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No More Meat.

K

kanwar

pfm Member
I’ve been thinking about quitting meat on and off for about 20 years but never took the plunge. But due to a series of events, last month I put a stop to using meat altogether. I’m responsible for the shopping and I spend an average of 2 hours every day in the kitchen cooking – mainly Indian cuisine, so there’s a ton of veggie dishes to get stuck into. I feel great and don’t miss Fleisch.

I’d be interesting to hear about other’s experience with this transition. Who out there quit meat, what are your experiences?

Cheers.
 
Mid-80s for me, so more than half a lifetime ago. I still eat fish occasionally and I can’t quite explain why. I still eat dairy products. As such it is just meat/poultry I don’t eat, and much of it comes from sheer revulsion. A butchers shop looks like a road accident to me. No way in hell could I prepare or cook meat, and I never have done. Even when I ate it I never went further than heating up a pie or whatever at home, I just ate it at cafes or wherever, or a kebab when blind drunk.

There has always been a animal rights aspect to it too. I know I couldn’t kill an animal and I’m just not cynical or hypocritical enough to pay someone else too. That said it still doesn’t explain fish, though that is limited to fish ‘n’ chips or a can of tuna, nothing else. I should really give fish up too, but every now and again I just feel I need it. I have little if any interest in cooking so I basically live on simple pasta dishes, beans on toast, musli, fruit, nuts etc. I don’t think it is especially healthy for me, but it is what it is. It just isn’t an interest area.
 
My freezer's full of Rubys; all four main fleischen (pardon my Deutsch) but not lamb. Trouble is, I'm probably not a good cook like you and don't mix the ingredients for curry but at least the veggie part is largely from my garden, so this curries favour with 'er indoors. :)

Recently reading about chicken production particularly and other meat generally, giving up may be a good option; that or spending a fortune on top quality if you can get it.
 
I don’t eat fish, other than occasionally. I don’t really like it.
However, I would not give up eating meat, but I do make an effort to eat veggie dishes several times a week.
Being married to a French farmer’s daughter, I have been involved in making saucisse and saucisson from start to finish. It is still part of the rural lifestyle here, and I believe it is important that my daughter knows where her food comes from, so she has been involved in most of this process.

Each to their own.
 
I always enjoyed eating meat, but for ethical reasons went vegetarian for 12-18 months or so a few years back. However eventually I realised that I'd lost around a stone in weight, but wasn't any less fat.

That seemed like it wasn't healthy, and although I am aware that some dietary adjustments can be made whilst remaining vegetarian, the compromise I chose to make was to resume eating fish and chicken, but to avoid mammals and cephalopods. This was based on my estimation of sentience/capacity to experience suffering.

Might seem a bit unusual, but I'm sure I recall hearing of others (not least a couple of former Top Gear presenters) doing similar, so maybe it's more common than one might think.
 
My wife has been vegetarian since her early teens and I went vegetarian after we moved in together - 1999ish. I missed meat initially, but after some months I stopped missing it. We still consume small amounts of dairy and eggs (mainly for coffee and baked goods), but no meat or seafood. It feels great - I no longer have to deal with the guilt of the tremendous suffering involved in meat production (though still aware of my dairy / egg habit). I've not had any health issues - but do take a daily B12 and iron supplement.

There are lots of good meat (protein) alternatives now, but you do have to be careful not to load up on carbs as a vegetarian.
 
I'm not veggie but I live with one and she does most of the cooking. Plus my two daughters are also veggie. The result of this is that for many years I have only been eating meat occasionally and, hand on heart, I don't miss it at all when I'm not eating it. I could probably take that step and remove meat entirely, but I'm currently quite comfortable with very modest amounts of meat as and when. However I do dwell on the way in which we farm livestock and what overfishing is doing to our seas, so it's probably only a matter of time 'til I give it up completely.

Christmas dinner will be 100% vegetarian this year.
 
