What good/bad have you've experienced from a mostly plant based diet?

I am mostly plant based and have been for the better part of a year. I wasn't a big meat eater, anyway, and had already cut way back on dairy due to digestion issues over the last few years. By mostly plant based I mean very very little dairy (I will still eat cheese and butter but I limit it-especially the cheese since I have no will power with it). I will eat things with dairy in it (so, I don't obsessively read labels except to avoid meat and gelatin). I will also occasionally eat some fish and what seafood I can eat. That being said, it's still easy to eat like a frat boy when you don't eat meat, and I have good days and bad days.

I DO notice benefits, though, when I'm being good. I have less headaches, my mood is better, I sleep better and have more energy. I also feel like I recover from muscle fatigue and soreness better. A big thing I've noticed, and something that has been an ongoing struggle for me, is how much better my skin is when I'm eating mostly plants. I have extremely dry and very sensitive skin. It does so much better, staying soft and with an even complexion when I'm eating well. A few bad days and I start to notice more dryness and redness, and if I go too long, all hell breaks loose and it's an uphill battle healing the damage I've caused.

Internally, I'm not sure what benefits, if any, I'm seeing. I typically only go to the doctor when I'm really sick or really hurt

I ate mostly vegetarian for a while, and it was pretty awful, health-wise, for me.

Everything in my body was inflamed, even my gut was inflamed, I was tired all the time - it was pretty bad.

At this point, the better diet for me seems to be completely grain free, and avoiding almost all nuts and legumes. Doesn't work so well with a vegetarian diet, you know?

But those ingredients seem to make my body react quite poorly, and with the extra inflammation, I wasn't absorbing nutrients properly (even though I even had a nutritionist looking at my diet), so I was quite ill.

I tried the flexitarian approach but it didn't work well. I have PCOS so I need a more high protein/low carb diet and trying to make that work on a vegetarian diet was definitely challenging. I was really tired and run down when I started and it seemed to take awhile for myself body to adjust. Also, it seemed to really slow my weight loss since I was eating more carbs than before. Other than the fatigue and slowed weight loss it wasn't bad.

It is entirely feasible to live animal product free. Our ancestors did and so can we. The main problem with vegan diets is that people often just jump onto a vegan diet without learning anything. They just eat lettuce and veggies and become malnourished. Proper planning and research before starting is important.

I ate a very healthy diet before going plant-based (mostly), but I have noticed a lot of benefits anyway. My total cholesterol plunged from 300 to 173, and LDL "bad" cholesterol from 202 to 88. Most of that drop was within the first 4 weeks of switching. My blood pressure was good anyway, but DH's blood pressure improved far more by cutting out the meat and dairy than when he cut salt/increased potassium. Aside from the hard numbers, my skin is the best it's ever been although it took about a year for me to notice that.

I switched about 18 months ago. Started by having meat and cheese once a month, then just forgot to have them. I have fish very, very occasionally, maybe once every couple of months, when I eat out and there really isn't any other option, and have an egg maybe once a month. I've always eaten a lot of fruit and vegetables, beans and pulses etc, so it really was a matter of cutting out dairy and meat for me and just adding more of the other in.

Your taste buds do change and "normal" food can be hopelessly bland. A great way of introducing more meatless meals is to go ethnic/spicy. A lot of non-Western cuisines are heavily vegetarian any way e.g. Indian. Also, if you do make the switch completely, you might notice that you get incredibly hungry until you adjust to having to eat increased volumes.

Downsides? None that I can think of. You learn to navigate menus and other people's interest and comments, but I quite enjoy the challenge and sharing my experiences. No one at work noticed I didn't eat meat or cheese until I pointed it out recently. Oh and I have absolutely loved learning to cook in a different way using herbs and spices.

I'm vegan pretty much exclusively for animal rights and the environment, so health benefits aren't hugely important to me.
I did, however, notice my skin and my digestion improved significantly on a plant based diet.
I also used to get terrible tonsil stones (ew) and they completely cleared up after going vegan! It was a great surprise

The important thing with eating a plant based diet is to do your research and understand how to balance your meals to ensure you get the right nutrients. Seeing a dietitian for this is a great idea (just make sure they aren't anti vegan).
It's best to avoid diets within veganism (Raw til 4, fully raw etc), as they can be pretty unbalanced and unhealthy in the long term, in my experience. You need a good mix of macro and micro nutrients that those diets just don't meet adequately.

I know I'll save some money doing this, but I'm also curious if anything else will change. I guess I'll be experimenting with a flexitarian woe? So, what have your experiences been-both good and bad-with reducing meat consumption?

My journey to vegetarianism must have taken years. I've always been funny about meat, since my childhood when my mother explained what really went into meat sausages. Yuk!

Since then I've toyed with not eating meat, then giving up and coming back to it because its what everyone else ate. In the end my route was: Flexitarian, Pescetarian, Vegetarian, Vegan and back to Vegetarian. I'm still educating myself about vegan foods however many are already present in my diet. I'm about 80% there but prefer not to use the label until I hit 100%.

Good things:
- I've found it easy to maintain / drop weight
- My body shape, muscle definition and dropping fat
- I feel healthy, lighter and much more agile
- I'm never ill, colds are a thing of the past

Bad things:
- You go from full to hungry in like seconds, I always pack healthy snacks
- Other people's opinions on why meat is so good and plant based is bad. RME

Apart from that just dive in and see how you feel. My best introduction to vegetarian foods was:

a) Having a vegetarian girlfriend, you soon realise there's more to vegetarian than salad.
b) Eating at vegetarian restaurants << such a taste-bud eye opener and so much choice.
c) Buying the cookbook 1,000 vegan recipes. I adapt recipes and bingo, I've 1,000 to choose from.
d) Base everything on taste. If it taste good stick with it, if not try something else. You soon build up an array of veggie foods you like.

TOO MUCH INFORMATION ALERT!

I had my gall bladder removed 13 years ago. For 11 solid years, I had to take powdered medicine mixed in water (yuck!) to "bind" me because my gall bladder stem wouldn't make bile. I suffered from horrible ongoing stomach cramps and if I didn't take my medicine each morning by 10 am, I would have to run to the bathroom once every couple hours. I suffered from constant diarrhea. I envied my mother who complained of constipation. By the 10th year of taking the medicine, it was losing its effectiveness and I had to add on a second medication. This time, it was a pill I had to take 20 minutes before eating ANYTHING. What a pain. And it gave me cotton-mouth.

I "went vegan" on February 22, 2012. By March 1st, I wasn't having any stomach cramps or diarrhea. I stopped taking the pills before eating. I felt wonderful! By the end of March, I stopped the powdered medicine and told my doctor. I don't know who was more ecstatic - him or me!