Has Anyone Eaten Meat After Being Veg?

[jesscarmel]

Hi

I have not eaten meat/fish since the age of eight and my naturopath is recommending i try some meat due to my low iron and low adrenal functioning. i was going to start with a little chicken- has anyone tried meat after so long...will i get sick? feel wierd?

any insihgt would be great!

thanks

Jess

[Ann1231]

Hi

I have not eaten meat/fish since the age of eight and my naturopath is recommending i try some meat due to my low iron and low adrenal functioning. i was going to start with a little chicken- has anyone tried meat after so long...will i get sick? feel wierd?

any insihgt would be great!

thanks

Jess

YES! I was vegetarian for years but couldn't get my blood sugar under control. I was also anemic. I started with fish and had terrible burping (sorry). I then tried chicken. It went much easier. I only had a few bites at a time but within a week or so started feeling better. I have added some beef (not much though), lots of seafood and chicken. I feel so much better. My blood counts have all improved too. It took me a week or two more for the mental aspect of eating meat than the physical. I don't think I'll go back to vegetarian even though it seems tempting at times. I feel much stronger, more alert, mood is much better, etc. with the way I'm eating now. I'm eating a paleo style, meats, vegetables and fruit. It's the best I've felt in years.

Of course you may feel totally different but this has been my experience.

Best of luck to you!!

Ann

[RiceGuy]

I tried some meats once or twice after just a few years of avoiding them. They tasted disgusting and I felt physically awful too. I had originally eliminated them from my diet because I felt better when I didn't eat them, and the quality from the markets was getting worse and worse anyway.

For iron, proteins, etc, I eat legumes, nuts, seeds, and dark leafy greens like spinach and such. Take note that iron absorption is multiplied up to six fold when accompanied with adequate amounts of vitamin C.

Here are some good articles to consider:

Iron:

Open Original Shared Link

[hez]

I do not have personal experience but my mom was a vegie for a while. When she started eating meat again it did not always sit well with her. It took several months for this "feeling" to go away. Keep in mind she was not dx as celiac yet so that might have had something to do with it as well. Hope you find better health with or without it!

Hez

[AndreaB]

We were veg or vegan for 8 years.

We've added meat back in due to all our intolerances. Amazingly we didn't have any problems picking back up on meat products. We buy our beef and chicken from www.uswellnessmeats.com

Wonderful meat.....100% grass fed.

Start out slow just in case though.

BTW, we all feel much better eating meat than not eating it. I really think it depends on each person. Some do better with, some do better without.....you have to listen to your body.

[jesscarmel]

thanks for everyone reponses. i'm also blood type O which is supposed to eat meat. i hate meat, it grosses me out but im gonna try and see- maybe i wnot feel exhausted all the time.

thanks

[key]

I feel for you. I haven't eaten meat ever in my life, but now that I can't eat SO many things and I am so sick of the stuff I do eat after two years, I have seriously considered it. I just wouldn't have a clue how to cook it. Plus, I am scared my body wouldn't know what to do with it. Beans don't seem to agree with me very well and that is what I have been eating alot of the past two years. Goodluck trying it and let us know how it goes.

Monica

[RiceGuy]

Beans don't seem to agree with me very well and that is what I have been eating alot of the past two years.

What kinds of bean and/or bean products have you tried?

[luvs2eat]

My middle daughter didn't eat meat for probably 10 years. She wasn't a strict vegetarian, but simply didn't eat meat. Not too long after she was diagnosed, she began to eat it again, fearing she couldn't get the protein she needed. It didn't take her long to begin saying, "Man... I missed this stuff!!"

[gfp]

I was a pretty lax vegetarian for a couple of years.... my girlfriend was so I only ate meat viviting parents etc.

I had a friend that was vegetarian strictly for 7....

I think if you think its disgusting its going to sit badly... regardless...

As an example I always haten fish, especially fishy-fish (if that makes any sense) but after diagnosis I ended up eating sushi...

First few times I really gagged... it was a struggle to just keep it down and after it felt like lead...

I'd say the main thing is quality meat/fish in small amounts... better a little organic beef than a burger or steak of supermarket meat?

Overall I'd say why not just gradually introduce it as a subsistute in your normal veggie diet...

A little in a stir-fry instead of a steak .... some chicken in a fajita with LOTS of vegetables. etc. ??

We require amazingly little meat to get our daily dose... of proteins... so I don't think either the standard meat 3 times a day or strict vegan is healthy .. rather sometihng inbetween in moderation...

