Vegetarians and Health

[earllogjam]

Are you a vegetarian? Do you know anybody who is?

Would you say vegetarians are healthier and suffer less ailments than those of us who eat meat?

As a meat eater I always wondered if their claims are true, if meat is the worst thing for your body and that our digestive systems were not designed to eat meat.

If you are a vegetarian or know someone that is I'd like to hear if becoming a vegetarian has any health benefits you have experienced on a personal level. Do you have any stories with your experience of excluding meat from your diet?

 

[Aitch]

I gave up milk (totally - and I used to drink between 12 to 14 pints a week!) and cut right down on meat (only eat it once or twice a month now - I felt that it 'blocked up' my system) nearly 18 months ago. I do eat fish & the occasion piece of chesse and the odd egg but can honestly say that I feel MUCH healthier for it. I have more energy & enthusiasm, dont get as stressed. Oh, and I've lost about 43lbs...
Havent touched coffee in all that time either but drink GALLONS of green tea instead.
I havent eaten bread for years & years and I dont like like chocolate or cream cakes either!
And yes, I do know I'm weird!

 

[D_Joseba_Guntertwat]

Do you have any stories with your experience of excluding meat from your diet?

I've had exgirlfriends who've been veggie. A lot of them say that when they started eating just veg they actually had less energy, but that's maybe a good thing because it helped them to lose weight.
I know from my personal experience that I can't give up meat. I've tried for a few days to do it - mainly to lose a bit of weight, but also just to see what it's like. And honestly my body just complains. I think I'm addicted to meat - but hey, it never hurt anyone. As long as you don't eat poor quality or fatty meat it's fine.

 

[D_Joseba_Guntertwat]

Oh and by the way, our digestive systems were designed to handle meat as well as veg.

 

[Aitch]

I think I'm addicted to meat - but hey, it never hurt anyone.

An addiction to a certain food is often a sign of an allergy to that food! I was addicted to milk...craved it, couldn't get enough of it.

 

[monstro]

I'm vegan and I'm healthy as a horse! I definitely recommend it! My digestion, cognition, and energy levels have all improved since being veg.

 

[SpoiledPrincess]

While some vegetarians and vegans may be perfectly healthy my experience with the vegetarians I know is that they tend to be a bit sickly and don't have as much energy as the meat eaters I know.

 

[SyddyKitty]

I was formerly a full-on vegetarian. I'm now primarily vegetarian but I CANNOT give up seafood (sushi nut). In my former vegetarianism, I never experienced much sicjness (but I've always had a good immune system. My female friend and her boyfriend, however, are strict vegan. She has claimed that they both get sick more often but never with anything serious. Otherwise, they are very healthy.

I guess meats tends to have more bacteria. Small amounts of bacteria tend to help the immune system build itself up, so that might be the reason.

 

[sneakyd]

I was a vegetarian for about 12 months , best I ever felt , but lost way too much weight .
I now eat red meat about twice a week , plus chicken , & fish .
From personal experience giving up dairy is the best thing I did . If I need milk in anything , I use oat milk , which is quite sweet too , so you don't need sugar either .

 

[Male Bonding etc]

Been vegetarian almost 20 years. It just felt right for me. I am healthy, a competitive swimmer, and people seem to like how I look.

There are plenty of health, ethical, and energy conscious reasons for being vegetarian. I haven't gone vegan yet, but I suppose it could happen eventually.

 

[sdbg]

Been vegetarian almost 20 years. It just felt right for me. I am healthy, a competitive swimmer, and people seem to like how I look.

There are plenty of health, ethical, and energy conscious reasons for being vegetarian. I haven't gone vegan yet, but I suppose it could happen eventually.

I went vegetarian in 1983. I love to cook and make all kinds of wild stuff. Who says vegetarian food is boring? Not in my kitchen. The down side is that you can still get fat on healthy food if you eat too much of it. After several years of being a couch potato, I shed 65 pounds 2 years ago and have a new lease on life.

At 56 I ride a bicycle 80 miles weekly or more and run in 10k races every now and then. I think that finding balance is the key. Optimize all the variables that you can and you'll feel good when you get older.

 

[earllogjam]

I'm vegan and I'm healthy as a horse! I definitely recommend it! My digestion, cognition, and energy levels have all improved since being veg.

I went vegetarian while traveling throughout India as a precaution against getting food poisoning. The whole society is set up for vegetarians so it was quite easy. I'm a big fan of Indian food so I didn't miss meat much. What I didn't expect is that after a month without meat that I would feel so good healthwise... in India no less. I just felt like you described. I rarely eat red meat these days and often feel ill after eating it.

