Vegetarian HELP!?

Question

OK I am 13 years old and I have been a

vegetarian for almost a month now..There

like no turning back now for me..haha..But I

often start feeling sick and my joints hurt..in

my legs..I think its from lack of protein..Do

you know of a vitamin to take?? I asked my

dad witch btw is supportive of my dissision

just confused as to why im doing it..to get

me some..He got some...but..Right on the

bottle it say theres fish in it...I need

help!...btw..would I be ok if..idk..I eat penuts or peanut butter every day??

Answer 1

There's NO chance that you are suffering from a lack of protein! Even if you were eating only pure sugar and fat it'd take *months* (as in almost half a year) to begin to suffer symptoms of protein deficiency. The same holds true for almost any vitamin or mineral your new diet may be lacking in (unless your meat based diet was also lacking).

A vitamin pill would be a TOTAL waste of money UNLESS you know for sure that you are in fact lacking a particular vitamin (or mineral). They ONLY way you'll find that out is to go see a doctor and get tested! None of us here are doctors, and if we were doctors we'd not attempt to diagnose and treat your problem over the internet anyway (unless we were a quack!).

I can tell you that *if* you are eating enough calories and if 10-15% of those calories are from protein you'll *never* suffer from lack of protein!

The ONLY way to know for sure what's causing your symptoms is to go see a doctor!

Answer 2

"Feeling sick" and "joints hurting" could be caused by any number of things, especially at your age. However, if you're newly vegetarian, it's likely that you're not getting enough protein or iron. Be sure to include lots of high-protein, low-fat food in your diet: soy products are great, and skim dairy products as well. Whole-grain cereals, breads, and pastas also contain protein, and lots of fiber, vitamins, and minerals to boot (the whole-grain part is important; processed grains don't have the same nutritional value). Iron comes from dark leafy vegetables, like spinach. Eat a lot of fruits and vegetables; you need them!

To get your protein and vitamins each day, I'd recommend some kind of soy or whey protein shake. These come in powdered and canned forms. The chocolate kind is often very tasty. Add a banana or some bread for a complete breakfast.

And it's probably not a good idea to eat peanut butter every day; it may be a source of protein, but it's very, VERY high in fat. If you stick to the serving size (1 or 2 tablespoons each day), you'll probably be fine, but don't try to get all your protein from nut products (if you do, you'll take in much more fat than protein).

Make sense?

Answer 3

OK, listen closely. This is important.
Feeling sick and having joint pain are not normal symptoms, and they are most definately symptoms rather than causes, so your job now is to determine what is causing these symptoms. Something about how you are living is not in harmony with you, and you MUST pay attention to yourself if you want to feel better. Remember, you are the most important person in your world, you are your own God, so treat yourself with that level of respect!

3 Comets is correct in that we as answerers are not equipped or qualified to diagnose your ailment, so the person you need to ask about this is your family doctor. I say family doctor, NOT just any doctor, because a doctor that has been treating the ailments of you and your relatives will have records of your past history, thereby allowing a more accurate diagnosis.

Secondly, 3 Comets is correct about going for tests, specifically pathlogy tests done on your blood. Ask them to look for levels of the following, and compare against healthy range concentrations:
Calcium, iron, vitamin A, B1, B2, B3, B6, B12, C, D, K, magnesium, copper, zinc, white cell count, and anything else your doctor suggests. Until then, as a vegetarian you can drink dairy products right, so I strongly suggest you get a couple of litres of A2 lactose free vitamin and calcium enriched milk, and consume copiously. Also try to consume reasonable volumes of beans, lentils, or poducts made from beans or lentils, such as soy, tofu, or curd. Reduce your consumption of animal products and animal based products, including those tablets that include fish oil, and particularly any foods with a high percentage of trans-fatty acids (more than 0.1% is very harmful), monosodium glutamate, hydrolyzed vegetable protien, and artificial sweeteners like aspartame. Be aware that many of these ingredients are listed as additives using a numerical code system, so MSG for example is represented as additive 621 in ingredient lists.
Lastly, increase your consumption of leafy green vegetables, such as broccoli, lettuce, spinach, and bok choy.

Even if these changes don't correct your imbalance, I believe you will feel better as a result, and I speak from experience.

The most important thing in your life at the moment in my opinion is to see your family doctor and have him order full spectrum blood tests ASAP to determine what the ailment is and exactly what to do. If those tests don't help, go for a bone density test, and another test to determine if your bone marrow is reproducing stem cells. If that doesn't help, go to Cuba and hire the best diagnostician you can afford to help you. If you get this far, you've probably got some ailment that 99% of the world's doctors couldn't have diagnosed, so don't blame the people or the process for it's shortcomings.

