Vegetarians and Vegans: was meat eating like an addiction for you?

[Taverner]

Mike Malloy had some interesting comments the other day. He stated that he eats meat (or flesh as he stated) but wants to go vegetarian - except for the fact that he can't break the flesh eating habit. He likened it to quitting smoking.

Did you feel this way when you chose not to eat meat?

[Ariana Celeste]

1. I'm not either, but,

A few months after I quit smoking, I tried to cut red meat out of my diet. I quit smoking cold turkey, and it was tough, but not nearly as tough as trying to cut out the red meat. I just couldn't do it! I still haven't managed it. I can go a week or two without it, but I start craving it like mad. I even started sneaking little steaks when my SO was at work, even though I didn't need to hide anything from him.

[mzteris]

2. ayuh. . .

Walking outside and smelling steak on someone's grill? or drive by a Bojangles chicken or a Chik-filet? I'm like Pavlov's dog.

Every once in a while you'll see a commercial - like Red Lobster or something - and you get these flashbacks. Cravings. Irrational.

I remind myself of the animal when I start thinking of the "meat". Cow's eyes, little piggies, frisky little lambs . . . you know. The abuse that takes place on farms and in the slaughterhouses, etc. The economical and ecological impact on society, etc. I remind myself of WHY I don't want to indulge.

[flvegan]

3. No. Honestly, for me, it was like flipping a switch.

I don't deny that I did enjoy the smell and flavor of meat-based things when I ate them. I was a swordfish fanatic. But, I set a date that I wasn't going to eat it anymore (a specific date, and I'd not waste food I already had by throwing it out) and never touched it nor wanted to touch it again. Same thing when I went vegan. Never had a "craving" for cheese afterwards, either.

[kwolf68]

4. I totally admire that...

However, can you tell me why cheese is off limits for vegans?

I definately am toying with the idea of becomming vegetarian, but I have the problem of Malloy I guess.

I actually COULD GIVE up chicken and pig, but cheese? I don't get that one...plus I love to drink wine and well you know.

[flvegan]

7. Cheese...

Vegans don't eat anything that comes from an animal of any kind. Wine is vegetarian. I think the use of blood and or fish parts is pretty outdated (but don't quote me on that).

Besides, nobody said you had to do it all at once. First pork, then poultry...do it over time. It's easier for a lot of folks that way.

[LeftyMom]

15. I hesitate to disagree

but a lot of wine producers still use blood or fish parts. Many are moving away from that, because they like the results better with other fining methods, but it's kinda like beer where you either have to check or go with somebody you know doesn't use the stuff.

There are plenty of lists of vegan wines online. I don't have a link, because I very rarely buy wine and only to cook with because I can't stand the stuff.

[flvegan]

16. The use of blood is just about...well, dead.

Isinglass (sp?) is very much on the way out.

Don't disagree with me, woman, I'm an above average white male, and you'll feel my wrath!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Shit, that made me laugh out loud.

[ThomCat]

9. You can't have dairy without a veal industry.

Cows have to be repeatedly impregnated to keep them giving milk, and what happens to the calves? If you don't support the veal industry you shouldn't eat or drink dairy.

Also, cows have been breed to produce so such obscene amounts of milk that their bags get grotesquely heavy. It's cruel to the cows.

And, milk is very different than it was a generation ago. It has antibiotics in it, and hormones, and often has puss in it. You can't force a cow to generate that much milk that continually without impacting the quality of the milk. Our dairy industry has sacrificed quality for quantity.

[flvegan]

10. And to think

I behaved in my response. Hmph. Along comes Big ThomCat with the ethical side.

You had me at "cows"
*tear*

[ThomCat]

11. :P

:hi:

[MrsMatt]

22. Not always

My father was a dairy farmer, and our calves were never sold for veal. He was old school - our cows were pasture fed and bred seasonally. He ran a sustainable herd before it was fashionable. Granted, this was 35 years ago, and when the price of milk tanked, he had to quit the industry. With only 25-30 head, and four children to raise, he had to for our survival.

In defence of small dairy farmers, one of the problems of the dairy industry is the low price of milk - at $0.08 per lb. for Grade A milk, dairy farmers are pressed to produce as much milk as possible. This is why most herds are Hosteins, as they produce the most milk. My work brings me in direct contact with many small dairy operators, and I can attest tha most are very concerned with the health of their herds. They are very well taken care of.

I have no direct knowledge of what practices large producers use in their dairy operations, but knowing what I know about large ag corporations, I make a point to only purchase milk products from small producers that I'm personally acquainted with.

[Robeson]

33. Same here....

...I just stopped eating it and never missed it again. Same thing when I quit smoking.

[idgiehkt]

5. there's only been one thing that I've ever given up that

wasn't really hard to let go of and that is ice, which I did recently because I chippped one of my back teeth chewing on some ice about a month ago. Everything else is like an addiction, but the ice...it's like I never even used it before.

