IBS related. Should I start eating meat again?

[Queenofscones]

I've been almost completely vegetarian since I was 14. I'm now 60. There have been occasions over the years when I've been travelling or eating at others' homes when I have eaten fish or meat out of politeness or hunger, but I've never felt tempted to start eating it again.

Since I started getting properly menopausal, at the age of 51, my digestive system has changed. I went to my doctor, had a couple of tests done and the conclusion was that I probably have mild IBS. I find that overdoing the pulses and brassicas, things that I've always been able to eat without problems, makes me far worse.

I went to the USA for a holiday last month and while there ended up at a barbecue where the only non-meat options were burger buns and coleslaw. I was persuaded to try a piece of steak by someone there and was astonished at how much I enjoyed it. My first red meat for decades. I expected a flare-up the following day after this foreign substance landed in my gut, but instead experienced nothing. In fact better than nothing, because presumably my system took a long time to digest this strange new food and I felt comfortably full and my gut calm for the next 72 hours. I've experimented since returning home with the same results.

After a lifetime of healthy high-fibre home-cooked food, with usually at least nine portions of fruit and veg a day, I've found it hard to get my head around cutting out the fibre. Now I'm faced with the fact that meat may actually be conducive to my digestive system. Has anyone else faced this dilemma?

My DD has gone back to eating meat after 3 years as a strict veggie. She says it doesn’t keep her full enough and has never been keen on pulses, her digestive system isn’t the best and was investigated for ins in covid times. She was doing it for environmental reasons though.,

Yes, I started out for environmental reasons too. Believe it or not when I was 14 they were already talking about the resources that cattle used up (cutting down the rainforest to grow grain etc). I was also rebellious and political and not very keen on meat, so going veggie was easy.

I'm not terribly fit or anything, but I'm not developing diabetes as so many of my friends are, my blood pressure is okay and so is my cholesterol, and I put that down to a diet rich in decent fruit and veg etc. But I'm processing that high-fibre diet so quickly that I suspect I'm not getting all the nutrients out of it. I'm a bit worried that turning to meat isn't going to be a healthy thing to do. It feels a bit like taking up smoking in later life. And it's still environmentally and ethically unsound.

I wish your daughter well. Perhaps we can both balance things out with just a little meat a couple of times a week.