Trying to eat less meat?

WishfulShrinking331

I read the book Skinny ***** and they swear by a vegan diet, but I am in no way willing to restrict myself like that. I do enjoy most vegetarian and vegan products but I don't want to classify myself or go out of my way to uphold a certain eating standard, but do you think it's healthier to limit meat consumption to only a few times a week? Or do you think it doesn't really matter?

veganbaum

Well, the heavy meat eaters will tell you it doesn't matter, the vegans will tell you it does, and the moderate omnivores will tell you to limit your meat consumption to free range organic and only a few times a week.

Edit to further clarify: meat eaters generally lean towards eating meat is necessary, vegans believe it's not, moderate and conscious omnis believe it's healthy in moderation, if it's properly raised. (In addition to the authors I listed below you could also read Michael Pollan's work and Jonathan Safran Foer).

MaitreyeeMAYHEM

I was trying to eat less meat in the beginning but since I'm not always around it I just chose to become a pescetarian. I can still get protein from fish but I'm not fully a vegetarian.

veganbaum

You could also try reading the works of Joel Fuhrman, T. Colin Campbell, and Caldwell Esselstyn if you want scientific information. I think Skinny ***** (from flipping through it, not reading it) relies too heavily on processed replacement products.

merB89

Maybe it doesn't matter for YOUR health (although there is that little fact I always seen thrown around about vegetarians weighing less on average), but it sure as heck matters for the planets health. Sorry for throwing my little environmental view point into your thread. There's just a lot more positives that come out of being vegetarian/vegan that just health benefits

tross0924

Heavy meat eater here - It doesn't matter. You can get your protein vegetarian sources or meat, but eating meat doesn't hurt you in anyway, (unless you want to get into the very slippery slope of hormones in meat, mercury in fish, pesticides on veggies, so you can't eat anything that wasn't grown in a hermetically sealed container, and for that matter you can't breathe either) so it doesn't matter.

veganbaum

Maybe it doesn't matter for YOUR health (although there is that little fact I always seen thrown around about vegetarians weighing less on average), but it sure as heck matters for the planets health. Sorry for throwing my little environmental view point into your thread. There's just a lot more positives that come out of being vegetarian/vegan that just health benefits

TOTALLY agree.

adventuring

You're probably not going to find anything here you didn't find in that book, besides people's personal experiences. That's going to vary depending on whether somebody eats meat or not, of course.

I will say that I was a pescetarian until I was thirteen, and my health got much, much worse after I started eating other meats. However, I wasn't tracking my food intake back then, so I can't attribute that all to meat. My guess would be that it was a combination of eating meat and other poor choices.

Since I went back to being a pescetarian, I feel better in about a million different ways. But again, I'm eating healthier in general. I guess the only way to tell for sure would be to eat exactly the same diet minus the meat and see how your health is affected.

I read that book, though. The chapter on dairy was really convincing. It helped me decide my own diet, which is mostly vegan at home and pescetarian when I go out.