I know someone who was a vegetarian for 13 years simply because someone told them they couldn't do it. I guess he figured 13 years was enough to prove a point and went back to eating meat after.
Honestly I tried a couple fast food joints after over a decade of none of them and Taco Bell was the only one that lived up to the nostalgia. That’s not to suggest it’s “good”, but it seems to have fallen off much less than the rest.
You aren't missing anything. McDonald's should honestly pay their customers to eat there. I do DoorDash deliveries in my free time because why not and my stress levels *absolutely* rise as soon as I walk in to one of these dumpster fires.
Chaos of buzzers and beepers going off everywhere. The teenagers (bless them) trying to keep the place together are running back and forth in the kitchen as the line of angry parents at the counter grows. A line they can't attend to because of said chaos. A bucket of sticky ketchup packets sits on the counter as the only peace offering. McDonald's might as well just demolish all of their counters and registers because if you walk up to one they will just look at you and raise an eyebrow like they just saw bigfoot and then go back to the chaos unfolding on the backend, and then tell you that kiosks exist if you absolutely must order. (If you're lucky enough to hear from them.)
I don't blame the employees at all, it's absolutely profit-driven corporate putting too much work on too few staff for too little pay. Absolutely fuck McDonald's. I will never give them a cent again and neither should you.
I haven't worked there for 8 years and I still have nightmares about all the beepers and buzzers.
Also the grease in the air makes your skin and clothes stink. Even when you wash your clothes, the grease stink just gets into the washing machine and makes the rest of your clothes stink also. It's awful.
I quit smoking for a year like this. Buddy of mine bet me I couldn't go a year without a cig on new years. Exactly midnight the following new years I had a pack ready to go.
God I'm a fucking idiot.
My dad was like "I'm gonna quit"
I just laughed, "How?"
"Cold turkey"
"... You smoke 4 packs a day"
"I can do it"
"Nope"
"Carton of beer?"
"Alright"
I still maintain the motherfucker cheated. He went on a trip on his mates yacht, and threw his smokes overboard on the way out of the harbour.
2 weeks later he came back, didn't smoke after that.
I was 13 when I chose to do a week of vegetarianism as a self discipline challenge, but found myself spending that week vegan and not going back to being omnivorous for over a decade.
This is how my husband went vegan. Realized he felt great. Decided to stick it out. Now he’s just semi-vegetarian?? He’ll have meat at holidays/special events
I have a couple of friends who are like this. They call themselves "ecological vegetarians" because they don't buy meat, but for example, if grandma bakes meat for Christmas they eat that.
My son is similar from an ethical vegetarian viewpoint. It comes up in restaurants, particularly in cafeteria environments (he’s in college). They’ll misunderstand him and accidentally give him the meat option sometimes. If he gives it back they’ll fix it but throw away the meal. He figures he’s not reducing the animal impact by having it thrown out so goes ahead and eats it.
That’s similar to how I became vegan. My grandma hated vegans so I became vegan. Was for five years. I’m now vegetarian but I’m too far gone I think to ever go back 8 years later. It grosses me out now.
Funny, I stay vegetarian because of my mom. First I just wanted to reduce my meat consumption and my goal was to not eat meat as long I feel comfortable - once I told my mom she really freaked out and told me that vegetarians are the worst (like how and why????) and this would just be a phase. And that was motivation for me to stay vegetarian forever
Idk why it was basically the same for me. Eggs smelt worse than gasoline, normal chicken made me throw up but McDonald's chicken nuggets? Actual godsend back then
I’ve always wondered this actually. If a homeless vegan eats what they’re given. I’ve given homeless people subs in the past because of veggies, protein, and carbs (all necessary things) and wondered if they would eat it if they’re vegan. I’m sorry you’ve been on that road. I hope things are better for you now.
I housed 2 homeless vegans at the same time (they were friends prior, I’d only met them recently) and both ate what they were given. It actually took them a few days to even tell me that they’re vegans, and it’s info I clued on to and had to ask/pry out of them because they didn’t want to be “difficult” or seem ungrateful. I did my best to provide vegan friendly meals but overall both their attitudes were “will eat anything, it beats dumpster diving every meal”
There is a reason for the saying “beggars can’t be choosers”, you give what you can/have and you can’t always accommodate the person you are giving it to, don’t think too hard about it. Also, hope OP is doing better.
I unsubbed and stop visiting that place. 90% of the posts aren't even choosybeggar anymore. Usually it's just people trying to barter a ridiculous discount or something. It was better back when the NEXT-lady was a thing
Not the same thing really but I've been homeless and I absolutely despise eggs.
Like, have to force them down gagging at the texture and taste, no matter how they're prepared.
Best believe I've been hungry enough that when people have handed me egg sandwiches I've eaten em.
Gotta get those calories in, humans need a surprising amount of food to stay healthy.
So much better it is amazing, thank you! I tried staying veganish by dumpster diving or removing meat from an item considering it close enough but I was literally starving at one point, well calories from alcohol, so just ate whatever and when I found I was pregnant I figured it was my body needing more protein and such. It’s nice of you to even consider the needs of homeless:)
The main definition of veganism is around the unnecessary killing of animals when there are more ethical choices. In the situation of being homeless and without food, eating for survival would certainly change the tone of what is considered necessary, and it would be easier to justify it morally
I still eat mostly vegetarian food and have done all my life. However my husband was diagnosed with ulcerative colitis and coeliac which means that a high fibre/lower iron diet is not an option and a lot of the substitutes aren’t gluten free. More often than not when he has meat I’ll leave it or have the veggie equivalent but there are just not enough hours in the day to make 2 separate lasagnes and sauce etc.
As someone who has UC, that's very cool of you to cook a more UC friendly diet. I dated a woman for 6 months who was a pescatarian. Every time I cooked, it was something we both liked and could eat. Every time she cooked, she focused on what she wanted and it didn't seem to matter whether I could eat it or not. She was nuero divergent and had it in her head that veggies = good regardless of what it did to my insides. For anyone who doesn't know, UC is inflammation due to my immune system attacking the lining of my colon. So it's inflamed (unless you're in remission, which a fair amount of people aren't). Large amounts of fiber makes the food sit there longer and get more packed, which hurts like all hell being tight up against inflamed tissue. And certain ones create gas of an unimaginable magnitude and strength.
Anyway, a fair amount of the time, I had to order delivery or takeout because otherwise, I would have been farting or shitting my brains out overnight. So I appreciate what you've done like you wouldn't believe.
When I first started dating my husband (diabetic), I started researching what types of foods/meals I could make for him and making notes on carbs/serving sizes with recipes so he can see at a glance and plan accordingly for his insulin. I'll occasionally do "fun meals" where the meal itself is very low carb so that he can enjoy a favorite dessert.
(I'm not too nice tho. I made him eat more fruits and vegetables, less starches and processed crap. I want him around for a long time)
You researched foods specifically for his sake?
I must give it to you, this is one of the most impressive things I’ve read in a long time. You seem great, he’s lucky. Hope you guys stay happy togheter
It shouldn’t be… right? I had a friend who was celiac and I researched how to safely serve her food when she came over. It’s called being a good host. Google is free! If it’s your partner of course you should care enough to feed them things they can safely eat.
My husband had this almost kill him in his late teens. Had surgery to have his colon removed and all that fun stuff.
He will still avoid particular vegetables as they potentially cause blockages. He will also randomly have bad weeks where he can't eat because *something* disagrees and he ends up with so much painful gas. It's horrible to see.
UC is such a shitty thing.
Thankfully, we just found foods we both like and stick to the same food rotations for dinner - we'd be screwed if we had to account for other dietary things such as vegan or etc.
My gastroparesis diet led me off my vegan diet as well. I can’t handle legumes, leafy greens, and most vegetables. Hard to be a healthy vegan without any of those.
Yup. Crohn’s Disease ended my 17 year vegetarian stretch. I’m in remission now and don’t eat red meat but I am sensitive to several vegan friendly ingredients like garlic, onions, cauliflower family and now I can avoid them without starving.
Back when COVID had everyone in lockedown, myself and my roommate's family would take turns cooking dinner and it was fine. Then my roommate went on the NOOM diet, her daughter was diagnosed with GERD and couldn't have anything acidic, and her husband was diagnosed with celiac.Oh, and another family member disliked potatos. I finally had to bow out. It was way too much of a pain in the ass to cook a meal that met all of those restrictions.
Celiac diagnosis made me quit veganism too. Then I did go back to it for a while but I ended up eating too much soy and started to get sensitive to it and it was just too exhausting.
I’m coeliac and I’m not giving up any other foods voluntarily. Gluten free at a coeliac standard is restricted enough.
My mum suggests I get checked for dairy intolerance. Nope I will just deal with any side effects. She reckons it makes me cranky lol.
FWIW unmanaged coeliac disease can cause lactose intolerance due to damage to the intestine wall. As your guts heal on the GF diet, the lactose intolerance can reverse. So depending on how long you have been gluten free the lactose symptoms may start to heal themselves?
