My fifteen years as a vegetarian was a mistake. For me. I now realize that having gone back to eating meat. Which I find has had enormous health benefits for me in even this brief period of time. And I'm of the mind that my vegetarian diet had a lot to do with some of my medical issues around the time of my first weight loss.
I've given the vegetarian diet a good turn. Fifteen years is a long time. But it just doesn't work for me. Going vegetarian while remaining in the basic American cuisine groups; American, Italian, Mexican, just doesn't make any sense. The vegetarian options in those cuisines are diet busters chock full of carbs and fat. The only tenable vegetarian diets I can see that might work for me would be all Indian food, or a full-on Vegan style whole grains, steamed rice and tons of legumes and tofu affair. And both of those options just don't work for me.
One of the reasons I initially went vegetarian was to get out of a cycle of daily lethargy that had sunk into my life. I felt really slow after consuming beef, so I blamed that. I did feel transiently better, but that could have been psychosomatic. I think the real problem was that I wasn't getting any exercise at the time. Now being back on a consistent exercise schedule, and being off caffeine, I have a nice energy arc through the day.
On the social conscience aspect of vegetarianism. Let me first say that my primary reason for being a vegetarian was health. And it was only after reading books like Fast Food Nation, that I found another good reason for being a vegetarian. But... I'm still going to eat meat anyway. Though I despise the factory farming techniques used to create the meats for McDonalds and the rest of the chains. I just won't eat at those chains. In fact, I'm pretty picky about where I eat. I prefer Mom and Pop local places, which I think pay more attention to their food products.
Obviously I speak from only my personal perspective. I think everyone has different body types and so different diet requirements. But for me, I'll be staying with meat for a while.
So, all in all; what a shame. But at least I'm a big enough man to know when I was wrong, admit that I made a mistake, and hope that other people can learn from it.
Posted by jherr at February 8, 2007 04:56 PMI work in labor and delivery, and see the problems caused by vegetarian diets during pregnancy--preterm labor, low birth weight, pre-eclampsia. It's very difficult to eat a "balanced" diet while eliminating what is, evolutionarily, a main food source for our species.
The problems usually arise in educated women who can afford food--not the "usual" malnourished population--but were not raised vegetarian. In other words, the Hindu woman eating what her grandmother ate is fine, but the vegan wearing Stella McCartney shoes isn't getting enough protein.
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