Would like to be vegetarian - advice please

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Happymouse

A question for all the people who know about cooking and eating vegetables. I was a happy vegetarian for 4 months last year. Felt fantastic and had so much energy - friends commented on how well I looked and noticed the spring in my step. The half a stone I had put on over the winter just fell off. Then. . . . . . my hair started to fall out ! Having a choice between going bald or feeling great I sadly stopped being vegetarian and my hair stopped falling out. Where did I go wrong please ? I would dearly love to try again
ali

it is not just about eating lots of vegetables. Sounds to me like you stopped eating protein, and thus your body could not make hair - which is made of protein.

You need to eat a balanced diet and the best way to balance your diet is to think of food in food groups.

1 - protein foods - milk, cheese, eggs, pulses, nuts seeds
2 - starches - bread, potatoes, rice, pasta
3 - vegetables, salads and fruits.......

You need to eat all the food groups at each meal - this way you ensure you get all the nutrients in the right amounts

Get a good cook book - Rose Elliott or Sarah Brown give the explanations in some detail.
ali

You really do need to take care over this as just stopping eating meat can cause many nutritional deficiencies, such as anaemia, and Vit B12, and calcium.

Eating iron rich foods in combination with Vit C rich foods is vital - and there are many other vital combinations. You need to do some research, and take your nutrtional intake seriously.

Knowing the correct portion sizes is vital. The Vegetarian Society are good. Have you Googled them ?

Being Vegan is a seroius health step, and MUST be understood before you try it .....
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Johnboy
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Dear Ali,
Such a long time since we last heard from you and your brilliant information is badly needed on the Forum.
Can I urge you to register with the Forum because of all nutritionalists I have read you have such a wonderful way with words and I can understand you.
JB.
Molly
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I've been a happy vegetarian for 20+ years and the most useful pieces of advice I can give you is: don't try to do it cold turkey. :wink: Most of the "failed" vegetarians I know gave up just because they stopped eating flesh but didn't replace it with anything else. Cows can live on grass alone, but humans can't. :wink: Phase out the meat and fish gradually and, as Ali says, try to find out which vegetarian foods contain the nutrients you could most easily run short of, such as the B vitamins, iron and compound proteins. (Meat contains compound proteins, vegetables don't, so you need to eat more than one protein source from the huge range of vegetarian alternatives - legumes, cheese, rice, eggs, nuts or soya, to name just a few.) It can sound horribly complicated, but it really isn't once you've mastered a few basic principles. The main thing is to eat lots of different things every week and don't try to squeeze every nutrient you need into every single meal - nobody ever died from missing a portion of protein now and again (the average British consumption of protein is way too high anyway). It's easier to get all the nutrients you need if you're prepared to eat eggs and dairy products, but I know several lifetime vegans who seem perfectly healthy without those foods. There are squillions of recipe books out there, and the Vegetarian Society and the Vegan Society both used to send out free advice leaflets (not sure if they still do but it's worth asking). A saunter around any health food shop will open your eyes to just how much interesting food is available - meat & 2 veg pales into boring insignificance by comparison! By eating a truly varied diet you are unlikely to run dramatically short of anything, but if you're still worried you can take vitamin/mineral supplements (I don't see the point myself and never have, but some people swear by them). Sorry, I seem to have run on a bit! I just wanted to reassure you that it isn't a difficult way of life! Best of luck if you decide to go ahead.
Some days you're the dog, some days you're the fence post
ali

thanks Johnboy - I lurk a lot, but don't often feel compelled to reply.

this one seemed right up my street......
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lizzie
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Hi All

I stopped eating meat about 3 weeks ago. I did this because i've been keeping a food diary to try to find out what has been causing me to feel ill and have stomach pains,etc. I thought it was my painkillers but, after keeping a diary I discovered it was meat.

I've found that cooking everything from fresh (which i always did anyway) is the best course of action. I did feel a sort of withdrawl from the meat for the first 2 weeks but that has now passed.

I bought a magazine at Christmas called the Vegetarian Christmas because I already have 2 veggies in the house before I started. I think I've cooked almost every receipe in there and I haven't had such tasty food for a long time.

