vegetarian intolerant?

[grEEEn]

I'm lucky. For as long as I can remember I've hated eating meat because of the taste and texture, but my parents forced it down until I was "old enough to decide for myself" so while I still eat meat on occasion without really thinking about it (it's gotten to the point where I can only tolerate chicken, and that's like, once a month...)

but my poor boyfriend. He's a die-hard meatavore. I relate to our guinea pigs, he relates to the ferrets. Whenever he tries to eat something made without meat at all, or with mock meat, he becomes very sick and weak. Today he ate vegetarian chilli made by someone we work with at a potluck, and he's been getting sick all night (I'm proud of him for trying though!)

It also happens that both of us are lactosintolerant, and I have all kinds of, um, "diet" books? Like I have one about detoxification and cleansing programs, as well as 2 macrobiotic books, and I know from experiences that some people just aren't meant to tolerate certain foods.

So my question for the experienced vegetarians is this:

Are there any popular meat alternatives that are extremely digestable? I can get him to eat rice, corn, those kinds of things... but when he asks "so what are we having with this? Where's my moo?" what can I feed him that he won't be barfin' later?

[Res Judicata]

I'm having a hard time finding a gentle way to say this, and I don't mean to insult you or your boyfriend by saying it. Could it be psychological? He thinks he can't do without meat, therefore can't? The human mind is a powerful thing, and we can convince ourselves of many things. God knows I've done that in the lowest depths of my depression.

[Jennicat]

It may not be that he can't eat meat, he may have intolerances to other substances that are commonly used as meat substitutes or in great quantity in vegetarian dishes. My boyfriend has food intolerances/allergies to wheat, rice, potatoes, mushrooms, sugar, and yeast. Most vegetarian foods do contain all of those, so he could (sort of) be considered "vegetarian intolerant".

[grEEEn]

ha, I know exactly what you mean with the body manipulation and the "all in your head" stuff - I haven't puked in years because I forced myself to "forget how" - now whenever I feel sick and WANT to throw up, no matter what I do, no matter what I try, I still can't do it. Now my brightest idea.

[JarBax]

I did wonder about the psychological barrier too - would you try serving him something meat free without telling him the 'whole truth'?

I presume he likes veg. with his meat, there are lots of fab. recipes without meat substitute atall - pasta dishes, curries, stews etc. (There's a whole veggie recipe link here: http://www.guineapigcages.com/forum/...n-recipes.html

which might be handy.

He doesn't want to become veggie, but can't tolerate veggie alternatives? If he can tolerate the veggies alone - I suppose it'll have to be a question of going through all the alternatives one by one, until you find one/some that don't make him sick. The best I have found - and I use virtally nothing else, is Quorn. It is however not vegan, as it contains egg white (free range) - but it does not contain milk products - so will not trigger your lacointolerance. (ingredients: Mycroprotein (88%), rehydrated free range egg white, roasted barley malt extract. The mycroprotein is a 'nutritious member of the fungi family'.) Coming in many forms - mince, chicken-style pieces, sausages, burgers, and many other varieties, it is xtremely versatile (and low in fat!) Good luck!

[grEEEn]

I'm sure that it is in part psychological - he doesn't ever say "I'm hungry", he just says "I need meat" and thinks it wakes him up when he's tired (I know I tend to get sleepy if I have to eat meat) and I know his problem with being tired is most likely the caffeine abuse - he's done irreversable damage to his body, I'm sure of it - and whenever I come near him with a cleanse/detox plan he screams like a little wussy.

I'm going to have to try some of these recipes.