Good luck!

Answer 4

ewww...fish in ur vitamins? that's icky. you should (nicely) ask him to get you some without animal in it (my mom's have oyster shell!). well, it could be a lack of anything, really. make sure that your vitamins have b12 and iron in them.

and according to my vegetarian book, girls our age should be getting around 46 grams of protein a day (i get around 35-40 every day and I'm fine).

peanuts and peanut butter help, but they aren't always the answer to getting enough protein, and plus they're really high calorie (not like that's a problem for growing vegetarian teens). there's plenty of other protein sources besides that. here's some:

soy
dairy
legumes
quinwoa
protein powder
whole grain product

for lunches and dinners boca makes really yummy products. their meatless "chicken" patties are really good and have 13..i think the number is..grams of protein.

good luck and stay healthy! i recommend the book that i got, it covers everything you need to know. it's called A Complete Idiot's Guide to Becoming Vegetarian

ps: check out this site! http://www.vegetarianteen.com

Answer 5

its probably fish oil. Peanut butter, nuts, cheese, eggs (if youre eating those. i didnt), all kinds of beans (try refried on nachos, bbq baked beans with dinner, veggie burgers or hot dogs (i never tried them), spinach has a lot of protein, and drink a glass of milk. All good options. Look at the packages on greens. They usually have a good amount.

I became a vegetarian at 13 too. It was the cool thing to do and I stuck with it for seven years. Be careful eating too many carbs though!

Answer 6

Well, it might not be from being a vegetarian, but what's more important to you-
Your health, or a cow?

Honestly, )even though I'm going to be hated by all the vegans out there) I think that we have a million cows and they don't seem to be going anywhere!
Besides, being 13, you need protein while you "grow". Your family is probably buying meat anyway, so what's the point on not eating meat till your an adult and you buy the groceries. Your family is still going to eat meat and kill a cow or a pig whether you eat any or not.

Okay...I'm ready for vegans to kill me now...

Answer 7

Lots of people your age have pains like that, they call them "growing pains." I strongly doubt if you are protein deficient. Talk to a doctor if it really bothers you, but it's a pretty common thing.

Just try to eat a variety of food, different fruits, vegetables, beans and grains, and you don't necessarily have to take vitamins if you don't want to. My wife is a Registered Dietitian and she doesn't recommend taking vitamins unless you are not going to eat a balanced diet.

Answer 8

try peanut butter on appl chunks! yummy treat

all these things have protien in them

eggs, (there are all sorts of bird eggs).dairy

grains, rice, cereals, wheat, bran, semolina, couscous, barley, sweetcorn, popcorn, oats, rye, wild rice (all SORTS of rice!).

ALLL sorts of nuts! coconutes even! walnuts, almonds, pecan, seeds like pumpkin, sesame, try multi grain bread

how about peas, beans, soya beans, lentiles- cook anyof them in hot water and chuck them in all sorts of soups and stews (you can buy lentiles and different sorts of beans in tins without sauce, and you can buy soya beans from birdseye)

dont worry about it, simply remember, the ONLY protein you cant acess is the sort from killing a creature. everything i th world, exotic fruits and veg, different sauces and flavourings to put on soya, tofu, rice or wheatprotein, the only thing you cant eat is dead animals,
dont let being a vegetarian make you feel restricted in your choices of what to eat. have fun with it.
if anything, you can get a few of those things just from going for veggie chilli or chinese with your pals or even a bean burger.

hope you feel better soon honey

Answer 9

i'm non-veg because of the fact my father and mom have been non-veg. yet now once I examine a fact of LORD BUDHHA , I rather have incredibly much stopped eating non-veg. LORD BUDHA stated--- U have taken tens of millions of rebirths in the international. maximum of situations those lambs or pigs or rooster have been ur father, mom uncles or infants. Why to consume flesh of ur father and mom etc.? Swami Ramdev explains -- while u get indignant , u start up sweating, start up trembling etc, while u are afraid , u start up sweating , trembling etc. Why ? because of the fact there r secretions of harmones etc. interior physique. So u can comprehend the way many undesirable secretions ensue while an animal is killed . eating this variety of flesh is very undesirable for psychological wellbeing. Now u see maximum of swine/cow/rooster -flu etc are spreading via animals. in addition to Nature has no longer made us to consume non-veg. because of the fact a non-veg eating animal has very long gut to digest it yet v have small one. V don't have teeths like tiger. All non-veg eater animals drink water by employing tongue yet v drink like cow.

Answer 10

hmmm you need 3 servings of protein a day, and a handful of nuts is already 1! also try tofu....its sooo yummy!