Going Vegetarian?

Question

I was thinking about going vegetarian. I can think of a million reasons to do it, but I have some questions. I have heard that when you stop eating meat it makes you gain weight. I am alsp wondering what kind of nutrients I will be missing out on, and what I can replace them with. If anyone is a strict vegetarian could you please help me get into this? Thank you.

Answer 1

never listen to the myths.


you'll not be missing out on any vitamins and nutrients.

if you eat a well balanced vegetarian diet... fresh fruits and vegetables... you'll get all you need including proteins and vitamin b-12 which apparently is a rumor going around that you won't get that along with other essential things and you'll be sick all your life.

it's bogus.

knows this because i'm a vegetarian of 30 years.

http://www.goveg.com

oh yes and these vegetarians who eat fish? yeh, right.

http://www.fishinghurts.com/FishFeelPain.asp

Answer 2

It's not true. I lost some extra pounds and have kept them off since I became vegetarian. A well-balanced vegetarian diet won't deprive you of any nutrients, as there is a vegetarian counterpart to every nutrient that is allegedly found in meat, without the extra load of pesticides, antibiotics, hormones, cholesterol, and carcinogens. Try researching on the internet, check out AllVeggieLinks.com for a directory of useful sites.

Take it from me. I'm 40, five feet tall, a hundred and two pounds. So who says if you're 40 and female, you have to be fat? Ha!

Answer 3

As the poster above said, those myths really are bogus. Check out some of the health articles I've found:

http://www.vegetarian.org.uk/guides/yourhealth.html
http://www.vegetarian.org.uk/campaigns/whitelies/wlreport02.shtml
http://health.yahoo.com/topic/weightloss/dietplan/article/healthwise/aa159003;_ylt=AobVmzzXSZ7eDTc8AujBpQYYu7cF
http://www.webmd.com/content/article/129/117530.htm

I actually just started being a vegetarian myself a week ago, after wanting to for a very long time. I had read an interview with the vegan athlete Brendan Braizer and was inspired by it. There are a few tips he gave that made a lot of sense to me:

- Variety! Be aware of what each ingrediant does for you. Pay attention to how much protein you're getting each day (a woman needs 45 grams, a man needs 50, and it's up to 60 for athletes and pregnant women). Take a multivitamin (I mix a powdered one in a fruit smoothie each morning) and any other suppliments that you aren't sure about until you become more knowledgeable about what foods to eat to get your nutriants. The reality is that eating meat or not eating it isn't the end-all-be-all of nutrition - the majority of omnivores out there are also often badly underestimating their vitamin needs. Vegetarians (generally) just tend to pay more attention to what they're eating.

- Avoid the "vegetarian junk food." The processed stuff that is technically vegetarian, but really isn't good for you. I do like tofu, but the reality is that whole foods are far more healthy for you. Edemame (soybeans) are very tasty and don't have any of the potential side-effects of a diet high in processed soy. Eat whole grains like brown rice pilaf mixed with barley, oats, etc. Don't make bread a huge staple, because it's health benefits are llimited.

- Watch out for corn syrup. High frutoise syrup is in practically EVERYTHING, but if you make at least a part-time effort in buying the stuff that doesn't use it, it will help you a lot.

It's only been a week for me, but I'm already seeing some weight loss (but I'm overweight, a healthy-weight person probably wouldn't see much change). I've never known someone who became vegetarian and then gained weight, unless they were eating bread, rice, peanut butter and boca burgers all day and calling it a vegetarian diet. It kinda forces you to try new things. I never liked beans growing up, but now I'm experimenting with new sorts. It's so interesting getting to try all the new variety of foodstuffs I never even glanced at before that I don't even miss plain old meat and -gasp- even cheese!

Good luck!

Answer 4

That's a first. Usually you hear people going veg because they heard they can lose weight that way.

There are two kinds of vegetarian. The heath conscious or convenience. Health conscious veggies will read up on veg nutrition. They know how to make a sound veg meal.

Convenience veggies will just remove the meat from their diet and substitute with a prepackaged veggie meat. Any generalized problems you hear vegetarians may have stem from THIS type of vegetarian.

Avoid convenience foods as much as possible. Stay away from anything packaged and processed.

Use whole grains. Toss out all white rice, white bread, pasta from refined white flour, white sugar and anything like these items. Whole grain pasta, quinoa, brown rice, hemp bread. Fresh fruits and veggies. Beans, tofu, seitan. And Nutritional Yeast.

Watch that you don't try to replace your meat with dairy. If you use milk and cheese as a protein you WILL gain weight and get sick. Dairy inhibits a lot of nutrients. Stick with nutritious items like portobello mushroom, avocado, nut burgers, tofu scrambles.

Print a copy of the veggie food pyramid and stick it to your fridge door.

Answer 5

I have been a vegetarian for over 15 years. My recommendation is to research the topic, and find some good recipes that you enjoy. You can be just as healthy or maybe even more healthy if you plan out your meals, it an adequate amount calories and nutrients. Yes it can be done, you will find all the amino acids that your body needs in vegetables, fruits and legumes, and your heart will thank you.

Answer 6

I am non-veg when you consider that my mother and father have been non-veg. But now after I learn a assertion of LORD BUDHHA , I have close to stopped consuming non-veg. LORD BUDHA stated--- U have taken thousands of rebirths on the earth. So generally those lambs or pigs or fowl have been ur father, mom uncles or kids. Why to devour flesh of ur mother and father and so on.? Swami Ramdev explains -- When u get irritated , u begin sweating, begin trembling and so on, while u are afraid , u begin sweating , trembling and so on. Why ? Because there r secretions of harmones and so on. within frame. So u can realize what number of unhealthy secretions take situation while an animal is killed . Eating this type of flesh may be very unhealthy for intellectual wellbeing. Now u see such a lot of swine/cow/fowl -flu and so on are spreading as a result of animals. Moreover Nature has no longer made us to devour non-veg. Because a non-veg consuming animal has very lengthy gut to digest it however v have small one. V shouldn't have teeths like tiger. All non-veg eater animals drink water by means of tongue however v drink like cow.

Answer 7

Ive been a vegetarian for 4 years..

I didnt gain weight, im pretty sure its vitamin A you'll be lacking or something rather...
Protein mostly, eat lots of beans and tofu (which isnt as gross as people make it out to be, really)

you can take vitamins to suppliment for what you'll be missing, just talk to your doctor about it. =)

Answer 8

i'm strick vegg

i used to eat all kinda crap but health is poor
so i stop eating meat and eggs no milk
i eat tofu and vegg and loved it, i can't stop eating my vegg and fruits, then i stopped eating cooked food, i miss cooked food very much, then i ate only nuts and fruits, and i missed veggs very much, but i feel healthy and haave more energy and use less time to cook