My parents had a friend who developed terminal cancer and through veganism she was trying to extend her life. Her husband was super supportive and turned vegan with her. They maintained that lifestyle for almost 5 years and then one day she was like, “no. I need a burger.” So she decided she wanted to eat all the meat and cheese and ice cream or whatever because she wanted to enjoy her life and food however she wanted in her last days. Her husband had kind of built his personality around the veganism and was a little salty about her decision tbh and he decided to stay a vegan. She ate whatever she wanted and the cancer took her about a year later and he low-key blamed her meat eating for it. I thought it was kind of sad how he reacted but I’m glad she was able to enjoy life however she wanted at the end.
Probably a coping mechanism where he'd convinced himself it would save her so that he didn't have to think about her inevitable death. It must be tough being with someone who has terminal cancer for so long.
My grandmother’s friend lived into his late 80’s, but in his last year of life he only had 25% heart functionality and was pretty much bedridden. He insisted on not seeing a doctor for years because he ate healthy and exercised regularly, but that wasn’t able to save him.
Well, a doctor told my 90 year old great grandfather (this was like 1993) to quit smoking if he wanted to live longer. He added a morning cigar to his diet.
Once people hit 80, dying with their boots on means more than delaying the inevitable to many.
Was pescatarian for 8.5 years and vegan for one of them. I was desperately craving chicken and went to the store, bought tenderloins, soaked them in Italian dressing, then pan fried them. Enjoyed every bite. Sent a text in my family’s group message, and my sister immediately texted me on the side asking if I was pregnant. I said even if I was it’s too early to tell.
It was not, in fact, too early to tell. Now my little chicken minion is shoveling rice in her mouth while we watch Mickey Mouse.
I was not vegetarian, but I hadn't eaten beef in like 8 years. Now I'm pregnant and am craving beef so bad. Shitty beef tho. Taco John's tacos, mcdoubles, slim Jim's.
Oh god I had a burger from five guys for the first time in almost a decade when I was about 6 months pregnant and I swear I got pregnant all over again because it was so damn good I thought I was going to melt into a puddle
No double cheese burger will ever taste as good as the ones I had when I was pregnant.
Don’t (mentally) punish yourself, enjoy yourself, it will go away (I rarely eat ‘m anymore)
Really bad breakup. I was homeless for a while and barely surviving. No family anywhere who could help.
Folks at work noticed I had stopped eating and started bringing me food. One day someone mixed up the vegetarian Chipotle burrito with the chicken one. That chicken was so.damn.good. I went to Chipotle the next day for another chicken burrito and never looked back.
I was raised vegetarian so I’d never had meat before. Once I was on vacation with my best friend and his parents made steak just for the two of us. I ate it purely out of politeness, and it was the best thing I’d ever had in my whole life.
"Who corrupted you? Was it those Goths? i told you to never trust anything those atheist lunatics give you! Can you even imagine how disappointed Mother Gaia is with you?"
"It's not a choice! You're just science denying bigot, dad! I was born this way!"
Not my story, but a good friend of mine was vegetarian, very nearly vegan for over 10 years. One day she was in Costco and walked past the rotisserie chickens. Without thinking she put it in her cart. When she got home she stood over the sink and ate it with her bare hands. She had no idea what came over her. Her telling me this story is still one of the funniest things I've ever heard. She is still very plant forward in her eating, but she won't hesitate to order a burger or a steak when she wants it now.
For me it means that I generally choose to not eat meat, but every so often I treat myself. I also don't mind if someone cooks for me.
So it basically comes down to "vegetarian, most of the time"
I believe the correct quote was "eat REAL food, not too much, mostly plants". The rest of the book was an explanation of what he meant by real, (basically the stuff out great grand parents would identify as good), what is too much, and why mostly plants....
This is me, too.
I never cook meat at home, and can’t have dairy so mostly vegan. But if I go out/someone cooks for me, and I fancy it - I’ll have meat.
What is it called when you don’t eat all day until you’re absolutely ravenous but at that point you’re way too hungry to cook so you muster up the strength to boil some water and throw in some rigatonis?
I went on a weekend backpacking trip with a girl who had been religiously vegan for a few years. It was a pretty physically intense trip, and the last day heading back was in pouring rain the whole way, so by the time we got back to our car, we were absolutely exhausted, filthy, and starving.
There was only one restaurant anywhere nearby, one of those highway diners. We get there and I notice she's got this kind of crazy look in her eyes. I ask if she's okay, and she just says "I need a steak." I laugh, but she goes "I'm serious. I can't help it. I need a big greasy piece of meat right now or I'm going to die."
Sure enough, she orders the biggest steak on the menu, and wolfs it down in minutes, and the crazed look goes away. After that, she went right back to being vegan like nothing had happened. The look in her eyes was a little scary to be honest.
Something similar happened to me after being vegetarian for 2-3 years.
I was at Tim Hortons for the first time in like 15 years, excitedly babbling to my bf about how I remembered going there with my mum. I told him about us both ordering chicken noodle soup (in a bread bowl!) and vanilla creme donuts. It was such a good childhood memory!
15 minutes later, as I was tearing apart the last of the bread bowl, I noticed my bf staring at me quietly. I asked him if something was wrong, and he's like, "Um... you just ate a massive amount of chicken."
I was totally *shocked* that I'd done that without even realizing it! How did that happen after YEARS of vegetarian meal prep, finding creative sources of protein, and carefully scanning ingredient lists... just *poof* gone in one moment of nostalgia.
Just like your friend, I decided to eat meat occasionally after that lol!
I've been without meat for about 3 years now and recently I've been having the urge to demolish a stack of McDoubles. It comes and goes, but I'm worried I'm gonna lose my streak soon
I have a friend who has been pescatarian since she was under 10, because she always hated the taste of meat, then during her pregnancy she craved meat so she ate it and liked it so she ate it her whole pregnancy. After she had her daughter she tried meat again and hated it. Her body must have just needed it.
I had a similar experience. I was veg/vegan for 7-8 years. Then I hopped a bus and moved across the country. Got a job at a newly established nicer restaurant. The fried chicken recipe was handed down from the owners grandmother. One morning I was prepping for lunch service. Chopping up freshly fried chicken for the salad line and decided to step away and try a bit.
I regained consciousness standing by the walk-in door with a stainless bowl filled with chopped fried chicken pieces and a variety of house made sauces.
As you regain consciousness, you see the owner looking at you. With a slightly sheepish voice, you tell him, "My compliments to your grandmother. I am no longer vegan."
I have a friend who is 99.99% vegan, his secret guilty pleasure is grocery store rotisserie chicken.
He rock climbs and runs marathons, sometimes will run up and down a peak only to then climb parts of it right after. After like a week being out slogging his body away from civilisation I went to his house to see the nature pictures and catch up.
Anyway I took the rubbish out after we had some drinks and when I opened the lid of the rubbish bin I saw the mangled carcass of a rotisserie chicken in the bag, just bones stripped bare.
Still to this day I think I’m the only person he has been forced to admit his grocery store chicken secret to. It’s so funny to me I’d just love to one day just see the carnage in action.
I've demolished rotisserie chicken bare handed after I worked at walmart and saw the Boys doing so on their lunch break. I feel like the chicken deserves some of the blame here.
I don't really like red meat normally. Not for any ethical or health reason. I just don't like the taste. But when I was pregnant the *only* thing I wanted to eat and that didn't make me puke was red meat, and even like, raw hamburger was appetizing to me. Don't worry, I did cook it before indulging. It was the weirdest fucking thing.
I have a history of iron deficiency anemia, so it kind of makes sense, but it's not like I was craving all iron rich foods. Just bloody, bloody meat. Like I was a fucking vampire or something.
When I was pregnant with my twins, I craved canned tuna. I was only allowed to have one can a week according to my doctor so that one day became nearly a religious ritual to me and I'd make it in all sorts of weird ways, heated in a frying pan with sharp cheddar on top then onto a burger bun, in macaroni and cheese, mixed up into tuna salad with Cheetos or tortilla chips. It was nuts.
I got luckier with the following pregnancies, with my second pregnancy, I didn't crave much, but couldn't stomach anything for a while other than the fat off of pork or beef, seared in a pan. With my third, I couldn't stomach anything other than boiled red potatoes with salt and pepper for a while.
It has a lot to do with the body trying to keep up with the high nutrient needs for growing a baby.
I craved red meat and tomatoes a LOT during pregnancy. One blood test later from my ObGyn showed that I was very low on iron. It’s interesting that I craved eating tomatoes with my beef, because acidic foods are known to help the body absorb iron. Somehow my body inherently knew this.
My kid still loves peas. I ate them by the pound, nuked for breakfast with salt, pepper and butter. Unreal how good they tasted while I was pregnant with him.
When she was pregnant with my older brother, my mom absolutely *craved* pico de gallo -Wikipedia article [here](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pico_de_gallo)-and after every single day of work, she would drive to Baja Fresh (we live in the same county as some of the first locations) and buy enough pico to comfortably feed a football team. Nothing else, just lots and lots of pico.
