How do I become a vegetarian?

Question

I know that some of you might say "all you have to do is stop eating meat". but i want to know if there are certain things I need to do to approach it in a healthy way. I still want to eat seafood, only not stuff like pork, chicken, turkey, and beef.
I want to try tofu as a substitue.how do you cook it? is it good?

Answer 1

http://blog.360.yahoo.com/blog-GXLd3H0hc6klMFe3HeGqSDn7SVlgijZ53gHnrrlGNoFgNut5

Hopefully that link above will help you out. I put a lot of thought into advice I think is useful on the topic and put it here.

Some people also drop a type of animal every few days or so. Start with cows, move on to chickens..... to be an actual vegetarian though, you would have to eventually give up fish. Some people are big in to this pescatarian nonsense (in the past few years.) That is fine if you need a label, but pesca's are NO type of vegetarian.

The whole point of having a label is that people can turn many words into 1. I should be able to go anywhere in the world, say "vegetarian" in respective languages, and it should be understood that I want no dead animals in my food. The fish-eaters are ruining and tainting the very word. The label is not so important when you eat dead animals because most any restaurant has food that quite obviously is edible for fish-eaters.

Pescawhatevers are not accepted by any vegetarian society, but only nitwit websites that spread false information.

Vegetarians do not, under any circumstances, eat dead animals.
If you cut out all animals but fish, that is wonderful, but please do not use the word vegetarian to describe yourself.

:)

So yes, please go to that link and hopefully it will help you out.

Answer 2

If you want to eat fish, then you're not really a vegetarian. Fish are animals, I'm not sure why some people don't think so.

Sorry, but I've been a vegetarian since 1984 and the "I'm vegetarian but I eat fish and/or chicken" people get on my nerves a little. Because of them, some people assume I eat fish or chicken. How about if you just tell people you don't like red meat? Most people will understand that.

I eat dairy products, and I don't go around saying "I'm vegan, but I eat dairy products."

Yeah, maybe I'm taking this too seriously for some peoples' taste, but if I commit to something, I think it should be 100%.

Answer 3

Firstly, if you eat seafood you are eating animals that live in the oceans and river systems of this fragile planet, so you would not be vegetarian.

Tofu is made from soybeans, which nutritionists say is nature's superfood. It alone has almost everything that eating meat provides the body with, without the harmful side effects.

Tofu comes in many forms: Fresh, lightly fried, spreadable, and an array of other forms. Spreadable tofu, for example, is designed to be a replacement for cream cheese.

All forms of tofu can be eaten directly from the supermarket shelf, no cooking or preparation required. Therefore, any cooking or preparation you do is to change it's flavour or composition.

Tofu has a very basic, simple flavour, which is relatively bland, colourless, odorless, and has an alkaline Ph. For this reason, tofu will take on the flavours and colours of whatever it is cooked with, in almost every situation you can imagine.

Beyond that, the key to being vegetarian is to increase the variety and diversity of ingredients in your average monthly diet, where every day of the month your diet is different to every other day. Most people don't reach this goal, but we love to try. The second key is to focus our wildly varying daily diet on increasing our intake of vegetable materials, which are high in vitamins and minerals for healthy cells and blood.

We drink lots of water (one of only a few common elements in daily life), eat lots of high fibre foods, high protien foods like beans, legumes, lentils, nuts and seeds, and low fat & low GI (refined sugar) foods.

We have established a reputation as the people with one of the lowest cholesterol diets in the world, after diets like starvation, bulemia, etc. We promote foods that are organic, natural, unprocessed, and can be eaten raw, but we are not exclusive to foods that fit that description.

Answer 4

Whatever you decide, remember that you need to replace the protein and minerals from meat in your diet. Probably the biggest problem with vegetarians (especially newbies) is that they fill up on carbohydrates like snack foods, bread, rice and pasta and often go for deep-fried quick-fixes instead of nutrient-rich protein foods such as lentils, dried beans, split peas, chick peas, tofu, nuts, whole grains, mushrooms and sprouts.

