to consider stopping being vegetarian after 11 years?

[Bluetinkerbell]

I've been a vegetarian for 11 years, out of principle that you can live quite happily without eating animals. I don't eat meat or fish.
The only times I have felt craving for meat or fish was during my both pregnancies.

What are the pro's of being vegetarian and what are the cons?
Is it that much more expensive eating meat/fish etc?
DH isn't vegetarian and only eats meat when eating out or take-away.
DD, 3 is vegetarian, but has asked to try DH's meat when he eats some.

Any people out there who have stopped being vegetarian and can share their experience?

Thanks Popbiscuit, have ordered it.

What put me off was one bad review that said something like it was just a collatiomn of stuff on internet sites. But that was probably put there to stop people reading it. Shame I fell for it.

I have a friend who stopped being vegetarian after twenty years . She said she just woke up one day and fancied eating meat again, so just started eating it again. I find it bizarre you could do that after twenty years.

Nextdoor must've been cooking bacon

I'm veggie for ethical reasons. I used to feel horribly guilty every time I ate meat and the thought of it was starting to make me feel ill.

I can't answer most of your questions because I think it is a personal decision that everyone has to make but I can say I saved about £10-£15 on average per week when I stopped eating meat. Considering that I was only feeding myself at the time that was a saving of over half my weekly shop. Part of that might have been the meat I was buying before was the organic stuff rather than the cheaper factory farmed stuff. That was a few years ago so I can't say if the cost difference would still be the same as I never look at the price of meat.

Pros: Can make you much less fussy about trying new food (it did for me

anyway, as long as it was veggie!).

If you do it correctly it can be much healthier.
Moral/ethical reasons (If that is what you believe).
Price.

Cons: Can mean a limited choice when eating out.
Occasionally get people sneering/making horrid comments (might just

be where I live, not sure).
If you don't know about vitamins/a balanced diet you can end up ill.
If you are on holidays in certain countries it can be very hard to get

veggie food.

That's off the top of my head so there will probably be more in both lists.

I'm currently reading Plant Based Nutrition and Health which is excellent, very thorough, based on scientific studies etc.

He recommends a high fat diet, if that is monunsaturates with a good balance of omega-3s with low use of margarines etc.

Of course it's easy to eat unhealthily if you're a veggie, just as it's easy to eat unhealthily if you're on omni, but research shows that veggies are healthier.
Vegans particularly of course.

From an ethical perspective I can't see a distinction between causing the suffering and death of an animal to drink it's milk and causing the suffering and death of an animal to eat it's flesh. Morally culpable on both accounts.
It's just picky.

'She said she just woke up one day and fancied eating meat again, so just started eating it again. I find it bizarre you could do that after twenty years.'

I think things like that occur due to subconscious signals which aim to maintain health. Nature looks after us and leads us towards health.

Sorry, I haven't read the thread but I feel I should warn you to take it easy if you do start eating meat again. I was veggie for 5 years and went straight back to steak and kidney, meat every meal, the works. Ended up with IBS - my poor system couldn't cope!

I agree with that, Claig. Towards the end of my veganism I used to dream about eggs, something I rarely ate before becoming vegetarianism.

or perhaps VEGETARIAN.

Yes eggs are one of the best sources of cysteine.
Life is magic and your body knows what it needs.

I don't get why people love bacon. It's vile. The smell of it makes me heave. I am vegetarian and would never be tempted by bacon (or any other meat, I can't stand the taste, texture, smell of any of it but bacon is the worst). I became veggie as soon as I left home and have never looked back. I have had 2 healthy pregnancies resulting in 2 healthy DS's so it evidently has done me no harm. But I don't preach to others, contrary to the stereotype, and I only wear sandals in summer! My DH and DS's eat meat and that is up to them, DS1 is old enough to know for himself and DS2 is being raised on everything and will be free to decide when he is older too.

I was veggie for 20+ years. Woke up one day and ate some guinea fowl. Very odd indeed and I still don't really know what made me do it. I eat meat maybe once or twice a week now, but it's all organic, traceable, etc - we can afford to do that because we eat so little.

