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Thread: question for vegetarians/ vegans

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    Default question for vegetarians/ vegans

    Hey, so I saw this PETA documentary and I can't eat meat anymore (again). I swear, I'm such a jumbly mess of sensitivity these days the TV could convince me of nearly any evil. But I used to be vegetarian for ethical reasons, and I never really changed my mind...I just thought of myself as 'morally failing' for two years.

    But I also quit because I got very very sick. My lips were actually almost blue, and I couldn't walk a flight of stairs. I needed all these B12 and Iron needles, which hurt so much. The doctor couldn't believe that a person got so anemic after six months of vegetarianism (I was tested for anemia the year before, and was fine). I mean, it's possible the correlation was a coincidence, but going back to meat kept the anemia at bay. So maybe not. I also pop vitamins once in a while that are iron and b12 fortified.

    So what do you guys do in order to avoid anemia? I know it doesn't happen to everyone. My friend ate crap the whole time as a vegetarian, and she was always fine...whereas I did kind of try to get a balanced veggie meal (fortified soy milk was not enough, apparently). So it's probably at least a little individual...I looked on PETA for advice, but it was sparse. Or I wasn't looking in the right place. Are daily vitamins sufficient? Iron pills tend to hurt my stomach. Is there a way to make palafer more palatable? I've also heard about brewer's yeast for B12? How do you eat that stuff?

    Thanks a bunch! I mean, the doctor told me when I got sick before that monthly b12 shot would keep me alfoat, along with the palafer pills. She never said 'eat meat again'. I wouldn't be wholely against that route, but I'd rather something more natural if possible.

  2. #2
    Yekhefah
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    Default Re: question for vegetarians/ vegans

    Some people's nutritional needs can be met on a vegetarian diet, and others' can't. Blood type is a pretty good indicator; if you're an O-type, then a veggie diet simply may not work for you. I'm an A and I was a vegetarian, ate pretty much whatever I felt like for 12 years and never needed a single B-12 supplement. But if you got that sick, then you may want to keep some meat in your diet.

    You don't have to eat the nasty factory meat. You could eat kosher meat, which is raised humanly and slaughtered painlessly with a keen eye toward ethics. Or you could make friends with a hunter who shoots wild-caught meat.

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    Default Re: question for vegetarians/ vegans

    Hummm...I had heard that. I'm O-positive. I'll consider those other options...Really, it's the cruelty that bothers me. But if I don't need meat, then I'd like to avoid it. I'll have to do more research to figure it out. There are so many different sources out there on the subject.

  4. #4
    Gypsy74
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    Default Re: question for vegetarians/ vegans

    I was anemic BEFORE I went vegetarian and actually became healthier and am no longer anemic because I've become more conscious of nutrition. If you get Emergen-C multivitamin strawberry flavored vitamin stuff...it has lots of B vitamins- I drink 2 packets a day, first thing in the morning. That's really all I need to stay healthy- I manage to get enough protein and iron. The reason a lot of vegetarians get sick is because they don't eat enough leafy green vegetables, lentils, beans (other than soy) and nuts.

    Brazil nuts are a good source of selenium and B12
    Acai berries are really healthy- they contain amino acids and calcium

    eh.... idk. I could type more but I'm tired. Go to the health food store and wander around, there's so much.

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    God/dess sxybrat07's Avatar
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    Default Re: question for vegetarians/ vegans

    What were you eating before? Maybe you're missing something that you should be eating to get the vitamins.
    I believe you Dottie and you have my support

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    God/dess RoseWhite's Avatar
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    Default Re: question for vegetarians/ vegans

    I'm O positive too, and a vegetarian diet has always worked well for me as long as I keep the starch down (but that's more for weight management than anything else). I'm not fully vegetarian at the moment, as my babe seems to need poultry and fish (I know it's possible to have a vegetarian pregnancy, I just feel it's not right for me) - I'm VERY careful to get them from sources that treat their chickens as ethically as possible. I've spent most of my adult life as a vegetarian, though, if you'll excuse the occasional sushi fix.

