Vegetarian to Vegan Transition - Experiences?

[Nacho98]

Close to three months ago I went vegetarian, for ethical, environmental, and health reasons. I figured simply making the switch gets me the ethical and environmental checkboxes by default, while the health box is a bit tougher since you can always be an unhealthy vegetarian, eating junk food. Admittedly I'm sort of in this box, but at least I got 2 of 3. Not surprisingly, like so many vegetarians in early days, cheese consumption has increased. I am aware of the addictive properties of cheese.

With the ethical component, ultimately veganism seems inevitable. At only 2.5 months into vegetarianism, it might be premature to start thinking about this next step - I need to make sure I can at least stay vegetarian long term before making the full switch, but I'm curious.

I'm very, very proud of making the jump to vegetarianism.

My switch to vegetarianism was overnight (while I had thought about it for some time, I realized I had inadvertently been vegetarian the day prior and just decided to stick with it from there), but I'm thinking a stepwise approach to the vegan transition is best, and I think it would be pretty easy to cut out everything but cheese. Really don't eat eggs, honey, or any other dairy really except milk in my daily Starbucks, but that's a super simple substitution so no worries there either. I actually think it would really just be the cheese leap I'd have to get over, but if that was the sole thing stopping me from veganism, I could get over that hump.

For those of you who have made the switch, what was your experience like and what was your timeline?

 

[Tomorrow]

I remember right out of college I decided I would try being a vegetarian for 30 days just to see if I could do it. To this day, I'm still surprised that I lasted the full 30 days - but my diet was very unhealthy and I was a very unhappy wreck of a person.

 

[rhp2424]

As a person that just finished a hearty bowl of amazingly delicious mac-n-cheese while being about a month away from marking 11 years as a vegan, what cheese leap are you the most worried about? I don’t ask with anything but support. I have several staple brands of vegan cheese (shredded, sliced, brick, etc.) that are delicious and do not leave me needing more. Follow Your Heart, Daiya, Violife, Kite Hill, Field Roast Chao, and Miyoko’s are some of the most popular ones I use frequently.

...and to answer your question. My timeline: 11 years ago I went vegetarian and then just a couple months after that I went vegan.

 

[V_Man]

Close to three months ago I went vegetarian, for ethical, environmental, and health reasons. I figured simply making the switch gets me the ethical and environmental checkboxes by default, while the health box is a bit tougher since you can always be an unhealthy vegetarian, eating junk food. Admittedly I'm sort of in this box, but at least I got 2 of 3. Not surprisingly, like so many vegetarians in early days, cheese consumption has increased. I am aware of the addictive properties of cheese.

With the ethical component, ultimately veganism seems inevitable. At only 2.5 months into vegetarianism, it might be premature to start thinking about this next step - I need to make sure I can at least stay vegetarian long term before making the full switch, but I'm curious.

I'm very, very proud of making the jump to vegetarianism.

My switch to vegetarianism was overnight (while I had thought about it for some time, I realized I had inadvertently been vegetarian the day prior and just decided to stick with it from there), but I'm thinking a stepwise approach to the vegan transition is best, and I think it would be pretty easy to cut out everything but cheese. Really don't eat eggs, honey, or any other dairy really except milk in my daily Starbucks, but that's a super simple substitution so no worries there either. I actually think it would really just be the cheese leap I'd have to get over, but if that was the sole thing stopping me from veganism, I could get over that hump.

For those of you who have made the switch, what was your experience like and what was your timeline?

I’ve never understood to need to tell others that your going vegan. You never hear about people telling you that they are now eating meat.
Why is it not ethical to eat meat? Environmental? Health ok I guess.

 

[TiggrToo]

The irony here that there's still a whole heap of Vegan food that's highly processed and can have negative effects on the human body.

In the drive to make money, vendors will target any lucrative market and veganism is ripe for the plucking.

Just because it's marked as vegan, doesn't make it healthy.

 

[vkd]

Best thing is to learn how to cook some simple rice, dhal, sabji type meals. Rice you know, dhal means lentils and sabji is a spiced veg mix. Very simple to do, you just need to learn the basics. Far better to cook for yourself from raw ingredients than to continue with industrialised processed off-the-shelf stuff, which is just as bad as fast food. There are easy videos to watch on Youtube how to spice your dhal and make a sabji. Better for your consciousness too.

 

[ItsNotaTumor]

Being vegan on and off a few times in my life, its easy to do if you like to make your own meals. It forced my palette and creativity as a cook- enjoyable, but work. Though at the same time, i was cold a lot no matter how much protein I ate, so I usually only go that route in the summer months.

 

[Nacho98]

I’ve never understood to need to tell others that your going vegan. You never hear about people telling you that they are now eating meat.
Why is it not ethical to eat meat? Environmental? Health ok I guess.