[Jamastiene]

36. I'll still suck ice if I have to.

I once chipped a back tooth too, but I still love crunching ice. Sometimes, in the summer, I'll just hold some ice in my mouth and maybe a piece in my hand. I just love ice a lot.

Believe it or not, an ice cream headache can be cured instantly by holding an ice cube in the palm of your hand. I learned that one a long time ago and no longer have ice cream headaches. Of course, I don't eat ice cream much any more now. I probably never will again. I have grown to love the taste of strawberries and ice in one of those drink blender type machines. That is absolutely yummy.

Oh, btw, I meant to say hi while I was replying to you. :D :hi:

[idgiehkt]

42. that is awesome about the ice cube

I will have to try it. I almost want to induce an ice cream headache to test it out, but that would be kind of stupid. But I'm always the kind of person that has to touch stuff to see if it's hot.

Hi to you too, miss jamasteine. :hi: :hug:

[billyskank]

6. No, I just liked it

I would still like it now probably, but I just chose not to any more.

[cwydro]

14. I'm kind of this way too.

Never cared for red meat much and gave up beef easily since I never ate it except for a burger now and then. Ham and bacon are my downfall, but thanks to certain DUers here I have pretty much gone off of that too. I still like cheese...but damn, even eggs don't taste so good thanks to what I read here sometimes. So thanks to all you vegans and vegetarians! I do want to quit completely (my sister just did 6 months ago). Still love my seafood though. So you vegans keep that encouragement coming.

[ThomCat]

8. Not at all.

I started giving up meat when I was a kid. I never liked most kinds of meat, and didn't like the others very much. When I decided to give up meat it was cold-turkey and no looking back.

[cwydro]

24. Cold turkey!

Kak! sorry, that hit me funny...

[eppur_se_muova]

12. Not at all. I gave up meat because I got sick of it from too much fast food.

Two options: hamburger or chicken. Bleah.

[LeftyMom]

13. Nope. I didn't want to eat it, so I didn't.

I know some people do feel that way, and I can't imagine how difficult that is, but I personally never did.

In my case I decided to go vegan the first day I ever heard of the concept. I wasn't sure if I could to it all at once, cold tofu, so I went ovo lacto that say with the idea of going vegan in a year. After a few months, I just couldn't eat dairy or eggs anymore, so I didn't, and I stopped eating things with honey in them a few weeks later and *ta da!* I went vegan.

The day I quit eating flesh was five years ago on March 1st.

[flvegan]

18. Fucking noob.

5 years. Pfft...I had beef rotting in my colon expelled older than that.

*guffaw*

[LeftyMom]

40. You sure know how to talk to a girl.

:swoon:

[Alexander]

17. Since I don't really get addicted to things, no.

Quitting cigarettes was far easier than I ever could've anticipated. I literally just stopped buying them, and that was it - I usually didn't bum cigarettes unless I was planning on getting some. Never looked back, never craved, never had any difficulty. To this day I see people "trying to quit" and saying things like "I quit, but I'm drunk, so I'm going to smoke now" and I think "Is it really this hard? Or do they just lack the will to do it?"

The day I decided to stop eating meat - which was, I think, December 8th of last year - that was it. I never did again. Never looked back, never craved it, never had any difficulty.

I'm guessing part of what made these things easier was the abundance of alternatives; quitting smoking was relatively easy because at the time I still smoked pot, so I figured "I'll just replace the cigarette with a joint". With going veggie, well, there's an abundance of health food stores and vegetarian-friendly markets in Tempe and Scottsdale, so it wasn't difficult either.

It's kind of like selling a house; you don't sell and move out unless you've got another place guaranteed. I didn't consider quitting smoking or going vegetarian until I knew for sure that I had good alternatives on hand.

[Dangerously Amused]

19. No, it wasn't anything like an addiction at all.

I began phasing meat out of my life eighteen or so years ago. First red meat, then chicken, then fish. And back then there weren't any but the most wretched fake meat options on the market; that's a far cry from today, which I think would make it much easier for those who need or prefer to quit via substitution.

The human body does not require meat in order to function, and in fact those who eat no meat at all are substantially healthier than those who do. So if eating meat feels like an addiction for someone, I strongly suspect there is a corresponding medical issue afoot.

[dpbrown]

31. I had some of the best tofu "fake meat" dishes at a Buddhist Monastery once

Probably about 18 years ago. Fabulous mock duck, beef, etc. Really wonderful stuff.

[Dangerously Amused]

34. I don't doubt it. They really know how to do it right over there, and always have.

But hereabouts, well... the situation was pretty grim when I first started out. It is still the case that you have to know which brands and products are worthwhile. There are still a fair amount of really yucky fake meat and dairy products out there, and I feel sorry for the newbie who via sheer misfortune encounters those products right out of the gate, and then second-guesses his or her decision.