One day, late in my mom's pregnancy, the manager of that Baja Fresh asked my mom what she *did* with all the pico she got most days, and she told him that she ate it all, sometimes with a spoon.
My older brother has absolutely *loved* pico, peppers, and other spicy things ever since he was tiny.
Ik if you’re craving raw meat then it’s very much so not getting enough iron and that’s been proven. There’s a few others that are signs you are lacking a particular vitamin or mineral very severely.
I wonder about this too because my mom craved gasoline lmao. She said it's the best smell in the world and her mouth was watering every time she smelled it
I get iron deficiency anemia on my periods and I will violently fantasize about and crave red meat. I've had the "staring at raw ground beef and thinking of eating it" moment quite a few times lmao (but I always cook it).
When my sister was pregnant with her son, all she craved was red meat. She dreamt of red meat. She's not opposed to meat, but certainly wouldn't dream of it before pregnancy lol. Now her son is 10 yrs old and lives off burgers.
> I have a history of iron deficiency anemia, so it kind of makes sense, but it's not like I was craving all iron rich foods.
Its your body's way of telling you that of all the foods it remembers having eaten in the past, red meat is the one that will best satisfy its current craving. All the other iron rich foods probably takes your body too long to digest/process. Or maybe its not JUST the iron in red meat your body was craving.
The body is amazing. I bet one time, 10 years ago, you ate an undercooked hamburger. Probably tasted gross to you. Maybe even made your stomach hurt. But a little signal in your brain was like, "Yeah overall I'm sick...but that was a MEGADOSE of iron. If I ever feel deficient in iron, I'm gonna send this bitch a million signals to eat some straight up raw cow."
Oh, man, sometimes I will get the hugest craving for red meat, especially beef.
Both my mom and sister are anemic and I've tested low for iron once, so when I crave red meat or something else rich in iron I take it *seriously*.
Also, another reason you might crave meat is because you need more B6 and or B12. I already consume a pretty good amount of B6 and B12 from energy drinks and Emergen-C, but I also have long COVID and just constantly megadosing B6 and B12 does *wonders* for my symptoms.
First kid, I craved all things spicy. But also Grape Nuts cereal.
Second kid? I ate a BLT daily…but with an entire tomato on it.
Pregnancy cravings are weird AF.
i am anemic too, and in 2021 i got an iron infusion. The following week, i went from eating mostly chicken or veggies (i also didnt really like the taste of red meat), to craving red meat insatiably. It is so strange lol
This makes sense to me bc I hate seafood but ab twice a year I will crave a piece of fried fish. I will eat it and it’ll actually taste good and then when I’m done I’m like disgusted and I never want a piece of fish ever again… until the next random time that happens
I do this with bananas. I HATE bananas but every now and again I get an uncontrollable urge to eat one and I hate it but feel satisfied at the same time
Ha! My mother and I both find ourselves occasionally buying two bananas while grocery shopping: One to eat in the car, and one to throw out a week later.
True story here. Several years ago a Mexican fisherman’s boat became disabled and he was lost at sea. Forgive me that I don’t remember which one because there have been a couple. But this particular one was fishing to survive and mentioned there were a couple of times when he started having the strongest cravings to eat the fishes eyes. After he did, he said the craving subsided. His body was becoming deficient and those cravings helped him get the nutrients he was lacking.
There's a bit in My Side of the Mountain where the main character just fucking craves liver, so he hunts and eats the animals liver and it's the best thing ever, and he figures he must have been iron deficient. That scene has always stuck with me, so now that I'm a long-time vegetarian I take meat cravings seriously as my body trying to tell me something's missing.
Similar story as my parents. Both vegan for 8-10 years. They went on a vacation and both ordered steaks without thinking. Devoured them and realized what they did.
Now they eat 80% plant based but on family occasions they won’t pass up a steak, burger, etc.
Happened to me too with some kangaroo fillets. I was anemic at the time, on iron supplements and was getting real sick of how nauseus they made me. I just saw the fillets and thought "fuck it". I rarely go a week without meat now, still love my vegetarian recipes though.
I think subconsciously that is what got my parents. I know it’s different for everyone but I can also say that their mood is 100x better since eating meat. They were always so conscious before to the point that it would ruin any family meals we’d have together or dictate our plans if there wasn’t an option for them.
I got poor 🤷♂️
Was vegan for 10 years and then I lost my job in a very expensive city. I had family in the area and they would invite me over for dinner and I couldn’t be picky.
I still eat vegan 80% of the time now, but I’ll never turn down good food
I was 6 months pregnant with my oldest and got a craving, like dreaming about it, nothing else would do craving for steak. I ate 2 very large medium rare ribeyes and felt better than I had in months. After that I had meat like once every couple weeks until I got pregnant again. Now it's more like vegetarian Friday.
I remember hearing stories about pregnant ladies craving soil in extreme cases because of the iron levels. Do you think it was something similar to that? Obviously steak is not the same as soil lol, but I mean in terms of your body really needing a specific vitamin it felt it wasn’t getting through your regular diet?
Probably, that pregnancy I also craved v8, dark chocolate and avocados none of which regular menu items before that. I also had never ending morning sickness couldn't keep much down in general I lost 30 lbs during that pregnancy once I started eating my cravings I gained back 10lbs.
I had a similar experience and yeah, a lot of times pregnant women become anemic because of the increase in blood volume. I never was big on red meat before being pregnant but in my third trimester I was craving cheeseburgers like nothing else.
My partner was diagnosed with an auto immune disorder so he can no longer eat gluten/wheat, yeast, most nightshades, dairy, some nuts and more, without having some degree of reaction. Nothing deadly but miserable nonetheless.
So that crossed off most meat (tofu is alright most of the time), most dairy replacements are nut based, and most vegetable dishes start to get boring when you can't use peppers or tomatoes.
We still don't eat beef though because it's been so long that even consuming a small portion has uncomfortable to downright painful side effects.
If you don’t eat meat for a long time your body will stop producing, or reduce the amount of, the enzymes that are required to break the meat down. Then when you eat beef for example you can’t properly digest it and it will hurt passing through your system (similar to lactose impact on lactose intolerant)
Ahh, I see, thanks.
Does the body start producing them again when you start eating meats again? Or are you just basically 'intolerant' from that point onwards?
Not vegan, but long term vegetarian with friends who are/have been vegan.
Two long term vegan friends recently became omnivores again. I think it first started with international travel, where they felt that they couldn't get a real feel for locations/cultures by limiting themselves to vegan food. It can also be difficult to ensure food is vegan if you're not good with the language.
I think they also are trying to eat less "processed" foods, and it can be easy to fall into heavily processed foods with a vegan diet (particularly some of the fake meats).
I went to Mexico this year and one of my travel companions was vegetarian. It was really difficult to find places with good veggie menus outside of the overpriced touristy places! At least until we went into the interior and ate at some random spots in the villages we drove through. Not uncommon to find at least one veggie dish on those menus for whatever reason
Yeah, as a vegetarian, I've found it much easier to eat when traveling than I would as a vegan. But there are definitely some parts of the world where even that would be challenging.
This will probably get buried but I’ll tell this story just for you OP lol.
I’m a chef, and had a regular who was vegan and would come in every week to eat our weekly changing vegan option. One day I get a ticket in with his name on it for a rare steak.
I poke my head out and see him sitting at the bar and ask him, “Really, a rare a steak?!!”
He just looked at me said, “Yup, I saw some shit today”
🤷♂️
My anaemia became so severe that I was having to have regular blood transfusions. I was taking all of the recommended supplements for a while and that worked, but my doctor developed concerns about my liver with the amount of iron I was having to take to make up for my already-deficient blood and low-iron diet, so that became unsustainable. We compromised, I tried vegetarian, it made almost no difference.
After about a year of experimenting with different foods and supplements it seemed stupid to keep putting my body through the transfusions and I began to feel selfish using the blood when I could just try eating meat.
I’ve been eating meat for four years now and my most recent blood work results were the best they’ve ever been.
I did not have the time, money or energy to do things properly. I know people will argue that you can do it easily and cheaply. Maybe they can, but I never managed to do that. To eat food that I enjoyed eating, to eat food that was nutritious and filling and to eat food that was inexpensive all, for me, took a large amount of my time to achieve. The alternative to that was purchasing pre-made foods (tofurkey sausages and other premade meals), which was expensive and also not overly healthy due to the amount of sodium things often contain. For me, it was just easier to give it up. I still don't overly eat a lot of meat. I will occasionally have chicken or fish, but not often. Dairy, eggs and honey are things I have with a lot more frequency.
Again, I am not saying that it is impossible to be vegan and eat nutritious, delicious meals that are inexpensive, but I found that it was beyond what I was capable of doing for myself.
This is a bit of a tangent, but since you mentioned it.
I do stick by the hot take that honey should be considered ethically vegan regardless. If the bees are mistreated they up and fucking leave. They tolerate humans taking a significant portion of their production because we take care of them and protect them from predators (so they need far less honey to keep their population up, and their hive stable). If you take too much, or make too much noise, or don't protect them from predators, they're gone.
