What is my 1st step in becoming a vegetarian?

Question

I like all the food a vegetarian eats, but think I need to know more about what not to eat and what I should eat a lot of and how many times a day. I snack frequently and try to just eat veggies and fruits and nuts for snacks, but I do eat a lot of turkey and chicken and fish. Do vegetarian eat fish? Where do you get all your nutrients from if you don't eat chicken or fish?

Answer 1

Well first you will want to research a little about vegetarian nutrition, which I'm sure you already know.
-You'll have to get used to reading ingredient labels. Most of the time they have "special" names for things, instead of just listing "animal fat" on the label(because that would be bad for business), they list it as "Monoglycerides" or something like that... lots of little tricks like that, can be hard to keep up on as a vegetarian.
-Things like gelatin aren't commonly thought of as un-vegetarian... but are in fact. Gelatin is made from animal bones/ skin/ other parts... so it would not be suitable for a vegetarian.
-Another thing you may want to stay away from is "natural" flavors... >unless they say "natural flavors (from non-meat or vegetable sources) < Because they don't have to specify what those natural flavors are which can mean that they are from meat sources.
-Here is a list of Animal ingredients:
http://www.peta.com/mc/factsheet_display.asp?ID=72

-Also, here are some links on vegetarian nutrition:
(About what you should eat to get your nutrients)
http://www.vrg.org/nutrition/
http://www.vegsoc.org/info/
http://www.vegansociety.com/html/food/nutrition/
-these links explain where you could get your protein/ iron/ calcium/ vitamin D ...basically whatever :]
(Sorry if these links are a little more towards the vegan side)
-Also you can go to this Peta link, and order a free vegetarian starter kit... it has some useful info
http://www.goveg.com/order.asp

-Vegetarians do not eat fish or birds... anyone that tells you any different is extremely mistaken. Vegetarians do not eat meat, fish is meat.

Good luck and I hope that you decide to become a vegetarian :]

Answer 2

My first step was research!! Lots of it!! and still I was misinformed, and thought eating fish was OK, which it's NOT. I would start by getting credible research. I started with PETA.com. Some people might call them extreme, and in some cases they are, however they have great website that addresses new veggies. They also have some videos that really helped me when I was feeling like I wanted meat. The videos depict animals getting slaughtered, and that was all the motivation I needed to stay away from meat. It does get easier.

Planning out my meals really helped me get the nutrients I needed. I now read labels a lot more than I did before. I'm also a lot more conscious about what I put in my body, and what products I use. I stay away from animal tested products.

However that all comes in time, just do the research for now.

Answer 3

Your first step should be research, IMHO. Read up on the subject. Get books about the lifestyle....it's *more* than a dietary choice. Make sure it's something to which you can commit yourself whole-heartedly.
After you have read and found some good, reliable information, set up a game plan. Most people do not become veggies overnight. It takes some thinking and planning....like what will you eat instead of meat? Are you willing to try foods from different cultures? How often are you going to cook your own food (if you live w/ other meat-eaters)? Will you need a veggie recipe book to get you started? Are you able to find good meat alternatives where you currently grocery shop? Etc.
To answer your specific question, no, vegetarians do not eat fish. Real ones don't, that is.
You are able to get all of your nutrients from the food you eat - like furit and vegtables, beans and legumes. Beans are packed with protein and you will not have any problem getting everything you need as long as you eat a healthy, well-balanced diet. Like the nutritionists say - eat a variety of colors every day...especially dark leafy greens. That's an easy rule to remember and it works.
I hope that helps!
Good luck to you !

Answer 4

There is one type of vegetarian and one type of vegan. Vegetarians don't eat meat; basically, if something has a mother, it's meat, so no fish, poultry, pork, beef, etc. It also includes gelatin which is found in a lot of salad dressing and of course, jello. A vegan doesn't eat any meat (see above) or any animal products, so no cheese, milk, eggs, etc. It cracks me up when I hear people say "I'm a vegetarian; I only eat fish". No, you aren't a vegetarian, you are someone who doesn't eat any meat but fish. The difference between vegetarians and vegans is that a vegan will make sure you know they are a vegan within 5 minutes of meeting them. Q: How many vegans does it take to put in a light bulb? A: I'm better than you. A: How do you identify a vegan at a party? A: Don't worry, they' tell you.

