Reconsidering My Vegetarian Diet...

It is a big switch and a change in philosophy.

You might want to read Nina Planck's 'Real Food'. Slightly different than Taubs (but not incompatible) and she began as a vegetarian.

Why did you become vegetarian in the first place? If it was for health, know that you can be healthy on a different diet. You can also be healthy on your veg diet too. I'm a vegan for ethical reasons, so even though I do reap the health benefits, I am motivated to stick to the diet because of the ethics.

I find that any time I read any well-written "extreme" diet advice, whether from the paleo side or the vegan side (Eat to Live, Engine 2, Forks Over Knives, etc...) it does seem rather convincing. The problem is, nutrition is a tricky thing, and people have evidence for and against a variety of diets. I'd say do what works for you. If you want to stick to the veg*n diet, I like the dieticians Jack Norris and Virginia Messina for my nutrition advice. They wrote Vegan for Life, a guidebook for vegan nutrition, and they both blog. Their approach is more moderate and they don't try to present conjecture as fact.

Good luck with your journey!

Think about why you became vegetarian. The animal welfare issues haven't changed. The animals you eat (unless you raise them yourself or buy very carefully) still are pumped full of antibiotics and live drastically reduced life spans in often awful conditions. And as for the abbatoirs? *shudder*

Edited to add: my brother in law is paleo and lent me the 'Why We Get Fat' book. I got as far as realising that I had to eat meat and didn't bother reading the rest. I'm fat because I ate more than I exercised away. The only way I would ever eat meat again was if we had some kind of Walking Dead scenario and my dogs caught me a wild rabbit or something that was eating grass one minute and didn't even know what happened. My brother in law has lost a lot of weight and reckons his allergies have decreased, but he also took up a pretty extreme fitness regime so that could account for the weight loss/ muscle increase.

I'm skeptical of diets that frame carbohydrates as bad or as preventing weight loss. (It's a good idea to look at who funds those studies.)

I'm vegan for ethical reasons, so that colors my understanding, but since going vegan, I've been steadily losing weight, mostly body fat. My son, who is an omni and loves convenience food, has been losing weight steadily by counting calories. While I do think that calories in vs. calories out is the key math in losing weight, each person has to find the diet that helps them healthily eat the desired calories without being hungry or feeling deprived and while getting adequate nutrition.

Arrogant Worms - Carrot Juice is Murder


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KmK0bZl4ILM

Listen up brothers and sisters,
come hear my desperate tale.
I speak of our friends of nature,
trapped in the dirt like a jail.

Vegetables live in oppression,
served on our tables each night.
This killing of veggies is madness,
I say we take up the fight.

Salads are only for murderers,
coleslaw's a fascist regime.
Don't think that they don't have feelings,
just cause a radish can't scream.

Chorus:
I've heard the screams of the vegetables (scream, scream, scream)
Watching their skins being peeled (having their insides revealed)
Grated and steamed with no mercy (burning off calories)
How do you think that feels (bet it hurts really bad)
Carrot juice constitutes murder (and that's a real crime)
Greenhouses prisons for slaves (let my vegetables go)
It's time to stop all this gardening (it's dirty as hell)
Let's call a spade a spade (is a spade is a spade is a spade)

I saw a man eating celery,
so I beat him black and blue.
If he ever touches a sprout again,
I'll bite him clean in two.

I'm a political prisoner,
trapped in a windowless cage.
Cause I stopped the slaughter of turnips
by killing five men in a rage

I told the judge when he sentenced me,
This is my finest hour,
I'd kill those farmers again
just to save one more cauliflower

Chorus

How low as people do we dare to stoop,
Making young broccoli's bleed in the soup?
Untie your beans, uncage your tomatoes
Let potted plants free, don't mash that potato!

I've heard the screams of the vegetables (scream, scream, scream)
Watching their skins being peeled (fates in the stir fry are sealed)
Grated and steamed with no mercy (you fat gourmet slob)
How do you think that feels? (leave them out in the field)
Carrot juice constitutes murder (V8's genocide)
Greenhouses prisons for slaves (yes, your composts are graves)
It's time to stop all this gardening (take up macrame)
Let's call a spade a spade (is a spade, is a spade, is a spade, is a spade.....

Humans have canine teeth for a reason. Use them. :happy:

Unless you have some strict moral, social or religious keeping you from eating meats, then why not? There are plenty of grass-fed, free-range, organic options out there for meats if you are worried about chemicals.

Maybe you should explore Paleo or Primal as an option.

ETA: Plus, just think about all the thousands of plants that are senselessly murdered to make your salads! THE HORROR!

Humans have a conscience for a reason too :flowerforyou:

Humans have canine teeth for a reason. Use them. :happy:

Unless you have some strict moral, social or religious keeping you from eating meats, then why not? There are plenty of grass-fed, free-range, organic options out there for meats if you are worried about chemicals.

Maybe you should explore Paleo or Primal as an option.

ETA: Plus, just think about all the thousands of plants that are senselessly murdered to make your salads! THE HORROR!

Humans have a conscience for a reason too :flowerforyou:

Gorillas have huge canines but are vegan all but for a few ants. Canines in the case of apes are more to do with defense and in the case of humans; a throw back to our ancestors. Time to evolve

To the original poster: you can be perfectly healthy and build any composition you choose on Omnivore, Vegetarian or whatever diet you choose providing you get your macros right.

I lose weight just fine on a vegetarian diet. And am very healthy.

It isn't for everyone, but if that's your sole reason for changing, it's silly.

From the sounds of it you went vegetarian for weightloss? I haven't heard of anyone doing that. If that was your only reason for becoming vegetarian that's kind of dumb because a generic vegetarian diet isn't going to make someone magically lose weight.

Also, this.

If your goal is simply to lose weight, eat fewer calories than you burn. Period.

If you became vegetarian purely for health/weight loss reasons then cutting meat/fish from the diet is not necessary. If you have moral/religious/ethical reasons then that's obviously completely different.

There is no reason to exclude any food groups to be healthy and lose weight unless you have a medical reason for doing so, be that meat, dairy, grains, sugar, etc. etc.

Of course we have canines for a reason - piercing beer cans! (vegan beer of course) - so use them!