How to be a vegetarian?
 

It sounds so easy but it's not.

We are trying to eat less meat. I cannot eliminate dairy myself.

It's been about a week and I am asking myself, "What is a proper vegetarian???" I can't sit around and carb load.

ritz anyone?

"eat food. not too much. mostly plants."

I don't know how "hardcore" you want to go about veg, but here are some thoughts.
You don't have to go the whole route (vegan - no dairy, no meats, etc.). Start slowly, cut back on the red meats, eat more chicken or fish if you like. If you think of being a vegetarian as a life of tofu, you're not going to be too happy. My SO is pretty much a full veg, although she will have chicken occasionally. Me, I'm a committed carnivore, but I don't eat much red meat, (don't actually miss it all that much), and I could just about live on great big salads. Dress them up with chickpeas, avocado, sprouts, whatever you like.There are many, many good veg cookbooks out there, I like the ones from the Moosewood Restaurant myself. Check out Middle Eastern recipes, and Indian cookbooks; cultures where veg is a serious business. One thing - make sure you get enough protein, through white meats or fish, peanut or one of the nut butters.

sound advice

I would start by adding different things rather than eliminating others. Every time you crave a new recipe try to find something on the healthier end of the spectrum. I'm not going to eliminate meat. I don't even want to but I can add more beans -n- such.

Me and the BF are instituting a lifestyle change as well - although I will never get him away from his red meat entirely, and frankly, the man cooks a mean steak so it's okay every once in awhile. But we both love fish so we're basing our meals on replacing the hormone filled red meat and chicken with mercury laden fish instead. http://ide.li/modules/Forums/images/...n_rolleyes.gif

And I love a big glass of ice cold milk way too much to ever give it up. And I have never eaten tofu.

Like nowhereman said, salads are awesome if you dress them up with the right stuff. As for salad dressings, most often I can't stand the 'lite' or 'fat-free' versions, but take honey and add either lime juice (great on salads with fish or chicken) or honey and spicy brown mustard for dressing. I prefer the natural honey as a sweetener over processed sugars. And the honey, as long as you purchase local honey, helps with your allergies.


Tip: cutting the meat/protein portion in half, then doubling up on the veggies is helping him deal with less meat - and eating the veggies first, the meat last so he's less likely to not finish the veggies because he's too full. Also, instead of using breads for sandwiches, use whole lettuce leaves.

Some people really don't tolerate a veg diet well. Look at Paul McCartney, for instance. He has the advantage of wealth and all, but his skin and hair began to change when he went all veg. It's probably a lack of complete proteins and B vitamins.

Pay attention to the things you eat and the food that makes you feel good. If you feel bloated or tired or crampy after eating something it may not be good for you.

Such as dairy. You like milk, but there's a reasonable chance that you are lactose intolerant. Not absolutely true, but a lot of women are. So if you go to cheese and milk for protein, you may have some problems tolerating larger quantities of it.

Try and eat whole grains for the vitamins and minerals, and I'd suggest you take a good multi-vit tablet with minerals.

Veggies will go through you more easily than a meat based meal. You might have to adjust to the less full feeling. It doesn't mean that you are hungry really, but our minds interpret the lack of fullness as a lack of satiety. It isn't, but you'll adapt.

Stuff like your urine and poop will change, too. Try and deal with it with the foods you eat rather than altering body chemistry with medications. Sure many meds have natural ingredients in them, like the kaolin clay in some anti-diarrheals, but drinking blackberry tea or blackberry brandy will slow the rush too. Just slower and more comfortably metabolized.

ok, this is like my third post and I'm already talking about poop. sheesh.

We rarely get a new dwellar that fits in so well so fast.

Welcome. Here's some paper, please flush early and often.

What they all said, really.

I second Nowhereman's suggestion that you look at recipes from vegetarian cultures though. Southern Indian food is varied and delicious for example.

Don't just try to make the usual meat & two veg meals into veg and two veg (although it helps to increase veg portions in the transition stage as Smurf says). Try cooking completely different style meals. Use vegetables you wouldn't usually serve with meat - aubergines, sweet potatoes, romano peppers and pulses like chickpeas, lentils, bulgar wheat.

I like Morningstar Farms and Amy's Organics in the frozen food section--check it out! Vegetarian Corn dogs! YAY!

Stop by. I'll show ya some vegies.

