vegetarians and vegans

[Leapers]

Right off i go i have a few questions.......

Can vegans eat bread as it contains yeast which is sort of an alive thing?

Do vegans always get really ill, everyone has told me its a bad dietry choice and should avoid it?

Do vegetarians lose alot of weight?

Is it better to be veggie or vegan for health and weight loss??

Thank you

[Pigletion]

As a vegetarian..

No, vegetarians/vegans do not lose a lot of weight. You can eat very healthily though and maintain a healthy weight. Though it's often hard to always eat enough to stay full and it's easy to overdo it on the carbs. I know veggies and vegans of all shapes and sizes, they're not all skinny! I found it hard to make sure I ate enough when playing 80+ mins of rugby, but that might just be me.

If you choose to be vegan, then it usually the lack of dairy and eggs that causes the problems. However, you do not have to be ill or lacking anything, just need to make sure you get enough protein and calcium etc. which are essential to your health.

Yeast extract spreads, like Marmite or Vegemite, or yeast flakes are often used in vegan cooking, so I think they're fine, but it's all personal choice. Vegans may not eat bread as sometimes it contains milk extracts.

True veggies/vegans will not eat anything containg gelatine, cochineal, animal rennet (in cheese), wine/beer purified with isinglass, Worcestershire sauce (contains anchovies, although vegan versions now available) etc. etc.

Being veggie/vegan you can be as healthy or unhealthy as you choose. If you live off chips, it mya be a vegan diet, but probably not the best. However, it does encourage you to try a range of vegetables, pulses, beans, grains, tofu, seitan, tvp etc. etc.

If you want to lose weight you need to consume more than you consume, i.e. use up more calories than you put in your mouth. Though you shouldn't get too hung up on weight, i.e. the mass of your body. It's about how you look and feel and how well your jeans fit, not what the scale says.

Also, if you go veggie or vegan you need to think about your diet to ensure it is well-rounded, but nowadays it is not that hard.

[masma]

My daughter is vegan and is healthier now than when she was vegitarian. She buys lots of cookery books from the internet and has a very varied diet. The only problem that I can think of is that if we all go out to eat she always has to have a jacket potato unless we go to a vegan restuarant.

[quizzywig]

I've been a vegetarian for almost twenty years. My two daughters decided in their early teens that they didn't want to eat animals, so I said that they would really have to eat some of the vegetables they claimed to hate! So we all (myself, Mr Quizzy and 2 girls) all stopped eating meat and fish. This has been fine for us. We eat lots of vegetables and Quorn (hubby and I don't like tofu). My youngest has since gone back to eating fish sometimes but our eldest has three children and she will sometimes give them some chicken or fish in they belief that vegetarianism can't be forced on people even little children. My kids were teased at school for being veggies which I think is very strange as we never try to convert anyone! I have to say though that seeing meat in a butchers window and dead fish makes me wonder how I ever eat meat/fish in the first place - but each to his own.

[Pigletion]

oh yes, forgot to mention that, restaurants are often problemmatic. Most only have two veggie/vegan things on menu, though often covered in cheese (which I don't eat!). Seems to be a thing for vegetable lasagne and mushroom rissotto, yuk!

Things like Indian,Chinese and Japanese food often have many good options, though not everyone understands that veggie people don't eat fish (I think this is an American thing...?). Also places like France think you're crazy! I have had to endure many jacket potatoes and plates of chips or a bowl of steamed rice while my friends all wolfed down a slap up meal.

Also, as Masma said, the internet has loads of info on veggie/vegan eating, cooking, living etc. I've not eaten meat for over 20 years and it's definitely easier to obtain a wide range of food. You can buy tofu, Quorn, soya mince in supermarkets now, so you don't have to go out of your way to find a source of protein. Cauldron or Quorn are good places to start, you'll just have to see which texture you like. I prefer tofu, but lots of people like Quorn as it has more bite to it.

Hope this information is useful

[beso]

Veganism in particular is incredibly dangerous unless undertaken with a lot of nutritional knowledge. To a lesser extent vegetarianism. But also remember that eating an omnivorous diet unintelligently is also unhealthy and dangerous.

I knew a vegan family. They had two children and the mother maintained the vegan diet through the pregnancies. Both children are intellectually impaired. Of course the parents blamed everything other than inadequate nutrition through the pregnancies.

I also believe that subjecting a child to a vegan or vegetarian diet is morally wrong. It should be an informed personal choice.

I lived as a vegetarian for a couple of years and concluded that it is quite simply unnatural. Humans evolved as omnivores and our bodies are tuned to that diet.

[Richard1966]

quizzywig your reply to this topic has got me thinking and whilst i do not wish to criticize your daughter her position is a typical one.

You say that even though she is a vegetarian she occasionally feeds her children fish and chicken as its their choice to be veggies in the future.

My question is, why is it considered ok to let kids decide to be veggies but not ok to let them decide to be meat eaters.

My daughter has been brought up from birth as a veggie (shes now 16 and perfectly healthy) and we have said to her that if he wants to eat meat she can. However the attitude we have faced from taking this position from various people (especially teachers at school) was quite hostile.

So anyone care to speculate why choosing vegetarianism should be considered better than choosing meat eating.

[Richard1966]

beso,

Sorry didnt fully read your answer before posing.

I think your wrong. It is more morally wrong to kill sentient animals to eat than it is to live on a plant based diet.

Your right that vegan diets do need to be adopted with care to ensure full nutritional value but I know of several vegan children who are very healthy and intelligent, so it can be done.

Doing anything without full consideration can be dangerous and that includes an omnivorous diet. You only need to see the queue of obese people in fast food burger bars to confirm that one.

Rant over.

[quizzywig]

Richard1966, I should have said that my son-in-law is not a vegetarian, and they both agreed to raise their children this way.

[Richard1966]

quizzywig, thanks for the clarification and that helps understand in your daughters case, however, this is still an attitude i have encountered from numerous people so I will let the question remain.

[beso]

Yes Richard1966, well put.
"My question is, why is it considered ok to let kids decide to be veggies but not ok to let them decide to be meat eaters."

Vegetarian parents never give their children the opportunity to choose to eat meat but invariably inflict their own religiously based dietry choices upon them.

quizzywig's granddaughter would have never had a choice if her son-in-law was also a vegetarian.

Vegetarianism does reduce the impact on the planet. However forgoing eating beef and eating a sensible amount of meat goes a long way towards the same outcome.

Vegetarian proponents often compare the weight of grain fed to animals to produce a much smaller weight of meat. But this comparison is quite stupid. The grain's weight is largely carbohydrate while the meat is largely protein.

And I would ask the question. Carnivores such as lions, tigers, cats and dogs cannot survive without eating the bodies of sentient beings. Should they all be killed to minimise the total death?

[quizzywig]

Richard1966 and beso, I understand you both and in some ways do agree but she is my daughter and a good mother and I would never criticise her. My grandchildren are healthy and happy and also very very rarely eat chocolate and never macdonalds. It's about their choice on how their children eat. Lots of fruit, veg, pulses and on the odd occasion meat and fish. We never preach to people or try to convert them and I never feel the need (except perhaps for now) to justify my children or indeed my own choice of food.