My wife and I stopped eating meat back in 1984/5 after meeting a couple on holiday on Spetse in Greece, they convinced us that it wouldn't be difficult, they lived in that London at the time but they were both Glaswegian and the guy started sending us smoked tofu from London as Glasgow was another world altogether back then :D anyway we kept it up for about ten years during which time we had two kids and it became difficult to maintain a vegetarian lifestyle for all four of us, the main thing was my kids going to parties ie MacDonald's and having to sit there and eat the fillet of fish or being singled out in their friends houses so we ended up abandoning it altogether and started eating meat again.

I'm a bit of a carnivore now and so too is my son, my wife would stop eating meat tomorrow as would my daughter but both of them eat meat.

Bacon was the killer for us, missed a roll and bacon at the time but funnily enough we rarely eat bacon these days and we try to cut down on processed meat now but we usually have a steak every Saturday evening.
 
I haven't eaten other mammals for years now. I miss bacon and steak etc. But not enough to have those animals murdered for me. The only downside of being meat free is that I've found a vegetarian diet quite carb rich which has led to some weight gain that I'm struggling to get rid of.
 
kanwar said:
I’ve been thinking about quitting meat on and off for about 20 years but never took the plunge. But due to a series of events, last month I put a stop to using meat altogether. I’m responsible for the shopping and I spend an average of 2 hours every day in the kitchen cooking – mainly Indian cuisine, so there’s a ton of veggie dishes to get stuck into. I feel great and don’t miss Fleisch.

I’d be interesting to hear about other’s experience with this transition. Who out there quit meat, what are your experiences?

Cheers.
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When in India I once spent 6 months without ever touching meat, I didn't miss it at all. But once back home I slowly but surely came back to eating meat.

Nowadays when I buy some, it's always first-rate meat from the local butcher. Once every few months I fall into the trap of some offer at the supermarket, and every bloody time I say to myself "that's been the last time".

I am the cook at home and my veggie GF is rather picky when it comes to vegetables, she certainly knows how to distinguish good vegetables from bad ones. She hates it when I cheat with curry or laurel, salt is ok and maybe pepper if it's an onion soup. This means we need good raw material and I shall cook it properly. Two days ago I tried my hand again at red cabbage, this time it was good - the trick is simple, leave it around for a day and then heat it up, yummy.
 
I sometimes work in meat processing factories so I do consume the stuff, and I like meat. However I am working on eating less meat but of higher quality, and also to reduce the number of times a week I eat meat. Not especially carefully at present, I'm losing weight right now and retaining meat most days is a way to help appetite control.
 
I've been a veggie since 1989. My motivation stemmed from learning about how animals are treated on farms, particularly the more industrial ones. I know that nature itself is red in tooth and claw, but I didn't want to contribute to this misery just so I could stuff my hole when plenty of tasty vegetarian options exist.

I think as strong, if not stronger, argument could be made today to eliminate meat consumption because of its environmental impacts. I try not to climb on my soap box too often, lest it pisses people off, but the resources that go into meat production is just staggering. The loss of habitat is equally staggering.

Among just mammals, livestock comprises almost two-thirds of total biomass. Wild mammals, everything from blue whales to pigmy shrews and everything in between, account for just 4% of total mammalian biomass.

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Joe
 
Cheese said:
When in India I once spent 6 months without ever touching meat, I didn't miss it at all. But once back home I slowly but surely came back to eating meat.

Nowadays when I buy some, it's always first-rate meat from the local butcher. Once every few months I fall into the trap of some offer at the supermarket, and every bloody time I say to myself "that's been the last time".

