I think I want to be a vegetarian, please help?

Question

So, I think I want to be a vegetarian. But I don't really know anything about being a vegetarian and vegetarianism, so I just have
a few questions.

1. What are the benefits and what do you
gain from giving up meat? Are there any
negative side effects?
2. How could I know if there are meat
products in food I eat, but the product
itself is not entirely made up of meat? (I
hope you understand what I'm saying
here. I don't think I worded it right.)
3. How hard would it be to go from eating
meat to not eating meat?
4. Anything else I should know?

Thank you SO much! I really, really appreciate the help.

Answer 1

1. It usually is healthy when done right. Remember, green salads or plates of food you just push the meat off are not complete meals. You need to replace the meat. Also remember you can still be unhealthy as a vegetarian if you don't do it right. After all, you could eat whole bags of potato chips all day and be a vegetarian, but that's not healthy. Do your research to find out what you need.



What I gain: mostly knowing that I have reduced the amount of suffering my diet causes. Negative side effects: none that I've noticed.



2. By reading labels. If there is something animal in there, it will be in the list of ingredients on the label. Apart from the obvious things like lard, watch out for rennet, gelatin and carmine.



Rennet is an enzyme taken from the stomach of a dead calf and is used in the making of cheese. Sometimes the label only says 'enzymes' in which case you don't know whether the source is animal, plant or microbes. Gelatin is produced by boiling bones and hides. Carmine is red food colouring made by crushing certain bugs.



3. It's different for everybody. It is easier though if you have done your research so that you still get all the nutrients you need. For me a hard part was deciding what groceries to buy; I always used to go straight to the meat section, choose what meat to use, and then decide what vegetables and what starch would go with that, so when I went vegetarian I spent some time wandering the isles in the supermarket looking lost. What helps with this is to use meat substitutes while making the transition. One day you try out a new recipe cooking from scratch, the next day you take it easy and just get a prefab veggie burger, carrots and potatoes.



4. Beware, people will lie to you. For some reason vegetarianism pushes some people's buttons. Some will try to convince you it's unhealthy. Others pretend it's the cure of everything from cancer to the common cold. Don't take their word for it. Or my word. Do your research and consider your sources.

Answer 2

1. Animals raised for food are given large doses of hormones to speed their growth and antibiotics to keep illness down in an overcrowded environment. These things are passed to you in trace amounts when you eat meat. You will be helping the animals. You will also be helping the environment, as factory farms do a lot of damage. Not to mention you will be helping yourself by eating in a healthier way.

As for negative side effects, the only negatives come from poor balancing of your diet. If you eat well and make sure to get enough proteins and vitamins, you will have no negative side effects. You might even feel healthier and/or lose weight. Meat is hard to break down and settles heavy.



2.You want to look out for gelatin, that's the main meat product you will run into in non-meat foods. Lots of soups have chicken stock even if they are labeled as vegetable, read labels religiously. Cesar salad dressing often has anchovies in it. You also want to look out for animal lard, although rarely used in packaged food it is present in some restaurant items such a refried beans. Black beans are a good substitute, and you can always ask if the beans or any other ingredient is vegetarian.



3. The transition isn't too hard. You will miss things and have cravings if meat is currently a large part of your diet, but you will get past it. The longer you go without something the less you remember how it tastes. This is also good because the fake meats will taste better with time. There is a wide range of meat alternatives, included lunch "meat" (Tofurkey), veggie burger and "chicken" patties (Boca, Garden Burger) and sausages (Tofurkey, Morning Star). If you used to eat Top Ramen you can still have the Oriental flavor in some brands.



4. Good sources of protein include nuts (peanut butter, trail mix), beans (canned beans, vegetarian refried beans, hummus) and soy (tofu, tempeh, soy milk). You may feel like you have to eat more at first, if you include protein in your diet it won't be as noticeable. Carbs and sugars burn off quickly. Luna Bars are a great snack to take with you on the go.

Answer 3

1. What are the benefits and what do you

gain from giving up meat? Are there any

negative side effects? @ You become beautiful peaceful, has no weight problems.



2. How could I know if there are meat

products in food I eat, but the product

itself is not entirely made up of meat? (I

hope you understand what I'm saying

here. I don't think I worded it right.) @read the labels



3. How hard would it be to go from eating

meat to not eating meat? @Not difficult at all, actually it will be fun. visit Manjula on the Youtube and other there too: http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=manjula%27s+kitchen+recipes&oq=manjula&aq=0&aqi=g10&aql=&gs_sm=c&gs_upl=1669l2979l0l5676l7l7l0l0l0l0l389l1680l0.3.2.2l7l0



4. Anything else I should know? @Vegetarin people that lack protein is because they are not intelligent enough to cook different types of beans per day and eat brown rice too and never refined food. Use pressure cooker to cook the overnight soaked beans for 15 min. For the rice, let it boil on the pressure cooker, than turn down the heat to min and let it cook for 40min.

Answer 4

Im a vegatarian, and it's pretty easy to do if ur your committed. And upside is that you lose some weight, but a downside is your not as fast a runner and stuff, due to lack of protein. For the second question, I don't really understand it. Maybe if you have Internet, you could look it up? For every person, it depends. My whole family eats meat, and I started when I was 11. (I'm 13 now) my mom have had trouble finding/cooking dinners without meat, that the whole family likes. It might depend for you. As for the anything else section: sometimes my friends (not like super good ones) like make comments about me being a vegetarian. It can be tough sometimes. And when your over at someone's house, and they serve meat, you can politely say, "excuse me, mr./ms. Blablabla, thank you so much for cookin this, but I happen to be a vegitarian," or something like that. Also make sure you talk to your family and make sure they're ok with it! Good luck. :p

Answer 5

1. Some benefits are you live longer and you get healthier because meat in general Is bad.



Non benefits - you don't get enough nutrition so you have to take vitamins.



2. You check the food label you can go to trader joes they have really good products for vegetarians. Consume more of the soy products there's products that taste like meat but thier soy products. Veggie patties taste good so when you want that "hamburger" just eat a veggie patty. ( sold at Costco or traders) I think other stores have them too.



It might be hard at first but it gets really easy and it's worth it (:

Good luck!

Answer 6

1. It benefits the environment, prevents you from eating hormone, antibiotic, or steroid injected meat, the fewer animal products in the diet, the less saturated fat and cholesterol the diet usually contains= decreased rates of coronary artery disease in vegetarians compared to nonvegetarians. Vegetarian diets are rich in fiber, phytochemicals, and health-supporting nutrients. Fiber-rich vegetarian foods help prevent constipation, hemorrhoids, varicose veins, and diverticulosis. Fruit, grain, and vegetable rich vegetarian diets are also high in beneficial vitamins, minerals, and phytochemicals such as vitamins E and C, which promote and protect your health when you get them naturally from whole foods. Vegetarians are healthier, slimmer, and also have lower low-density lipoprotein cholesterol levels, lower blood pressure, lower overall cancer rates, and lower rates of type 2 diabetes. (etc.)



1b. Negative side effects...I don't know if everyone is like this but I used to get sick a lot. But that's probably because I don't eat healthy enough and wasn't sleeping enough.



2. Like by-products? You should check out the peta website, that's where I get information from. Read the food label...one ingredient you should look out for is gelatin...gross. Another common one is chicken powder or stock. And if you like asian foods, google ingredients to make sure you're not eating fish.



3. The only thing I found difficult was chicken, I still think it smells good and it still makes me hungry when I smell it. But I've been vegetarian 4 years, so it's easy for me.



4. Don't think so..? Google and PETA are my best friends when it comes to all things vegetarian/vegan.