Have you eaten meat after being vegetarian for years?

[K8Davidson]

If so, how did you find it?

I’ve been a vegetarian for five years, and I’ve tried eaten meat today (tried a pepperoni pizza on a whim.) I feel so guilty, and I doubt I’ll be able to eat meat again. Found it too greasy etc.

I was vegetarian for 2 years then one night after a long shift at work I really fancied fried chicken.
i was sick but at the time it tasted amazing.
had a few more things that week… a hamburger, chicken breast, fish fingers. Felt very sick but after that was fine.

Now I couldn’t go back… bacon calls to me 😂

I think the place we ordered from thought anything that wasn't red meat was "vegetarian"! 🤷‍♀️

I was vegetarian for 8 years until I became pregnant and craved lamb Rogan josh !

I was vegan for 7 yrs and went back to eating all animal products overnight. I’m so glad I did, as I feel so much healthier.

I was vegan for a couple of years and I went back for meat because I felt ill on beans and tofu no matter what I tried they just don't agree with my body. I felt great on meat, no more bloating or lethargy, stay full for ages.

No. Vegetarian since birth, vegan for the last 13 years. I literally cannot imagine eating a piece of dead flesh, it seems so alien to me.

Yes. I was vegetarian for about 20yrs but gave in to a sausage. No jokes!

Since then, I've eaten the odd bit of fish or seafood but have eaten more sausages, in rolls, baps, on pizzas and with pasta.

I didn't find it greasy, I thought a lot about eating meat again so I didn't feel guilty when I did switch.

10 years vegetarian, iron sachets and supplements just not preventing anemia and I eat well, with plentiful pulses and greens. I just have autoimmune diseases as well.

Once I started eating meat once a week it helped my iron absorption greatly. I've accepted that I just need to do it so I eat it weekly, or cook it weekly and spread it out. I buy organic and as humane as I can.

I don't like it but it has helped where even iron and b12 injections did not. I accept this isn’t an issue with some but my b12 and other autoimmune issues make pure vegan and vegetarian life very difficult for me. I struggle with it because for many years I managed, and made myself increasingly ill.

I've been vegetarian for 10 years and vegan for 6 of those years. Recently I've been considering it and it makes me feel so guilty.

I don't know what my friends and family would think if I suddenly decided to eat animal products. It's a part of my personality at this point and I'd be embarrassed to tell people.

Exactly the same here.

I was a vegetarian from the age of 15 until I became pregnant at 32 and craved sausages so much I caved in.

I've eaten meat since then (52 now) but I am going back to being meat free as I'm sure it's contributing to my massive IBS flare up over the last 6 years and also because I love animals too much and eating them doesn't feel right.

Like a few people on here I ate meat after 19 years of vegetarianism when I was pregnant. At that point it was the difference between being a functioning human being at work and not.

Only accidentally. Felt physically fine but sad.

I have. After 25 years. I needed to. My body was lacking in something and I felt so much better afterwards. After 5 years and trying processed meat I'm not surprised you didn't like it.

I was veggie for 20 years and then started eating meat. I had no problems but I stuck to chicken for a while at first. I ate meat for about 5 years but I’m back to being veggie now.

I have never eaten meat and am now mid 40s (raised veggie). The thought of eating animal flesh is as alien to me as eating human flesh at this point.

Yes, after 28 years (almost my whole life). I have coeliac disease and several intolerances and I was underweight, malnourished and something had to change.

I feel guilty about it, and so only buy meat from local farms etc but I have to admit I feel much healthier since eating it (been about 2 years now).

I went back to meat after 20+ years vegetarian. I had a massive burger and then a rare steak. Not looked back!

I was vegetarian for a year, it made me quite poorly. I was a bit silly really, I’m coeliac, lactose intolerant and have M.S. too many food groups had been cut out, I even had the vitamin B injections and it made no difference. Within two weeks of reintroducing meat I started to feel better again.

I tend to order veggie when out for a meal over meat for a treat. My acupuncturist says he’s yet to meet a healthy vegetarian 🤩

I was vegetarian for about twenty years, became more squeamish about dairy products towards the end of that so although I wasn't vegan I only had dairy in very small amounts.
I made the conscious decision to start eating fish, then chicken, and now I eat everything, and probably more meat and red meat than most people. I ate healthily as a veggie, I just couldn't eat the volume I needed while having a physically active job and doing sports.

I started off with very bland, dry stuff - tinned tuna, plain chicken breast. No way could I have stomached something fatty or oily like pepperoni!

When I first ate any meat I just remember thinking it took ages to chew! I wasn't used to the density, and it filled me up for the rest of the day!

Are you me? I’ve not looked back after that bacon toasted sandwich. Best thing I’d eaten for 8 years. That was over 40 years ago and I can still remember it. I’d never ever go back to being vegetarian again.

I've been off and on veggie since my teens. Ethically and morally I want to be veggie, but I end up craving meat. Most recently, when I was pregnant I craved ham one day (not something I would ever normally eat) and then just protein generally - satisfied by chicken or tuna in small quantities.

Six years on I haven't gone back to being veggie, as I feel better and don't crave meat if I have a bit of it. Probably two or three portions per week, on average.

I was veggie for a couple of years then vegan for a few years. Went back to eating eggs and dairy a few years ago as I was craving dairy during my second pregnancy. Also because it was easier to avoid UPF if eating dairy and eggs. Then in the last year or so we eat meat or fish around once a week. I buy meat from Farm2Fork which seems to be very ethically produced, or as far as possible at least. I am glad of my time as a veggie or vegan because it's taught me a lot about nutrition, food production, ingredients and cooking new things (tofu, tempeh, etc).

Depends why you're veggie i suppose.

Ive been veggie for 15 years and at one point in the early days i was served a chicken meal on an aeroplane and rather than waste the meal, i ate around it as i couldnt bring myself to eat it. I felt guilty about the waste of life but no personal guilt as I didn't make the mistake and meat gets binned every day. I wasnt creating demand for the industry.

There was a point after about 10 years when i thought about what i'd do now in thst situation and i had a physical, lip curling reaction to the idea of even eating around it. Now the actual idea of chewing on a chicken's body just makes me feel repulsed on a really deep level, probably like how a non veggie would feel if they were served human meat.

I felt like this, and still do sometimes but it was what worked for us at the time and ultimately I am grateful for the experience as I have learnt more about nutrition, cooking, ingredients and we have an overall healthier diet than before I was veggie. Most of our meals are veggie or vegan, and we eat meat or fish around once a week.