I've been recently researching information on Veganism and Vegetarianism and contemplating becoming a full-out vegetarian, instead of the seldom meat-eater I am now. I grew up in the Southern US, which is known for unhealthy and high fat diets, including a lot of red meat and full-fat dairy. I've been off of that lifestyle for years, and now very rarely eat much meat, and then mainly chicken and fish. The more active I become in animal and envirnomental movements, the more I am being persuaded to chose this as not just a health option, but an ethical one as well.

So anyway, how many of you guys are already vegetarian/vegan? What made you decide to do this? What are some difficulties and suggestions to those who are starting out?

Thanks!

I'd also like to point out that this is NOT a topic for debate of vegetariansim vs meat-eating, and offensive remarks on that issue will be removed. Thank you.

Yeah, I'm not starting this as a bash towards meat eaters (I'm still one myself!) or non-meat eaters. I'm just looking for some helpful advice and personal thoughts from folks who are living w/out eating animal products now.

*holds hands up* I come in peace!

If you go to Peta's homepage, scroll down a little and on the left hand side there is a resources table of links to help.

http://www.vegetarianstarterkit.com/index.asp

A number of years ago I was a personal trainer and about 1/5 of my clients were vegetarians. I noticed the vegeterians actually carried more body fat then the meat eaters. Also, their aerobic capacities were always less than meat eaters.This is all subjective though.

Interesting. Thanks, Eric. I know lean protein is very useful for muscle-building and I'm sure a lot of vegetarians have a hard time getting enough.

I think I would have to keep fish in my diet (I think that's called a pescetarian), no matter what.

And thanks for the link, Kratos! PETA takes things a little extreme for my personal preference, but they do have some helpful info.

If you keep fish in your diet, you will never have a problem. There are certain B vitamins that only come from red meat, so you would want to supplement your diet with a B mulit vitamin. Hope this helps.

I myself don't like meat but I still eat pork chicken ham and sometimes turkey. For Turkeyday. I remember their was a boy in my brothers scout group who yelled if anything meat touched his veggie burgar/dog.

It could be the other way around though. They could have become vegetarians to lose weight or become more fit.

I'm a ovo-lactovegetarian, which means I still eat eggs and dairy. I went vegan last November as a trial run, but it was difficult. I'm going vegetarian this time, and then working into a vegan. I do it mainly for health. I used to have serious headaches all the time, but now I don't have them anymore. I also feel more alert and focused than before.

BTW, if I have veggie burger and a skillet, I can make anything.

I think the problem was the over supply of carbs. Which in turn cause high rises in sugar, thus causing weight gain.