To be or not to be Veg?

[Nibbles_NZ]

So for a while now, meat kind of grosses me out. Not all meat but most. I grew up without a choice. I come from a big family and not one of them is a vegetarian. I guess I just got used to eating it and don’t really know how to cook without it. Anyway, I googled veg recipes and came across some pretty bad info and a video of a chicken factory and well, that ruined chicken for me. Then, I sat to dinner and couldn’t eat it (beef). I ordered a vegetarian starter information kit. I know I can’t just cut meat out completely or I will never switch so I am just wanting to add a lot more veg meals into my families diet. I don’t know what is good! What veggie burgers are good? Do you really eat beans mostly for protein? I don’t really care for peanut butter and I can’t eat beans everyday. Do I need some vitamins for myself and are flintstones vitamins enough for my kids? Also, I know it sounds bad but since I never had a choice I wanted my kids to have a choice so I explained to my 5 year old that meat is animals and that she has a choice of whether she wants to eat it or not. She decided not to of course. I left it at that. I didn’t give her any details or put any scary images into her head. What are some good veg sites and recipes?

[blackfang]

Morning Stars and Boca are popular companies that most vegetarians like to eat.

If you like flavor burgers, then go for Morning Stars company! I love to eat mushroom lover burger from Morning Star!

If you like to eat plain burger then go for Boca. You can buy big packet of it in Sam’s Club or Costo for cheaper.

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Morning stars provide plenty of veggie meatless for breakfast such as sausage links. (Just in case if you are one of early bird)

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Umm, no you dont have to eat beans every day or every other day. Last time I ate beans was like two months ago.

There are plenty of way to get proteins for vegetarians. Tofu, veggie meatless, and almost all vegetables/fruits DO have proteins.

Protein isn’t issue. The only issue is B12.
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Well if you want to take vitamin pills, then go for it.
I was vegetarian for eight years and never took vitamin pills.
My doctor found out that I was vegetarian for long time and made big deal about it. I have to take a shot so He can analyze my blood to see if I was doing okay so far.
It turned out that I am still doing okay so far. lol
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Sorry, I never look through veg recipes. I just made my own recipe from scratch.
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Feel free to ask more, looking forward to help you out

[Monkeybun]

I would suggest NOT go all out vegetarian, at least for the kids. Especially at that young of an age, a B12 deficiency sucks big time. I had to have B12 injections daily when I was younger, it isn’t any fun. So if you do go veg, at least cook non-veg for the kids until they are older. That is my 2 cents.

[blackfang]

Well, B12 deficiency isn’t sucks big time if you research enough.

You can get B12 from soy milk, butter, eggs and more..

[Nibbles_NZ]

I am not going to cut meat out completely. My Husband really likes it and doesn’t care for veggies too much. He works odd hours and isn’t home for most meals so he doesn’t care what we eat. I don’t think it would really make a big difference for my kids. I have a terrible time getting them to eat meat. Hot dogs and sometimes chicken is about as far as they go. I don’t give them hot dogs too much. YUK! They take vitamins and so far, my almost 3 year old has a small iron dif. She loves spinach though so that takes care of that I don’t think I am going to switch the milk. They eat eggs pretty good and they really like peanut butter and beans. I will get a good B12. Thanks Taurus.

[LoveChaCha]

Fish?
It is delicous.. yum yum. Fish is good and full of vitamins and fish oil

I hate pork.
The only 2 foods I’ll eat pork with is a BLT sandwich (not often at all) or this Hawaiian dish called Kahula Pork

[Lintini]

If I could find a way where I could live on a avocado only diet I would be in heaven. I just bought 10 at the store today to put on my salads or just to eat by themselves lol.

[Monkeybun]

Posted By Taurus on 06/29/2010 06:08 PM

Well, B12 deficiency isn’t sucks big time if you research enough.

You can get B12 from soy milk, butter, eggs and more..

 

Well, considering my mom was a nurse, she kinda knew about it. Research doesn’t always help.

[Karla]

I have a really great book on Raw Food – it says you can only get B12 from meat and faeces. Apparently, there were some vegetarians in Israel in a kibbutz that had no lack of B12, which puzzled researchers. Until they found out, that the people in the kibbutz used faeces as fertilizers on the veggies

I take my vitamin supplements every day, I would do that even if I ate meat and drank milk just to be on the safe side.

[Kokaneeandkahlua]

So for a while now, meat kind of grosses me out. Not all meat but most. I grew up without a choice. I come from a big family and not one of them is a vegetarian. I guess I just got used to eating it and don’t really know how to cook without it. Anyway, I googled veg recipes and came across some pretty bad info and a video of a chicken factory and well, that ruined chicken for me. Then, I sat to dinner and couldn’t eat it (beef). I ordered a vegetarian starter information kit. I know I can’t just cut meat out completely or I will never switch so I am just wanting to add a lot more veg meals into my families diet. I don’t know what is good! What veggie burgers are good? Do you really eat beans mostly for protein? I don’t really care for peanut butter and I can’t eat beans everyday. Do I need some vitamins for myself and are flintstones vitamins enough for my kids? Also, I know it sounds bad but since I never had a choice I wanted my kids to have a choice so I explained to my 5 year old that meat is animals and that she has a choice of whether she wants to eat it or not. She decided not to of course. I left it at that. I didn’t give her any details or put any scary images into her head. What are some good veg sites and recipes?