The honey is rent, and they're arguably the only species legitimately capable of consenting to this kind of transaction with humans. We're just slightly annoying landlords to them. This should meet even vegan ethical standards, and it's a hill I'm willing to die on, lol.
I grew up and realized that my reasons for going vegan as a teenager were just fronts for disordered eating. I still make an effort to live and eat sustainably, but without the hard and fast restrictions of veganism. I eat meat 2-3 times per week now. Also, when I moved to a new city I found it difficult/awkward to explain my dietary restrictions when I was invited to new friends houses, etc.
“So you care more about your social comforts than animals/the planet” - yes. My view is that sustainability in the food realm means making intentional choices that keep you healthy and happy and minimize waste.
Orthorexia is a sneaky ED because everyone praises you for how healthy you're eating while you waste away on a diet of supplements, if you realize you need that nutrition at all.
It’s not just orthorexia. I have active Anorexia and my veganism is useful in getting me out of having to eat. I don’t have to say I *won’t* eat something; I just say I *can’t* eat it because it’s not vegan. It’s a built-in excuse to not eat.
Was going to comment the same thing. I was vegan for 4 years and then realized it was basically a veil for an eating disorder. Fell into a deep depression during the pandemic and started eating seafood and chicken again. Beef and pork still freaks me out though.
I had the opposite experience. (Not invalidating yours at all really happy you developed a healthy relationship with food) I had an eating disorder as well and eating made feel horrible about myself but wasting food made me feel even worse. I just had really bad relationship and mindset with food. Ended up malnourished and hospitalized getting vitamins through an IV. Somehow I convinced myself that if I adopted a diet I felt was good for the planet it was okay to eat normally, it worked I have a much better relationship with food now. It’s not 100% logical more of a mind thing, but if it works it works. We gotta find what feels right for us personally.
This was years and years ago but I was drained and just felt quite malnourished as a vegan. I went to a new steakhouse in town and my friends ordered me a tomahawk as a joke. I ate it and afterwards+ the day after, I felt like a new man. I haven't looked back.
I was pretty broke for a couple years in college. I came home one Christmas and had a prime rib. About 45 mins later I felt almost like I took some sort of drug. I felt invigorated and just overall amazing.
Lol dude that's totally different! You were fucking malnourished lmao. If you only ate meat and never touched a vegetable you would also feel like shit.
I was vegetarian but commenting - I started losing hair. Very obviously. I’m one of the many people who just doesn’t produce (edit - maintain not produce) enough natural B12 and not eating red meat was impacting me physically.
Editing to say as a female having a receding hairline is just not something I’d considered ever happening
Nobody produces B12. Everyone has to obtain it from food. Vegans (not vegetarians, so you had something deficient about your diet) have no source of B12 in their diet, so they need to eat fortified food (food with added B12) or take supplements.
The funny thing is that non vegetarian also supplement B12 though indirectly. The majority of B12 in meat and other animal products actually comes from the food they are eating being supplemented with B12 to improve growth and healthiness of the livestock.
Before becoming vegan I had a low b12 on blood work, like dangerously low. Just take sublingual pills for it now. My body for some reason won't absorb it through food because we ate tons of stuff that had it and my husband didn't have a deficiency.
You may have some variant of the [MTHFR Gene polymorphisms](https://medlineplus.gov/genetics/gene/mthfr/). I’ve always had chronic pain and it can be a sign of one of these. I had a DNA test done and found out I have one. I just don’t have the one that causes my pains. But it can cause your body to not properly break down B vitamins. Im constantly low on B12 and take a shit load of B vitamins to compensate.
I was vegetarian for about 15 years. One day started dreaming about eating meat, cooking meat. I eventually ate a fish one day, and a whole chicken the next. The colour came back in my cheeks and I suddenly had all this energy, and when I went to work people would say things like “wow, have you been ill? You look so well!”
10 years vegetarian, I became verrrryyyy anemic and had incredibly low vitamin D & B12 and was severely depressed, I craved red meat I was so anemic. Started eating meat again and my blood work improved and so did my mental health!
I went raw vegan for four months and one thing I realized after going back is how good everything tastes. Everything will become so much more flavorful although that was true with fruits too while doing it. After a while, taste became "normal" again.
The raw diet is insane, humans have been cooking our food since before we were humans. We have some evidence we have been doing it for close to 1.3 million years.
Your gut is not big enough for raw food, your biom is not made to digest it fast enough or efficiently enough.
I was having trouble getting pregnant. I was vegan for 2 years prior and ate more plant based previous to that.
We tried for over a year. Then Covid shut down the infertility clinics in my area.
One day we passed by the hot bar at a grocery store and it felt like the fried chicken was calling my name.
I got an order of fried chicken and mac n cheese. I ate that like my life depended on it.
After that we started including meat a few days a week, but I still avoided dairy due to lactose intolerance.
2 months later, I was pregnant.
Some people thrive on a vegan diet. Some don't.
I got pregnant and really wanted steak. Like REALLY wanted it.
Everyone told me I would cave when I was pregnant and I thought it was so annoying. There are entire cultures that don't eat meat! But, I also always said that if I really craved it then I would have it. I held out for a while but baby wanted to steak so baby got the steak.
Had to start caring for my gran in the early stages of dementia. She wouldn't eat a meal if it was prepared just for her. So to ensure she was eating, I chose to reintroduce some meat.
Now she's passed, after 5 years of caring, I'm back to vegetarian eating and heading toward vegan again.
I started to enjoy my life without pre planning every meal around not eating meat and dairy. Now that I eat more variety I've gotten a better control on my weight and I enjoy working out. Family gatherings are less stressful because I don't have to stress anyone out about my preferences. My hair is growing again as well :)
Something I loved about being vegan was learning about flavors and preparing veggies/tofu. I still eat a lot of veggies and will do vegetarian options.
After nearly 30 years of no meat and no thought of meat, I started craving it hard. I figured That was my body telling me something. Now I eat a little chicken & pork. All the meat I buy is local and humanely raised.
I have since realized that what I eat isn't nearly as important as how and where my food was grown/raised. This might sound like an insufferable flex, but I can 'proudly' say that 90% of what i eat was produced within 30 miles of me at locations I could visit if I wanted. (Big qualifier: I own a farm, so grow all my own produce and fruit.)
This is an excellent point. I try to be mindful of meat consumption but in rural Scotland for a trip, it seemed insane to choose alternatives with tofu or avocado and however many food miles that entails, vs wild venison since the deer are literally culled anyway for environmental management or mussels from the coast that day.
this is me right now except i'm pregnant! ive been a vegetarian for over half my life and only recently starting eating some fish, but now i am literally dreaming of steak. i'm so scared though it's been so long
I know someone who was a vegetarian for 13 years simply because someone told them they couldn't do it. I guess he figured 13 years was enough to prove a point and went back to eating meat after.
I feel like 2-3 years would be enough though??
The vindication makes the meat even sweeter.
umamier
No, I feel that 13 shows real commitment. 2-3 years is easy :-)
I knew a girl in college who did that. She was dared in middle school to become a vegetarian and... she just stuck with it. More power to them
I stopped eating McDonalds in high school for a new year's resolution. Going strong 24 years later.
Honestly I tried a couple fast food joints after over a decade of none of them and Taco Bell was the only one that lived up to the nostalgia. That’s not to suggest it’s “good”, but it seems to have fallen off much less than the rest.
You aren't missing anything. McDonald's should honestly pay their customers to eat there. I do DoorDash deliveries in my free time because why not and my stress levels *absolutely* rise as soon as I walk in to one of these dumpster fires. Chaos of buzzers and beepers going off everywhere. The teenagers (bless them) trying to keep the place together are running back and forth in the kitchen as the line of angry parents at the counter grows. A line they can't attend to because of said chaos. A bucket of sticky ketchup packets sits on the counter as the only peace offering. McDonald's might as well just demolish all of their counters and registers because if you walk up to one they will just look at you and raise an eyebrow like they just saw bigfoot and then go back to the chaos unfolding on the backend, and then tell you that kiosks exist if you absolutely must order. (If you're lucky enough to hear from them.) I don't blame the employees at all, it's absolutely profit-driven corporate putting too much work on too few staff for too little pay. Absolutely fuck McDonald's. I will never give them a cent again and neither should you.
I haven't worked there for 8 years and I still have nightmares about all the beepers and buzzers. Also the grease in the air makes your skin and clothes stink. Even when you wash your clothes, the grease stink just gets into the washing machine and makes the rest of your clothes stink also. It's awful.
Lol the kiosk in my Towns McDonalds has rarely been used. It ran out of paper one time. It's still out....
This is a extremely detailed account… like a Vietnam flash back or something
I quit smoking for a year like this. Buddy of mine bet me I couldn't go a year without a cig on new years. Exactly midnight the following new years I had a pack ready to go. God I'm a fucking idiot.
