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.

Not red meat, but fish and very very occasionally chicken after being veggie then vegan for all my life basically. I was feeling very unhealthy and run down so added in fish and I can eat it without feeling guilty unlike red meat as I feel horrendous and have nightmares.

Yes. Made me feel ill. Definitely won’t eat meat again.

I am vegetarian but cook meat for the family. I have had an occasional nibble of roast chicken, but it’s never tasted nice enough to make me want more. I’m a bit grossed out by mince or sausages so couldn’t bring my self to taste them. It’s been 30 years since I stopped eating meat, and I can’t see any reason why I would eat it again.

Veggie for 18yrs and have started to eat very small bits and pieces of meat. I honestly am just over it, and ageing has changed what I can eat and not gain weight so I find food choice increasingly difficult. Not sure I’m ready to go the whole hog yet.

Been vegetarian since a teen (50+ years). Only ever eaten meat accidentally and even then would spit it out rather than swallow it. I was surprised to find that the taste of bacon isn’t anything like as nice as the smell of it

edited to correct my maths!

I've been vegetarian since I was tiny and have accidentally eaten meat on a handful of occasions. The main reason I've known I'm eating something meat is because it tastes so disgusting to me.

Ham tastes rancid. Fish is absolutely rotten. I genuinely couldn't believe how rubbish chicken was given how much people eat it. I honestly believe meat is an acquired taste, I'm sure I could acquire it if I really tried but I have no reason to.

I tried going vegan and really hoped I'd lose the taste for eggs, milk, cheese etc but never did. I think it was too late for me sadly.

Yep, I went from strict vegetarian to eating meat and now I’m back to less meat as I got sick from chicken at a meal out

Been veggie for 45 years from the age of 13. I wouldn't eat meat again. I couldn't bear the thought of it.

I went back to eating chicken and fish after 20+ years as a vegetarian. I like the taste and find it easier to achieve a good protein intake without too much fat when I include a bit of meat, but I still eat veggie about 60% of the time as DH is veggie. I don't feel guilty - there's just as much animal exploitation in producing eggs as there is in producing chicken meat, and I never gave up eggs. There's no such thing as ethical purity, even vegans make some compromises, we each just do our best.

Accidentally - it was pork and gave me a bad stomach

I was a vegetarian for 17 years, after coming out of hospital after emergency surgery my partner asked me what I wanted to eat and all I wanted was fish and chips. There was no looking back. I throughly enjoyed them and have eaten meat and fish every since, about 24 years.

Interesting!

I’m vegan and if I ever accidentally have milk (if I pick up the wrong coffee cup at home for eg) it tastes rancid to me. I used to love cheddar cheese but now even if I smell it, it smells off. It must be to do with the change in taste buds and therefore sense of smell also?

I'll never eat meat again. Just revolts me what the poor animals go through in those slaughterhouses staffed by arseholes who we know from whistle blowers are often cruel to the terrified animals.

An upshot is my bowels are in tip top condition without meat rotting inside me. Go to the loo after a meat eater and Christ it's windows open and air freshener at the ready 🤮

I'm not a vegetarian, but I don't eat meat, although i do eat a lot of fish.
I have no cravings at all, but can imagine there would be an energy boost if one started eating meat again ( as well as an upset stomach)!

Accidentally once or twice over the years. I could tell and it was quite gross! Took longer when it happened after COVID as I couldn't taste it immediately and it was in dumplings. Felt really unpleasant. Greasy and gelatinous (nothing to do with the quality of the cooking).

Yes. I was vegetarian from16 to 30 and vegan and from 30-34 (ish - many years in total, anyway).

My life just became so different. I was in the midst of teacher training and literally dragging myself through life - just so stressed and busy. Whereas before it had been a political statement, now it had become another task and I just didn't need more things to think about. This was decades ago when all there was available was a couple of flavours of Beanfeast and some powdered nut roast from the local health food shops for vegies. Nothing convenient.

