My Beef with being Vegetarian - I've gained almost 20 pounds since becoming a Vegetarian

2nd that. This list is exactly what my nutritionist has me on minus the meat except for chicken and salmon. Losing 1 lb a week. Good thing I saved those old pants :).

enlighten me wrote:

Meat eaters have vitamin B12 deficencies too because of our water purification and factory farming methods.

Please show me the crackpot theory that explains what water purification has to do with vitamin B12 deficiency. I need a laugh.

I have been eating mostly vegan for 6 months and lost 15 pounds. That's down to 115 from 130, so not an easy thing. All while feeling full. I had struggled earlier with dieting which mostly didn't work for me.

Everyone's different, but on average vegans are thinner.

The key is to make your diet MOSTLY WHOLE PLANTS.

Honestly there are substitute foods, like vegan cheesecakes, ice creams, junk, etc that taste amazing but be careful. They will make you fat.

And yes, vegans are recommended to take a B12. Used to be in the water or dirty food, which we no longer have.

Also...

Eating vegetarian without meat, will have the same nutritional value of basically eating meat. Cheese and eggs are expanders of waistline.

Racey Lady wrote:

I have been eating mostly vegan for 6 months and lost 15 pounds. That's down to 115 from 130, so not an easy thing. All while feeling full. I had struggled earlier with dieting which mostly didn't work for me.

Everyone's different, but on average vegans are thinner.

The key is to make your diet MOSTLY WHOLE PLANTS.

Honestly there are substitute foods, like vegan cheesecakes, ice creams, junk, etc that taste amazing but be careful. They will make you fat.

And yes, vegans are recommended to take a B12. Used to be in the water or dirty food, which we no longer have.

Just gotta love the vegan "dirty food" hypothesis. It's like the Virgin Birth with Catholics, useful to screen out those who aren't gullible Kool-Aid guzzlers with no rational capability. But why spend on B12 supplements when presumably you have plenty of dirt in your backyard, or even a flower pot?

6 months and you "feel full"....full of useless fiber that is.

Get back to us when your extended low-nutrient fast (the worst form of fasting there is in the long-term other than forced starvation) reaches 6 years....

Vegans live longer.

Not sure why this annoys people.

Racey Lady wrote:

Vegans live longer.

Not sure why this annoys people.

No they don't. But it is true that few people actually die while vegan, since a major health crisis usually forces them to eat animal products before they actually die. Although some cut it pretty close:

The longest-lived population on Earth also has the highest per capita meat consumption. That doesn't annoy me at all.

No response from the vegan extremists... Typical.

Militant veganism kills more per year than the coronavirus. Look it up.

YMMV wrote:

The longest-lived population on Earth also has the highest per capita meat consumption. That doesn't annoy me at all.

Citation needed.

If humans were always 'vegan,' we would not have advanced much beyond the state we were in thousands of years ago, and the earth would have been a moonscape thanks to a massive population of grazing animals wiping it out.

It's entirely possible that large-scale efforts of eradicating problematic cows or whatever to retain grasslands and/or root vegetable cultivation would have had us in the same 'cruel' state - of slaughtering cows. Only, this wouldn't have led to nutritional advancement and development of our brains, but still would have stunted our growth through excessive consumption of fruits and vegetables.

We would have wasted away, much like the "old" vegans you see to this very day.

YMMV wrote:

https://www.carnivoreisvegan.com/hong-kong-long-life-eat-meat/

The reason why countries that eat more meat on average live longer is because of wealth. The highest meat-eating countries tend to be the wealthiest with better healthcare and sanitation. People aren't dying in India because they are vegetarian, they are dying from diseases from lack of sanitary water, and lack of healthcare because per capita the country is poor. Once you control for wealth the trend goes away. Also Uraguay eats the most meat per capita followed by Argentina. Hong Kong is in third.

Crooked Hillary wrote:

I commend you for trying. The suffering and mistreatment of animals bothers me too, but I didn’t have enough willpower to go off meat.

Healthier or not, it’s a shame that so few care about mistreating animals.

Not trying to trigger new debate, but wanted to give an update...

Out of health concerns, I reverted to eating meat not longer after posting this thread (over a year ago).

My health improved and energy levels went way up.

I lost all the gained weight (and then some).

There are clearly vegetarians/vegans who manage a healthy lifestyle, but for me it was a failed year-long experiment.