You just need to eat plenty of fresh veg, fruit, nuts, pulses and dairy.

Just remember, a bit of what you fancy does you good. You could try uktvfood.co.uk for some ideas or go and buy (or use your library) for some good cook books.

My stomach is starting to feel much better now and I certainly have more of an appitite.

I'm willing to send a few receipes on to you if you would like to pm me.
Lots of love

Lizzie
Happymouse

Thank you Ali, Molly and Lizzie. I was still eating dairy foods, rice and eggs. It looks like I need to stock up on beans, pulses and nuts and like you say find a good book. The Vegetarian Society website looks brilliant. I will investigate it this evening. Many thanks Happymouse
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mandylew
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Go for it happymouse, i have been veggie 22 yrs and feel great, I've never needed supplements at all, a lot of the 'cheating meat' foods are fortified I believe. My kids are veggie too and never get colds and the like.
valmarg

Man is an omnivore, which means his dietary tract is built to cope with meat and vegetables. I veer towards the carnivore end of the human diet, and find vegetarians somewhat peculiar.

Whilst I can understand the abhorrence of the treatment of battery farmed chicken, and badly farmed pigs and beef. If, as I do, buy meat from the organic market, you do know that the animal has lead a normal healthy life before slaughter, as opposed to the rubbish that most supermarkets sell. I think, as a meat eater, that it is an abomination that so many animals are slaughtered to provide Tesco with the crap that they call meat. I particularly mention Tesco insofaras the "meat" they offer for sale neither looks appetising, nor does it tast very good.

almarg
Angi
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Valmarg, in what way do you find vegetarians somewhat peculiar. That is a very sweeping statement!
Colin Miles
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I think the importance of a balanced diet cannot be over-emphasised. Certainly my experience of 'vegetarians' - and I have and do meet many - is that too often it is an emotional thing which involves avoiding meat and, less often, dairy products. Indeed, although I am far from being a vegetarian, I reckon that I eat far more vegetables than most so-called vegetarians.

As for health, there is a phrase 'She (it's usually a she) looks like a vegetarian', used to describe someone who looks pale and is rather sickly - and not just by me.

As for the eating experience, when visiting vegetarian restaurants I am sometimes tempted by some of the dishes but the results have always been disappointing. As someone who eats a handful of broken nuts from H & B each morning with my cereal and grapefruit, I find nut roasts particularly disappointing. Indeed, the only good vegetarian meals I have are those prepared by my eldest son (not a vegetarian).
Angi
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This is going to be a bit like the organic, non-organic debate. I can feel it in my vegetarian bones! Why put vegetarian in inverted commas??!, what's with the "so called"? and why the sexist "she"? I, too, know lots of vegetarians, all of whom (male and female) are healthy individuals who rarely have colds or suffer from the dreaded carnivores complaint of constipation. Wow! even vegetarians can generalise. Enough, already! Stop attacking people just because they're different.
Colin Miles
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Hi Angie. Not attacking anyone, just describing things as I find them. 'Vegetarians' because many of these eat fish or even white meat. And 'she' because to quote from a google search 'Studies women as the ratio of female to male vegetarians is 2:1' and ' Food factors appeared to be less distinctive than moral and health factors'. I am sure, as has been pointed out by previous contributors, that if a healthy balanced diet is followed there are no problems, though the greatest care has to be taken in pregnancy. Maybe Ali can enlighten us further, but I believe that being vegetarian for a women is a much bigger issue than it is for men.

As for vegetarian meals, am I the only one who has been to vegetarian friends and dutifully agreed that the meal is fine? But maybe I am hard to please. I prefer my veg plain and simple - you get the 'real' flavour of the veg that way.
Guest

I have a friend who was vegatarian they got cancer and had so much radio therapy everything shrank so they were ordered by their consultant to start eating meat again in order to get enough nutrition from their food that was 25 years ago , she only eats organic free range meat but is still with us after at 1 point only being given weeks to live ! Man is an omnivore everything in moderation !
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