One day I was so hungry and didn't have time to cook and I just bought a ham sandwich and ate it. It gave me a bit of upset stomach but I felt fine and found I wanted to eat other things after that.

I've carried on eating meat since but I don't eat a lot of it and prefer the veg options of most dishes (pasta, curries etc).

I buy good quality meat from a local butcher and am happy. If ever I'm not, I'll go veggie again. I really don't think I'd miss meat much.

So you're a pescatarian.

My SIL eats this way. I have to say, it does make life easier when she visits as I just cook fish dishes so everyone is happy.

I quit eating meat over 30 years ago, as a teenager. I became vegetarian because the taste, texture and knowledge of what meat is repulsed me.

DH is a big meat lover and was convinced that I didn’t like meat because we had cheap processed meat growing up. I tried monkfish and goose when he had them during a meal out. The goose was vile, but the monkfish was OK- maybe I could acquire a taste for mild fish. I wasn’t persuaded to eat meat though and I’ve continued being vegetarian. I have no desire to eat meat and the smell of bacon does nothing for me. My primary motivation for being vegetarian was taste preference though rather than ethical reasons.

I eat eggs and dairy but I find pungent cheeses too animalistic and so many vegetarian dishes have goats cheese in them.

Yes, accidentally because someone well meaning who didn't really know what was what gave me it thinking it was vegetarian. 20 plus years back and I think i was the only veggie she knew. I noticed a couple of mouthfuls in. Been veggie around 9 years. I felt really upset and miserable but not ill. Then woke in the middle of the night suddenly vomiting. Couldn't even make it to the bathroom it was really odd.

Since then like a PP I had a spring roll mishap but luckily noticed before swallowing. Take away was not as apologetic as they should have been.

I was vegetarian for about twenty years. However, I became very anaemic and started to crave fish (and I had always hated fish!) I decided it was my body trying to tell me something. ( I must admit I was a badly organised vegetarian and probably didn’t balance my diet properly.)
I now eat small portions of chicken and mince but the thought of beef as a steak or a roast makes me feel sick. (Similarly pork and lamb.). I can occasionally face white fish or salmon but they can’t be too ‘fishy’.

My experience was similar - a long term veggie, hadn’t eaten mean when pregnant with my son but with my daughter for the first three months the only thing I could eat and keep down was bacons sandwiches and pork pies. As soon as that first trimester sickness was over it was like a switch had been flipped and I went straight back to finding the idea disgusting. My daughter is ten and has been a vegetarian since the age of 6 at her own decision (my husband and son eat meat) ever since she found out it’s made of dead animals!

'one random man who is in no way trained to assess overall health says he has never met a healthy vegetarian'...

Yeah for a year, after about 20 years. I felt dreadful, ended up with terrible digestive problems, felt bloated all the time. I stopped in the end and it was so much better. Been veggie since and vegan for about 5 years, haven’t looked back.

Same happened to me. The smell of the cheese aisle actually makes me gag now but loved cheese in my veggie days.

Yes. After craving chicken during a pregnancy where my Hb was 4.2 at 17 weeks and subsequently being raged at for years by the future ex for daring to think (I didn't even eat it) that 'it's OK to cram dead flesh in your mouth', I was absolutely broke and my new boyfriend's Mum offered me Sunday lunch when she realised I was hiding that I hadn't eaten in days. He told her as she was dishing it up that I didn't eat meat, so she put chicken on a separate plate in case I wanted to have some.

Tell you what, that Sunday Dinner was absolutely lovely. Despite all the iron tablets doing little to fix my severe anaemia - they only got me up to 6.8 before I gave birth (and obviously lost enough blood to be offered a transfusion, which the future ex also pressured me into refusing because 'it's like eating meat' - he really was an absolute prick, looking back), just 4 months of eating normally twice a week at the new boyfriend's parents got my Hb up to normal.

I wouldn't have chosen a pizza as a first taste, though, just because they are normally intrinsically quite high in oil. Something more animal than oil might have been better.