Any ex vegans or vegetarians out there?

MisLaxCore, I have no idea how I am still alive. If there was ever a catastrophe I would be the first one to go.

For everyone else. I have Gastroparesis and Celiacs and hormonal imbalances

I CANNOT EAT
GLUTEN, RICE, SOY, CITRUS. I am allergic to all of these.

I HAVE A SENSITIVITY TO
BEANS, QUINOA, LENTILS

And when I say I sensitivity I mean I break out into rashes and hives that last days.

I have to avoid dairy because the hormones are too much on my system and cause me to miss periods or give me periods so heavy I faint.

I have been living off of fruits and vegetables and cannot eat enough to stay full. I feel dizzy and exhausted.

Sorry my first post missed the point. I've edited it, but here's my latest ideas again. If you'd like to stay away from meat, you may want to look into:
1 hemp or pea protein powder
2 probiotics
3 acupressure to relieve food allergies

I hope this was more helpful
4 maybe see a naturopath?

Those are some good suggestions. There is also organic brown rice protein powder. You can have coconut milk. My son is allergic to gluten/wheat/soy/citrus/egg/dairy and I don't eat gluten or dairy either. I would bulk up on nuts and protein powders and use almond/coconut milks. probiotics/digestive enzymes/l-glutamine are a stomach's and stomach issue's best friends.

Personally I could never be vegetarian again because of my thyroid. I tried it one more time via a diet my old naturapathic doc put me on and we tested thyroid before, and three months after, my thyroid was perfect then went HAYWIRE from the soy/vegetarian stuff and not getting enough good fats and/protein and keeping it low carb. That's just how my body works. I still don't love beef, but I do have to eat it from time to time for the iron, as my whole family runs low on it.

Former lacto-vegan for 4-5 years (I did this thinking it would make me immune to illness as well as lose fat) converted to omnivore 3 years...I regret nothing because I did what's optimal for my health. I combined what I knew about human physiology with what I learned about nutrition while being vegan to realize that the diet just is not natural or optimal for health.

Well, actually, I regret the time wasted being vegan, but got a valuable lesson out of it, so it was still a mixed experience for me.

The ethically raised ones have a pretty good life. The cattle get to drink yummy warm milk, then play in the fields with their friends and eat delicious green grass for three years.

Just an fyi companies can label their meat as "free range" or "ethical" but it's still not this fantasy you're imagining.
According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), "free-range" beef, pork, and other non-poultry products are loosely defined as coming from animals who ate grass and lived on a range. No other criteria-such as the size of the range or the amount of space given to each animal-are required before beef, lamb, and pork can be called "free-range." "Free-range" and "free-roaming" facilities are rarely inspected or verified to be in compliance with these two criteria. The USDA relies "upon producer testimonials to support the accuracy of these claims."(9)

Even when "free-range" cows, sheep, and pigs are allowed to live outdoors, they are still subjected to excruciating mutilations without painkiller or analgesic, such as castration, branding, dehorning, tail-docking, and tooth-grinding. Once they are fattened to market weight, they are trucked to slaughterhouses. They are denied food, water, and adequate protection from extreme temperatures once in the vehicles, and many die during the trip. These cows, sheep, and pigs are still slaughtered in the same violent ways as factory-farmed animals: They are pushed through narrow chutes, hung upside down on conveyor belts, and have their throats slit; some are dismembered while still fully conscious.
http://www.cok.net/lit/freerange.php

I've been a lifelong vegetarian. I'm perfectly healthy and have muscle and size etc. I heal quickly and have lots of stamina/energy. Lack of any of these is usually the 1st thing you hear from people who tried being a vegetarian where it didn't suit them. I am not vegan, so I don't know about how they do ( its probably way harder). I've heard alot about how typical people from the West (Americans/Europeans) try to switch over to being vegetarians - I'm afraid they are doing it all wrong. This isn't a put down but just an observation - westerners don't have the deep cultural tradition so they are just flailing in the dark (or worse, becoming a super scientific fiend about it). Like, you do dumb things like try to reconstruct a meat-eaters plate as a vegetarian plate (for example, instead of protein and two vegetables and one carb, they'll keep all the same but substitute tofu or a veggie burger for the meat - that won't work). What you need to do is look at how cultures with strong vegetarian traditions eat (like Indians/some chinese/some thai/some indonesians). None of these cultures is super unhealthy just because of lack of protein, nor do they use rocket science in constructing their meals. Even most Italian/greek etc cultures traditionally use minimal meat.

