How to become a vegetarian?

[airkeung88]

go to a slaugther house and will never eat meat again.

 

[sure lock 510]

crazy as hell

STEAK, though?

 

[new wu]

Originally Posted by phat703

Originally Posted by Malcolm X

I'm thinking of becoming a vegetarian, I know that I consume wayyy too much meat in my life.
I'm looking to become a healthier eater and I'm looking to eat less sodium/cholestoral in my diet.

How should I start?
Does anyone have a link to a good article?

I couldn't help myself

This

 

[Methodical Management]

Yeah going to veg. or vegan is not the way to go. Especially vegan. My cousins whole family is vegan and they are now having serious problems. First off, your losing the calcium you gain from dairy products which leads to weak bones. Second, meat is a source protein which cannot be substituted from eating beans. If you think you eat too much meat, then DONT EAT SO MUCH MEAT.
Reduced meat consumption is a positive, we can agree on that, but I think you need to check your dietary information.

Many people have a warped concept of nutrition thanks to the USDA, which is responsible for promoting American agribusiness and distributes nutritionrecommendations like the "food pyramid" and its better-known predecessor, the "four basic food groups." No sane nutritionist would suggesta diet in which one's consumption of fruits and vegetables were equivalent to their meat intake, let alone their dairy intake. It's a product ofindustry pressure.

There's a reason why milk's calcium claims are present in advertising but NEVER on product packaging. The dairy industry simply cannot prove to theFDA's satisfaction that their products are actually beneficial to bone health.

In fact, there's reason to believe the opposite: that, despite the industry marketing hustle that's become ingrained as conventional wisdom, dairyproducts may actually contribute to osteoporosis.

In another post on veg*anism, I brought up the following study:

Walter Willett, Chairman of the Nutrition Department at the Harvard School of Public Health, co-authored a study of more than 75,000 American nurses, which found that women who consumed the most calcium from dairy products suffered from substantially more fractures than women who consumed less milk. This correlation is consistent with broader trends, as the countries with the highest rates of osteoporosis (The US, Finland, Sweden, and England) are also the countries with the highest consumption of dairy products. Fracture rates are dramatically lower in parts of the world where dairy products generally aren't consumed, like rural China, where the fracture rate is just 1/5th that of the US. So much for the "milk does a body good" campaign.
Of course, as anyone who's ever taken even the most basic stats class knows, correlation cannot be equated with causation. (Something toconsider when you use an isolated anecdote, like the health issues of those you know to represent all vegans.)

The connection stands to reason, however, when you consider the acid-forming properties of milk.

Our bodies must maintain balanced pH levels. When we ingest acid-forming foods, our bodies must counteract this acidity by drawing calcium, the most alkalinemineral in our systems, from our bones. Thus, it's not a lack of calcium so much as the over-consumption of acid-forming foods that results in reducedbone density. Milk and butter are acid-forming foods - especially when pasteurized. Whey and, yes, soy protein isolates are also highly acid forming. So arebeef, pork, and poultry products. The point isn't to eliminate anything the slightest bit acidic from your diet, but to understand the dangers of anunbalanced, highly-acidic diet. With so many Americans consuming meat, dairy, and refined sugars in dangerous excess, it's no wonder we suffer fromterrible bone health.

By the way, there's more calcium in a cup of collard greens than in a cup of milk, and leafy greens, unlike dairy products, are alkaline forming -something to think about.


The protein myth is likely another byproduct of meat industry hype. We're dealing with body chemistry here. There's no magical salubrious qualitythat distinguishes "meat protein" from "vegetable protein." Your body can get all the protein it needs from a well-planned plant baseddiet. For those interested, this link can help: http://www.vrg.org/nutrition/protein.htm

If you're an athlete, or you're simply worried about protein consumption, plenty of vegan protein supplements are available. I use hemp protein andchlorella, which contains B12 and all essential amino acids.

Plant based diets tend to be easier to digest than heavily processed foods and most meat products. Just looking at a product's "stats" in termsof nutrition information can be deceptive. If it takes your body a great deal of energy to simply digest something, you wind up gaining very little energy (oreven suffering a net energy LOSS) from those foods. This, in part, explains why so many Americans overeat. Factor in all the chemicals and hormones presentin meat and dairy products and it's easy to see why so many health-conscious individuals are eliminating them entirely from their diets.

Method Man you sound like a hardcore Roman Catholic trying to convert Pagans.
It is advocating a lifestyle change - though nothing so comprehensive as the tenets of most organized religions - so I can understand thecomparison, but I think it's closer to other forms of secular advocacy like disease prevention or social justice work (abolitionism, etc.) People goaround attempting to "convert" smokers to non-smokers, encourage contraceptive use, and so on without being labeled missionaries.

15 days and still going strong.
Congratulations! I think you'll find it becomes easier the longer you abstain from animal products. You discover more and more options andfind ways to better plan your daily food intake. The biggest mistake many beginning veg*ans make is to simply swap out meat and dairy for ready-madealternatives, like veggie burgers and soy milk. Ideally, you don't want to make a 1:1 swap - you want to redesign your diet to be as healthy as possible,and that generally entails going from eating 2 or 3 large meals a day to 5 or so smaller ones. Most people also have to re-balance their diets to incorporatemore vegetables and fewer processed foods. It takes time and effort, but the results are well worth it.

 

[feelleal]

Been vegetarian and at times vegan for the past 7 months and I don't see me looking back or have had any cravings for flesh. Truthfully it seems now that Ihave more options regarding the food I ingest and have opened myself up more and have tried so many things that I never would have when I was eating steaks,burgers, etc.