    Anyway, once again Yek & I get to trumpet the virtues of TOFU! It does actually have a good amount of iron; one of several reasons not just vegetarians but vegans depend on it as a staple. Get to know it! It's not as scary as you think!

    http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?t...spice&dbid=111

    Soybeans themselves are great too - in edamame form or as soaked beans to add to chilis and such. Spinach is also chock full of it, as are lentils (man, I love a really good lentil soup!). Those are just a few, and ones that I happen to enjoy.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vegetarian_nutrition#Iron
    http://www.vrg.org/nutrition/iron.htm
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    God/dess pookie's Avatar
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    Default Re: question for vegetarians/ vegans

    I don't know my blood type, but all i know is that the vegetarian diet was the best choice i ever made




  8. #8
    Yekhefah
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    Default Re: question for vegetarians/ vegans

    Yeah, I'm going vegetarian again. I just don't trust the meat supply anymore, and I was happier and healthier as a vegetarian. Looked better with a slimmer figure and clearer skin, too.

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    God/dess pookie's Avatar
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    Default Re: question for vegetarians/ vegans

    I stopped eating all seafood when i was a child. i love aquatic life and hate the taste of all sea food. I went full on veg right before i turn 15. i am a very strict vegematarian. Some of my bf's family don't quite understand it, but, i don't care, its my choice.




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    Default Re: question for vegetarians/ vegans

    I drink silk soy milk which is fortified with b12. Very Vanilla flavor is sooo good especially in coffee. I also take an iron pill 2x a day with juice. Vitamin C helps absorb the iron by 3x as much. You can get a bottle of 1000 at the pharmacy for like 20$. Its very cheap.

  11. #11
    Pamela
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    Default Re: question for vegetarians/ vegans

    I went Vegan it's hard shit to do...SO, i am back to vegetarian. Hell i can't find Vegan shoes that last long enough etc.

    I have to say anyone who is a noob at going Vegeterian needs a good book about the foods. Every food has a different function in our bodies and will supply us with a nutritional value. Of course followed by a mult-vitamin. I also take iron during my periods.

    I lost lots of weight being vegetarian. Feel better too. But i had to read about this change first. I was doing it all wrong at first.

    I checked into PETA years ago. They are not for me. But they still help many open their eyes to the meat industry. Which imo is a good thing.

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    Default Re: question for vegetarians/ vegans

    ^^Pamela, I know you do not like PETA, but is there a veg group that you prefer?

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    Default Re: question for vegetarians/ vegans

    Although I love being vegan and vegetarian, and have spent a majority of my life as one or the other, I do find I need occasional animal matter in my diet.
    Like mentioned above, kosher meat is a good option. Part of the kosher slaughter is the person doing it must realize that they are taking an animal's life, and I think that's pretty cool.

    I take this stuff called Gentle Iron to prevent my anemia. I find it at health food stores. It's pretty good stuff, I highly recommend it.

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    God/dess Jenny's Avatar
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    Default Re: question for vegetarians/ vegans

    Are you vegan? Because a person needs so little b12, a piece of cheese should pretty much do it. Or an egg. Probably half an egg. I know you have a whackload of dietary issues, though. As for iron - molasses is meant to be good. Even for meat eaters only something like 20% of iron comes from meat.

    If you can't get enough B12 or iron through a reasonably healthy vegetarian diet and supplements (vitamin b complex pills will make your hair very pretty and your urine bright fluorescent orange) then there is something else wrong with you - you have absorption problems or parasite or something happening in that digestion tract. Ultimately, however, if you can't fix that and you need meat to be healthy, I think you should eat it. You can seek out free range cows. Like in the Happy Cows Make Good Cheese commercials.
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  15. #15
    Pamela
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    Default Re: question for vegetarians/ vegans

    Quote Originally Posted by bellasera View Post
    ^^Pamela, I know you do not like PETA, but is there a veg group that you prefer?
    Not anymore. But PETA used to send me little Vegetarian meal ideas. And how to get all the nutrients you need to live healthy while being a Vegetarian. I also hit the library, and my mother is diabetic and is vegetarian so she helped a ton with her nutritionist. Being Vegan i got a ton load of crap about my clothes (hey i love leather) and such....that goes a tad over the top for me. Eating Vegan was easy....living the life is very hard indeed going it 100%!

