For those vegetarians who noticed health benefits, what diet did you have before and what do you have now?

Question

As a biologist I know that the perfect human diet is the one that our ancestors adapted to and this included a lot of meat but this meat came from animals who were themselves well-fed and exercised a lot so it was not laden with saturated fat or as low and imbalanced in nutrients as modern farm animals. Also, they ate the organs and brains and bone marrow more so than the muscle, resulting in our need for the healthy oils now.

Aside from Inuits and ancient Europeans as well as some others in certain areas, fruit and non-starchy vegetables also made up a huge proportion of the diet. However, nowadays in order to get enough energy, energy dense but nutritionally weak foods like cereals are often consumed by vegetarians to replace the energy from meat.

Answer 1

I went from meat eater, to vegetarian, and I'm currently loving a vegan diet of fruit, veg, nuts, wholegrains, soy milk, etc.

It's WAY better than my diet as a meat eater years ago. As a meat eater, I practically existed on Pot Noodles, and other processed c**p with very few fruits and veggies. Basically, veganism cuts a LOT of junk foods out of my diet! And I've never felt better.

Great question and great answer Maggie! wow =)

Answer 2

I had given up on red meat almost two years ago. I was continuing with chicken and seafood. I used to have frequent stomach upsets, poor bowel movements etc. Most meat (including seafood) contains harmful substances like salmonella. After having turned vegetarian (just a couple days ago right here on this forum), I've noticed a feeling of "purity" deep inside. Of course, my bowel movements are smoother and no more farting!

Answer 3

You're right in the fact we're biological omnivores, but thankfully our bodies are very skilled at adapting to a vegetarian diet. This remains an issue of hot debate in the scientific community - what diet is optimal?

As you said yourself, the modern diet (with factory farmed meat and nutritionally lacking white bread and processed grains and meat products) is completely defunct. A healthy vegetarian diet shifts focus onto eating a wide variety of beans, nuts, legumes, healthy oils and fats, whole grains rather than processed ones.

Besides, if you go further back on the evolutionary scale, at some point our predecessors were herbivores (as is evident by our now defunct appendix, which was once our second stomach to digest cellulose and plant matter, like cows do). On an evolutionary scale, our intestines, teeth and other parts of our bodies have been shaped longer by herbivorous diets than meat-eating ones.

The section of time that we have been eating meat has had some impact (like changes in our brains and the appendix), but overall our bodies are mostly shaped for a largely plant-based diet. Our intestinal tract's length, the shape of our teeth, our lack of speed, agility, sharp teeth or claws to kill with. We've only been able to eat meat for as long as we've been lucky enough to scavange it or make tools to hunt it with.

Before I switched to a vegetarian diet (at 13), I ate meat every single day for dinner, and sometimes for lunch. Breakfast was typically cereal and milk, lunch was whatever the school cafetaria gave us (typically some type of meat, a starchy/carb side, and a veggie side). Dinner was meat with potatoes and salad. I ate snacks that consisted of either low-quality carbs (pretzels, chips) or fruits (apples, oranges). I was a little overweight and I had anemia, even though I ate red meat a few times a week.

Switching to vegetarian resulted in eating a lot more beans or meat analouges for a while (which included frozen chicken-like or rib-like patties). After a while I learned to cook more skillfully and began to use tofu, tempeh, beans, home-made seitan (a high-protein wheat-based meat stand-in). I began to include tons of dark leafy greens and I began to cut out dairy and eggs completely.

By 18 years of age, I was eating an entirely vegan diet that was comprised of plenty of whole grains, colorful fruits and vegetables, beans and legumes, nuts and seeds. My diet remains entirely plant based, and I continue to feel wonderful.

I am sure you can at least agree that dairy cannot possibly be a natural part of a functioning adult mammal's life - especially milk from another species? I think cutting out dairy and relying on plant sources of calcium, and the sun for vitamin D, was the most positive change I made.

You're absolutely right that if we were to eat free-range, grass-fed red meat and ate viscera and marrow along with muscle tissue, we would be a lot healthier. However, many people cannot afford that type of meat, and it's almost nonexistant anyway in today's society, where factory farming has pushed and phased out such conventional hunting methods. Even regular farming (which often relies on a corn or soy diet for cows and pigs) cannot stand in for honest, natural hunted meat.

Our society has progressed to the point where in order to meet the demands of our bloated population, we rely on factory farming, which produces meat, dairy and eggs that are hardly benefactory to our health. In fact, in many cases, they are detrimental, with clear increase in cancer risk, heart disease and many other problems and implications.

Thankfully, our society has progressed far enough to where we can eat a perfectly balanced, healthy vegetarian diet in the place of what should be a healthy omnivorous diet. Since it's impossible to have an optimal omnivorous diet in our modern society (aside from becoming a reculsive hunter-gatherer like our ancestors were), I strive for the next best thing, which is an optimal vegetarian diet.

Also, the impact on the environment that animal agriculture has, as well as the ethical aspects behind factory farming, are far more instrumental as to why I became vegan than the health benefits. However, I have to admit that I only learned about fueling my body properly and eating a varied, balanced diet by transitioning to vegetarianism.

Answer 4

i'm sure my diet is far from perfect :)

relative to most everyone else i know though i'm the healthiest eater for sure!

now i try to take a balance of various protein sources, veggies, fruit, carbs.... i don't eat enough fruit though... even though it's summer i'm not a big "sweet" person and i have to remind myself to eat it... i try to stay away from fried and overly greasy foods.... i eat about 1500 calories a day which is where i should be...although i have the feeling i've been going over that lately :/  anyway.... before going veg... well i went veg at 13 so understand my diet was mostly controlled by my parents... and i had a picky mother... so i didn't eat a lot of veggies cuz she doesnt' like them either... i ate mostly meat and carbs... steak and chicken and pasta.... i still didn't eat a lot of oily/greasy food but i ate more sweets... and i was overweight and had high cholesterol (neither are issues anymore!)

you are right in that a lot of vegs do replace the meat with weak foods like pasta and breads.... but like myself as an example, just cuz you eat meat doesn't mean you have a good diet either... it can take a while to develop a healthy veg balanced diet... esp. if you are young or just not exposed to other healthy eaters and info...

and your right... the meat people ate in the past was not as deformed as it is these days...

Answer 5

I am not vegan but have shortened my meat intake, to say the size of a deck of cards and no meat for every meal. salmon and fishes and seafood has taken the place of many meats.

Vegetables play a big part in meal planning now.

Our diet was fried foods and lots of it, macaroni and cheese, instant potatoes loaded with butter and white breads, fried potatoes, pancakes with lots of butter.

now, brown rice, canola oil, olive oil, wheat bread, baked foods, stir fried in olive oil, sauteed, very little pasta dishes

just to say the least.............

Answer 6

I went from meat-eater to vegan.  Lost 35 pounds, blood pressure dropped, cholesterol dropped, no more chest pains.