Through a weird happenstance (yes, I know I specialize in them), I work with not one, but two, vegetarians on my shift in my department. There are four people total on my shift. I get to see their approach to food up close and personal, so to speak, although probably not at it's most nutritious best ... the guy tends to order mixed cheese hoagies with hots on the side and fried mushrooms a lot. Often enough that when it's my turn to be the waitress (designated order taker and placer of the phone order) I just say, "Your usual, sir?" This occasionally gets changed up with grilled swiss and asparagus on rye (a frequent special at our most reliable restaurant), or 'shroom 'za. The chick usually goes for a cheese calzone or one of the meatless pasta dishes. At least once or twice a week they split a garbage-can veggie 'za. The guy keeps a couple cans of something bizarre (Big Mamma Bertha's Collard Greens, or something from the Indian Grocery of doubtful provenance) in what passes for the kitchen area, although I've never actually seen him eat any of these. They also order a lot of things involving tofu from the Chinese delivery restaurant.

Broths & sauces are the hardest thing to avoid. Everyone lies about them.

Baked beans, butter beans, lima beans, string beans, green beans, black beans, kidney beans, pea beans, navy beans, pinto beans.... but I want jelly beans.

oops....I forgot about this thread.

lol :)

love those anyway

I'm all ears. Thanks

no truer words have ever been spoken

we couldn't tolerate it very well but I love the other good helpful info. Already into teas, honey and vitamins....oh lest not forget the brandy. :drunk: good medicine

good suggestions SG

You are trying to make me vomit! Corn dogs! what's in a veggie corn dog? Id like to know.

I do like those veggie burgers though.

lol

oh yum!



somehow that statement tickled my funny bone

did someone say j.e.l.l.y. b.e.a.n.s! :drool:




anyway, needless to say I too love mercury laden fish too much to be a true veggie I've decided.

I'm going pescetarian. After reading up on vegetarian and vegan diets, I've decided to just cut out meat. The fish stays. It's just too good to give up, and my reasons for going veggie really don't apply to fish. I'm also allergic to dairy, so it'll just be eggs (occationally), seafood, and the rest vegan food. I'm already enjoying my new diet. I actually very my meals a lot more now than when I ate meat and was unaware of my dairy-allergy.

I understand, irony an' all.
But, if you have not eaten animal protean for three years, and your wife can die from it because of an allergy (brain tumor, part of which is on her pituitary making her body do all kinds of crazy shit, some of which is an toxic allergy to animal protean) going to the hospital because your shit-head server is too slack to go ask the chef after saying "I'm not sure, let me ask", is not funny at all.
After all that time, I did not eat it because I did the diet with her and after a while meat and dairy made me sick as a dog, even one bite.
We would tell them, "she will get very ill if there is just a little in the soup, are you sure?", they would lie right to our face.
If they did not know and said something other than "I do not know", it is an intentional lie.
Used to happen all the time when we would go out... people are morons.
If we were unscrupulous, we would be rich right now.

allergic to animal protein? is that possible? that sounds . . . life threatening

Why?

well, because so much of what people eat is animal protein. Like you said, it can sneak into sauces and such.

A vegan diet can be very healthy.
Most don't do it right, our Dr. said we were one of three (speaking of us as a couple) he had seen do it in his career as a Dr.
He said it is not hard, you just have to do it.

We worked out a tough question over lunch at work one day: are vegans against the drinking of human breast milk?

I don't think they are--by no stretch of the imagination can it be considered harmful to the providing animal. What answer did you come up with?

We didn't quite figure it out. We're talking adult drinking here, not baby-feeding. This could be the loophole for vegans - not animal protein allergic people, but the other vegans - to have all the dairy they like, so long as the woman is in favor of the arrangement, right? I mean, in theory, you could make cheese, sour cream, butter --

But what if the women are employed to produce breast milk?

adult drinking. oh. that's fairly squicky to me, vegetarian or no.

Alex James (bassist from Blur) tried to get Gordon Ramsey to try a cappuccino made with breastmilk the other day. He took a mouthful and then spit it out, unable to swallow. I found that strangely prissy from a man who advocates eating offal.

I doubt I'd like it (I've heard it's very sweet) but if it was freely given and I didn't know the donor I'd be happy to try it. Knowing the donor would be too much like exchanging bodily fluids - too personal for me to accept for a food product.

I think an industry based on breastmilk would be open to exploitation - sadly. If I knew it was freely given - I mean I really knew - then it seems reasonable.