 

[marlsj]

Originally Posted by airkeung88

go to a slaugther house and will never eat meat again.

My cousin did this.

She's been a vegetarian for about 10 years now.

 

[rko2004]

Originally Posted by Essential1

no chicken wings........ helllllllllllllllllll nawwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww

 

[gumbottombandit]

Originally Posted by Method Man

15 days and still going strong.

Congratulations! I think you'll find it becomes easier the longer you abstain from animal products. You discover more and more options and find ways to better plan your daily food intake. The biggest mistake many beginning veg*ans make is to simply swap out meat and dairy for ready-made alternatives, like veggie burgers and soy milk...

damn, get out of my head!!!

...and i really thought i was doing it, but i wasn't.

thanks for the site though, meth. starting tomorrow, i'm going to implement a well thought out diet plan.

 

[infamousod]

 

[ac4three]

Blasphemy!

 

[freshhh]

i was vegetarian for awhile..i just dropped consumption gradually
twice a week, then once a week, then pescatarian (only seafood), then full on vegetarian

 

[gumbottombandit]

Originally Posted by infamousod

and now i must punish myself for laughing by consuming a rice cake.

 

[nealraj006]

Originally Posted by Method Man

In fact, there's reason to believe the opposite: that, despite the industry marketing hustle that's become ingrained as conventional wisdom, dairyproducts may actually contribute to osteoporosis.

In another post on veg*anism, I brought up the following study:

Walter Willett, Chairman of the Nutrition Department at the Harvard School of Public Health, co-authored a study of more than 75,000 American nurses, which found that women who consumed the most calcium from dairy products suffered from substantially more fractures than women who consumed less milk. This correlation is consistent with broader trends, as the countries with the highest rates of osteoporosis (The US, Finland, Sweden, and England) are also the countries with the highest consumption of dairy products. Fracture rates are dramatically lower in parts of the world where dairy products generally aren't consumed, like rural China, where the fracture rate is just 1/5th that of the US. So much for the "milk does a body good" campaign.
Of course, as anyone who's ever taken even the most basic stats class knows, correlation cannot be equated with causation. (Something toconsider when you use an isolated anecdote, like the health issues of those you know to represent all vegans.)

The connection stands to reason, however, when you consider the acid-forming properties of milk.

Our bodies must maintain balanced pH levels. When we ingest acid-forming foods, our bodies must counteract this acidity by drawing calcium, the most alkalinemineral in our systems, from our bones. Thus, it's not a lack of calcium so much as the over-consumption of acid-forming foods that results in reducedbone density. Milk and butter are acid-forming foods - especially when pasteurized. Whey and, yes, soy protein isolates are also highly acid forming. So arebeef, pork, and poultry products. The point isn't to eliminate anything the slightest bit acidic from your diet, but to understand the dangers of anunbalanced, highly-acidic diet. With so many Americans consuming meat, dairy, and refined sugars in dangerous excess, it's no wonder we suffer fromterrible bone health.

By the way, there's more calcium in a cup of collard greens than in a cup of milk, and leafy greens, unlike dairy products, are alkaline forming -something to think about.


The protein myth is likely another byproduct of meat industry hype. We're dealing with body chemistry here. There's no magical salubrious qualitythat distinguishes "meat protein" from "vegetable protein." Your body can get all the protein it needs from a well-planned plant baseddiet. For those interested, this link can help: http://www.vrg.org/nutrition/protein.htm

If you're an athlete, or you're simply worried about protein consumption, plenty of vegan protein supplements are available. I use hemp protein andchlorella, which contains B12 and all essential amino acids.

Plant based diets tend to be easier to digest than heavily processed foods and most meat products. Just looking at a product's "stats" in termsof nutrition information can be deceptive. If it takes your body a great deal of energy to simply digest something, you wind up gaining very little energy (oreven suffering a net energy LOSS) from those foods. This, in part, explains why so many Americans overeat. Factor in all the chemicals and hormones presentin meat and dairy products and it's easy to see why so many health-conscious individuals are eliminating them entirely from their diets.

This is what I was talking about in one of the previous threads regarding veg*anism. You can't associate dairy consumption with bone density because there are so many other factors involved. Just because someone drinks milk doesn't mean that they will have strong bones. Just because someone doesn't drink milk, doesn't mean that they will have weak bones. The musculoskeletal system responds and grows when loads and forces are added to it. 
Also, milk is not necessarily acid-forming to the human body. Depending on the cow's diet and environment, the milk consumed can be raw or alkaline. A cow's natural diet is not made up of grains. When you feed grains to a cow, the milk the cow produces will certainly not be as nutrient-rich as the milk from a cow fed a 'natural' diet. It is shown that cows that were grass-fed and allowed to graze in the open have much more CLA, vitamins, and other nutrients in their milk. Also, milk from grass-fed cows is actually alkaline-forming to the body.

http://www.realmilk.com/tworawmilks.html

A balanced diet does not contain ONLY alkaline-forming foods either. It contains more alkaline-forming foods than acid-forming foods though. That means more vegetation and nuts/seeds and fewer grains and processed animal products.

Meat and dairy are not the only source of synthetic chemicals that people consume. Pesticides, herbicides, and insecticides used on plants are very harmful as well. People should not just consider animal products as bad and plant products as good. I certainly encourage others to research what their diet is made up of and see how their bodies react to the change.

I like how someone pointed out the book "Good Calories, Bad Calories" by Gary Taubes. It is very in depth and discusses why the body is not as well suited to handle a high-carbohydrate, low-fat diet. It's not a diet book either. It has over 100 pages of references and took quite a long time for him to write it. Great book and I recommend it to anyone interested in diet and fitness.