If you choose to eat dairy, be careful not to eat too much yellow cheese (tasty, cheddar, etc), but white fresh cheeses such as ricotta, quark, cottage, panir and fetta can be included as a protein source.

Organic eggs are also excellent nutrition but again, be careful not to eat too many. They are a concentrated food.

Variety is really important. Play with your vegetables! You will find that your tastebuds become more discerning of the delicate flavours in food.

Tofu and tempeh are excellent foods and in my experience, the people that say they don't like them haven't eaten them cooked properly. You can simmer cubes in vegetable stock until mostly absorbed, marinate 'steaks', cubes or strips in a mixture (soy sauce or tamari, grated fresh ginger, crushed garlic, chopped lemongrass or kaffir lime leaves and a little honey) for 20 minutes then pan fry or bake; you can deep fry (not all the time!). Look up www.vegweb.com or www.vegsource.com for more suggestions.

I have been vegetarian (I don't eat seafood but do eat eggs and small amounts of dairy) for 13 years and although I was a meat lover, I am much more of a vegie lover. My partner is a meat-eater but really only eats it when we go out - he loves vegetarian food. Also look up your vegetarian society online for more support and read a copy of John Robbins' "The Food Revolution" to really help you decide.

Cheers

Answer 5

Seafood Question: Yes you can still eat seafood. Some vegetarians (like my friend Nicola) think that seafood things are not animals. So she still eats the occasional shrimp.
Tofu Question: I think that tofu is good but when you cook it you have to put some spices and stuff on it because if you don't it will taste like jiggly plain stuff. I put some water in a pan and let the tofu cook but put a lid on top so the top gets cooked to.
Hope I answered your questions you needed.

Answer 6

Hi,
Just to clarify things a little: a vegetarian does not eat seafood.

Anyway, to eat healthy on a veg diet, do ensure u eat a variety of foods, and not too much fried stuff, or things with trans fat etc. Exercise is also important.

Below are 2 links where you find out where to get certain nutrients from a vegetarian diet.
http://www.vegetarian-society.org/downloads/VitaminMin_a.jpg
http://www.vegetarian-society.org/downloads/VitaminMin_b.jpg

Tofu, you can steam it. You can also fry it lightly and stir fry it with other dishes.

Answer 7

Get all the meat out of your house and start eating all those tasty veggies like fresh lettuce and carrots and cherry tomatoes, potatoes... there are lots of veggies you can eat out there it's not really that hard to not buy meat especially with it being lent and all. Oh here's how to make tofu and some helpful vegetarian advice. This is making me want fresh broccoli and ranch dip. Have Fun!

Answer 8

tofu is the best ok?
when i used to eat meat, I ate tofu
understand? I did not have to eat tofu, i eat it, it's that good

and it's easy to cook, cut it in cubes any size, toss in boiling water for 3 mins, or 5 mins if you want to be safe, take it out, drain it, sprinkle soem sugar on it, and put some lite soy sauce on it, and eat it with rice, or just eat it

you can also fry it, pan frie, it's good

it easy, eat more pasta dish, and eat lots and lots of raw fruit and veggs, eating raw saves you time from cooking

Answer 9

I still eat seafood occasionally, however I don't eat any other type of meat. The term for a person who does that is: Semi-vegetarian or pescetarian.

A healthy way to approach it is to make sure you're getting all the nutrition you need. As long as you're getting all the vitamins, protein, carbs and fats, you'll be good.

Answer 10

You won't be vegitarian, But you'll be I think pescotarian?
Something like that

But tofu id good fried
Or also if done right baked
Another good way is in with pasta with maranara [spelling?] sauce with mushroom, and veggies [mmmmmmmm]

Oh, and never forget the essential vitamin =]
I personally use GNC Mega Multi Vitamin