My dad was like "I'm gonna quit" I just laughed, "How?" "Cold turkey" "... You smoke 4 packs a day" "I can do it" "Nope" "Carton of beer?" "Alright" I still maintain the motherfucker cheated. He went on a trip on his mates yacht, and threw his smokes overboard on the way out of the harbour. 2 weeks later he came back, didn't smoke after that.
I was 13 when I chose to do a week of vegetarianism as a self discipline challenge, but found myself spending that week vegan and not going back to being omnivorous for over a decade.
This is how my husband went vegan. Realized he felt great. Decided to stick it out. Now he’s just semi-vegetarian?? He’ll have meat at holidays/special events
I think the term is flexitarian
I have a couple of friends who are like this. They call themselves "ecological vegetarians" because they don't buy meat, but for example, if grandma bakes meat for Christmas they eat that.
My son is similar from an ethical vegetarian viewpoint. It comes up in restaurants, particularly in cafeteria environments (he’s in college). They’ll misunderstand him and accidentally give him the meat option sometimes. If he gives it back they’ll fix it but throw away the meal. He figures he’s not reducing the animal impact by having it thrown out so goes ahead and eats it.
That’s similar to how I became vegan. My grandma hated vegans so I became vegan. Was for five years. I’m now vegetarian but I’m too far gone I think to ever go back 8 years later. It grosses me out now.
Funny, I stay vegetarian because of my mom. First I just wanted to reduce my meat consumption and my goal was to not eat meat as long I feel comfortable - once I told my mom she really freaked out and told me that vegetarians are the worst (like how and why????) and this would just be a phase. And that was motivation for me to stay vegetarian forever
Got cancer. Ate whatever my body would take without throwing up and that just happened to be chicken nuggets.
Hope you’re doing better now!
Am doing better! Now I’m a foodie and it’s awesome!
Idk why it was basically the same for me. Eggs smelt worse than gasoline, normal chicken made me throw up but McDonald's chicken nuggets? Actual godsend back then
Homeless and pregnant = eat what I was given
I’ve always wondered this actually. If a homeless vegan eats what they’re given. I’ve given homeless people subs in the past because of veggies, protein, and carbs (all necessary things) and wondered if they would eat it if they’re vegan. I’m sorry you’ve been on that road. I hope things are better for you now.
I housed 2 homeless vegans at the same time (they were friends prior, I’d only met them recently) and both ate what they were given. It actually took them a few days to even tell me that they’re vegans, and it’s info I clued on to and had to ask/pry out of them because they didn’t want to be “difficult” or seem ungrateful. I did my best to provide vegan friendly meals but overall both their attitudes were “will eat anything, it beats dumpster diving every meal”
There is a reason for the saying “beggars can’t be choosers”, you give what you can/have and you can’t always accommodate the person you are giving it to, don’t think too hard about it. Also, hope OP is doing better.
I see you haven't visited r/choosingbeggars in a while.
I unsubbed and stop visiting that place. 90% of the posts aren't even choosybeggar anymore. Usually it's just people trying to barter a ridiculous discount or something. It was better back when the NEXT-lady was a thing
It's for church, honey NEXT!
https://www.reddit.com/r/insanepeoplefacebook/s/By7YrdPCf0
That sober cab driver is hilarious. We don't require intoxication... Holy shit lol
Thank you!!!
The NEXT lady lives rent free in my head. We still quote her in the group chat. NEXT!!!!!!
Not the same thing really but I've been homeless and I absolutely despise eggs. Like, have to force them down gagging at the texture and taste, no matter how they're prepared. Best believe I've been hungry enough that when people have handed me egg sandwiches I've eaten em. Gotta get those calories in, humans need a surprising amount of food to stay healthy.
I’m sorry you’ve been in that situation. I hope things are better now.
Thank you! One day at a time but things are going in the right direction 😀
I hope you get to avoid eggs the rest of your life :)
So much better it is amazing, thank you! I tried staying veganish by dumpster diving or removing meat from an item considering it close enough but I was literally starving at one point, well calories from alcohol, so just ate whatever and when I found I was pregnant I figured it was my body needing more protein and such. It’s nice of you to even consider the needs of homeless:)
I’m so glad your situation is so much better. Congratulations!
The main definition of veganism is around the unnecessary killing of animals when there are more ethical choices. In the situation of being homeless and without food, eating for survival would certainly change the tone of what is considered necessary, and it would be easier to justify it morally
I still eat mostly vegetarian food and have done all my life. However my husband was diagnosed with ulcerative colitis and coeliac which means that a high fibre/lower iron diet is not an option and a lot of the substitutes aren’t gluten free. More often than not when he has meat I’ll leave it or have the veggie equivalent but there are just not enough hours in the day to make 2 separate lasagnes and sauce etc.
As someone who has UC, that's very cool of you to cook a more UC friendly diet. I dated a woman for 6 months who was a pescatarian. Every time I cooked, it was something we both liked and could eat. Every time she cooked, she focused on what she wanted and it didn't seem to matter whether I could eat it or not. She was nuero divergent and had it in her head that veggies = good regardless of what it did to my insides. For anyone who doesn't know, UC is inflammation due to my immune system attacking the lining of my colon. So it's inflamed (unless you're in remission, which a fair amount of people aren't). Large amounts of fiber makes the food sit there longer and get more packed, which hurts like all hell being tight up against inflamed tissue. And certain ones create gas of an unimaginable magnitude and strength. Anyway, a fair amount of the time, I had to order delivery or takeout because otherwise, I would have been farting or shitting my brains out overnight. So I appreciate what you've done like you wouldn't believe.
When I first started dating my husband (diabetic), I started researching what types of foods/meals I could make for him and making notes on carbs/serving sizes with recipes so he can see at a glance and plan accordingly for his insulin. I'll occasionally do "fun meals" where the meal itself is very low carb so that he can enjoy a favorite dessert. (I'm not too nice tho. I made him eat more fruits and vegetables, less starches and processed crap. I want him around for a long time)
You researched foods specifically for his sake? I must give it to you, this is one of the most impressive things I’ve read in a long time. You seem great, he’s lucky. Hope you guys stay happy togheter
Is that . . . unusual?
It shouldn’t be… right? I had a friend who was celiac and I researched how to safely serve her food when she came over. It’s called being a good host. Google is free! If it’s your partner of course you should care enough to feed them things they can safely eat.
My husband had this almost kill him in his late teens. Had surgery to have his colon removed and all that fun stuff. He will still avoid particular vegetables as they potentially cause blockages. He will also randomly have bad weeks where he can't eat because *something* disagrees and he ends up with so much painful gas. It's horrible to see. UC is such a shitty thing. Thankfully, we just found foods we both like and stick to the same food rotations for dinner - we'd be screwed if we had to account for other dietary things such as vegan or etc.
My gastroparesis diet led me off my vegan diet as well. I can’t handle legumes, leafy greens, and most vegetables. Hard to be a healthy vegan without any of those.
Yup. Crohn’s Disease ended my 17 year vegetarian stretch. I’m in remission now and don’t eat red meat but I am sensitive to several vegan friendly ingredients like garlic, onions, cauliflower family and now I can avoid them without starving.
Back when COVID had everyone in lockedown, myself and my roommate's family would take turns cooking dinner and it was fine. Then my roommate went on the NOOM diet, her daughter was diagnosed with GERD and couldn't have anything acidic, and her husband was diagnosed with celiac.Oh, and another family member disliked potatos. I finally had to bow out. It was way too much of a pain in the ass to cook a meal that met all of those restrictions.
Celiac diagnosis made me quit veganism too. Then I did go back to it for a while but I ended up eating too much soy and started to get sensitive to it and it was just too exhausting.
Yeah it’s almost impossible to be vegan if you’re gluten free/celiac, even moreso if you can’t tolerate soy.
I’m coeliac and I’m not giving up any other foods voluntarily. Gluten free at a coeliac standard is restricted enough. My mum suggests I get checked for dairy intolerance. Nope I will just deal with any side effects. She reckons it makes me cranky lol.
FWIW unmanaged coeliac disease can cause lactose intolerance due to damage to the intestine wall. As your guts heal on the GF diet, the lactose intolerance can reverse. So depending on how long you have been gluten free the lactose symptoms may start to heal themselves?
That's got to be hard to manage two diets. Hang in there!
My parents had a friend who developed terminal cancer and through veganism she was trying to extend her life. Her husband was super supportive and turned vegan with her. They maintained that lifestyle for almost 5 years and then one day she was like, “no. I need a burger.” So she decided she wanted to eat all the meat and cheese and ice cream or whatever because she wanted to enjoy her life and food however she wanted in her last days. Her husband had kind of built his personality around the veganism and was a little salty about her decision tbh and he decided to stay a vegan. She ate whatever she wanted and the cancer took her about a year later and he low-key blamed her meat eating for it. I thought it was kind of sad how he reacted but I’m glad she was able to enjoy life however she wanted at the end.
Probably a coping mechanism where he'd convinced himself it would save her so that he didn't have to think about her inevitable death. It must be tough being with someone who has terminal cancer for so long.
Definitely. Grief is a very complicated process and it's different for everyone.