I've never understood how someone can read a thread, write a reply, and not even understand the question that was asked, or even understand that a question was asked at all.

 

[V_Man]

I’m glad I could offer my opinion. Good luck with your endeavors.

 

[kazmac]

If you go vegan up your greens.

I was vegetarian, vegan and raw at various times in my life, but after nearly dying last year from listeria-induced sepsis, I put animal protein back into my diet. My body needed it. Still working on course correcting with more greens and less processed food, but I know it was necessary for me to do this.

Everyone is different.

OP, good luck.

 

[vkd]

If you go vegan up your greens.

I was vegetarian, vegan and raw at various times in my life, but after nearly dying last year from listeria-induced sepsis, I put animal protein back into my diet. My body needed it. Still working on course correcting with more greens and less processed food, but I know it was necessary for me to do this.

Everyone is different.

OP, good luck.

WTF You are more likely to get bacteria with meat than with veg.

People: just use cronometer.com to calculate your carbs, fats, proteins balance, vits and minerals. Its real easy, just do it for a few weeks and you'll learn a lot about what you eat. No need to "go back to meat", that just means that you can't give it up for personal taste reasons, because technically there is no material need whatsoever to eat meat.

 

[kazmac]

WTF You are more likely to get bacteria with meat than with veg.

People: just use cronometer.com to calculate your carbs, fats, proteins balance, vits and minerals. Its real easy, just do it for a few weeks and you'll learn a lot about what you eat. No need to "go back to meat", that just means that you can't give it up for personal taste reasons, because technically there is no material need whatsoever to eat meat.

Yeah okay:

Hahaha yeah, why not visit the CDC site some time before you point fingers?

It's a level playing field as far as listeria: romaine, celery, eggs, nectarines, plums etc.

And F.Y.I., tainted guacomole nearly killed me. According to the FDA, 18% of avocados have had listeria bacteria.

I do not eat red meat or pork, and am very careful with poultry, fish, AND sadly now vegetables and fruit too.

 

[Tomorrow]

WTF You are more likely to get bacteria with meat than with veg.

You're more likely to cook meat (and kill the bacteria) than veg.

 

[Huntn]

Yeah okay:

Hahaha yeah, why not visit the CDC site some time before you point fingers?

It's a level playing field as far as listeria: romaine, celery, eggs, nectarines, plums etc.

And F.Y.I., tainted guacomole nearly killed me. According to the FDA, 18% of avocados have had listeria bacteria.

I do not eat red meat or pork, and am very careful with poultry, fish, AND sadly now vegetables and fruit too.

Like when they dump manure on the crops... 😬 A question about sepsis, which I find to be mysterious. My understanding is that getting sepsis is a result of how the body over reacts to an infection, so with like conditions, one person might get it and another night not. I’ll assume that you getting sepsis was not based on being a vegetarian in itself, but due to being exposed to contaminated vegetables. Note, I am not a vegetarian, but am attempting to cut back on meat consumption.

 

[kazmac]

Like when they dump manure on the crops... 😬 A question about sepsis, which I find to be mysterious. My understanding is that getting sepsis is a result of how the body over reacts to an infection, so with like conditions, one person might get it and another night not. I’ll assume that you getting sepsis was not based on being a vegetarian in itself, but due to being exposed to contaminated vegetables. Note, I am not a vegetarian, but am attempting to cut back on meat consumption.

It was a result of eating listeria infected guacamole (fruit) and after the listeria incubated for 9 days ultimately became sepsis (blood poisoning). I became catatonic as the sepsis took hold in my brain and began shutting my body down. If my mom didn't come home from surgerical rehab the next morning, I'd be dead.

 

[vkd]

And F.Y.I., tainted guacomole nearly killed me. According to the FDA, 18% of avocados have had listeria bacteria.

Listeria is a common bacteria
In 2018, the FDA reported that listeria is rampant on avocado fruit skin. About one in every five avocados sold in the US has some listeria on the peel but almost nonehave it in the pulp.Mar 25, 2019
www.businessinsider.com › listeria-bacteria-recall-what-is-it-signs-sympt...

Can you get listeria from avocado?
So far, no one has had a reported Listeria infection from eating a Henry Avocado avocado. ... Instead, testing of the environment in the California packing facility turned up positive for Listeria monocytogenes, meaning that the bacteria was found near the avocados or avocado-adjacent.Mar 25, 2019
www.forbes.com › sites › brucelee › 2019/03/26 › what-is-the-listeria-a...
What Is The Listeria About This Avocado Recall - Forbes

Thanks for your kind advice re: CDC. I had a look and their list of main suspects are soft cheese, raw sprouts, melons, hot dogs, pâtes, lunch meats, cold cuts of meat, smoked fish and faw (unpasturised) milk.

The balance seems to be weighted more towards animal products, as I suspected.