    If you find a group let me know.

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    Default Re: question for vegetarians/ vegans

    Thanks for all the info everyone! It does help. I hate to sound like a defeatist whiner, but my only other issue is that there are a whole whack of things I simply can't digest because I have loser spastic guts/ colon. I'm on pills for it, and drink lots of fennel tea, but this only goes so far...Things like lots of leafy greens and insoluble fibre shread me into painful bits for the very reasons that they ARE good for you...It's hard to explain, but things that take a long time to digest are healthy for functional guts, but problematic for sensitivities. So I can have little bits of salad, spinach, broccolli, soy, and edamame, but not so much.

    However, it was veganism that made me so ill I suspect. After only three months of it I could barely breath. My mom has bad anemia too, and always has (and she eats meat)...we don't absorb things well. She actually had to get a hysterectomy because getting her period was too much iron loss. However, I think if I wrote an email to Princeton and asked Peter Singer if my special issues made me morally exempt, he'd tell me to suck it up and bite the utilitarian bullet (if he answered me...you know, hypothetically).

    So anyway. I always drank lots of fortified soy milk, but that didn't cut it. However I could certainly try a bit harder, take things with vitamin C to increase absorption, and just stick to the eggs and cheese version of veggie. That wasn't too bad.

    And if after six months I get sick again, I'll just re-evaluate. There are way too many rabbits and deer around here. I could maybe just learn to hunt my own game, and then at least I know they'd led a relatively good, normal life.

  17. #17
    Pamela
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    Default Re: question for vegetarians/ vegans

    Wow hun. Yea it will be kinda tough when you have an illness.

    If you don't want to support the slaughter of food animals, hunting is a good alternative, many people here in Fl. do this. But becaue they like to hunt.

    I bet there would be a support forum for you out there. I may try and hunt one up if i did not have to keep logging off for work.

    Eat what you need. Don't eat what makes you feel uncomfortable.

    Maybe a nutritionist? They are great imo.

    Much luck.

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    Default Re: question for vegetarians/ vegans

    Did you watch I Am an Animal? The Ingrid Newkirk doc? That was pretty great, especially her will. That' woman is fucking outrageous.

    I'm all about supporting the grassfed humane farmers, and like Jenny said, it doesn't take a lot. Like, you wouldn't have to eat meat daily or anything.

  19. #19
    Pamela
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    Default Re: question for vegetarians/ vegans

    Quote Originally Posted by Susan Wayward View Post
    Did you watch I Am an Animal? The Ingrid Newkirk doc? That was pretty great, especially her will. That' woman is fucking outrageous.

    I'm all about supporting the grassfed humane farmers, and like Jenny said, it doesn't take a lot. Like, you wouldn't have to eat meat daily or anything.
    Tried not too. She want's one of her eyes sent to the CDC? Okay!
    Oh and her body be a barbeque and pieces sent to varies places.

    It's extreme imo. But we all have our ways of doing things.

    But what i see, is everything PETA stands against, this woman will be doing with her own dead body. I know it's to make a point she says. But hrmmm, whew, whoa...she's out there doing this. And PETA has never been known to be a group who is not extreme, so yea...i can see her doing this. Wow!
    Friggin ramblin....what to say....Yea she's out there!

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    Default Re: question for vegetarians/ vegans

    If you wanna be a mostly-vegetarian/vegan, you could eat a nibble of Alberta bison once a month or so. Being vegetarian/vegan doesn't have to be about giving yourself hard limits...if you're cutting out animal-eating for moral reasons and can't fathom ever eating a living thing again, that's cool, but if you feel you can be ethical and still eat some (free range, non-hormonated) bison (or other such easy-to-find safe meat) in rare circumstances, it doesn't make you less of a veggie.