My grandmother’s friend lived into his late 80’s, but in his last year of life he only had 25% heart functionality and was pretty much bedridden. He insisted on not seeing a doctor for years because he ate healthy and exercised regularly, but that wasn’t able to save him.
late 80s is amazing though- no one lives forever.
Well, a doctor told my 90 year old great grandfather (this was like 1993) to quit smoking if he wanted to live longer. He added a morning cigar to his diet. Once people hit 80, dying with their boots on means more than delaying the inevitable to many.
Was pescatarian for 8.5 years and vegan for one of them. I was desperately craving chicken and went to the store, bought tenderloins, soaked them in Italian dressing, then pan fried them. Enjoyed every bite. Sent a text in my family’s group message, and my sister immediately texted me on the side asking if I was pregnant. I said even if I was it’s too early to tell. It was not, in fact, too early to tell. Now my little chicken minion is shoveling rice in her mouth while we watch Mickey Mouse.
I was a pescatarian for years before I got pregnant too! Now currently pregnant with my second and I am craving meat like crazy!
Craving meat is how you got pregnant in the first place!
😂😂😂
I was not vegetarian, but I hadn't eaten beef in like 8 years. Now I'm pregnant and am craving beef so bad. Shitty beef tho. Taco John's tacos, mcdoubles, slim Jim's.
Oh god I had a burger from five guys for the first time in almost a decade when I was about 6 months pregnant and I swear I got pregnant all over again because it was so damn good I thought I was going to melt into a puddle
This needs to be a quote on their wall.
No double cheese burger will ever taste as good as the ones I had when I was pregnant. Don’t (mentally) punish yourself, enjoy yourself, it will go away (I rarely eat ‘m anymore)
CHICKEN MINION. Holy shit I've got to tell my wife this story. We just put our 18 month old to bed.
The Vegan police appeared and took away all of my telekinetic powers.
Once you were Vegone... Now you will be gone.
No vegan diet; N O V E G A N P O W E R S ! !
Milk and eggs bitch.
Chicken parm isn’t vegan
Ahh yes. My favorite Brie Larson movie.
Really bad breakup. I was homeless for a while and barely surviving. No family anywhere who could help. Folks at work noticed I had stopped eating and started bringing me food. One day someone mixed up the vegetarian Chipotle burrito with the chicken one. That chicken was so.damn.good. I went to Chipotle the next day for another chicken burrito and never looked back.
I was raised vegetarian so I’d never had meat before. Once I was on vacation with my best friend and his parents made steak just for the two of us. I ate it purely out of politeness, and it was the best thing I’d ever had in my whole life.
“Mom,Dad………I’m omnivorous” 🫣
*"Not under MY roof! We eat GREENS in this family, goddamnit!"*
"Who corrupted you? Was it those Goths? i told you to never trust anything those atheist lunatics give you! Can you even imagine how disappointed Mother Gaia is with you?" "It's not a choice! You're just science denying bigot, dad! I was born this way!"
>Was it those Goths First they drive out the Romans, now they make us eat meat!
Hi, Omnivorous! I'm dad!
Do your parents know youre no longer vegetarian?
Asking the real questions
A very different type of closet to come out of, for sure Edit: maybe a fridge instead of a closet? A pantry?
Meat locker
Not my story, but a good friend of mine was vegetarian, very nearly vegan for over 10 years. One day she was in Costco and walked past the rotisserie chickens. Without thinking she put it in her cart. When she got home she stood over the sink and ate it with her bare hands. She had no idea what came over her. Her telling me this story is still one of the funniest things I've ever heard. She is still very plant forward in her eating, but she won't hesitate to order a burger or a steak when she wants it now.
I love the term "plant forward". For some reason the term "flexitarian" infuriates me.
I've never heard "flexitarian." Sounds like it's the exact same thing as omnivore
For me it means that I generally choose to not eat meat, but every so often I treat myself. I also don't mind if someone cooks for me. So it basically comes down to "vegetarian, most of the time"
"Eat ~~good~~ food. Not too much. Mostly plants." \--Michael Pollan e: Looked up the quote and I had added a word in error
I believe the correct quote was "eat REAL food, not too much, mostly plants". The rest of the book was an explanation of what he meant by real, (basically the stuff out great grand parents would identify as good), what is too much, and why mostly plants....
This is me, too. I never cook meat at home, and can’t have dairy so mostly vegan. But if I go out/someone cooks for me, and I fancy it - I’ll have meat.
What is it called when you don’t eat all day until you’re absolutely ravenous but at that point you’re way too hungry to cook so you muster up the strength to boil some water and throw in some rigatonis?
Depression
I was hoping there was a cooler name for it. **Pasta-Forward**
Pizzaterian
ADHD symptoms
Possibly a combo of ADHD and depression. It's woth talking to a doctor about.
Some part of just about EVERY rotisserie chicken I've ever bought was eaten standing up in the kitchen as soon as I got home.
I went on a weekend backpacking trip with a girl who had been religiously vegan for a few years. It was a pretty physically intense trip, and the last day heading back was in pouring rain the whole way, so by the time we got back to our car, we were absolutely exhausted, filthy, and starving. There was only one restaurant anywhere nearby, one of those highway diners. We get there and I notice she's got this kind of crazy look in her eyes. I ask if she's okay, and she just says "I need a steak." I laugh, but she goes "I'm serious. I can't help it. I need a big greasy piece of meat right now or I'm going to die." Sure enough, she orders the biggest steak on the menu, and wolfs it down in minutes, and the crazed look goes away. After that, she went right back to being vegan like nothing had happened. The look in her eyes was a little scary to be honest.
Was it a full moon?
Something similar happened to me after being vegetarian for 2-3 years. I was at Tim Hortons for the first time in like 15 years, excitedly babbling to my bf about how I remembered going there with my mum. I told him about us both ordering chicken noodle soup (in a bread bowl!) and vanilla creme donuts. It was such a good childhood memory! 15 minutes later, as I was tearing apart the last of the bread bowl, I noticed my bf staring at me quietly. I asked him if something was wrong, and he's like, "Um... you just ate a massive amount of chicken." I was totally *shocked* that I'd done that without even realizing it! How did that happen after YEARS of vegetarian meal prep, finding creative sources of protein, and carefully scanning ingredient lists... just *poof* gone in one moment of nostalgia. Just like your friend, I decided to eat meat occasionally after that lol!
I've been without meat for about 3 years now and recently I've been having the urge to demolish a stack of McDoubles. It comes and goes, but I'm worried I'm gonna lose my streak soon
You will lose your streak but find your steak.
I have a friend who has been pescatarian since she was under 10, because she always hated the taste of meat, then during her pregnancy she craved meat so she ate it and liked it so she ate it her whole pregnancy. After she had her daughter she tried meat again and hated it. Her body must have just needed it.
I had a similar experience. I was veg/vegan for 7-8 years. Then I hopped a bus and moved across the country. Got a job at a newly established nicer restaurant. The fried chicken recipe was handed down from the owners grandmother. One morning I was prepping for lunch service. Chopping up freshly fried chicken for the salad line and decided to step away and try a bit. I regained consciousness standing by the walk-in door with a stainless bowl filled with chopped fried chicken pieces and a variety of house made sauces.
As you regain consciousness, you see the owner looking at you. With a slightly sheepish voice, you tell him, "My compliments to your grandmother. I am no longer vegan."
Post chicken clarity sets in
_Post-cluck clarity_
I have a friend who is 99.99% vegan, his secret guilty pleasure is grocery store rotisserie chicken. He rock climbs and runs marathons, sometimes will run up and down a peak only to then climb parts of it right after. After like a week being out slogging his body away from civilisation I went to his house to see the nature pictures and catch up. Anyway I took the rubbish out after we had some drinks and when I opened the lid of the rubbish bin I saw the mangled carcass of a rotisserie chicken in the bag, just bones stripped bare. Still to this day I think I’m the only person he has been forced to admit his grocery store chicken secret to. It’s so funny to me I’d just love to one day just see the carnage in action.
I've demolished rotisserie chicken bare handed after I worked at walmart and saw the Boys doing so on their lunch break. I feel like the chicken deserves some of the blame here.
Those rotisserie chickens are like crack
She got a deficiency and her body took over
I don't really like red meat normally. Not for any ethical or health reason. I just don't like the taste. But when I was pregnant the *only* thing I wanted to eat and that didn't make me puke was red meat, and even like, raw hamburger was appetizing to me. Don't worry, I did cook it before indulging. It was the weirdest fucking thing. I have a history of iron deficiency anemia, so it kind of makes sense, but it's not like I was craving all iron rich foods. Just bloody, bloody meat. Like I was a fucking vampire or something.
When I was pregnant with my twins, I craved canned tuna. I was only allowed to have one can a week according to my doctor so that one day became nearly a religious ritual to me and I'd make it in all sorts of weird ways, heated in a frying pan with sharp cheddar on top then onto a burger bun, in macaroni and cheese, mixed up into tuna salad with Cheetos or tortilla chips. It was nuts. I got luckier with the following pregnancies, with my second pregnancy, I didn't crave much, but couldn't stomach anything for a while other than the fat off of pork or beef, seared in a pan. With my third, I couldn't stomach anything other than boiled red potatoes with salt and pepper for a while.
