getting hacked up pleases you more.

My family takes down 1 or 2 animals per year and I havent eaten red meat that wasnt hunted since I was about 13, outside the odd restaurant steak.

[Itse]

Personally I'd say the health risks of a vegetarian diet are _way_ overblown. The human body is pretty good at telling it's head (and taste buds) what it needs and also surprisingly good at turning stuff into other stuff.

But, since you're doing it for health reasons, why do you even have to become a vegetarian? Yeah, most people eat too much meat and that's unhealthy, but going veggie is not the only way to cut down on meat, and it's not necessarily that much healthier. (It often is, but some people end up replacing fat with oil and meat with cheese, and while tasty, it's certainly not healthy.)

For example, I only eat a few types of meat; lamb, reindeer, game, so forth. It's tastier anyway than your average industrially produced stuff, and just the price and availability of it keeps me from eating too much of it. I also eat a lot of fish. Maybe something like this would work for you too?

Because I don't eat industrially produced meat, it basically means I eat much more veggies than people on average, since when I eat out I usually end up having the vegetarian or fish dishes. It's a pretty easy and IMO ethical way of changing your diet.

(Basicly as to ethics, I don't give a s*** how the animal died, as long as it got to live. Eating meat is okay with me, and growing and killing animals for food is fine by me. Growing them in in conditions where they can barely move is not.)

The biggest problem with changing your diet becomes from having to think a lot about what to buy at the grocery store and what to cook. It can easily get tiresome.

So buy cook books (malesian/thai/chinese/indian or just western books for vegetarian cooking) and when ever you have time/energy, cook something from them. Learn some easy and fast dishes you can do even when you're dog tired, those are the important ones. The other ones you can always look up from a cook book (or the internet).

Even if you're vegetarianism doesn't stick, you'll learn to cook some new delicious stuff. Lentils, nuts, beans, bulgur wheat, they're all just delicious once you get to know them

Actually, just learning to cook with those things will end up in you cutting down on your meat, because you can't put the same amount of meat into meals that you have added ie. beans or lentils to. Or you can, but that'll make your belly groan in pain from eating too heavily.

Once it's a part of your life, you can just as easily cook without meat as you can cook with meat, and it's just as tasty too. This will also permanently cut down on your meat eating, simply because once you get the taste of it and know how to make it, you'll end up making yourself dishes without meat just because that's what you feel like eating.

It's also nice to know what to make for those veggie friends that come over.

Woks are great for fast and easy food (and btw go very well with beer) and morph easily to suit any diet and taste. I much prefer nuts over tofu for extra protein, but it's mostly a taste thing.

Moving gradually towards eating more vegetarian food is propably a good idea. Trying to do fast and radical changes to your diet usually works poorly and doesn't last.

[Caged Great]

Originally Posted by Itse

Personally I'd say the health risks of a vegetarian diet are _way_ overblown. The human body is pretty good at telling it's head (and taste buds) what it needs and also surprisingly good at turning stuff into other stuff.

But, since you're doing it for health reasons, why do you even have to become a vegetarian? Yeah, most people eat too much meat and that's unhealthy, but going veggie is not the only way to cut down on meat, and it's not necessarily that much healthier. (It often is, but some people end up replacing fat with oil and meat with cheese, and while tasty, it's certainly not healthy.)

For example, I only eat a few types of meat; lamb, reindeer, game, so forth. It's tastier anyway than your average industrially produced stuff, and just the price and availability of it keeps me from eating too much of it. I also eat a lot of fish. Maybe something like this would work for you too?

Because I don't eat industrially produced meat, it basically means I eat much more veggies than people on average, since when I eat out I usually end up having the vegetarian or fish dishes. It's a pretty easy and IMO ethical way of changing your diet.

(Basicly as to ethics, I don't give a s*** how the animal died, as long as it got to live. Eating meat is okay with me, and growing and killing animals for food is fine by me. Growing them in in conditions where they can barely move is not.)