Not long after I lapsed, I was at my friend's dad's farm and I went to collect the eggs from their (free range) chickens, they keep about 6 or so. The dad asked me not to as they had just adopted some hens from their local free range egg place. These hens are of course much better treated than battery, but honestly? Not that much better, and they are all culled after a certain amount of time because they stop producing. Again, these are free range birds. This hard-assed dairy farmer was tearing up when he showed me these poor, sickly birds with half their feathers out. It really made me think about they myths we are pedalled about where our food comes from - no commercial farming operation is 'good' for animals.

But it didn't make me stop eating meat!

I was veggie, and stopped being. Hardest bit was getting images out of my head. I remember sitting trying to eat some chicken, desperately wanting to eat it but having images of this poor chicken in my head!
Now I eat anything really, veggie, meat, not fussy

I went off veggiedom when I realised that for humans Veggie is not natural, we are omnivores. I think you need to avoid processed and factory meat though, humans havent been designed for that either. And if the Lord had meant us to be veggie there would not be bacon : o

Main reason pro eating meat is that human beings are omnivores and are better nourished on as varied a diet as possible. Especially true as you get older. Sub 50 and you can extract all the vits and mins you need from your diet, even if it's not brilliant. Post 50 and that's not the case. A diet with plenty of plant-matter in it is healthy, but the pros of eating exclusively veggies are less medical and more ethical/belief-based A varied, good quality diet therefore, with plenty of veg and occasional meat/fish is the best of both worlds

Well put, Cogito.

canttakeanymoreofteendd I try to avoid farmed fish for those reasons now. However, when I became veggie in the late 80s farmed fish was a lot less common than it is now. And I was 12 and not as well-informed as I thought I was!

You cannot escape that fish and animals die if you eat fish and meat. That used to bother me but as I now believe we are supposed to be omnivores it is part of the natural order that creatures die and we eat them. I still prefer them to have had as pleasant a life as possible up to the point of capture/slaughter though.

Different people have different reasons for being vegetarian. Some do it as a health/lifestyle choice, some do it because of the ethical reasons, some do it because of cost (meat being a rare treat for most people in days gone by) and some, like myself, have a genetic predisposition (something to do with blood/tissue type) to not eating meat and think it's a bit weird. There are, of course, lots of other reasons why people are vegetarian.

So deciding to stop being vegetarian is entirely up to you. Are you looking for people to justify your decision for you?

Some people can be perfectly healthy on a vegetarian diet, and others become anaemic and malnourished very quickly, and I don't think it's just a case of balancing your diet out. There isn't a lot of research out there on this, but after nearly 40 years of vegetarianism I have noticed a few things.

I am a vegetarian, have been since i was 4 so i have no recollection of the taste so dont get cravings, it just makes me feel sick the smell etc. I tried the vegan thing once but i found it made me ill, i hate the idea of how the cows and chickens are kept but i cant justify my a cows health over my DCs.

Theres a place called goodfoodnation if anyone wants to have a look at them! They sound lovely if they deliver to your area!

Zombie thread alert!

'Laura' was blog pimping on vegan zombie threads last weekend, I suppose she's trying the veggie threads this weekend.

Feck off 'Laura'.

Meat is Murder.

Tasty, Tasty Murder.

I started eating meat again when I was planning my pregnancy having been vegetarian from about 12 years old due to the ethics of eating animals (I had a short stint as a vegan in my teens but couldn't sustain it).

The deciding factor was pure biology. We have canines and a short intestine which makes us omnivores as a species; and with more and more media focus on the evils of intensive farming, free-range meat can be found in most supermarkets nowadays.

I weighed up whether it is better for the animals to live a short, natural life with a quick, disease-free death or not to exist at all; which would be the fate of pigs in particular as they don't produce bi-products in the same way as sheep, cows and chickens.

The pros that I can think of in eating meat is that I have more energy now (I used to nod off around 3pm as a veggie and need a lie down) and I have a far more interesting diet. Also, the more people buy free-range chicken and pork then the closer intensive farming comes to being stopped.

The cons are that it is more expensive and I have gained weight due to the change in diet.

I would suggest that you give it a try and see if it works for you. There's nothing to stop you going back if it doesn't suit.