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)?

I'd also consider that if meat is a dietary requirement for you for health reasons, as it seems to be, then you need to consider you're no different from other omnivorous animals that eat meat because they get so many of their nutrients from them. I think if you choose ethical assumption as much as possible and introduce supplements into your diet it will be easier.

Vegetarian for c 30 years, I cook from scratch pretty much every day, I have a curry and a stir fry now and then but certainly not daily. I am also low carb! I am a stable weight (despite being very peri meno!), have loads of energy and my skin is clear, hair thick and healthy. I look young for my age (46). You really do not have to eat loads of carbs being a veggie, you also don’t need to eat Quorn! Lastly, you don’t have to buy your protein in enviro unfriendly packing! Do some research on how to be a planet friendly veggie and you’ll be sorted 🌱

Buy vension it's not farmed, wild, low fat high protein.
Also non farmed sustainable fish.

I was vegetarian for 10 years it is possible to have a balanced diet but it involves more thinking about what you cook and using nuts, pulses and grains.

Can you go pescetarian? Do you like fish? I eat this way and it keeps my energy levels up and my guilt down a bit.

Why can't you just eat a better quality vegetarian diet?

Nuts, pulses, seeds, green veg, dairy.

There are plenty of non carb options and plenty of iron rich options.

I'm a meat eater but it seems a bit ridiculous to force yourself to eat something you feel guilty eating when there's a plethora of other options available.

Just read OP.

Shellfish would be worth a try. Mussels even oysters. They get a good name for nutrition and would address the animal welfare issues.

Eating fish is not a way to reduce your guilt, if you know anything at all about the fishing industry you’ll know how much worse eating fish is for the environment than eating meat. And there is a lot more cruelty involved.

@Grumpylate20s what tosh. The Linda McCartney sausages may not be to your taste, but they taste no more like cardboard than pork/beef sausages taste like cheap cuts of ground meat and gristle wrapped in intestine (deliberately inflammatory description)

They are two entirely different products. Some people like one, some the other and some both. They both have their place at the dinner table.

Oh good lord. Ditch the guilt and go to the local farm shop. A vegetarian or otherwise restrictive diet is not for everybody and who would really care if you had meat a couple of times a week? And who are you really doing this for? Try not to give a toss what other people may think of you or not

If you are not feeling well on your current diet then you owe it to yourself to change it. Priority number 1 here is your health.

Eating the odd bit of meat won't make you feel any better if your diet is otherwise shit. I'd suggest getting some advice from a nutritionist and there's a good chance you won't need to compromise your morals.

Don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good. You sound like you are thoughtful of the multiple different factors that play into diet. Different people have different lifestyles, health conditions, work, economic and family situations, so we all have different pressures.

Small amounts of high welfare local meat plus trying out new balanced veggie recipes sound like good options. Be open to trying new things - you never know, at different points in your life, when you are in different situations, your dietary patterns may need to be different.

Check out ethicalbutcher.co.uk and www.farmison.com - pricey for a reason. They provide pretty detailed descriptions of their impact and ethical and environmental stuff.

We eat a lot of fish and shellfish from peskyfish.co.uk as all from day boats/hand dived or hand lined so less impactful.

Buy meat from bigger animals. Beef cattle and sheep have a pretty good life. Chicken, not so much.

British pigs are ok, too- but must be British. European pork has far lower welfare standards.

• Organic and high welfare meat.
• Free range eggs.
• Sustainable fish.

All are more expensive, but along with the animal care the quality is so much better than regular supermarket options.

Environmentally, smaller animals are a less wasteful way to eat meat (generate less greenhouse gases per kg of meat or per 100 kcal of food). Eggs are linked to lower CO2 emissions, too.

I've discovered from MN that many meat eaters have huge portions; you can be an omnivore and keep to smaller portions of meat that still mean regular heme iron in your diet.

I remember reading that the Dalai Lama had been advised to eat a little meat by his doctors.
As mentioned by a pp: Don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good is a good motto.

I've discovered from MN that many meat eaters have huge portions; you can be an omnivore and keep to smaller portions of meat that still mean regular heme iron in your diet.

This is so true - until weighing my food to lose weight, I had no idea my salmon/steak/chicken serves were 1.5x to 2x what they need to be. A "correctly weighed" serving is significantly smaller than what you would expect, which still meets your nutritional needs.

I tried being veggie until I gained weight, as i was eating more carbs. I've lost weight by intermittent fasting and eating meat/fish for meals. Carbs make me fat. Try it and see if it affects your weight.

I agree with other posters - shop locally so you know the full history of where your meat is coming from, farmers markets, local butchers all a good place to start or local farm shops.

@Grumpylate20s

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)

Your friend is not vegan, however they identify.

Buy meat from bigger animals. Beef cattle and sheep have a pretty good life. Chicken, not so much

I've been vegetarian 40 years ( I am old and preachy) it's not just the life of the animal , it's the death , which includes transportation. I hate seeing those high , densely pack lorries full of animals . You cannot imagine what they're thinking . Then to market , another lorry journey and to the abbatoir .
You cannot pretty it up.

Venison is considered to be ethical and humane . Free range, eating grass . Expert marksman takes a shot - dead .

I have a vegan friend who doesn't eat anything meat related apart from a bacon sarnie (with proper bacon not facon ) .
Seriously ? I'd be thinking How fecking thick are you if they started spouting about being vegan. Do they actually say "I'm vegan" ? While knowingly eating bacon?

I have a vegan friend who doesn't eat anything meat related apart from a bacon sarnie (with proper bacon not facon ) .

That says it all - another hypocritical "vegan". I get so fed up of all these self-professed vegetarians / vegans who have a disclaimer eg I eat a bit of fish or just one bacon sandwich at the weekends. Then expect to get full applause for being so good and ethical.

Eat venison - they have cull as there's no natural predators in the U.K. now. Guilt free meat. Lamb is also more ethical as British lamb is basically free range and graze land not suitable for other usage, goat can be ethical too.

Ps I also eat trout most weeks, I buy from my local trout farm and it's caught that day, food miles thus zero as I pass it going home from work.

Plenty of ways to make your diet healthier that don't include eating meat or buying plastic-packed processed fake sausages. I would research that first.