Vegetarian craving meat

[starflake]

I'm 9 weeks today, I'm craving meat now about 5 weeks. It's literally tearing me apart, today I nearly caved & bought a chicken roll in a deli!
Is anybody else Vege & craving meat? If so how do you get passed it!! I'm vegetarian around 10 years so I really don't want to cave in & eat it....

I’m veggie and craved meat for most the first trimester- it wasn’t TORTURE. I did a fair bit of research and chatting to health professionals though- deciding if it WAS a sign my body ‘needed’ it id eat it- but there is no evidence that’s what cravings are so I just held out. I could kill still devour a bucket of kfc but the intensity of it has certainly passed and I’m now very glad I stuck to my beliefs and didn’t give in to the cravings! People will push you into eating it, my parents certainly tried over and over again, but if you know you don’t want to just try to distract yourself and remember it is JUST a craving and it will pass!! Equally, don’t beat yourself up if you find the craving beats you, they can be so intense!! I think you just need to do what feels right for you. Good luck with your pregnancy, hope the cravings ease off for you soon.

was TORTURE lol

Eat the meat, your baby needs the nutrients. A lot of vegetarians take a break during pregnancy. Or at least have fish and eggs if you do not want to go full meat.

Cravings are nothing to do with your body telling you what you need - when I was preggers I constantly craved chips and Becks beer and went off all my fave fruit and veg. Try getting some tofoo smoked tofu, thinly slice and fry til browned then chuck in a mere splash of soy sauce. Apparently Fry's products are the meatiest veg products, seitan is also good. And pan fried oyster mushrooms. If you start eating meat you'll probably keep eating it.

It's probably just pregnancy cravings. If you have a relatively healthy diet you're probably not deficient in anything. I craved white bread salad cream sandwiches... what deficiency could be responsible for that?!

I gave into my cravings though. So no judgement if you give into yours. Just do what you need to do and don't feel bad about it.

I just gave in during my pregnancy!

Both!

I never have but I eat dairy and a lot of lentils and leafy greens so iron levels are really good. Always at least one: asparagus, spinach, kale, greens etc also marmite is great.

Can you just eat quorn?
If still no then start small so you dont make yourself sick.

@Mamabear12 you have no idea what you're talking about, so please stop spreading useless misinformation!

I was veggie for 15 years and when I got pregnant, the only thing I wanted was a bacon sandwich! Resisted the urge for a few weeks, then caved in and thoroughly enjoyed it! Ten years on and I am still a meat eater!

Get a vegan sausage roll from Greggs

I wasnt meaning vegetarians/vegans are deficient - I have had severe anaemia throughout this pregnancy and I'm not vegetarian! Pregnancy can lead to deficiencies regardless of your diet, but if your bloods are fine then you know that's not the cause.

www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.womenshealthmag.com/health/amp27610366/blogger-virpi-mikkonen-quits-vegan-diet/

Have you ever had a Beyond Meat burger? Might be worth trying that to see if it satisfies your craving. I had one in a brewdog bar recently and it was very meat like. Noticed they had them in my local tesco last week.

Not sure I believe the craving what your body needs stuff, its possible to get everything your body needs from a veggie based diet. If you are worried, or having any other symptoms that make you think you might be low in essential nutrients your GP should be willing to do a blood test and check this out for you. Mine did at the start of my pregnancy and I was happy that the results came back good as I was sure some family members would have started nagging me to eat meat otherwise.

I think we should listen to our bodies more not less

'just' pregnancy cravings? Medical science has no idea what they are for then, what causes them?

Doctors know better than us what we need?

I mean medical science is great and all but has long been a bit shit in one area - pregnancy childbirth related things. Look at the shitshow around feeding, the assumption was that men could make something in a lab way better than a womans body.

People can /should do as they wish, but they idea that women's bodies in pregnancy are giving women random pointless messages that must be ignored has got on my nerves a bit.

Just because medical science can't currently explain something a woman's body does in pregnancy doesn't necessarily mean it's pointless and must definitely be ignorred. IYSWIM.

I’m not sure that cravings are your body telling you what it needs- I craved mint tea, the scent of lavender and Crunchie McFlurries.

Maybe you needed energy 😁

Honestly this casual dismissal of what women's bodies tell them, but actually there's no explanation, so it's just 'pregnant women's bodies behave in an irrational manner' got on my tits.

Medical science does not know everything.

Easy calories seems like a reasonable thing to be after. Plus dairy? The buggers suck the calcium out of your bones and teeth don't they. Not sure now much actual dairy in a mcflurry though!

I don't think it's necessarily as simple as your body telling you what you need - I think especially in the first trimester it's often about your body wanting what's "safe" (I always go totally off fruit and veg and the prevailing theory is that this is partially a defence mechanism against plant-based toxins during the critical phase of brain development). And sometimes it's just sort of inexplicable. I don't think any harm comes to people if they DON'T indulge their cravings - it's up to the woman to decide if she wants to compromise or suspend her vegetarianism during pregnancy if she craves meat.

I do have a bit of scepticism about blood tests not showing deficiencies as well - I had all the symptoms of iron deficiency anaemia in my second pregnancy while blood tests were "normal" and I got better when I started taking iron supplements. I suspect that the low end of the "normal" range was just too low for me and what my body needed at that stage. But I can't know for sure and obviously there could have been psychosomatic factors.

aliensprig oh really? so am I making up the fact that I know a vegetarian who decided for each of her pregnancies she ate meat because she was really craving it? Or that I read about 3 other women doing the same? I don't claim to be an expert, but I have read about it. If you don't want to eat meat, then don't eat it. But if your body is really craving it and you are pregnant, there is obviously a reason for it, your body is lacking something. Maybe its not meat, but its lacking something, and this needs to be addressed. Why take the chance?

MenuPlant I completely agree with you.

I literally spent weeks thinking about Chicken McNuggets in one of my pregnancies, something I hadn't eaten in about 15 years. My out-of-work thoughts were about 60% McNugget. Something about the salt and the fat and the chicken sounded insanely good to me. I always put on weight in my first trimester which drops off again as soon as my baby starts eating solids, and I'm also prone to low blood pressure and anaemia in pregnancy, so I do think that my body was falling back on a familiar thing to tell me it wanted a) calories, b) salt, c) iron. But who knows?

(I never did buy any actual McNuggets. My disinclination to go into a McDonald's again trumped even the craving. I spent a shameful amount of time staring into the window and considering it though.)

I'm veggie but am a strong believer that your body knows what you need, especially when pregnant. Get some good organically raised meat and enjoy. Not fake meat--avoid that, it's likely full of dodgy stuff.

“Medical science does not know everything”

No. But even if it is your body craving something it needs, telling a vegetarian to just eat meat is unhelpful! Eat more protein and iron rich food maybe,

I have been veggie for around 25 years