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    Default Re: question for vegetarians/ vegans

    Quote Originally Posted by Pamela View Post
    Tried not too. She want's one of her eyes sent to the CDC? Okay!
    Well, the EPA, actually. You thought that was the strangest? For me it's the human barbecue, hands down.

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    Default Re: question for vegetarians/ vegans

    Well, here we go. A great tacky old expression is, "why cut off your nose to spite your face..." You get me? I know you are trying to do something good, and I applaud that, but... if it's hurting you...it's simply not worth it. while I am an AVID animal lover, I don't believe that the life of an animal can even be compared to the life, or quality of life, of a human being.

    I do my best to buy products that are cruelty free, and I basically only shop at trader joe's and out post...

    But that said, I personally have had bouts of anemia, even while eating some meat. I am sure it *might* be possible for me to be vegetarian, but really...it would be a huge stress on my life. For me personally, it would not be worth it.

    I feel the same way for you. Since obviously you are concerned with animal rights, perhaps you should just make a promise to yourself that you will do your best to eat mainly eggs from free-range chickens, and eat meat from free range cows and pigs...

    Also, shrimp and many fish that are caught fresh, not raised in farms, are absolutely treated humanely. I would feel no qualms about eating any of these things.

    Where as, say, I would never eat KFC because of the crazy evil way the raise, breed, feed and kill their chickens. Know what I mean?
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    Default Re: question for vegetarians/ vegans

    Yeah, I did see the Ingrid Newkirk doc. I like what she said "We need to get over ourselves".

    I don't think there's anything particularly special about the human species that we need to only consider ourselves members of the moral community. I can't argue with Singer. I mean, I gasp in horror at the video of minks having their skin ripped off while they're still alive (!), and then seeing this guy crush their skull. Gah. You can hear these animals screaming and crying out. You can see the distress in their eyes, and in any case, we know they have nervous systems. So pain is pain and torture is torture, etc. I don't think that this means they should have every right a human has, obviously. They have different capabilities, etc. But factory farming is gross and evil.

    I mean, they have turkeys and cows where my horse lives. I know they eat those, but at least those turkeys and cows live fairly okay, if not great, little lives for a while. The turkeys they investigated, not so much. It's not the death that bothers me...I saw a steer shot and slaughtered when I was a kid in Alberta. I thought at the time "oh man, poor Charlie. At least he never saw it coming?"

    I actually liked Ingrid's will. I like what she said about using your body as a political instrument. After you're dead, you've got more options I guess. I liked what she said about "maybe if they smell me and think it smells like good barbecue, they'll realize it's me and freak out". It makes sense, even it's a little crazy.

    Anywhoo, I already don't eat meat that often. Like three-four times a week. So it would not be a stretch to eliminate it completely. I appreciate the opinions. It's so hard to be good, but I can try a bit harder with certain things.

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    God/dess kitty260's Avatar
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    Default Re: question for vegetarians/ vegans

    Actually, chickens only have to be out of their cages for five minutes a day to qualify as 'free range'.

    FYI.
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    Default Re: question for vegetarians/ vegans

    Molly, I feel like I'm in a similar place as you. I'm veggie right now, but I'm really struggling to eat right (and, well, eat enough, actually), because I'm so busy and have such poor meal planning skills, and I'm not doing so well. As others have suggested, try looking up books at the library on a healthy veg. diet. I'm probably going to be doing the same soon.

    I feel that if you do your best to avoid cruelty, that's all that matters. None of us are perfect. If someone is able to go vegan and keep a healthy diet, then awesome! But if you can't manage that (probably not too many who can easily do that...), do the best you can. Even if you can't completely get rid of your animal product or meat intake. By reducing the amount of animal products, or opting for organic free-range products, or better yet, eating hunted meat or meat from a local small family farm, you're still doing something about it. Don't beat yourself up for having to eat meat sometimes, but do try to be aware of where it came from and how the animals were treated. I wish you luck hun!

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