OT: Talk to Me About Becoming a Vegetarian.

[OtayBW]

Originally Posted by mtechnica

I would consider myself an aspiring vegan - that will sometimes eat fish. Fish is mostly just good for you and it tastes good. It’s less gross than factory farming and unlike mammals I don’t think the fish suffer. That said from a health perspective a plant based whole food diet is obviously ideal. Protein is a non issue, they’re called beans, they’re cheap and full of protein and if you’re vegetarian or vegan you’d better get used to eating them. There’s also vegan junk food and things like fake meat which are still a lot better for your health and the environment if you are craving something dank. I would also say if you’re in a situation where someone gives you food for free and you think those wings are lookin good, just eat them. But don’t go out and spend money by choice on meat. Some people have the willpower to go fully vegan but I think it’s OK to cheat every now and then if it keeps you sane. It’s not really an all or nothing thing. Lastly just go vegan instead of vegetarian. Cheese is pretty much the worst thing you can eat health wise and milk never did anyone any favors either so just don’t. If anything you would be better off eating 1lb of chicken than 1lb of cheese.

B-12 is the limiting factor here, but it's easily obtained in a vitamin if that works for you.

[pelicanrando]

I have been vegetarian for 7 years, for ethical reasons. My partner and I enjoy cooking and have dived into a variety of cuisines that have excellent & ancient vegetarian traditions. Especially fun have been vegetarian Indian, vegetarian Sichuan and vegetarian Japanese. I especially recommend the cookbooks "Lord Krishna's Cuisine" for Indian, "Kansha" for Japanese, and "Every Grain of Rice" for Sichuan. There are infinity great restaurants in San Francisco for vegetarians, and we generally stay away from veg-specific places, opting for great regular restaurants that prepare veg dishes.

Like others, I occasionally consume meat if there's not another good option, usually while traveling. Also, I do randonneuring and sometimes on long rides I will eat chicken soup or something like that if it seems appetizing. I had meat a couple times during Paris-Brest-Paris as the vegetarian food gets very repetitive in France.

Reducing the amount of meat you eat is the first step, and easy to do. Then you can decide if you want to go full veg or not. Even if you don't, you are making an impact with your reduced consumption!

[Ozz]

My family has been pescatarian for 20+ years...mostly my wife's thing, but I go along. I eat red meat maybe 5 times per year...chicken a couple times per month. Lots of sustainable fish (Alaskan salmon and cod).

Don't really miss the meat..but do miss the BBQ!

"Plenty" by Ottolenghi referenced above is excellent!

[Mastaci]

Being vegetarian was a good option for me.

[reuben]

I can't directly answer the OP's question, but for a healthier and much more human source of protein, consider this. They live their entire lives 100% in the wild, feeding on grass, until the very last second. I buy one of the package deals or whatever's on sale, and I've got enough for months.

Dan didn't start out trying to be a buffalo rancher. He wanted to help restore the prairie grasses, which unexpectedly led him to become a rancher.

https://wildideabuffalo.com/

I eat plenty of meat and seafood, but I also grow a lot of my own vegetables.

[CZ413]

I’ve also been a vegetarian for ~35 years, since I was in my mid-teens. I’m not vegan, but have been very close to one for the last dozen or so years. For me the choice to become vegetarian was mostly about the cruelty of a meat-based diet, though environmental and health reasons have always factored into the decision as well. I don’t miss the smell or taste of meat; in fact, the moment I stopped eating meat was when I realized I just couldn’t take a bite of the steak fajitas in front of me. I live near, and often ride by, various small dairy farms, and I agree that dairy is profoundly cruel, whether large or small scale.

I’ve always thought that protein is mythologized in this country. (Many other parts of the world have subsisted for centuries on far less protein than Americans consume. And as those countries have turned toward more western-style diets in recent years, some predictable effects have followed.)