The biggest problem with changing your diet becomes from having to think a lot about what to buy at the grocery store and what to cook. It can easily get tiresome.

So buy cook books (malesian/thai/chinese/indian or just western books for vegetarian cooking) and when ever you have time/energy, cook something from them. Learn some easy and fast dishes you can do even when you're dog tired, those are the important ones. The other ones you can always look up from a cook book (or the internet).

Even if you're vegetarianism doesn't stick, you'll learn to cook some new delicious stuff. Lentils, nuts, beans, bulgur wheat, they're all just delicious once you get to know them

Actually, just learning to cook with those things will end up in you cutting down on your meat, because you can't put the same amount of meat into meals that you have added ie. beans or lentils to. Or you can, but that'll make your belly groan in pain from eating too heavily.

Once it's a part of your life, you can just as easily cook without meat as you can cook with meat, and it's just as tasty too. This will also permanently cut down on your meat eating, simply because once you get the taste of it and know how to make it, you'll end up making yourself dishes without meat just because that's what you feel like eating.

It's also nice to know what to make for those veggie friends that come over.

Woks are great for fast and easy food (and btw go very well with beer) and morph easily to suit any diet and taste. I much prefer nuts over tofu for extra protein, but it's mostly a taste thing.

Moving gradually towards eating more vegetarian food is propably a good idea. Trying to do fast and radical changes to your diet usually works poorly and doesn't last.

This is basically what I want to do. Increase the options, so that way I have a better variety of meals, and possibilities. I love cooking, but never really looked at how to cook veggy only meals. If I can add a bunch of different options to my diet, when I am say in the mood for a steak, I'm not going to limit myself, but I'd prefer to not choose between a steak, a meal with ground beef, pork, or chicken. Other options are always good.

It's also not like I'm overweight or anything. I'm 6-3, 200 and I might be 5-10 lbs overweight at the most. I just want to try and put an effort in now to make sure that I am as healthy as I can be 20-30 years from now instead of not taking care of myself and possibly regretting it.

Worst case scenario, I learn how to make new tasty meals to break up other tasty meals. Win-win right.

[sec304]

Is being a vegetarian a choice? Or are you born that way?

You know you've heard of people who "switch"... is that morally wrong?

[Coach]

Ok, I'm bumping this thread.

It's been on my mind lately, and my younger brother brought it up yesterday so we were discussing it. We're thinking of at least trying a vegetarian route minus anything taken from the wild. This is a morality-based thing, not a health thing. I never thought I'd be one of these people. We are carnivorous, have been eating meat for thousands of years, and I love the taste of pretty much any type of meat. But we've gotten to the point where we just can't ignore the way these things are being farmed. This is why I make a caveat for wild meat. My family has always had hunters, my Dad does it every year. Ethically, I have no problem taking an animal from the wild and using every piece we can. I don't want this to turn into a debate on the merits of vegetarianism, the ethics behind it, or how less manly I am for thinking about this.

What I want is ideas. We were brainstorming what we could eat and were having a tough time coming up with tasty ideas, mostly in the hot food domain. So my questions are:

Good breakfasts? - Love myself a hot breakfast with some eggs and sausage. The sausage can be wild, just wondering what veggies do for hot breaky meals.

Packed lunches? - What can I bring to work outside of veggies and dip that can keep me going throughout the day? Trying to avoid breads and carbs too.

Dinners? - I like curries, so doing a veggie curry/pasta sauce will likely become a staple. What can I add to it that will give it a protein boost? Kind of want to avoid tofu too, for taste reasons.

Any help would be great. Thanks!

[Tyler]

Been mostly vegan for about a year now.

Two suggestions:

1) Read - How To Not Die by Dr. Michael Greger
2) YouTube is your best friend. You can search for every item you listed in your post for elegant or easy meal solutions

Best of luck. You're making the right decision!

[Northendzone]

Originally Posted by Regulator75

Start by removing your testicles.

i was thinking it would be awesome to find that scene from the movie taken where the guys tells liam neeson "good luck" after lima tells him how he is going to track him down