what do you wish people told you before you became a vegetarian/vegan

[imafundork]

I started reading this thread a month or ago, after my sister became vegetarian.  I finally bit the bullet and haven't eaten meat or meat products (chicken broth) since Friday.  I know it's not been that long, but I just have to say I wish that I'd know how difficult it would be to go out to eat and have a healthy meat free meal.  My sister, her husband and I went out last night and I was completely amazed at the menu.  The only vegetarian, non-greasy thing they had was a side salad.  Luckily, the restaurant offered Gardenburgers as a subsitute for beef burgers so my sister and I were able to do that.  But man, this is going to be extremely hard,  especially since I am a picky eater to begin with!

[RCKFELLA]

oh mannnn! i'm not alone!!! i agree with a bunch of these but there are still some left out ones...

well i became a vegetarian about four and a half years ago... at first i was a full fledged veggie but now i eat fish/crustacea because I love animals but i don't love them enough to compromise my health so i guess now im a pescatarian? i wasn't a meat-head so the transition was very easy but there's still some things i wish i'd known:

1. as annoying and ignorant as some meat eaters are with their stupid questions, i've found that a lot of vegetarians are even meaner/more annoying. maybe it's just the people i've been around but when i tell them i don't eat meat they're like "OH, BUT DO YOU EAT /CHICKEN/FISH?!!?" and i'm like no and yeah, "well then, you're sooooo not a vegetarian" which is hilarious because i never claim to be i just say the only meat i eat is seafood. oh yeah and then they demand an explanation like i owe them something! before i'd put up a fight but now i'm just like "umm i eat it cuz i want to how about that?" ugh i feel like there's some competition to see who's more vegetarian or something...

2. that i was going to gain massive weight. in my family we are more chicken eaters than beef eaters so my mom cooks chicken about 3-5 times a week so i'd always have that but now since i don't eat meat [and i never feel like cooking] i just eat the "sides" which are usually rice or potatoes or pastas or some other carb. and just in general i think people don't realize that most desserts are still fair game, so is chocolate or potato chips! all that bad stuff. people just assume that you should be skinny and eating leaves all the time.

3. that the wal-mart brand frostings have LARD IN THEM!!!!!!! ewwwww

4. that it would impact my relationships with people. for example a refuse to date a meat eater. the thought of kissing someone who just ate steak or something makes me gag. i know i want to raise my children vegetarian and that's caused arguments between my best friends and i. why? i really dont know because it's none of their business...

so yeahhh thats my story ktb

[Selnith]

first off, i'm not vegetarian, never have been never will be, i like my meat and fish too much (if anyone wants to discuss this/try and convert me then private message me, i'm always up for the discussion but i've had to report too many flares on other sites because i wasn't a veggie)
i'd just like to say i'm really sorry some of you have had such a hard time about refusing to eat meat, i know what it's like from the other side, lots of people who don't understand how i can eat meat.
and i've seen a couple of points here about people wanting to raise their kids veggie, that's their choice of course but i'd never do that, i'd give the kids the choice, but that's just me, actually no, a family friend of ours is veggie, her husband isn't so they share the cooking and the kids get to decide if they want the meat/fish/whatever because she doesn't want to force her choices on her kids

[mmd32]

and i've seen a couple of points here about people wanting to raise their kids veggie, that's their choice of course but i'd never do that, i'd give the kids the choice, but that's just me, actually no, a family friend of ours is veggie, her husband isn't so they share the cooking and the kids get to decide if they want the meat/fish/whatever because she doesn't want to force her choices on her kids

There are a LOT of things as a parent that you will make the choice for your kids for, and say when they are 18, they can make that decision themselves. Seeing as vegetarianism is an extremely valid, healthy diet, I don't think it's an unfair choice to make for them. We choose which tv they watch, which foods they eat, who they can associate with (to a point, anyway...when they are old enough, of course that changes), tattoos and piercings, which medical procedures they will undertake, heck, even which toothpaste they use, if you have an objection to flouride or something. Choosing a balanced vegetarian diet for them until they are old enough to educate themselves on exactly which choice they are making (and, even being a carnivore, you will know that that can have some huge ramifications, from the hormones in meat, to the environmental impact, to simply discovering they had been eating Babe or Bambi) is not an unfair decision to make. When they are old enough to know, they can choose how they will, and many kids do. And many kids don't. And many kids are furious with their parents for not telling them what they had been eating. It's easier to undo being a vegetarian, than it is to take back the act of eating the body of another living creature.

