Newbie to being a vegetarian, need help!

[i-love-nev]

Hi, I am starting being a vegetarian all over again because my mom tricked me into eating chicken last night I was just wondering, what can I take to give me the protein, vitamins and omega 3 oil, that I can find in meat?

I really want my vitamins etc as I am still growing etc etc

So any suggestions welcome.

thanks!

ATB

~Megs and the piggers ~ xx

[PhoenixFeather]

Originally Posted by i-love-nev

Hi, I am starting being a vegetarian all over again because my mom tricked me into eating chicken last night I was just wondering, what can I take to give me the protein, vitamins and omega 3 oil, that I can find in meat?

I really want my vitamins etc as I am still growing etc etc

So any suggestions welcome.

thanks!

ATB

~Megs and the piggers ~ xx

You can't "take" something (like a vitamin) to give you protein. You need to eat foods that contain protein. If you are vegan, that means primarily legumes (beans, peas) and grains. If you eat eggs and milk products, those are also good sources of protein. It's pretty hard actually to not eat enough protein as long as you're eating enough food, and it's not all lettuce or something. Eat a variety of foods, eat some beans and some whole grains, fruits, vegetables, tofu or tvp, (eggs and cheeses), etc. and you'll be fine.

You can take a vitamin supplement (any multivitamin) if you want and you can get vegetarian omega-3 supplements too. You can either use ground flax seed or flax oil or there are lots of other supplements on the market, but I'm not sure what you can get in your area. If you eat eggs, in America we can get eggs that have extra omega-3 fats in them, the come from the chicken being fed flax. This is, from my understanding, a better source of omega-3's in the form that humans need them than just vegetable sources. This is because humans need a converted form of the vegetable sources of omega-3's and we are less efficient at doing the conversion than chickens are. So we get the pre-converted form from the fortified eggs. I'm allergic to fish, so even before I went vegetarian, omega-3s were a concern of mine, and I do use the eggs. Flax oil, walnut oil, and canola oil are good oils from an omega-3 perspective. Using a vinaigrette on salad made from canola oil and vinegar is a way of getting some healthy fats into your system.

Good luck!

[i-love-nev]

Thank you! this helped alot, I will try get some multivitamins next time I go to the pharmacist or something!

[PhoenixFeather]

Originally Posted by i-love-nev

Thank you! this helped alot, I will try get some multivitamins next time I go to the pharmacist or something!

If you're eating a varied diet, you probably don't need multivitamins either. But they may help reassure you, or your parents. ;-) We get most of our vitamins and minerals from plant sources anyhow, so vegetarians are usually in very good shape there. The only issue is that if you are vegan, you absolutely must supplement vitamin B12. Vitamin B12

[i-love-nev]

I am vegatarian, I dont see the point in being vegan.

[thalestral]

The point in being vegan is that chickens and dairy cows suffer just as much as the animals we consume directly. In my opinion they suffer even more due to their somewhat longer lives, and in the cows case as a result of their child being torn from them.

The Dairy Cow
Hens & Eggs

[i-love-nev]

:O I had no idea!! I might try vegan.........

[TrekkiePiggies]

Originally Posted by PhoenixFeather

If you eat eggs, in America we can get eggs that have extra omega-3 fats in them, the come from the chicken being fed flax.

Actually they're fed fishmeal. If you want eggs from flax-fed hens (so you are not adding to the consumption of fish), make sure you get a vegetarian-fed brand.

[PhoenixFeather]

Originally Posted by TrekkiePiggies

Actually they're fed fishmeal. If you want eggs from flax-fed hens (so you are not adding to the consumption of fish), make sure you get a vegetarian-fed brand.

The brand I usually buy is vegetarian-fed. I didn't realize that some brands were using fishmeal, so I'll keep an eye out for that.

[i-love-nev]

Well mum said "I will be ok with you going vegatarian BUT I dont want you going vegan just yet as you are still growing".