OK I’m no doctor, and everything I’m sharing is my personal experience and opinion.

First the veg starter kit is good, but it’s from peta right? It’s mostly propaghanda..imho. It’s a make you vegan kit really.

Anyways i just went veg through full will, just I can’t do this anymore. My cousin finally followed in my footsteps (she was a HUGE meat eater, and proclaimed at six she was going to be vegetarian just like me, but only inbetween meals….)-my family is big into cooking and meat eating. ANd my boyfriend only eats meat…really-he eats rice, bread, corn, iceburg lettuce and like corn and potatoes lol -seriously ridiculous.

I’d say go for it, if you cheat -fine. But as someone who was big into meat and big into bacon-I mean I was a scrawn who ate three chili burgers with bacon on a dare-I did it

I just want to say:

1) It’s YOUR choice
2) It’s NOT hard.

Their are so many meat substitutes out now, that are so much better then they were. Remember that subs are not to taste the same, but so that you can go to a BBQ or a dinner and eat the same as everyone else ( a veggie dog or buger as opposed to some complicated salad)-that DONT taste the same, but they taste good enough and are packed with vitamins-they are great for you And it’s not that big of a sacrifice-especially if you are already grossed out.

 

In terms of supliments…really you don’t need any. Most north americans have up to ten times the protein they need, and lacking in no vitamins and minerals. If you go ovo-lacto-vegetarian (eggs and milk no meat) you have nothing to worry about. If you go vegan, you want to be more careful. Also don’t go veg by elimination totally (ie. order food without meat)-order veggie stuff and cook veggie stuff. You’ll be fine-even with anemia most veggies get more iron then meat eaters!

NOT to say that you have to do this, I think it’s important to respect choice. It’s totally up to you

[Sage Cat]

There are loads of Vegetarian food blogs out there that will give you some really good tips on becoming more vegetarian.
A fun way to find food blogs is to check out TasteSpotting. it is a “food porn” site – beautiful photos, click on the photo and you will be taken to the post about it.

If you are going to still include some meats, you might want to look into the “Mediterranean Diet”. Check this out: http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/mediterranean-diet/CL00011

Best of luck!

[Nibbles_NZ]

Thanks everyone! I have to admit, I do cheat on some things. I do like chicken. Even though that video I saw was of chickens and it ruined chicken for me for a little while. I just really like it. I won’t switch milk because well, it costs enough to keep milk in my house as my family goes through it pretty fast. The other milk is more expensive. I won’t give eggs up, even though I personally hate the taste of eggs. I do cook with them. My girls love yogurt and cottage cheese so those stay lol. Cheese! I love cheese. Can’t give that up. So I am just going to slowly descrease the amount of meat my family eats. I got some garden green beans and potatoes to put in the crock pot. YUM. My Mom said it would be really good if I put a roast in there and I was grossed out by that. I used to love cheeseburger but I’ll be halfway through it and then it hits me that I am forcing myself to eat it. I’ve always been wierd about pork. I am always so scared to eat it or feed it to my family because you can get really sick from it if it is under cooked. I am a worry wart about that stuff. I could go veg no problem. I really don’t eat that much meat anyway. It’s the chicken. lol I am having a hard time giving that one up. Everything else can go.

[Monkeybun]

Stock up on supplements for the kids

[leyley904]

Well, I went to a dietician, and it helped me understand everything a lot better. I would really suggest it. My dietician happened to be veg for health reasons. If you eat the right way as a vegetarian, its actually healthier than eating meat.

B12 is what you get from eating meat because its something in the intestines of animals. I have these B12 tablets call “sublingual dots” which basically means they melt under your tongue (correct me if I’m wrong). Though I can’t even remember the last time I’ve taken one. Anemia is something that occurs when you don’t have enough B12. I’ve always had issues with iron deficiency causing anemia. Nothing to do with B12 levels. Special K and some other cereals actually make it into the top 10 B12 foods for meat eaters. If you do eat fish, trout and herring have lots of B12.
http://www.vegetarian-nutrition.info/positions/english/b12-vegetarian.php
http://www.healthaliciousness.com/articles/Top-5-Natural-Vegetarian-sources-Vitamin-B12.php

Not to doubt anyone, but I don’t see how it’s so hard to get enough B12. Vegans, of corse I’d understand their problems sufficing.