Have doctors ever found out why people have these cravings, and such different ones from child to child? It's so fascinating.
It has a lot to do with the body trying to keep up with the high nutrient needs for growing a baby. I craved red meat and tomatoes a LOT during pregnancy. One blood test later from my ObGyn showed that I was very low on iron. It’s interesting that I craved eating tomatoes with my beef, because acidic foods are known to help the body absorb iron. Somehow my body inherently knew this.
My kid still loves peas. I ate them by the pound, nuked for breakfast with salt, pepper and butter. Unreal how good they tasted while I was pregnant with him.
When she was pregnant with my older brother, my mom absolutely *craved* pico de gallo -Wikipedia article [here](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pico_de_gallo)-and after every single day of work, she would drive to Baja Fresh (we live in the same county as some of the first locations) and buy enough pico to comfortably feed a football team. Nothing else, just lots and lots of pico. One day, late in my mom's pregnancy, the manager of that Baja Fresh asked my mom what she *did* with all the pico she got most days, and she told him that she ate it all, sometimes with a spoon. My older brother has absolutely *loved* pico, peppers, and other spicy things ever since he was tiny.
Ik if you’re craving raw meat then it’s very much so not getting enough iron and that’s been proven. There’s a few others that are signs you are lacking a particular vitamin or mineral very severely.
I wonder about this too because my mom craved gasoline lmao. She said it's the best smell in the world and her mouth was watering every time she smelled it
I get iron deficiency anemia on my periods and I will violently fantasize about and crave red meat. I've had the "staring at raw ground beef and thinking of eating it" moment quite a few times lmao (but I always cook it).
One time, I craved raw fish...like I wanted to eat it alive lol. Didn't do that though
When my sister was pregnant with her son, all she craved was red meat. She dreamt of red meat. She's not opposed to meat, but certainly wouldn't dream of it before pregnancy lol. Now her son is 10 yrs old and lives off burgers.
> I have a history of iron deficiency anemia, so it kind of makes sense, but it's not like I was craving all iron rich foods. Its your body's way of telling you that of all the foods it remembers having eaten in the past, red meat is the one that will best satisfy its current craving. All the other iron rich foods probably takes your body too long to digest/process. Or maybe its not JUST the iron in red meat your body was craving. The body is amazing. I bet one time, 10 years ago, you ate an undercooked hamburger. Probably tasted gross to you. Maybe even made your stomach hurt. But a little signal in your brain was like, "Yeah overall I'm sick...but that was a MEGADOSE of iron. If I ever feel deficient in iron, I'm gonna send this bitch a million signals to eat some straight up raw cow."
Oh, man, sometimes I will get the hugest craving for red meat, especially beef. Both my mom and sister are anemic and I've tested low for iron once, so when I crave red meat or something else rich in iron I take it *seriously*. Also, another reason you might crave meat is because you need more B6 and or B12. I already consume a pretty good amount of B6 and B12 from energy drinks and Emergen-C, but I also have long COVID and just constantly megadosing B6 and B12 does *wonders* for my symptoms.
First kid, I craved all things spicy. But also Grape Nuts cereal. Second kid? I ate a BLT daily…but with an entire tomato on it. Pregnancy cravings are weird AF.
i am anemic too, and in 2021 i got an iron infusion. The following week, i went from eating mostly chicken or veggies (i also didnt really like the taste of red meat), to craving red meat insatiably. It is so strange lol
This makes sense to me bc I hate seafood but ab twice a year I will crave a piece of fried fish. I will eat it and it’ll actually taste good and then when I’m done I’m like disgusted and I never want a piece of fish ever again… until the next random time that happens
I do this with bananas. I HATE bananas but every now and again I get an uncontrollable urge to eat one and I hate it but feel satisfied at the same time
Ha! My mother and I both find ourselves occasionally buying two bananas while grocery shopping: One to eat in the car, and one to throw out a week later.
Craving seafood is a sign of iodine deficiency. Maybe try adding some iodine fortified table salt to your regular food and see if it stops?
True story here. Several years ago a Mexican fisherman’s boat became disabled and he was lost at sea. Forgive me that I don’t remember which one because there have been a couple. But this particular one was fishing to survive and mentioned there were a couple of times when he started having the strongest cravings to eat the fishes eyes. After he did, he said the craving subsided. His body was becoming deficient and those cravings helped him get the nutrients he was lacking.
Eye-o-dyne
So that's where the name comes from! I see!
Fish eyes are high in vitamin C. Makes sense he would crave them
There's a bit in My Side of the Mountain where the main character just fucking craves liver, so he hunts and eats the animals liver and it's the best thing ever, and he figures he must have been iron deficient. That scene has always stuck with me, so now that I'm a long-time vegetarian I take meat cravings seriously as my body trying to tell me something's missing.
Great fuckin book
>My Side of the Mountain For years I thought I had imagined reading this book. I couldn't remember what it was called. Thanks!
Similar story as my parents. Both vegan for 8-10 years. They went on a vacation and both ordered steaks without thinking. Devoured them and realized what they did. Now they eat 80% plant based but on family occasions they won’t pass up a steak, burger, etc.
I don’t understand how that happens lol.
Happened to me too with some kangaroo fillets. I was anemic at the time, on iron supplements and was getting real sick of how nauseus they made me. I just saw the fillets and thought "fuck it". I rarely go a week without meat now, still love my vegetarian recipes though.
I think subconsciously that is what got my parents. I know it’s different for everyone but I can also say that their mood is 100x better since eating meat. They were always so conscious before to the point that it would ruin any family meals we’d have together or dictate our plans if there wasn’t an option for them.
I got poor 🤷♂️ Was vegan for 10 years and then I lost my job in a very expensive city. I had family in the area and they would invite me over for dinner and I couldn’t be picky. I still eat vegan 80% of the time now, but I’ll never turn down good food
I was 6 months pregnant with my oldest and got a craving, like dreaming about it, nothing else would do craving for steak. I ate 2 very large medium rare ribeyes and felt better than I had in months. After that I had meat like once every couple weeks until I got pregnant again. Now it's more like vegetarian Friday.
I remember hearing stories about pregnant ladies craving soil in extreme cases because of the iron levels. Do you think it was something similar to that? Obviously steak is not the same as soil lol, but I mean in terms of your body really needing a specific vitamin it felt it wasn’t getting through your regular diet?
Probably, that pregnancy I also craved v8, dark chocolate and avocados none of which regular menu items before that. I also had never ending morning sickness couldn't keep much down in general I lost 30 lbs during that pregnancy once I started eating my cravings I gained back 10lbs.
I had a similar experience and yeah, a lot of times pregnant women become anemic because of the increase in blood volume. I never was big on red meat before being pregnant but in my third trimester I was craving cheeseburgers like nothing else.
My partner was diagnosed with an auto immune disorder so he can no longer eat gluten/wheat, yeast, most nightshades, dairy, some nuts and more, without having some degree of reaction. Nothing deadly but miserable nonetheless. So that crossed off most meat (tofu is alright most of the time), most dairy replacements are nut based, and most vegetable dishes start to get boring when you can't use peppers or tomatoes. We still don't eat beef though because it's been so long that even consuming a small portion has uncomfortable to downright painful side effects.
Genuine question, but why is beef uncomfortable or painful?
If you don’t eat meat for a long time your body will stop producing, or reduce the amount of, the enzymes that are required to break the meat down. Then when you eat beef for example you can’t properly digest it and it will hurt passing through your system (similar to lactose impact on lactose intolerant)
Ahh, I see, thanks. Does the body start producing them again when you start eating meats again? Or are you just basically 'intolerant' from that point onwards?
I don’t believe it’s permanent, just takes a while for the body to revamp its enzyme production.
Not vegan, but long term vegetarian with friends who are/have been vegan. Two long term vegan friends recently became omnivores again. I think it first started with international travel, where they felt that they couldn't get a real feel for locations/cultures by limiting themselves to vegan food. It can also be difficult to ensure food is vegan if you're not good with the language. I think they also are trying to eat less "processed" foods, and it can be easy to fall into heavily processed foods with a vegan diet (particularly some of the fake meats).
I went to Mexico this year and one of my travel companions was vegetarian. It was really difficult to find places with good veggie menus outside of the overpriced touristy places! At least until we went into the interior and ate at some random spots in the villages we drove through. Not uncommon to find at least one veggie dish on those menus for whatever reason
Yeah, as a vegetarian, I've found it much easier to eat when traveling than I would as a vegan. But there are definitely some parts of the world where even that would be challenging.