[Maisiepaisie]

My 12 year old son has been vegan for 2 years and he's growing just fine and never gets sick. In fact I can't remember the last time he had a cold. I guess you can't really blame your mum though. Theres a lot of false information out there about how calcium from dairy builds strong bones. Yes it has some calcium but also a lot of bad stuff. Tofu, soya and leafy green vegetables are much healthier sources.

[ortal]

Right, I understand what your mom is feeling. It is understandable. If you want to go vegan, start off slowly, and show her that you can do it in a healthy way.

[TrekkiePiggies]

If she trusts doctors, here's a paper put out about 10 years ago on vegetarianism by the American Dietetic Association:

1997 ADA Position Paper on Vegetarianism -- The Vegetarian Resource Group

It states clearly that vegan diets, if well-planned, are healthy for all age groups and life stages.

[chexxy]

I think varied foods are the most important! Breans, Tofu, Veggies, Fruits...All good stuff!

And my mom wont let me be a vegan either! When Im older maybe....

[tomcat6]

I'm a vegetarian. The eggs and milk I consume do not come from animals that suffer. I only eat cage free eggs and organic milk from cows that live outdoors.

[PhoenixFeather]

Originally Posted by tomcat6

I'm a vegetarian. The eggs and milk I consume do not come from animals that suffer. I only eat cage free eggs and organic milk from cows that live outdoors.

This is what we currently do as well, but I think we're both being a little naive if we say that the animals do not suffer at all.

What happens to the male calves of those organic milk cows? I believe they are still either slaughtered at birth and discarded (!) or raised for veal in very inhumane conditions.

Unless you are getting your cage-free eggs from a local farm you can visit, you might be surprised at the conditions chickens are kept in on large "cage-free" farms as well. And are these chickens allowed to live out their lives at leisure, or are they also slaughtered for meat when they stop laying?

[lucybeebee]

I don't know what kind of products are sold in the UK, but here in America you can get soy milk that contains flax seed oil so that way you get protein and omegas. Beans and seitan are also good sources of protein. You might want to learn how to cook, as well. This takes the strain off your mom of forcing her to cook something different and also helps introduce your family to the joys of vegetarian cooking.

[gpigluver14]

I'm a vegetarian. The eggs and milk I consume do not come from animals that suffer. I only eat cage free eggs and organic milk from cows that live outdoors.

"Cage-free" doesn't mean it's cruelty-free. "Cage-free" hens and chickens still have their sensitive beaks cut off with a hot blade when they are young, and are taken from the cages where they lived at one time and forced to live in their own excrement, sometimes for years at a time. And they all end up in the same place- slaughtered cruelly. This is the same with "free-range" hens and chickens. Organically raised animals still go through cruelty as well.

At a Horizon Foods organic and free-range farm, the hen sheds house more than 400,000 birds—hardly a small, natural, family-run business. Style Weekly reported that “when you pull into the parking lot, there is not a chicken to be seen or a cluck to be heard. To the left of the lot stands the egg-processing plant. To the right, five long windowless 'chicken houses.' Except for the sound of an American flag snapping in the wind, all is silent.”20 Scott Akom, general manager of the Horizon farm, freely admitted that the hens do not see the light of day, and he refused to allow the reporter to actually see any of the free-range birds. He said that all of his free-range hens were currently kept in sheds, telling the reporter, “Free-roaming and cage-free mean the same thing. The chickens are free to go wherever they want. Inside the chicken house.”21 When birds are given outdoor access, it's usually for very short periods of time, and the outdoor area often just consists of a hole cut in the shed wall leading to a small, muddy enclosure.

GoVeg.com // Cruelty to Animals // Organic and Free-Range Animal Products // The Egg Industry's History of Deceiving Consumers

[Maisiepaisie]

In egg production, even free-range organic, the chickens are bred to create more 'egg layers'. All male chicks born are of no use to the egg industry so are killed, often by cruel methods such as mincing alive or being tossed into a binbag to suffocate to death. If you eat eggs, effectively you are supporting this cruelty. The fewer people buying eggs, the fewer chickens bred to lay eggs. If anyone really must eat eggs why not adopt some rescue hens? There are plenty available.