Vegetarian health problems?

Discussion in 'Vegetarian' started by nostradamnedus, Jan 7, 2005.

  1. nostradamnedus

    nostradamnedus Member

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    I had been an alternating vegetarian/vegan for the past 5 years of my life, but I feel that my vitality and overall health has been slowly deteriorating. I take vitamin supplements almost every day (but they do nothing but fill my body up with TOO MUCH iron), but I still felt rather enfeebled. More and more I felt anorexic and anemic.

    I know it sounds stupid, but I've given in to the whole "freegan" thing. I just simply dont know what to do. I'm a strong believer in animal rights and all, but I'm not sure if everyone is cut out physically to be vegetarian.

    I really wish I didn't have to resort to being omnivore, but I just dont know what to do. Any thoughts?
     
  2. drumminmama

    drumminmama Super Moderator Lifetime Supporter

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    I'd look at the overall content of your diet first, consider a detox and clear out to make sure you are absorbing everything.
     
  3. whispers

    whispers sweet and sour

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    yeah begin counting your calories and start a food journal ......you might be eating a lot.....but not enough high calorie foods

    what do you eat in a normal day?
     
  4. RainbowCat

    RainbowCat Senior Member

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    you can go to a doctor, but a vegetarin frendly one, obviously, if you can find it. some people just think; vegetarin = bad health

    if you have to go back to meat, go to free range, i think, i've heard it's the best. but plase PLEASE, *PLEASE* only go back to a meat eater if you MUST, a last solution type thing. dont just give up!
     
  5. nostradamnedus

    nostradamnedus Member

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    I try to eat as healthy as I possibly can. The problem is that when I was vegetarian, I ate less yet it was filling. I have a fast metabolism already, so that didn't help. So I was always hungry, but I couldn't eat as much in one sitting and it kept getting worse. Plus I started showing signs of anemia, so that too didn't encourage me. Yet when I eat meat I am not hungry as often. Yes, I was sick after introducing meat into my system...after all it has been 5 years. But I am starting to recover and feel as healthy as I've ever been (I just stopped rather recently). In fact, I try to eat only hunted/fished and family farmed meat from local grocers and co-ops. I try not to support the hormone injected, processed meat from factory farms that immobilize animals in feedlots. To this day I've never bought any meat products from the factory meat industry. I still don't plan on supporting them. I'd rather fish or eat from a family farm that doesn't confine their animals or inject them with hormones.

    Hunted and organic meat is way healther than this shit. In fact, the hunter-ganthers were probably the healthiest people in the world: heart disease, cancer, diabetes, etc. was a rairity. Also fats, protein, carbs, vitamins, antioxidants, and all other dietary needs are covered because in the omnivorous evolution of humynkind this is what people have eaten. Yes, the major processed meat industry abuses their animals. Yes, I have seen footage of animals standing in dead carcasses, shit, and piss. Like I said, I have always beleived in animals rights -- and liberation if an animal is being mistreated and abused. I've always supported the ALF acts and animal rights groups. The livestock industry overdoses their animals in horomes and fats that of course it's a health risk to humyns. They abuse these animals because of people's egotisically oppressive idea of superority, leaving the animals in squalor. This is what's ethically wrong and unhealthy with the meats that people eat, and I still feel this way to this day.

    When I was vegetarian, I didn't belive in the consuming of another sentient creature because it wasnt as evolved as a person, thus making it "lower on the food chain". Eating flesh of a creature still doesn't sound very tasty to me. Yet, deer meat has only around 3 grams of fat and roughly 130 calories. However, processed hamburger meat has 800 calories and 16 grams of fat. Some family farms are better at keeping their animals not as confined, healthier, and raise them more organically than the surrogate factory farmed meat.

    I still believe in animal rights and liberation. If I see a sick animal or an animal thats been abused or hurt in some way, I will still feed it and nuture it as I always have. I've even been known to help discarded, abused, or otherwise neglected animals have caring homes. This is just being ethical.

    Well, it's early and I'm drunk. My older brother turned 22 about 4 hours ago and we sat around a bonfire all night drinking. So sorry about the long soapbox.
     
  6. drumminmama

    drumminmama Super Moderator Lifetime Supporter

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    I chatted with a newly-non vegan when I bought my latest drum. He said he felt high from adding cheese, and friends of mine who maintain a vegan diet (not lifestyle) and occasionally add sashimi also get that rush.
    However, I saw the drum sales guy a few months later and he was horribly ill. congested, weak, toxed out.
    He went back to lacto veg and seems well these days.
     
  7. drumminmama

    drumminmama Super Moderator Lifetime Supporter

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    idea from reread of your post N,
    whats your FAT intake?
    meat has two things in abundance that slow digestion: protien and fat.
    If a highly stoked coal box is your glitch, hello Ice cream, fried samosas, eggrolls etc.
    what's your height/weight and activity level?
    I ask because my spouse has that high-high metabolism and we can't get enough food in him...oh sure and they all said wait 'til you hit 30, then 35, then 40....
     
  8. nostradamnedus

    nostradamnedus Member

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    Well, when I first started to eat meat I did feel sick. But I feel a lot better now after I have reintroduced meat to my system. It just took getting used to..I did feel congested and I even coughed up some meat. However most everyone I've talked to who is an ex-veg*n, even while I was still veg*n, has talked about feeling this initial sickness.

