Have you eaten meat after being vegetarian for years?

Yes. After 20 years. It was absolutely fine and my body needed it. I started on fish and chicken though. Not processed meat.

I was veggie for many years, my pregnancy craving was beef!

Yes after being veggie for 12 years, I was severely anaemic and struggling to conceive, I started eating meat - I found it really bland.

There a lot of types of meat and seafood that I have never and will never try and years later with two children I’m more inclined to return to eating vegetarian food completely. We eat a fair bit of chicken and fish as it’s easy and I think personally right for the (fussy) DC - and they eat whatever they want when out but I will stop eating and cooking chicken when the kids move out I think, I might stick with fish.

Yes - I was a vegetarian from 12 til about 22. I started eating meat again - I'm 47 now. I felt generally a lot better, but maybe I was just a really bad vegetarian despite being a pretty good cook.

I've been vegetarian for ten years without missing meat, but since I was put in medically induced menopause seven months ago I've had the most intense cravings for chicken. I suspect it's my body telling me I need it, so I'm contemplating giving it what it wants some time soon.

I was vegan for 20 years, then got diagnosed with several quite serious conditions and deficiencies despite being good at eating a balanced diet, my body just doesn’t convert certain things into what I get readily from meat. It took me 2 years to get used to eating it. It was horrible, and I still am grossed out by it and feel guilty. I eat meat once every two weeks and fish once every two weeks, both completely out of necessity.

Not everyone feels good on a vegan or vegetarian diet and it doesn't mean they must have done it wrong or ate processed food. I personally feel and look better on chicken and veg versus beans and veg.

It’s not very useful to descend into a ‘which is healthier’ bun fight. There’s nothing suspicious about some people deciding to go from being veggie to eating meat for their own health reasons. Each to their own. You can have health veggie diets and healthy diets that include some meat. Likewise you can have awful diets that include meat and awful diets that don’t.

Yes you do have to be careful you can't live on cheese pasties and cakes but if you eat lots of protein rich food and veg you will be healthier than when eating bacon butties and pork pies.

Yes veggie for about 16 years. Struggled to fall pregnant and found to have severe anaemia (ferritin 3) I had infusions and started eating meat - it was pretty bland and tough to begin with, got more used to eating and cooking with meat (fell pregnant very soon after improving iron intake)

But never loved meat, always preferred veggie meals . My children are older and I cook chicken and fish, they can eat other meat out but I don’t.

yes, easily, no issues.
I still don't like large meat portions (25 years later).
I can't understand people eating big pieces of meat.

Well, I gained weight and my health deteriorated as a vegan and vegetarian.

Yes, after a diagnosis I had to completely overhaul my diet (despite it being a whole foods vegan diet). I now eat chicken, fish and eggs. It’s taken over a year to get used to and even still I don’t eat it for fun. I have an allocated meal once or twice a week. I don’t order it out. I pay extortionately for the most “humane” version of it. I genuinely hate it but it has undeniably improved my very very poor health. Eggs are the only thing I enjoy, but I still don’t order them out. I honestly find animal products revolting.

I'm not lying about my own experience and I didn't slander veganism or call others names. A vegan and to a lesser extent vegetarian diet wasn't suitable for my body. If you feel great as a vegan more power to you but don't accuse those with other experience as liars.

35 years vegetarian - every decade or so I will try a small piece of unflavoured chicken or a mouthful of ham as I get the urge to 'check'. Even though when I ate meat I really liked it, I don't like anything about meat now, I even don't like the modern meat replacement products - they taste too much like meat!
Occasionally, like every vegetarian, you purchase something or are given something you are told is vegetarian but isn't. I can tell immediately - mostly because to me it just tastes of salt but also it tastes super strong. I can tell if a soup has been cooked in an animal broth too - same reason. Don't get me started on fish - tastes so bad I have thrown up in the past (anchovy butter <shudders>). If I had to I guess I could go back to eating mild meats but don't think I will ever choose to now.

Having said all that - god how I love the smells of kippers and bacon.

I was vegetarian for 9 years. I started having dreams about fish in my second year of university. After a few weeks of it I decided it was ridiculous and my body was probably trying to tell me I was deficient in something: I was training really hard for sport and studying very hard and think I'd burned myself out a bit. I started having secret tuna sandwiches. I finally confided in my close friends, one of which was an excellent cook, and taught me how to cook "nice fish". His policy was that rather than buying processed meat and fish and eating them routinely, you buy quality pieces and treat them with respect, which I still subscribe to.

I ate just fish for a year (after which I told my parents, lol!), then started eating chicken (BBQ chicken was the only thing I'd really missed, that smell of BBQs in summer evenings...). I started eating red meat after I met my partner about a decade ago, and now eat everything "normal" (not offal or shellfish but I think that's quite usual) apart from lamb that I just can't get on board with the flavour of, even really high quality cuts.

I will eat a pepperoni pizza now, but only a restaurant or "fancy" (like M&S) one. A greasy pizza is not giving you a positive experience of meat.

No I would never eat meat again. Been vegetarian for nearly 30 years.

I didn’t eat meat for 6 years. I found it laid really heavy on my tummy and was difficult to digest. I’m fine now.

Chickpeas are also a 'good carrier' for flavours and poor cute chickens don't have to be slaughtered for the carrying of flavours in the process.

All the time yes thanks.

I was vegetarian for 6 years then moved to Japan. It’s not impossible to be vegetarian in Japan (this was 30 years ago) but it was much easier and oh so much more interesting to eat anything that was put in front of me! I’m still very happy if I’m somewhere and veggie is the only option and cook a lot of veggie stuff.

Every single time I have a health issue, people tell me it’s because of my diet. These people are usually overweight and unfit.

Every time I get bloods done, everything is perfectly balanced nutrient etc wise and it’s always something different. I’m not an idiot; if I need to, I’ll eat meat but I don’t need to. In fact I’m healthier without it and it’s helped me manage a few long term conditions. But that doesn’t stop people making assumptions and judgements, usually from a place of ignorance

i think a bit of crackling was my downfall

Chicken breast doesn't have a lot of flavour on it's own, but it's a good 'carrier' for other flavours and also often has a tender texture.

I’m pescatarian these days, not vegetarian, but once every six months or so I might accidentally take a bite out of the wrong thing on a buffet table or something.
The thing that puzzles me is that chicken doesn’t really taste of much, so why for some people is there a huge difference between, say, a chicken curry (“real food”) and a vegetarian curry (“not real food”). Red meat obviously has a stronger taste, just not one I’ve ever been a huge fan of myself.