Personally now I tend to eat meat once a day... sometimes a huge steak but sometimes just a bit of chicken in a risotto or something... So instead of making meat meals make meals with some meat???

[Felidae]

thanks for everyone reponses. i'm also blood type O which is supposed to eat meat. i hate meat, it grosses me out but im gonna try and see- maybe i wnot feel exhausted all the time.

thanks

For me, I buy organic free-range chicken and my conscious feels better about it. First, if you can afford it, organic tastes really great. Second, at least I know they had a quality life before they went to market. I only buy one or two chickens a month. This gives us three meals of chicken. Then I make stock/soup with the leftover carcasses. I also eat fish and shellfish.

I tried beef after not eating it for many years and I didn't like the taste anymore. Even though I like pork, I just can't bring myself to eat it anymore.

[Nancym]

Start slowly! Your body needs to gear up to produce the proper enzymes to digest the meat. Might take a couple of weeks to adapt.

I was once vegetarian, had horrible problems with blood sugar. Would probably be diabetic by now if I'd kept it up. I'm finding the Paleo diet is doing me a lot of good.

[brendygirl]

I ate red meat when my boyfriend said, "Baby, there's nothing on this menu you can have!"I ate steak strips on a salad. (It was late at night and I hadn't eaten all day, so a salad wasn't going to cut it.)My stomach hurt.

And since then, I've eaten it once or twice a week with NO problems.

I only eat good quality steak and good quality ground beef, and pork ribs.

It was weird cooking it, to be honest.

btw-- b4 dx, when iron was too low to give blood- I was perplexed since I ate so many dark green veggies, and do you know what the blood bank people tell you to eat to raise iron? CREAM of WHEAT!! It has TONS more iron per gram than any meat or veggie!! I ate it, was so sick(didn't know about celiac yet), but my iron skyrocketed in just a few weeks!

[jesscarmel]

so i had a few pieces of chicken last night- just two bites really was all i could handle mentally. i didnt get any weird stomach aches so thats good. i guess ill slowly just increase it to three bites and then four bites- it tastes so weird!!

[jerseyangel]

so i had a few pieces of chicken last night- just two bites really was all i could handle mentally. i didnt get any weird stomach aches so thats good. i guess ill slowly just increase it to three bites and then four bites- it tastes so weird!!

Glad at least it didn't make you feel sick

I went about 10 years only eating chicken or turkey occasionally. No red meats at all--I was prettty strict with it. When I tried steak for the first time after that, it tasted odd--very strong and the texture took some getting used to again.

I'm glad I went back to eating meat because since I've been gluten-free, I can't tolerate plant proteins at all.

I think your plan is a good one--go slowly and carefully to see how different things sit.

[kbtoyssni]

I just started eating meat again after five years of being veggie. I find that meat sits well in my stomach. I never feel sick after eating it. Veggies and grains do not always sit well, I think because they're harder for the body to digest. It's frustrating because I want to not eat meat, but I know it won't make me sick and on days when my stomach is already upset, I don't want to eat a bunch of veggies and make it worse. I do buy free range/hormone free.

Oh, the one meat that doesn't sit well is beef. That always seems to upset the stomach so I don't eat it. Chicken, turkey, fish, etc seem to be ok.

[Teacher1958]

Groan...I'm dealing with this right now. I've been a vegetarian for 30 years, but with my current problems, I am running out of foods to eat. Several of my friends have been suggesting that I should start eating meat again, but I just can't imagine it. I'm not a radical vegetarian by any stretch (one of my friends is a deer hunter), but when I visualize eating meat again, I just picture myself throwing up all over the place. My vegetarianism is real tied into my identity, plus I have a real aversion to meat. I am going to try eggs this weekend, though. Maybe that will be enough.

[GeoffCJ]

I credit eating meat again for helping me figure out my Celiac!

I had been vegan/vegetarian/pescatarian (in that order) for 12 years, and been having celiac symptoms for about as long. Last September, while in England, I fell off the wagon when a favorite aunt made a favorite child hood meat dish. Loved it.

Starting eating meat again, a few weeks or a month after returning, went on the South Beach diet to lose weight, something I'd never consider before because I thought it would be too hard as a vegetarian. Lot's of things started feeling better. One thing leads to another, and I figure out the Celiac and get diagnosed.

My wife likes to joke about the 3 weeks she's known me where I could order anything on the menu.

[Nancym]

What's so funny is how I remember eating vegetarian things that were meant to taste like meat. You'd think it'd be just a quick hop back to real meat...