I’ve never calculated or attempted to account for how much protein I eat. I try to eat sensibly, and to eat nuts, grains, beans, and vegetables of all kinds, but I still eat too many veggie burgers (amazing how far they’ve come since the 80s) because sometimes I don’t have a lot of time for dinner prep.

That all said, I’ve never felt that my diet holds me back in any way from cycling or other sports, or that I’d be faster/stronger on the bike if I ate a little meat.

[mdeth1313]

I gave up meat about 2 years ago. Still love cheese and eat fish from time to time. It was easy for me because my wife has been a vegetarian since she was 11 and my daughter went vegan in 8th grade. My wife cooks all the time so there's plenty of really good vegetarian dishes. My poor son is the last meat eater in the house. He has different meals.



I saw some posts about being borderline anemic - I had the same issue and found pumpkin seeds have a higher iron content than most nuts. Making sure I get a couple of servings solved that problem for me.

I don't miss meat at all.

[joevers]

This is an old thread but I'll add anyways. Josh I'd say the bay is one of the easier places in north america to be vegetarian. Some folks have trouble accessing vegetarian/vegan food in grocery stores or restaurants but that's not really a concern somewhere like the bay. I've been vegan for about 7 years and never felt my diet really held me back. The last week of December was a 350+ mile week for me. Even then, thinking about my protein intake took exactly 0 minutes of my time that week.

For whatever reason probably not worth getting into here the US eats more protein than anywhere else in the world. If you're scared that cutting out meat is going to negatively affect your health or performance on a bike, then all the millions of dollars spent on advertising and lobbying by meat and dairy industries is working.

Some people have a rocky time the first month or two just figuring out what to eat or what to buy at the grocery, but after a while you just stop seeing meat as food. As someone who quit smoking a year ago, I often do miss it, but I have never once missed meat. In fact I probably only find it more repulsive every year.

When I'm riding or training heavily, I guess I tend to eat more beans, but that's because they're cheap, fast, and fill me up quickly. Sometimes I'll just throw a bunch of canned chickpeas in a mixing bowl, add tons of vegan mayo and seeds, a lemon, some herbs, salt, and onion and eat it for days on end. EF Pro Cycling sometimes posts recipes on their instagram or site, and they're almost always vegan. Their veggie burger is grear. Allen Lim from Skratch has quite a few cookbooks too, for both on the bike and off the bike food. He does use meat and dairy, but has a huge number of vegetarian or vegan recipes. Dana from Minimalist Baker has hundreds and hundreds of easy and quick recipes without meat, lots of which are full of beans, nuts/seeds, sweet potatoes etc. Definitely enough protein and fat to ride as much as you want.

[Hilltopwalters]

After working as a cook for awhile I live and die by this mantra:

MEAT IS A TREAT.

Don't be cheap with it. Get to know your butcher, don't eat it all the time. If you're a hunter, use everything you can.

[5oakterrace]

I changed my nutrition 7 years ago (at 57) because of my doctor. Either change diet or consider a statin. Statins have side effects and sometimes they work, sometimes not.

The China Study and Preventing and Reversing Coronary Artery Disease by Caldwell Esselstyn are key reads. Engine 2 Diet as well. Nothing with a face, very limited oils, no dairy. Eat whole foods, fruits.

I lost 50 pounds to 205 at 6'4". Cholesterol dropped from 220 to 130. I cheat. A bit of chicken in a casserole, fish once a month. Pizza once a year. Sometimes yogurt, sometimes ice cream. I go months without touching ice cream and then cave for a few weeks.

Never red meat which can lead to lots of cancers and heart issues. My father died from heart issues. Friends have been told to cut out red meats after they have heart issues. Well.... why wait.

Protein? The view is we have too much of it in the typical diet. I use a vegetarian protein powder, beans, quinoa, - there is protein in lots of whole foods.

As I consider how animals are treated - that is just another incentive.