[HippiePunk]

(I was eleven when I first became a vegetarian).
I wish someone had told me to be more careful with commercial soups and other prepacked items because they can be laden with murder.
I wish someone had told me about Vegan alternatives sooner.
I also wish someone had told my parents to do the right thing and support my decision.
I wish someone and stopped them from trying to forcing me to eat meat by giving me ultimatums. (Eat this or you eat nothing). I lost so much weight in the first six months from basically starving.

[weholdparties]

I have no idea how many times I've responded to this post, I just keep experiencing more and more.

1) After being vegetarian for a year, and vegan for a year, and now going back to vegetarian (it wasn't too hard being vegan or anything, I just wanted something different) I wish someone would have told me I was going to feel persecuted by vegans for going back.  When I decided to go back to being a vegetarian my friend Hannah told me she was going back to being vegan (strange huh? She ended up not going back but just cutting back on the dairy a little) and when I went to her house she gave me a small lecture about eating animal products.  I see lots of advertisements about going vegan and how I'm hurting animals and so forth like I was never helping the cause and am not helping now?  I'm taking the metro to the farmer's market, buying eggs from cage free, hormone free, grain fed, and nest raised hens, getting my cheese from Whole Foods, and I'm STILL drinking Silk.  Why should I feel guilty?

2) That because my mom got caught in a misunderstanding where her coworkers assumed she was vegetarian she would use the things I've been telling her for years to explain to others why she is "vegetarian."  It isn't like I care or anything, and I know she doesn't care that I'm vegetarian, it is just so strange to hear these things come out of her mouth.

cfbandit you are doing well by only eating meat once a week.  The recommended protein serving for an average adult in the United States is one to two servings of protein a week.  A serving of meat is about the size of a deck of cards.  I don't have to tell anyone how much that number has been skewed over the years.  Has anyone been to Claim Jumper recently? Haha.

Selnith you actually made me really sad when you said what you did about raising vegetarian kids.  People assume that because you are vegetarian you are a bad parent and it just isn't true.  You can actually be denied a foster child if you are vegetarian/vegan.  My own sister told me that I would be a bad mother if I didn't give my children meat and I almost cried.

[Acadian Driftwood]

I don't understand people associating vegetarianism with bad parenting. I have never eaten meat because my mom switched to vegetarianism when she got pregnant with me, and I am (imho) one of the healthiest of my friends. As long as you let them make their own choices when they're ready, I don't see the problem and I really don't see a health risk.

[cinderblock]

I wish someone had told me that everyone would ask about protein and stuff, cause my mom is driving me crazy cause this is month  #2 and she still doesn't understand why i'm not in a coma!

[imafundork]

I wish someone had told me that everyone would ask about protein and stuff, cause my mom is driving me crazy cause this is month  #2 and she still doesn't understand why i'm not in a coma!

Your mom sounds like my mom!

[The Donna]

I wish someone would've told me that when you go into the hospital to have a baby, the "vegetarian" meal they offer you immediately after giving birth consists of Jello and chicken broth. AND, if you protest "but, I'm a vegetarian" they will swap out the Jello with a yogurt that contains just as much gelatin.

Once you are allowed solid foods again, you are offered strange combinations like green beans and a faux sausage patty OR carb-city (pancakes and toast).

Not that hospital food is ever good, but with so many different diet considerations that walk through the doors, you would think that they'd at least know what qualifies as a vegetarian meal.