I am the cook at home and my veggie GF is rather picky when it comes to vegetables, she certainly knows how to distinguish good vegetables from bad ones. She hates it when I cheat with curry or laurel, salt is ok and maybe pepper if it's an onion soup. This means we need good raw material and I shall cook it properly. Two days ago I tried my hand again at red cabbage, this time it was good - the trick is simple, leave it around for a day and then heat it up, yummy.
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Here in Italy, too, and in Israel, there is an abyss between top-grade butcher meat and what supermarkets sell. But we eat very little, maybe once or twice a week, so the extra cost is justified.
With fish, too. Real fresh "caught" fish is a world apart from industrially bred or frozen fish, at over twice the price.
This is very sad, really, because it means that, perhaps more so than many years ago, there is food for the poor and food for the rich. On the other hand, I know people who only buy supermarket meat and fish and drive around in a 60,000 Euro SUV, so maybe it is also a question of personal choices.
 
i was a veggie in about 1986-88 as a student. i spent 10-11 years working in India (longest visit was 3 months), Pakistan, Bangladesh (and many places east), and i was veggie for extensive periods of time. i like meat/fish too much to give up
 
Vegetarianism in any of its various forms, particularly veganism, has been increasing in popularity over the past few years, especially among the young population in the United States. While several studies have shown that a vegan diet (VD) decreases the risk of cardiometabolic diseases, such as cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes mellitus, obesity, and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, veganism has been associated with adverse health outcomes, namely, nervous, skeletal, and immune system impairments, hematological disorders, as well as mental health problems due to the potential for micro and macronutrient deficits.

The goal of this review article is to discuss the current literature on the impact and long-term consequences of veganism on vulnerable populations, including children, adolescents, pregnant and breastfeeding women, and fetal outcomes in strict vegan mothers. It also focuses on the many deficiencies of the vegan diet, especially vitamin B12, and the related increased risk of malignancies.
Vitamin B12

Low vitamin B12 intake is a significant problem in vegan diets due to the exclusion of vitamin B12-rich foods such as meat, poultry, and eggs. A lack of vitamin B12 has been linked to neurologic and hematologic problems [19]. Low vitamin B12 intake has serious clinical consequences, although deficient symptoms appear gradually over time. High folate levels may also partly and temporarily obscure some of the typical vitamin B12 hematological manifestations. To prevent vitamin B12 deficiency, vegans must get their levels checked regularly and meet their daily requirements via supplements or fortified food

A growing body of research indicates that inadequate B12 consumption may contribute to carcinogenesis. Vitamin B12 deficiency increases uracil misincorporation, impairing DNA synthesis and genomic instability. Global hypomethylation of DNA is a characteristic of early carcinogenesis. Thus, if not adequately replaced, VD may inadvertently lead to cancers [20]. Wu et al found that blood B12 levels were substantially lower in menopausal and postmenopausal breast cancer patients, and patients with the lowest B12 levels had an elevated risk of breast cancer [21]. Reduced B12 levels have also been linked to an increased risk of cervical and gastrointestinal tract malignancies [22-24]. As a result, B12 supplementation is imperative for vegans due to the extensive and irreversible detrimental effects of the deficiencies.

Vitamin D, calcium, bone mineral density, and risk of fractures

Numerous studies have shown that vegans consume insufficient calcium and vitamin D, not only owing to the absence of dairy products but also due to calcium bioavailability problems in plant-based diets [28]. Vitamin D insufficiency exacerbates calcium shortage further owing to impaired intestinal absorption. After adjusting for socioeconomic variables, lifestyle covariates, and body mass index (BMI), a recent study reported that as compared to meat-eaters, there was an increased risk of hip fractures observed in vegetarians (HR 1.25; CI 1.04-1.50), vegans (2.31; 1.66-3.22), and fish eaters (1.26; 1.02-1.54) [29]. Vegans also had a greater incidence of overall fracture (1.43; 1.20-1.70), leg fractures (2.05; 1.23-3.41), and fractures in other major sites (1.59; 1.02-2.50). The higher risk of fractures may be related to vegans' significantly lower calcium intake, reduced dietary protein intake, and lower BMI [30-32].
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

The Impact of a Vegan Diet on Many Aspects of Health: The Overlooked Side of Veganism

Vegetarianism in any of its various forms, particularly veganism, has been increasing in popularity over the past few years, especially among the young population in the United States. While several studies have shown that a vegan diet (VD) decreases ...
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
 
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