Non-C's --are you vegetarians

[Nepenthe]

I was vegetarian (nearly vegan) for many years, simply because I don’t particularly like meat (and not very keen on eggs or milk either, although I do love cultured-milk stuff like yogurt, kefir and cheese). I never did, even as a small child. I was the kid who’d pick out the chicken and eat up all the mushrooms and snowpeas, and offer to trade my steak for someone else’s broccoli. And once I was on my own, meat was far too expensive for me anyway, and living in CA, fresh vegetables were so cheap and delicious!

As I got older, however, I became sickly (as well as unfortunately careless about maintaining balanced nutrition), and a severe hemorrhage left me nearly dead of anemia, so I’ve had to learn to eat meat. It wasn’t easy for me to stomach at first, and I doubt I will ever really like it, but I make sure I have some at least every other day. I still won’t eat low quality or poorly prepared meat though, so careful technique and well-flavored sauces and stews (including curries) help me add it into my diet more easily.

On the other hand, I love fish and shellfish. I will snap down sushi like a seal and keep at it until I fall over like a broken weeble! So that plus plenty of fresh spinach is my favorite way to load up on iron and protein, mm…

So no, I have never been a political or philosophical vegetarian, although I consider those side bonuses. I still try to be ethical in my choices of foods, both for personal health and economical/ecological concerns (ie, buying local/organic/etc, still emphasizing grains, beans and veggies, and so forth). But since my health is pretty fragile now, I can’t be vegetarian anymore, just low-meat omnivorous, and pescatarian whenever possible.

Also, Mirdath has the metabolism of a hopped-up gerbil, and wastes away into a skeleton if not stuffed to the gills with meat and chocolate!

If anyone ever wants to trade veggie recipes, let’s!

 

[jfallaw]

I was vegetarian (nearly vegan) for many years, simply because I don’t particularly like meat (and not very keen on eggs or milk either, although I do love cultured-milk stuff like yogurt, kefir and cheese). I never did, even as a small child. I was the kid who’d pick out the chicken and eat up all the mushrooms and snowpeas, and offer to trade my steak for someone else’s broccoli. And once I was on my own, meat was far too expensive for me anyway, and living in CA, fresh vegetables were so cheap and delicious!

As I got older, however, I became sickly (as well as unfortunately careless about maintaining balanced nutrition), and a severe hemorrhage left me nearly dead of anemia, so I’ve had to learn to eat meat. It wasn’t easy for me to stomach at first, and I doubt I will ever really like it, but I make sure I have some at least every other day. I still won’t eat low quality or poorly prepared meat though, so careful technique and well-flavored sauces and stews (including curries) help me add it into my diet more easily.

On the other hand, I love fish and shellfish. I will snap down sushi like a seal and keep at it until I fall over like a broken weeble! So that plus plenty of fresh spinach is my favorite way to load up on iron and protein, mm…

So no, I have never been a political or philosophical vegetarian, although I consider those side bonuses. I still try to be ethical in my choices of foods, both for personal health and economical/ecological concerns (ie, buying local/organic/etc, still emphasizing grains, beans and veggies, and so forth). But since my health is pretty fragile now, I can’t be vegetarian anymore, just low-meat omnivorous, and pescatarian whenever possible.

Also, Mirdath has the metabolism of a hopped-up gerbil, and wastes away into a skeleton if not stuffed to the gills with meat and chocolate!

If anyone ever wants to trade veggie recipes, let’s!

I’ve heard a few people say that a veg diet left them weak or sick, but can only assume it is due to a lack of variety. Veggies do not have complete proteins; meat does. So a variety of veggies must be consumed to get all the necessary amino acids to create the proteins needed. However, many athletes are vegetarians, and they seem to do well enough.

 

[KarenNC]

So that plus plenty of fresh spinach is my favorite way to load up on iron and protein, mm…

You might consider getting some cast iron cookware. Some of the iron leaches out into the food, especially when you simmer acidic things like tomatoes for a while.

 

[KarenNC]

Oh great, I guess we evolved too much! Darn that pesky science! I’ll still take the Bible’s word that man was created to eat a veggie diet. Genesis 1:29-- Then God said, "I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food.

One does not have to presuppoes evolution at all (though I am far from a Young Earth creationist). If you believe that human bodies are today exactly as God created them, then you have to deal with the reality that those bodies are designed to be capable of handling a certain type of diet, presumably for a reason. Whether one chooses to follow that diet or some other is a choice, not determined by physiology.

 

[Nepenthe]

Oh, you’re absolutely right, KarenNC. I do know how to get complete protein on a vegetarian diet and iron too – after all, I was vegetarian (with treats of sushi, lobster, etc a few times a year) for…hm, well more than 15 years! I had gotten slipshod about getting the right combinations of grains and legumes though, and as I mentioned, I very rarely eat eggs.

There were other, nondietary factors that really caused the anemia. And when I said ‘severe’ I mean I had less than a quarter of the minimum necessary amount of hemoglobin, and required a massive transfusion and months of heavy-dosage iron tablets, not an experience I care to repeat, I can tell you - yecch. Now that I seem to be mostly out of danger (and it took much longer than I thought – severe anemia doesn’t just make you weak and tired, nor does remembering to take vitamins for a week make it go away), I find myself eating meat less and less, and will probably completely phase it out over time, probably without even realizing it. But I will be careful from now on!

I’ll always like fish though, whenever I can get it!