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Veg*n Question about Chicken and other stuff

Buggie_00

Well-known Member
Cavy Slave
Joined
Jun 27, 2006
Messages
370
Ok so I am very interested in attempting to become a vegetarian, something I've thought about doing for years but never actually got around to. I'm diabetic so I have to be careful as it is what I eat and how much of it I eat. I wanted to know why it is that some vegetarians eat chicken and fish but others don't. If you eat those are you really a vegetarian, is it just a personal choice? I'm not a big red meat eater already so that part is no problem, but chicken and milk is harder. Eggs are a no no for me I get sick too often from eating them as it is. Plus I'm pregnant at the moment. I should probably wait untill after I have the baby to make any drastic diet changes but I was just curious.

Thanks
 
If you eat chicken you are NOT a vegetarian in any way, shape or form.

If you eat fish, you are a pescatarian, not a vegetarian.
 
Between the Diabeties and the pregnancy, I would be very very cautious of making any big changes in diet, especially without medical monitoring and help.

However, you could make some changes to eat less meat.

Being a vegetarian usually means that you don't eat any form of animal flesh, that includes chicken and fish. It also usually includes not eating the byproducts from slaughter, like Rennet and Pepsin, (Often used in making cheeses ). Some take it a step further, and don't eat any animal products, such as dairy, milk, cheese, and eggs. This is refered to being "vegan".

(As a side note, Rennet and Pepsin are enzymes produced in the stomachs of animals, Rennet is from young milk drinking mammals.) It is recovered from the animal during butchering.)

Anyway, for the protien portion of your diabetic diet, following a vegetarian diet, you will be able to make choices that are still high in protien. Beans and lentils for example have both carbs and protien. Learning how to prepare and cook Tofu will help. While not vegan, protien powders are very healthy (they usually contain whey) Milk is generally 1/2 carb 1/2 protien.

Basically, if you are serious about going vegetarian, I think it would be best to get a good vegetarian cook book, (And perhaps a good diabetic one too) and change a few meals a week, and as you find foods you can live with, then slowly cut out the meat. Don't make the mistake though of substituting all the red meat you do eat now for chicken or fish, this is very misguided and not really healthy.

Some things may take aquiring a taste, (most guinea pigs don't like Cilantro the first time they are given some, but they learn to love it!) . Once you are comfortable and healthy on a vegetarian diet, then you can look into if your health / lifestyle will allow you to go vegan or not.
 
Thanks for the advice. I have to go to the nutritionist in a few weeks. Usually around 25 weeks into a pregnancy I have diabetis problems and this time they're trying to adjust for it earlier. I'll ask her for some info on websires and cookbooks and how to make sure that I get what I need still. I'll probably wait untill after I deliver to try to go full vegetarian but cutting back where I can won't hurt anything.
 
Going vegetarian will not do any harm at all to your unborn baby. It may be a drastic change but its just cutting out stuff thats bad for you anyway. Just don't replace meat with additional dairy products. Many vegetarians make the mistake of overloading their diet with cheese and from what I have read I feel that dairy is more of a human health risk than meat.
 
Being vegetarian while pregnant can be a challenge. Adequate protein is necessary to build a healthy baby so it's important to do it 'right' if you are pregnant. RDA recommendations for pregnancy is 65gm per day of protein, but the childbirth method I teach recommends a minimum of 75 gr to help avoid pre-eclampsia and other common problems of pregnancy.

Above all, a healthy well-balanced diet is key to a healthy pregnancy. I'm sure you already know all about how important it is, being diabetic!

I'm just cautioning you to make sure that if you cut out all meat and dairy products you are very careful to replace them with good healthy sources of protein for your growing baby. I agree you should check with your nutritionist, and maybe even call around to find one who is supportive and knowledgable about vegetarian diets for pregnancy before making any drastic changes in diet.

I have had many vegetarians in my classes and I can tell you that the ones who sail through the pregnancy tend to be the ones who are very knowledgable about living a meat-less lifestyle.
 
Here are some links with information regarding a vegetarian diet whilst pregnant and infant diet information on a vegan/vegetarian diet. Also the benefits it may have in helping with diabetes.

(broken link removed) (pregnancy diet information)

(broken link removed) (infant diet info)

(broken link removed) (diabetes info)

Hope these offer some help.
 
Thanks for the links, I'll check those when I have a few minutes
 
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