so, I'm not advocating any one way, but if you do go veggie, then do it correctly - its less stress that way, and healthier. Also, a side note - if you weren't raised a vegetarian, I personally feel you will have a difficult time - and since there is no real strong reason to do it for such a person (IMHO), just don't.

What's my reason? #1 is I was raised this way, and don't feel a huge need to change my tastes. If I look at meat, yes sometimes the fancy techniques and preparations look appetising (like on the Food channel), but its just that, the prep work and presentation, or just the side flavorings....not the meat itself that is attractive at the end of the day. In fact (and meat eaters find this VERY DIFFICULT to accept) when I see meat, mostly I have a baseline revulsion that is no less that if I were looking at someone eating bugs or some other weird meat product. You need to be raised a veggie to have that sort of feeling, and so if you were raised a meatie, then I think you'll have a difficult time of it.

I was a vegetarian for 10 years, and healthy the entire time. I only started eating meat because it is more convenient to be able to eat the same meal as my husband. I did eat eggs though, which probably helped with protein. For breakfast, I'd have 2 eggs and an apple. Lunch was whole wheat bread with cheese/lettuce/tomato/pickles and baby carrots. Yogurt for a snack. For dinner, I 'd make soup with beans, potatoes, and various vegetables. That is more or less what I'd eat and I had no health issues. Maybe you need to consider what you are eating throughout the day and whether or not you are getting all your food groups.

Hi,

I was vegan for 10 years and vegetarian for about 5 prior to that. Due to some health problems that had stacked up for the past few years of my diet and also stress I made a complete change in how I ate and elimnated gluten, soy, and added back animal proteins. My body has changed over the past year due to these changes but I feel healthier, clearer, stronger, and endure more mentally and physically. I also appreciate that I can eat what I feel is even a cleaner diet with local meat, cheese, eggs, and produce vs. vegan foods that tend to be processed and over packaged.

Overall, I gained about 30 pounds after I stopped eating vegan but I was previously underweight, could not gain muscle, suffering from severe anemia, had irregular periords, diagnosed with a thyroid problem and very fragile.

I say listen to your body and be open to change, we know our bodies better then a doctor or anyone else.

Good luck to you!

There is a "butcher/farmer" near me who only sells meat from organic farm animals that died from natural causes, so I regularly buy from there (if an animal dies on a farm, the farmer calls him to collect and then he checks for stuff that might cause the animal to be unsuitable for eating).

I have been vegetarian for about 20 years. I was vegan for about 18 months around a decade ago. Being vegan was terrible for my health; it required too much soy. (I now think that soy is very unhealthy. I have it in small amounts, but I try to avoid it in general.)

After being vegan, I started incorporating fish into my diet. it made me feel very good, physically, so I stuck with it. I was lacto-ovo with small amounts of fish until last week, when I started eating meat again.

My health is very poor. I have had severe health problems since 1998. I have CFIDS, FMS, EDS, hypothyroid disease, insulin resistance, and peripheral neuropathy. I'm in pain all the time.

I have spent years thinking that vegetarianism was not a contributor to my health issues because I eat eggs almost every day, I eat dairy every day. I figured that egg protein and dairy protein are animal proteins, so nutritionally I was doing fine. I don't eat high-carb, and in fact when I track with MFP, my numbers usually come in low on carbs and high on protein and fat. My diet is based on whole foods and fresh organic vegetables.