[graywarrior]

20. Fat in meat may be addicting, but not eating meat.

I never liked meat, so it's a moot question for me. But I think some people believe they cannot live without having meat, like some think they can't live without dairy. Both dumb ideas...I've had neither for 30+ years and I'm still walking around...crazy as a loon, but alive.

[begin_within]

21. It was very easy for me because I never liked meat that much anyway.

[deek]

23. Absoluetely NOT

I was forced to eat meat throughout my childhood because "it was good for me".

[Lyric]

25. It's not really an "addiction to meat"

so much as a physical aversion to many vegetables, fruits, and certain grains. I have a temperamental digestive system. It handles fat and protein better than fiber and cellulose. Go fig. Even my doctors are stumped about it. Usually the opposite is true with people who have sensitive digestive systems.

[Dastard Stepchild]

26. Not at all...No meat DTs, no palpitations. Nuthin.'...

I simply decided to stop eating meat one day, and that was pretty much it.

Same for when I gave up dairy and eggs and the like.

I find that many people say this to me when I tell them that I am a vegan. "Oh, I'd like to be a veggie, but I just love meat." My hunch has always been that people say this because they don't want me to judge them or think that they are raging, insensitive asses based on their dietary preferences. It always gets spoken preemptively, which is why I am led to believe that there is some feeling of concern behind the statement. Which is unnecessary, really, because I am very nonjudgmental as a whole. :)

[yewberry]

27. Not for me.

It was a really organic process for me, and I was a teenager when I made the switch, so I didn't have a lifetime of habits to change.

I realized that I wasn't eating it, and I actually felt better. Did some investigation and then felt even better. It just isn't for me, and eating it seemed wasteful and wrong for me. Pretty easy--the hard part is avoiding hidden ingredients.

It's been twenty years (omigosh, I'm that old!) and I'm glad of the choices I made then. I'm glad that it's not something I have to wrestle with.

[I Have A Dream]

28. I'm an ethical vegetarian. Initially, I gave up everything but seafood...

by stopping eating it all at once. A few years later, I decided to also remove seafood from my diet, at which time I became vegetarian. I did this also by going "cold turkey". For me, it was like an addiction, and I always handle addiction better by just stopping it all at once. If I would have allowed myself the occasional "treat", I think that it would have been much more difficult to stop, and I'd probably still occasionally cheat. I take it a day at the time, but I'm not really tempted since I've never allowed myself to cheat. For me, it would be a slippery slope if I cheated even once.

I've been a total vegetarian for about 5 years and gave up everything except for seafood for another 3 or 4 years before that. (I can't remember exactly; it might have been longer.)

I don't think that I'll ever become vegan, although I greatly respect people who are.

[otherlander]

29. Still do.

I became a vegetarian five years ago. Now BBQ's look like they're giving away some kind of wonderful drugs. :9

[Manifestor_of_Light]

30. I did a partial solution once -- it helped a lot

In college, I stopped eating beef, pork and chicken. This was because of the grease and the heaviness of it.

I still ate lacto-ovo and fish, and even turkey at Xmastime. This was way before soymilk and such were popular.

I developed an aversion to hamburgers and meat upon seeing them in cafeteria lines. I felt much better just cutting those three heavy meats out of my diet. I did this for a year.

This was about 26 years ago, but I should do this again.

[Rob H.]

32. I just quit one day, no cravings, no withdrawals, no nuttin'

It wasn't difficult at all for me. One thing that helps is that there are puh-lenty of delicious vegetarian foods out there--Asian cuisine is especially good about not leaving us non-meat-eaters out in the cold.

[Jamastiene]

35. This one looks like it should provide hours of entertainment.

:popcorn:

Oh, Taverner, you done done it now, but just to make sure I include something personal in the conversation, I'll say I love to eat nice "fleshy" tacos with lots of cream. O8) :dilemma: :evilgrin: :evilgrin:

:popcorn:
:hide:
:popcorn:

[BarenakedLady]

37. No

It wasn't the meat I enjoyed it was the sauces. I always hated fish so it was no problem there

[NMMNG]

38. No

I occasionally crave certain meats from time to time but I never have any serious desires to eat them nor have I had "relapses" since going vegetarian. Once I weaned myself off meat that was it.


Now junk food--that is an addiction. :cry:

[anarch]

39. I stopped eating meat because it grossed me out

I think I bit into one too many veins or bits of gristle or whatever else. :puke:

I'm thinking of quitting smoking, though...somehow I have a feeling it's going to be a little bit harder for me to give up.

[crim son]

41. I switched from meat-eater to vegetarian for a few years

until I developed health problems that were aggravated by my diet. I had no problem making the switch but occasionally I'd get incredible cravings for ground beef. Nothing else... just ground beef.