Help me NOT be a veggie

[Gufo]

I've not eaten meat in over a a year, mainly because I feel guilty about the animals and what happens at the abattoir.

I always feel weak and tired, live on carbs and have gone up a dress size and never really know what to eat. I've tried lots of substitutes but then feel guilty about the plastic packaging and general bad-for-the-environment-ness. Veggie stir frys and curries are great - but not everyday!

I just want to eat meat a couple of times a week without feeling guilty. Any tips (apart from just eat the goddam sausage)?

Eat smaller portions of organic higher welfare meat?

Others will be along, I'm sure, to tell you how to get enough veggie /vegan protein, but the above is what I'd do. I'm less concerned about the fact of animals being killed, it's the conditions in which they live which concern me.

Some products are produced with higher welfare standards. Hard to know what to suggest without knowing what's available where you live. Organic items would generally be produced to higher welfare standards, free-range meat is widely available, too.

A compromise could be to add eggs back into your diet if you believe that you have iron anemia.

Organisms are mostly meant to eat each other & mostly not kind in how they do it. It doesn't sound like you feeling guilty benefits anyone or anything.

These come in a cardboard box

lindamccartneyfoods.co.uk/our-food/frozen-range/vegetarian-sausages/

Eat smaller portions of organic higher welfare meat

This definitely.

I can’t give advice on the guilt because that’s why I don’t eat meat. I think it’s why a huge % of vegetarians and vegans don’t eat meat.

I’m veggie, my family isn’t.
Eating ethically is the best option. Local meat raised with high welfare standards.
It doesn’t sound as if you’ve thought much about living as a healthy vegetarian, living on carbs is not good, so try to stop fretting about everything you can’t fix and find a path that suits you personally.

I’d say go to your local butcher or farm shop rather than the supermarket. Locally produced and organic is going to be more environmentally sound and better quality. Obviously that will be a bit harder if you live in a big city than if you’re more rural!

You don’t need to eat meat if you don’t want to, you can be healthy without.
However, if you do want to eat meat once or twice a week and try and find a local high welfare source if this is possible and affordable.

[quote Nightbear]These come in a cardboard box

lindamccartneyfoods.co.uk/our-food/frozen-range/vegetarian-sausages/[/quote]
And also taste like cardboard

Nobody can change your feelings for you. Eat meat or don’t, but own your decisions.

If you want to be vegetarian, take responsibility for cooking in more adventurous ways. I’ve been vegetarian for over 30 years and eat curry/ stir fry maybe once every 2-3 weeks.

If animal welfare standards matter to you, it’s possible to buy meat which has been produced to higher welfare standards.

Have a bacon sarnie and just see how you go from there... I have a vegan friend who doesn't eat anything meat related apart from a bacon sarnie (with proper bacon not facon)

Eat smaller portions of organic higher welfare meat?

This. Do you have a local farmer's market? Mine has several stalls where you can speak to the farmer him/herself. If I was going to eat meat again, that's where I'd go.

Lamb is one of the reliably higher welfare meats - they aren't intensively farmed in the same way as pigs and poultry. They're invariably farmed on steep land that's not much good for anything else, so it's not worth trying to intensively farm them in sheds.

Likewise wild venison - some animals do need to be shot to keep the wild numbers under control, as they have no natural predators.

I think they’re really nice and my family members who do eat meat enjoy them too.

Linda Mcartney is much better than it used to be.

I think you just have to weigh up the benefits to your health and energy levels really. I say I'm 90% veggie but I chose to eat just the good meat I want to when I want to. We also eat a fair amount of fish. You could feel guilty about pretty much anything in life but it's pointless really just try your best to recycle etc when possible, you can't take the whole packaging industry on singlehanded.

You might just have to learn to live with the guilt if you know and fully understand how horrible it is but want to do it anyway. It will probably help if you know you’re eating very high welfare, organic, local meat.

Environmental issues are also a case of finding the right balance- most meat comes packaged in plastic, though buying fresh at a butchers can minimise this.

The most environmentally sensitive solution is probably to grow as much of your own produce as possible, so if this is really important to you could you put your name down for an allotment?

thanks all, I feel a trip to the farm shop coming on...

Why are you eating so many carbs?

Eat smaller portions of organic higher welfare meat

Totally endorse this - and totally understand. Both my sisters in law were veggie until 3-4 years ago when both were iron deficient and separately advised to add some red meat into their diet.

Agree re farmers market and animal welfare. Sheep especially have a very happy life! As do deer. Consider duck too as high in iron.

And if buying beef, see if you can get fully grass-fed. Grainfed even partially shifts the Omega 6 Omega 3 ratios away from optimal health

Even taking into account the plastic packaging and environmental cost of meat substitutes such as soya they are still far better for the environment than eating beef or pork for example. Most meat is also going to come in some form of plastic packaging, even bought from the butcher they will put your meat in plastic bags.

If you are going to eat meat then definitely avoid beef as even locally sourced beef has a huge environmental cost. Locally sourced organic chicken will often a low carbon footprint but bear in mind a lot of livestock is fed on imported soya, even in the UK, in which case you would probably be better eating sustainably sourced tofu yourself.

You definitely don’t need to live on carbs as a vegetarian, and even if you add meat into your diet living on carbs along with meat a few times a week is unlikely to make you much healthier. I would start looking at healthy vegetable-packed meals that you can cook for yourself and will enjoy (either with or without meat as part of the recipe) as a first step; out of interest what would a typical days diet consist of for you now and what kind of foods do you miss from when you were eating meat?

Stop feeling guilty about what you cannot control in the environment. Also enjoy a tasty bacon sandwich

Defo agree with PPs who say high welfare meat from local butcher or farm shop.

It's more expensive so less often and as a treat.

I'm off to make a bacon butty

You’re probably feeling weak and tired because of a poor diet. Both meat and non meat diets can be poor especially if you eat loads of carbs.

I’m a vegan now after years of being a vegetarian. I’ve never felt better but I really educated myself on what a healthy vegan diet was. I don’t eat many carbs now and I lost a few pounds.

It’s entirely up to you if you want to start eating meat again, but if you don’t agree with it, maybe find out how to have a good vegetarian diet. And look at lifestyle as well. Exercise, alcohol, sleep habits etc.

The rest of my family eat some meat and dairy but as others have said, they eat organic and high welfare.

Agree with everyone else about local high welfare stuff. Sheep, goat and deer are especially good as they can’t really be intensively farmed.

I have a Personal pet hate of performance non—meat eaters/ vegans who actually eat a diet worse for the planet than a well considered omnivore.

Thinks like using imported agave nectar over local honey, or almond milk made with Californian almond when they could use a low—water consumption low—mileage product.

Im far to polite to say anything to anyone about it in real life, but it does piss me off.

I think my point there is, actually the most ethical solution is different for everyone, depending of your own personal ethics. and isn’t necessarily as simple as just to go vegetarian or vegan without giving it a bit of consideration for what that actually means in practice

I should caveat that with I do know loads of truly ethical vegans and vegetarians who DO take all that into consideration, it’s the ones who don’t, but then lecture everyone else that grate.