    I don't know why I didn't feel as healthy as I thought I should, I try to eat right and I take vitamin supplements every other day. But my eating habits felt all akward while I was veg*n, I was hungry all the time but it didn't take much to fill me up. I'm sure my hunger comes from my fast metabolism since I do burn fat pretty quickly. I guess I'm just suggesting that maybe vegetarianism/veganism isn't for everyone physically, even for those that feel strongly about animal rights. I'm not trying to convert anyone. This was a personal conflict while I was vegetarian because I felt that if one truely beleived in animal, humyn, and ecological rights/liberation would almost have to be veg*n to avoid being hypocritical. After all, animals must die for the products we use. Animals are totured by companies for many products on the market, such as makeup, shampoo, and even soap (I still support the cruelty free alternatives.) Hell, even Starburst and a lot of candies aren't veg*n. However, being omnivorous has been part of the humyn diet since the Paleolithic era when we discovered that it becomes edible after cooking it.

    When I was veg*n, my diet consisted of beans, grains, wheats, soy, a variety of fruits and vegetables, and free-range dairy when I wasn't totally vegan. I can't really afford the expensive health foods, so I have to make do with what I was able to find at the local grocers and cheap local health food stores. However, since I've become omnivorous, my hunger problems have almost ceased.

    I don't know..I guess I'm trying to suggest that maybe it is possible to support animal rights without commiting to veg*nism. I'm trying to strike up conversation with a problem that I'm sure other veg*ns face, because a lot of those that have chosen the herbivore lifestyle that I've met were introduced to it because of compasion for the abuse and murder of living, sentient creatures. I just think this kind of thing has to be discused. It's not like I have anything else to do at 2AM ;)
     
  9. Claire

    Claire Senior Member

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    Well you have been given advice on diet so I just have one thing else to say... sorry to sound harsh... but I don't care what anyone says you CAN NOT be an animal lover (animal rights etc) if you eat meat imo.

    It just dosn't add up... so you love animals when it suits you? Nah, that's just not good enough.

    Every vitamin, mineral and essential oil can be found in a vegan (or veggie) diet...

    Stick with it... please?

    Love Clairexxx
     
  10. Jabbawaya

    Jabbawaya Member

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    Make sure you're getting enough protein. It's important, as I'm sure you know. Vary your diet, not just for nutrition, but because it can be boring eating the same things every day. A challenge of being vegetarian or vegan can be in finding a variety of things to eat.

    Consider talking to a nutritionist, one that well understands vegetarian and vegan diets. Maybe that could be helpful if it's not too much trouble.
     
  11. DoktorAtomik

    DoktorAtomik Closed For Business

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    Dude, make your mind up! You started out saying you were here looking for advice and didn't want to go back to eating meat, and now you're saying that being veggie/vegan isn't for everyone and eating meat is ok. Which is it? Do you want advice, or a discusion on morality? No offence intended, but you don't seem very clear.
     
  12. ewomack

    ewomack Member

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    When I first cut meat out of my diet, I experienced a lengthy lethargy. I didn't know what was happening. I'd get headaches, woozies, and be listless. Then someone told me that since I had been a carny for so long my body had to re-learn where to get energy from, and since I went cold turkey it didn't know. I held on for a while, and eventually I started feeling better and better. I also make sure that I get enough protein (usually from soy) a day; that seems to have made a HUGE difference. I've heard that when changing diets, the best way is to wean off the old one. If I ever do it again I'll slowly transition off of meat. Cold turkey may have shocked my system a little bit.

    Also: I've seen some dozen doctors in the past decade (I've been moving around a lot), and none of them has ever, when asked, told me that vegetarianism is unhealthy. It's a lifestyle shift, and it may not be for everyone, but it's a perfectly healthy way to eat.
     
  13. Claire

    Claire Senior Member

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    You might find this is because of the detox effect?

    I personally found I had more energy and felt a lot happier and positive mentally when i shifted from a veggie to vegan diet (I was too young to remember how it felt to shift from meat to veggie)

    Vitamins / minerals / Omega oils etc give you what you need regardless of whether it comes from meat or not.

    The only difference from getting these nutrients from a vegan only diet is that you won't get cholesterol from the source!!

    Clairexxx
     
  14. DoktorAtomik

    DoktorAtomik Closed For Business

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    I swear it affects different people in different ways. I never felt any change going from meat-eater to veggie to vegan to veggie. Not saying there wasn't a health difference, just nothing that I could feel.
     
  15. clawsy

    clawsy Member

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    i felt better when i went vegan. Then i started feeling sick and got bad bouts of sudden tiredness going weak feeling like crap. Its not because of my vegan diet, i was eating too many processed foods, heaps of bread for one thing. My blood sugars have always been off and ive always had to be careful with them, when i went vegan they got worse.

    I tried eating low GI stuff and that helped a bit, but recently over last 3 weeks i have been eating RAW foods and no bread and i am feeling a million times better those bouts of tiredness have gone Im sure. Its great.

    Before deciding that being vegan is unhealthy and you have to eat meat you should at least go to a vege freindly doctor or a dietican who knows about vegan diets. They would be able to help you sort it out. I think its not the lack of meat but prolly something else happening.
     

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