I would just like to say, I do NOT eat any meat, fish, or poultry, nor do I regularly (if ever) consume many of the foods people consider “meat replacers”. Such as tofu or the actual “fake meats”. You’ll probably notice yourself reading the labels for how much protein is in this or that, it surprises me sometimes as to what has lots of protein.
http://www.womenfitness.net/protien-option.htm
For my age and weight I should be getting about 60g of protein daily. But I have no clue whatsoever as to how that amount differs from a teenager to an adult.

Also, for protein and B12, smoothies help out and are delish!
I specifically like Smoothie King, here’s a copy of their menu:
http://www.smoothieking.com/smoothies/nutritional-chart.php
There is the stuff called “whey” (listed in one of the links above) and you can ask them to add it to your smoothie for more B12 and protein.
Truthfully, it doesn’t taste all that great, just ask them to add a bit, at least at first.
Heres the menu in order of protein levels:
http://www.smoothieking.com/smoothies/nutritional-chart.php?sort=protein&direction=-1
(Oh, and if you’ve never been there, 20oz is a small, I usually can’t even finish that much. It’s huge for a small! I wouldn’t go any bigger.)

I don’t suggest you give up eggs or dairy, especially right away. I hope one day to be able to cut back a lot on how much I consume them, but not anytime soon. I hate to admit it, but chocolate milk is basically my lifeline right now! People go vegan because of the cruelty the animals recieve in the factories, no animals are being killed. Things are beginning to change. People are seeing what’s going on in these factories, and trying to stop it. There’s never going to be a nice way to kill animals for their meat, while these factories can change and the animals can live better lives. Am I making any sense?

I think you should cut out meat as much as you can for yourself. I’m only a kid myself, so I could be giving bad advice . Maybe try and sit down with your family at the beginning of the week and plan out how much meat they all want to eat that week, like… as a goal. Maybe, if your kids usually have meat 7 days a week for dinner, you could cut it back to 6 at first. Of corse you could cook less meat at each meal since you wouldn’t eat it. And if anyone says they don’t want to eat as much meat that week, you could cook even less on certain nights. The main thing is don’t waste. Try VERY hard to cook just the right amount that your family will eat, no more. Like, if there’s one burger left and one of your kids says they don’t want it because they are eating less meat with you, try to explain that it going to waste is worse than them eating it. You don’t need to do all too much searching around for veg recipes, just build off of what your family likes. How about baked potatoes? Maybe with a little bit of bacon bits on top for whoever wants it. Then you could go look up potato recipes for more variety.
This all makes sense in my head, I just can’t type it out in a way that makes…. well, that much sense.

Good luck! I hope I helped a bit. I sort of confused myself trying to type out what I’m thinking, haha!

 

Add:

You don’t need to stock up on supplements. Start out slow, don’t take things too fast. If you notice you or your kids aren’t feeling well, back up a bit, then wait at that point, then try again, slowly and try different foods. If you just can’t seem to get past a certain amount of meat in your diet, then you should go ahead and try some vitamins and supplements. Don’t go into this thinking you will need them, let it be natural, you want as little pills as possible.

When you buy fake meat for the first time, do NOT go into that first bite expecting a burger. It’s NOT, simple as that. They taste good as long as you don’t expect meat. They just have all the vitamins and such that meat has. 

Also, my latin teacher raised her little girl vegetarian from the get-go, and is pregnant and planning to do the same with this child. It’s not anymore dangerous or risky having veg children than adults. Its just the fact that kids don’t like as much food, they don’t enjoy as much variety. Her little girl had tofu as a baby, not baby food. My teacher has let her try meat, she’s not forcing her to do anything now that she can make decisions. Though she has explained where meat comes from to her. The girl doesn’t find meat appealing, and hasn’t had a bite of it except that one time.

I remember when I was deciding whether or not to cut back on meat, I felt I needed motivation. I was scared though, when you think about how you like meat, then you think about basically scaring yourself into not liking it, it’s just scary. I was scared I was going to regret it; craving meat then thinking about whatever I read or watched and feeling bad about it. Well, I watched Earthlings, and let me tell you, it’s not like that. I don’t crave meat at all (okay, maybe the occasional chicken finger or taco) but it’s not like I’m fighting with myself. It’s more like “Ugh, I wish meat didn’t come from animals” not “Ugh, I wish I’d never had watched Earthlings”. Though watching it did make me drop meat cold turkey (no pun intended). Which wasn’t the smartest, as I said, take it slowly.

My parents still think it’s a phase.  

Here’s Earthlings, the documentary I watched. It’s GRAPHIC. Like, really…

I suggest you watch it, but not until you feel you’re ready. If you want you could just listen to it first, it has some great quotes that really make you think.

http://www.earthlings.com/earthlings/video-full.php

Actually, watch this, it kind of lets you know what it’s about (it’s like trailer).

http://www.earthlings.com/earthlings/video-director.php

 

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