Is it true that if you are not a vegetarian from childhood, your body cannot adjust well to a vegetarian diet?

Answer 1

No. The Human Body is highly adaptive. The Body is able to get all of ist nutrients from vegatables, nuts,grainsand fruits. The only thing that would be in short supply is Vit b 12 which is found primarily in meats but vitamin supplements once in awhile would take care of that. Its normally best to slowly ease your body off meats like once a week , a month and so forth so that your body will slowly ajust to the change in nutrient intake and the increased roughage in your diet

Answer 2

Actually - it's more the other way around. Meat eaters can easily digest vegetables, and get the nutriets they need by adopting new digestive strategies. However, vegetarians after a time will lose the enzymes to digest meat based proteins (but not plant ones) and the structure of their amino acids. Many can get ill from suddenly digesting meat products. For example - a friend who went back to eating meat got very sick even going back gradually, and sometimes unobserved ingestion of meats - like if you don't know if it's an ingredient - can actually cause your body to either have difficulty, and/or reject it, depending on your system and toleration. Imagine if you were a vegetarian from birth and never developed those enzymes.

Answer 3

No, your body can adjust to a vegetarian diet at any age, but I would suggest you do it over a period of time to go from a normal diet to a full vegetarian or vegan(extreme vegetarian) diet.
for example give up red meat including pork, do that for 12 months then white meat then fish etc to what every degree of vegetarianism you wish to go to.
Also do more research on what you will have to eat to gain the proteins, vitamins and minerals that you need to maintain a healthy body

Answer 4

Not at all, I grew up in the American South, where meat in all forms has always been the center of the meal, but I have adjusted to becoming a vegetarian in a matter of 9 months (when I was in the UK and couldn't afford meat, haha) and when I came back to the US, found that I had no real desire for meat.

Answer 5

I don't think so. I wasn't vegetarian for the first 19 years of my life, and my body adjusted to my new diet really well.

Answer 6

Not at all true. You may have a rough go getting through some f the cravings, but that's all mental. And fake meats can help you through that. And even if you 'cheat' occasionally for the first year, eventually you won't really have any cravings for meat anymore.

And to address the B12 broght up above, most cereals and soymilks are often fortified with plenty of B12.

Answer 7

absolutely not!
such a few number of people actually start off vegan/vegetarian at birth or childhood.
your body adjusts and adapts wonderfully to this change, because meat should be considered as a very rare food.

Answer 8

My guess is that most vegetarians (at least in the US) became veg rather than being born veg. I was 16 and didn't even perceive it as an adjustment.

Answer 9

i been a vegetarian since 6 yrs ago u just gotta eat healthy and some good meat every once in a while i love jiucy steaks

Answer 10

Nope that is not true. What is true though is that it would be hard to adapt to the new food and leave the old kind behind because you might be missing a lot of yummy foods that you are so used to.