An addiction to a certain food is often a sign of an allergy to that food! I was addicted to milk...craved it, couldn't get enough of it.

I don't follow that being addicted to a food can be a sign that you are allergic to it. How does that work? How do food allergies manifest? I know certain foods don't agree with me but none of them I crave.

 

[vince]

My daughter is 21 and has never eaten meat, fish or chicken. She does eat dairy products. She has never been sickly and is strong and smart. She has always played sports and is a heck of a first baseman(girl). My ex has been a veggie for 30 years and is healthy and energetic as well.

It's is important to eat combinations of veggies together to get complete proteins in the diet. As well, there are some amino acids such as carnitine, that are only in meat and need to be supplemented.

Lately, my daughter has been thinking about trying meat. She says she wants to know what it is like. She is aware that it will make her sick at first and plans to try fish first.

I eat lots of meat and veg and hardly ever get sick. The last cold I had was two years ago.

 

[SpoiledPrincess]

One of my 'vegetarian' friends always has a bacon sandwich when she comes to my house, and makes me promise not to tell her vegetarian husband

 

[simcha]

I was a lacto-ovo-vegetarian for 5 years in my twenties. I liked it. However, I got way too thin for a guy my size. I was 180 pounds and had a 32 inch waist and I am 5'10". Now that would sound ideal for most guys and the stupid BMI tables. However, I have an extremely large frame. I have huge wrists, ankles, and a barrel chest. At 180 my cheeks were sunken in. I decided to add meat slowly back to my diet to get my weight back up... I look best when I'm around 220 pounds, actually. Right now I'm 45 pounds over that. And even with this extra weight people tell me I look good and I carry it well because of my very large frame.

I eat meat rarely these days. I abstain from pork, for religious reasons. I eat beef on very rare occasions. I adore fish, but I don't get it very often. Chicken is a rarity too.

I'm on my way back down the scale again as I get off of a med I've been on that has made me gain so much weight. I want to get down to 230 or so and stay there. I think that this weight would be a nice solid weight. Actually, I'm quite solid and I have no rolls or flab even at 265. Like I said, I'm very dense and large framed...

For me total vegetarianism doesn't work well. I need the occasional serving of meat (like once or twice per week) and a serving or two of fish per week. There are valuable nutrients and calories that I need in these things...

 

[SpoiledPrincess]

I have to have meat or I start eating the neighbours pets.

 

[simcha]

I have to have meat or I start eating the neighbours pets.

I can tell you that vegetarians are very yummy too. :biggrin1:

 

[Mattness]

After being diagnosed with a TERRIBLE Thyroid disease in 1994 and reading that an entire town of cattle-producers in the US had the same disease (and the cattle being blamed for it), my body lost its interest in eating animals.

That was in 1996 and I've been primarily Vegetarian every since. I say primarily because I eat fish once and awhile, mostly in restaurants when I'm at a loss for something else to eat. I do eat eggs and cheese, but my stomach can no longer handle many other dairy products, especially cream and yogurt.

I also get very sick if something I eat has been cooked along with animals or animal products such as something fried in the same oil as chicken, eggs turned over with a spatula that has turned over bacon, etc. I'm VERY sensitive to this, so I have to ask for special handling of my food, much to the chagrin of the server, but I can tell when they bring me the food because I can smell the animal fat on the food when they bring it to me and I begin to eat it...I SEND IT BACK!

It's worth it to me, since I know that I haven't had a cold in over 10 years and aside from recently being diagnosed with Epilepsy (who know what the hell that's all about!) I am relatively healthy. My recent cholesterol test showed it to be 165! NICE!

 

[SpoiledPrincess]

I don't know how the American cholesterol measurements relate to the English ones, over here we're advised to keep it under 5 but what that is in American terms I have no idea.

I think with food the important thing is to try to learn what suits you and stick to it. The only thing I do make an effort to avoid is lots of fat.

 

[monstro]

I went vegetarian while traveling throughout India as a precaution against getting food poisoning. The whole society is set up for vegetarians so it was quite easy. I'm a big fan of Indian food so I didn't miss meat much. What I didn't expect is that after a month without meat that I would feel so good healthwise... in India no less. I just felt like you described. I rarely eat red meat these days and often feel ill after eating it.

That's great, Earl! I just read a fascinating book on the history of vegetarianism (in Western civilization, anyway) and the author details how European travel and trade with India helped spread the notion of vegetarianism through the West.