I have been cycling 6k miles a year for a decade, Mt. Mitchell, Mt. Washington. I am slow but I usually get there. If anything, the diet has been a huge help. Maybe I live a little longer. The wife is not into this so we eat different stuff and, frankly, that creates temptation.

[jkbrwn]

Since the last time I posted here I've arguably become even more vegetarian and arguably am eating the least amount of meat I ever have since quitting being a full time vegetarian a decade ago. The ease of finding really great vegetarian food in SoCal has definitely contributed to this. Unfortunately, I still love a good burger, which truly is my weakness. But I'll have a burger maybe twice a month.

My wife is the manager of a nice restaurant here in Pasadena and their menu is still heavily meat orientated, with only one entree out of nine being vegetarian on their current seasonal menu.

Until restaurants really embrace vegetarianism in this country (IMO the U.K. and some other 'Western' countries have already done this), it's hard to enlighten carnivores on how good vegetarian food can be.

[Beldar77]

I'm not fully vegetarian but a big reduction in red meat consumption has certainly helped me lose 60 pounds in the last 12 months.

What I would add if you are changing your diet for health reasons / weight loss cutting out added sugars and processed grains are potentially even bigger ideas to get a hold of. It can be hard at first if you like baking / baked treats. But there are ways to overcome that.

And as someone else said in this thread frozen banana "ice cream" is pretty good (frozen avocado too but it does have more added sugars).

My wife / kids love white rice and I'm trying to get them to move to red, brown or black rice. I find the taste better anyway.

[pelicanrando]

With the pandemic, more cooking at home, and fewer opportunities to grab fast food, now is a great time to try out going vegetarian. If you do it for a month and you hate it, you can always go back to eating meat. Most likely, you will learn a lot of veg dishes you like, and if/when you add meat back in, it will be much reduced.

[XXtwindad]

Since becoming a Father, I (sadly) don't have too many vices left. I've never really had a sweet tooth, love a really good IPA every so often, and have replaced a few of my more carnal desires with ...bike frames.

But meat is a tough one. I love the taste of it. I'm sure reduced meat consumption is healthier. Not convinced that going full-bore vegetarian/vegan is healthier. For me, the decision would be prompted by environmental concerns and ethical concerns over the treatment of animals.

[djg21]

Originally Posted by XXtwindad

Read this article the other day: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/11/o...s-cruelty.html

It really had a profound effect on me. Teaching my daughters to be moral citizens is a big imperative for me and I have some ethical "blind spots." One of them certainly is meat consumption. I'm a helpless and heedless carnivore. I'm also aware of the profound impact it has on the environment and workers, let alone cruelty to animals. I've read "Fast Food Nation." But I still haven't entertained the notion of making the transition. I'd like to try and start.

A few considerations: I know that anemia and bone density loss are mitigated by protein. But so does resistance exercises and I do plenty of those. Still, I do about an hour or so (at least) of intense cardio every day, and meat is the quickest and most efficient way of getting my protein needs met, so I would be concerned about that.

I'm interested if anyone here has made the "transition?" Was it incremental or did you go "cold turkey?" (haha) What about when dining out or traveling, where food is so intrinsically tied to culture? I know some recovering nicotine addicts loathe the smell of tobacco. Is it the same way with the smell of meat broiling? Do you miss meat?

I'd appreciate a little more in depth response, if possible. I know mtechnica has talked about being a vegetarian on the Forum, if I'm not mistaken. Others?

I gave up red meat after living in the West for a while and learning how the cattle industry damages the environment and impacts the water table. I still eat fish and poultry, though I’m pretty selective about the type of poultry I purchase and I avoid brands that engage in factory farming in favor of local farmers and “free-range” chicken when possible.

It’s been 30 years. I still crave red meat occasionally, and from time to time, but very, very rarely, I might indulge and sneak a bite. When I do have a craving, it’s usually not for a good steak or roast beef, but rather for a fast-food burger.

Meet broiling smells delicious. It always will.