Answer 5

There are different degrees of vegetarianism. There are some who only eat raw food. There are extremists who eat no meat of any kind, no dairy, no eggs, no fish--they don't even wear or have in their homes anything made from animals. I'm not sure how they feel about things like silk thread since no animals had to die--but no animals died in unfertilized eggs either so not sure where that line is. Other vegetarians cut out all warm-blooded animals (degrees of intelligence and/or brains) so for them fish is all right to eat. Others will eat eggs but not once-living animals.

The primary thing you need to do is either consult a good dietitian or do the research yourself to make sure you get sufficient protein, minerals and vitamins. There are certain of these that meats provide but if you don't eat meat, you have to eat a lot of non-meat things to compensate. B12 is one of those vitamins that often is under-ingested by vegetarians. Read some good books on vegetarian diets. If you're a mature female (menstruating), make sure you get everything you need, and if you get pregnant, make sure you inform your obstetrician and consult a dietitian (I know of a preganant strick vegetarian who almost died during her pregnancy because her baby was sucking up all the limited stuff she was eating (she was a very picky eater) so her body wasn't getting the nutritients it needed to maintain her own systems). If you are careful about what you eat, and you can't do things like turn away legumes just because you don't like them (if you do, you have to make sure you get replacements some other way), it can easily be done.

Answer 6

what not to eat: anything that came from an animal. this includes any mamel, sea food or bird. ovo vegetarians dont drink milk and lacto vegetarians dont eat eggs but if you are becoming just a normal vegetarian than you can eat both of the above.

make sure to get lots of protein and iron in your diet

i am going to give you a link to a website that talks about the benifits of a vegetarian diet that may make you feel more dedicated. http://www.tryveg.com/cfi/toc/ the only thing about this website that i dont at all agree with is the three steps to becoming a vegetarian. that consists in slowly slowly giving it up like for a month eat meat 5 days a week and than make your eating meat days less and less.. i HIGHLY dont recomend this because i think that unless if you are an EXTREMELY dedicated person, you will probobly end up going at some point "crap, well theres a BBQ party at my friends house this saturday even though i told myself i wouldnt eat meat on saturdays, but im not a full vegetarian yet, so im good" its better to just STOP right away

hope this helped

Answer 7

Well, vegetarians do not eat anything that walks, swims, or flies. So that would count out the turkey, and chicken and fish. Nuts are a great source of protein (especially cashews or almonds) you can also get protein from dairy products. I am not a vegetarian, but it's cheaper for me to eat as if I was one. And healthier too. I never eat fast food or much red meat anymore. Usually just chicken.

Answer 8

Well there are different kinds of vegetarians

-The ones that dont eat meat, but eat milk and eggs.
-The ones that dont eat meat and milk or eggs.
-Vegans, that dont eat meat or any kind of product form the animals (milk, eggs, honey, etc)

But basically all vegetarians don't eat meat, that includes any kind of meat (beef, pork, turkey, fish, etc), but when i begin with the idea of becoming vegetarian i began dont eating red meats (they are the worst for health) meanwhile i investigated more about recipies, and others ways of eating, and how would i get the proteins, because its the only nutrient that normally the vegtables are low in.

But you can get proteins from certain combinations of non meat food like rice and beans, (due a high quality protein its made from at least 8 components, but by mixing the right stuff you can make one) etc.

Or you can get it from nonmeat high protein food like soy or any product derived from it (like Tofu), Quorn (that its made from certain fungus), and nuts.

Or if you eat milk and eggs (not vegan) you can obtain it from there too.

i add you two links of pages that have lots of information about vegetarian eating

http://www.vegetariantimes.com/

http://www.veggielife.com/

and about what some say of the b vitamin, well yeast its a non meat stuuf that have lots of b-complex vitamins (normally called nutritional yeast), so as i said its just a matter of knowing what to eat.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nutritional_yeast
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B_vitamins

Have fun

Answer 9

Vegetarians dont eat meat of any sort, that includes fish. If you are only a vegetarian and not a vegan then you should replace the protein from meats from eating eggs, but you could also eat beans, tofu and other meat alternatives to get your daily protein.

Answer 10

What vegetarians eat depends on why they became vegetarians. If you are doing it for health, it is fine to eat fish. If you are doing it to save animals from dying, most people count fish as an animal and don't eat them. In fact, many from the save the animals crowd won't eat dairy products or eggs either because they don't want to be a part of enslaving animals.

The thing you will be missing from your diet the most is protein--so go heavy on the beans and nuts--thats why tofu is popular, you have to get that protein from somewhere. You'll probably want to get on a multi-vitamin so you don't accidentally leave key minerals out of your diet.