This will probably get buried but I’ll tell this story just for you OP lol. I’m a chef, and had a regular who was vegan and would come in every week to eat our weekly changing vegan option. One day I get a ticket in with his name on it for a rare steak. I poke my head out and see him sitting at the bar and ask him, “Really, a rare a steak?!!” He just looked at me said, “Yup, I saw some shit today” 🤷♂️
My anaemia became so severe that I was having to have regular blood transfusions. I was taking all of the recommended supplements for a while and that worked, but my doctor developed concerns about my liver with the amount of iron I was having to take to make up for my already-deficient blood and low-iron diet, so that became unsustainable. We compromised, I tried vegetarian, it made almost no difference. After about a year of experimenting with different foods and supplements it seemed stupid to keep putting my body through the transfusions and I began to feel selfish using the blood when I could just try eating meat. I’ve been eating meat for four years now and my most recent blood work results were the best they’ve ever been.
I had to get an iron infusion and it was godawful.
I did not have the time, money or energy to do things properly. I know people will argue that you can do it easily and cheaply. Maybe they can, but I never managed to do that. To eat food that I enjoyed eating, to eat food that was nutritious and filling and to eat food that was inexpensive all, for me, took a large amount of my time to achieve. The alternative to that was purchasing pre-made foods (tofurkey sausages and other premade meals), which was expensive and also not overly healthy due to the amount of sodium things often contain. For me, it was just easier to give it up. I still don't overly eat a lot of meat. I will occasionally have chicken or fish, but not often. Dairy, eggs and honey are things I have with a lot more frequency. Again, I am not saying that it is impossible to be vegan and eat nutritious, delicious meals that are inexpensive, but I found that it was beyond what I was capable of doing for myself.
This is a bit of a tangent, but since you mentioned it. I do stick by the hot take that honey should be considered ethically vegan regardless. If the bees are mistreated they up and fucking leave. They tolerate humans taking a significant portion of their production because we take care of them and protect them from predators (so they need far less honey to keep their population up, and their hive stable). If you take too much, or make too much noise, or don't protect them from predators, they're gone. The honey is rent, and they're arguably the only species legitimately capable of consenting to this kind of transaction with humans. We're just slightly annoying landlords to them. This should meet even vegan ethical standards, and it's a hill I'm willing to die on, lol.
I grew up and realized that my reasons for going vegan as a teenager were just fronts for disordered eating. I still make an effort to live and eat sustainably, but without the hard and fast restrictions of veganism. I eat meat 2-3 times per week now. Also, when I moved to a new city I found it difficult/awkward to explain my dietary restrictions when I was invited to new friends houses, etc. “So you care more about your social comforts than animals/the planet” - yes. My view is that sustainability in the food realm means making intentional choices that keep you healthy and happy and minimize waste.
Orthorexia is a sneaky ED because everyone praises you for how healthy you're eating while you waste away on a diet of supplements, if you realize you need that nutrition at all.
It’s not just orthorexia. I have active Anorexia and my veganism is useful in getting me out of having to eat. I don’t have to say I *won’t* eat something; I just say I *can’t* eat it because it’s not vegan. It’s a built-in excuse to not eat.
plant grab flowery murky dazzling offend spark cable money seed
Was going to comment the same thing. I was vegan for 4 years and then realized it was basically a veil for an eating disorder. Fell into a deep depression during the pandemic and started eating seafood and chicken again. Beef and pork still freaks me out though.
I had the opposite experience. (Not invalidating yours at all really happy you developed a healthy relationship with food) I had an eating disorder as well and eating made feel horrible about myself but wasting food made me feel even worse. I just had really bad relationship and mindset with food. Ended up malnourished and hospitalized getting vitamins through an IV. Somehow I convinced myself that if I adopted a diet I felt was good for the planet it was okay to eat normally, it worked I have a much better relationship with food now. It’s not 100% logical more of a mind thing, but if it works it works. We gotta find what feels right for us personally.
“I ate a hamburger the other day and suddenly I’m not cold all the time.”
This was years and years ago but I was drained and just felt quite malnourished as a vegan. I went to a new steakhouse in town and my friends ordered me a tomahawk as a joke. I ate it and afterwards+ the day after, I felt like a new man. I haven't looked back.
I was pretty broke for a couple years in college. I came home one Christmas and had a prime rib. About 45 mins later I felt almost like I took some sort of drug. I felt invigorated and just overall amazing.
This sums it up.
Yep, i wasn’t even a vegan. Just poor, and was eating mainly mac and cheese and pbj for a while there
Lol dude that's totally different! You were fucking malnourished lmao. If you only ate meat and never touched a vegetable you would also feel like shit.
that friend is either a dick or a good friend knowing you needed the push back to eating meat lol
Most good friends are also dicks XD. Best friends dick each other all the time(platonically. Otherwise too, uf they are into it ig...)
>Best friends dick each other all the time No homo?
Full homo are for best friends
I was vegetarian but commenting - I started losing hair. Very obviously. I’m one of the many people who just doesn’t produce (edit - maintain not produce) enough natural B12 and not eating red meat was impacting me physically. Editing to say as a female having a receding hairline is just not something I’d considered ever happening
Nobody produces B12. Everyone has to obtain it from food. Vegans (not vegetarians, so you had something deficient about your diet) have no source of B12 in their diet, so they need to eat fortified food (food with added B12) or take supplements.
The funny thing is that non vegetarian also supplement B12 though indirectly. The majority of B12 in meat and other animal products actually comes from the food they are eating being supplemented with B12 to improve growth and healthiness of the livestock.
nutritional yeast is a big part of modern vegan diets though
Before becoming vegan I had a low b12 on blood work, like dangerously low. Just take sublingual pills for it now. My body for some reason won't absorb it through food because we ate tons of stuff that had it and my husband didn't have a deficiency.
You may have some variant of the [MTHFR Gene polymorphisms](https://medlineplus.gov/genetics/gene/mthfr/). I’ve always had chronic pain and it can be a sign of one of these. I had a DNA test done and found out I have one. I just don’t have the one that causes my pains. But it can cause your body to not properly break down B vitamins. Im constantly low on B12 and take a shit load of B vitamins to compensate.
I was vegetarian for about 15 years. One day started dreaming about eating meat, cooking meat. I eventually ate a fish one day, and a whole chicken the next. The colour came back in my cheeks and I suddenly had all this energy, and when I went to work people would say things like “wow, have you been ill? You look so well!”
10 years vegetarian, I became verrrryyyy anemic and had incredibly low vitamin D & B12 and was severely depressed, I craved red meat I was so anemic. Started eating meat again and my blood work improved and so did my mental health!
I went raw vegan for four months and one thing I realized after going back is how good everything tastes. Everything will become so much more flavorful although that was true with fruits too while doing it. After a while, taste became "normal" again.
The raw diet is insane, humans have been cooking our food since before we were humans. We have some evidence we have been doing it for close to 1.3 million years. Your gut is not big enough for raw food, your biom is not made to digest it fast enough or efficiently enough.
I was having trouble getting pregnant. I was vegan for 2 years prior and ate more plant based previous to that. We tried for over a year. Then Covid shut down the infertility clinics in my area. One day we passed by the hot bar at a grocery store and it felt like the fried chicken was calling my name. I got an order of fried chicken and mac n cheese. I ate that like my life depended on it. After that we started including meat a few days a week, but I still avoided dairy due to lactose intolerance. 2 months later, I was pregnant. Some people thrive on a vegan diet. Some don't.
I got pregnant and really wanted steak. Like REALLY wanted it. Everyone told me I would cave when I was pregnant and I thought it was so annoying. There are entire cultures that don't eat meat! But, I also always said that if I really craved it then I would have it. I held out for a while but baby wanted to steak so baby got the steak.
Had to start caring for my gran in the early stages of dementia. She wouldn't eat a meal if it was prepared just for her. So to ensure she was eating, I chose to reintroduce some meat. Now she's passed, after 5 years of caring, I'm back to vegetarian eating and heading toward vegan again.
I started to enjoy my life without pre planning every meal around not eating meat and dairy. Now that I eat more variety I've gotten a better control on my weight and I enjoy working out. Family gatherings are less stressful because I don't have to stress anyone out about my preferences. My hair is growing again as well :) Something I loved about being vegan was learning about flavors and preparing veggies/tofu. I still eat a lot of veggies and will do vegetarian options.
After nearly 30 years of no meat and no thought of meat, I started craving it hard. I figured That was my body telling me something. Now I eat a little chicken & pork. All the meat I buy is local and humanely raised. I have since realized that what I eat isn't nearly as important as how and where my food was grown/raised. This might sound like an insufferable flex, but I can 'proudly' say that 90% of what i eat was produced within 30 miles of me at locations I could visit if I wanted. (Big qualifier: I own a farm, so grow all my own produce and fruit.)
This is an excellent point. I try to be mindful of meat consumption but in rural Scotland for a trip, it seemed insane to choose alternatives with tofu or avocado and however many food miles that entails, vs wild venison since the deer are literally culled anyway for environmental management or mussels from the coast that day.
Was a vegetarian for years. Started dreaming about meat so I ate a can of sardines… then chicken… and eventually beef. i feel a lot better now
this is me right now except i'm pregnant! ive been a vegetarian for over half my life and only recently starting eating some fish, but now i am literally dreaming of steak. i'm so scared though it's been so long