New vegans & vegetarians - What do you love about it?

opaquewhite
opaquewhite Posts: 58 Member
in Food and Nutrition
I'm by no means vegan or vegetarian, although I do hear that many people have made the switch, and although I know that some do it for moral reasons, I'm curious about the health benefits as well. What have you noticed after making the switch?

I want to try it, but I'm worried about my protein, because I absolutely hate most beans, chickpeas, etc.

Replies

  • balibali293
    balibali293 Posts: 5
    I lost a stone and felt lighter and fitter, so gained condience...

    But the best thing was discovering all the yummy fresh veg combinations. All my meat-eating family (husband and 3 boys) love my veg fajitas, stirfry's and veg curries. :) and you are then not consuming so many illness inducing antibiotics etc
  • Buettner22
    Buettner22 Posts: 129 Member
    Hi! So heres my experience. In August of last year I quit drinking milk and eatting ice cream cause I found out some gross stuff about milk in my Zoology class, and then March 1st I decided to switch to vegetarian because I watched this documentary called Forks Over Knives and got grossed out about meat products lol and then April 29th I decided to go all the way in and switch to vegan to help myself to stop eatting bad foods like chips and cookies and stuff. Overall each change Ive made has made me feel so much better and more in control of myself when it comes to eatting. Giving up the foods wasnt hard but going to parties or dinners with my family are a little difficult because I feel really limited sometimes even though I really know Im not. The best part of all this is my family is considering switching to vegetarian after watching me! I can safely say Ill never go back to eatting meat ever again and ill always have to fight that temptation to want cheese but its all well worth it. My best advice for you is to make yourself educated about what your actually eatting right now because the more you learn about what is really in processed foods and other products you just might get as grossed out as i was and want to quit eatting it all too! Good luck and I hope this kind of helps!
  • shaynak112
    shaynak112 Posts: 751 Member
    I'm a vegetarian - I still eat eggs, milk, etc. but I do try and limit those things. Like if I buy milk, it's soy milk, but if someone offers me a glass of regular milk, I won't say no, you know?

    It was just since September/October that I became vegetarian. Since then, I have (honestly) felt so much better. When I was living with my parents, they made gross veggies and we never ate beans or anything. We would often eat baked potatoes and meat, or like hamburgers and hot dogs, things like that. Sooo unhealthy! Whenever they had veggies, it would just not be appetizing. Or like plain white rice. Not my thing either. So I figured that I hated veggies and rice.

    My boyfriend kinda helped me start becoming vegetarian. We did a "one month, no meat" challenge. I thought it'd be the worst! BUT we found some pretty good things. We both love burgers BUT we found veggie burgers that taste just as good! We experimented with veggies and rice. I learned all about beans. I used to think they were disgusting but nope they aren't! Not all beans are great but experiment around and you can find some that will taste good! Chickpeas are my fave but I think they are an acquired taste. You can put some beans in tacos and basically have tacos without beef, but with beans instead.

    Anymore, I don't find myself missing meat at all. And knowing that I'm helping save lives is a real bonus. I can't imagine ever eating meat again! The fact that animals are tortured and kills just for me to eat is really sad. I wish that kids learned this while they were growing up. What little kid would agree to eat his or her pet? What little kid would agree to torture their pets? Probably not many. But then you get used to eating meat and you don't think of it as a "bad" thing anymore.

    I have been reducing milk products as well. I will never get like a carton of milk or anything like that. But to be all out vegan, I think, would be much more difficult. I mean, if I'm with some friends, and we decide to get a pizza, okay no one is going to want to order a vegan pizza LOL. So for things like that, I would go for, but I am trying to reduce the amount of milk/cheese/etc. that I eat.

    Since I became vegetarian though, my energy levels have been much higher. I feel so much better about myself. I have lost weight as well. I think it's a combination of the food I'm eating and also that I have the energy to do more.
  • opaquewhite
    opaquewhite Posts: 58 Member
    Thanks for the input! Honestly, I feel that I can't peek too far behind the curtain into how animals are raised and slaughtered, (my mom owns and runs a cattle ranch where they are raised to be sold for beef, HOWEVER they are all grass fed and treated very well) But I want to do this for my own health, and eliminating the demand for beef on my end does help save lives in the long run! :-)

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