But, eating meat is the only thing I have not tried as a healing modality. I've tried natural medicine, I've tried conventional medicine, etc. II decided to try eating meat for a few months, to see if I felt any better. I had a small amount of chicken last week and had terrible heartburn. But then I had my first hamburger in 20+ years on Saturday, and I felt great. I had the same kind of food high I get from delicious vegetables. It was truly nutritious.

The rules I have set for my meat-eating are that I will only eat humanely-raised, pastured meats. No factory farms, no confinement operations, no feed lots.

Since I started questioning vegetarianism, I've been trying in vain to find a healthy long-term vegetarian. I haven't met anyone. I have a friend who has been a vegetarian for 25+ years, even longer than myself, and she is struggling with endocrine problems, which she is convinced are "just aging." I have also realized that the pressure for vegetarians to claim they are healthy is ENORMOUS. Being vegetarian isn't just about what you eat, it is a choice that really touches on our identities and it is sometimes very hard-won. There is huge pressure to stay vegetarian and not admit any problems.

This year I started having meat cravings out of nowhere. I mean, I don't even remember what meat tasted like when I was a kid, so it wasn't a matter of missing the taste or anything like that. But I started craving meat all the time.

The fact is that for me, even as a vegetarian who eats an impeccably balanced diet, I am severely ill and I decided that I owed it to myself to see if eating meat could help me. I am strangely deficient in Vitamin D in spite of spending hours in the sun, taking Vitamin D supplements, and eating D-rich foods. My partner (who remains vegetarian) pointed out that it is possible that my body cannot assimilate all the nutrients I need from vegetables, and maybe he's right. It makes sense.

Anyway, long ramble, sorry. I am going to give eating meat a try. I'll give it a few months and see if I feel any better. If my health improves, I will have to stick with it. The only thing in my opinion that justifies it is health.

One thing to keep in mind is that even a vegetarian diet leads to a lot of animal deaths. Tractor strikes kill many animals in the harvest of a field of grain, whereas the death of a single cow can feed a family for a year. It's something to think about. All of us, no matter what we eat, are sustained by the death of something else.

There is a "butcher/farmer" near me who only sells meat from organic farm animals that died from natural causes, so I regularly buy from there (if an animal dies on a farm, the farmer calls him to collect and then he checks for stuff that might cause the animal to be unsuitable for eating).

Any animal that dies of "natural causes" is unsuitable for eating because it sat there decomposing for a time before the owner found it. I think that butcher is having you on. It is not legal to sell meat that was not processed under cold conditions from the moment of slaughter.

My health is very poor. I have had severe health problems since 1998. I have CFIDS, FMS, EDS, hypothyroid disease, insulin resistance, and peripheral neuropathy. I'm in pain all the time.

Have you tried increasing your thiamine intake?

http://broomclosetmusings.blogspot.com/2012/10/how-to-make-zombie-or-why-i-love.html

First I'd have to ask what health issues you are having and what you are eating. It's perfectly possible to be veg and unhealthy, just as it is for non-veg people to be unhealthly.

Was Vegan, hair fell out, skin dried up, pooped turned white, and I had no energy. And yeah yeah yeah, I read all the books, ate all the "right" things. So I said screw this and at a big red piece of steak and never looked back.

I was vegetarian on and off a good deal of my 20's. In my 30's I became pescatarian, then vegetarian in my late 30's. In my 40's I became vegan. At first it was great, although I have had health issues on and off since about age 39. In the last two years, I have a serious intolerance for "mock meat" of any sort. I had been a healthy vegan, not a junk food vegan but I would incorporate seitan sometimes and if I went to the rare family picnic, someone would be kind enough to pick up some sort of vegan burger or dog, etc. Basically any fake meat including soy gives me horrible stomach issues. I felt exhausted all the time. Lentils are great but so many carbs in order to get enough protein. I recently started eating some fish, an occasional egg or two, and even some cheese on cheat days. I feel 100% better. It makes me very sad and I have cried, prayed, gotten plastered, you name it - wrestling with this decision. My husband is still vegan and supports me completely because he has seen my health decline and now the dramatic change in just a few months. I can't say I'm happy about it. But I have to be able to function and live.