Help ! New vegetarian gaining weight

[therese83]

Hello

This is a mystery.
I have always eaten a very healthy diet, lots of food and veg no refined carbs.  love my good food, interested in Nutrition with 2 vegetarian kids.
They chose vegetarianism, so i have cooked for them for 12 years, they are very healthy, never sick, beautiful skin etc, strong, i have done so much research, we eat indian style cooking.  I am a bit of a health freak i suppose, but i am a Mom and i should be, I have 2 meat eaters, so cooking can be fun with 6 - 8 items on the menu.

I am 46, I have gone off eating meat, from living with my girls + there awareness, PETA etc, animal loving household.  Also I have large Ovarian cyst and 3 breast cysts, all I can find about this is , too much animal hormones, I really cant stomach it any more. It is late in change, or maybe never too late LOL !

I have never ever watched my weight, i exercise etc. Full time job, dogs to walk !  I am a vegetarian for last 10 weeks, I gained 4 kilos ?  I have replaced meat and fish with beans lentils etc.  I noticed red stretchmarks on my hips ?  then i weighed myself.

Why is this ?

[therese83]

Ok I dont really understand what you are on about

I see what other kids eat.

Junk, rubbish, and processed food.  They come to my house and say "You actually cooked this yourself"

We are a very healthy bunch thanks be to all that is blessed !!

[Paxiled]

Okay, I'll try again, for the last time.  Do whatever you want, just do it healthfully.  Many people don't digest beans very well.  My wife doesn't.  One theory is that your blood type has something to do with it, others say it depends on your ethnicity, others on other things.  A food isn't made healthy by being a bean or unhealthy by being an animal product, it's how our individual digestive systems work.  Take salads.  Many people eat raw broccoli and kale and think, wow, I'm really eating healthy food.  Not true; both can only be digested cooked or juiced because of the complex fibers in such foods.  Spinach is okay raw, but cooked the oxalic acid content goes way up and leaches out calcium.  Eating has become very complicated because of what we've done to food; our instincts about food are completely gone in modern societies.  Many will tell you to never mix fruit, such as lemon, with any other foods, as fruit is very acidic while the other foods you're serving need an alkaline environment for proper digestion.  I don't personally believe in strict food rotation, but it just shows that what you think is health isn't necessarily so, and the results of eating the wrong foods often don't show up for decades.  Now, am I saying what you're doing is unhealthy?  No, not at all.  I'm just saying it's not as simple as you seem to think it is.  And yes, plants do have a central nervous system, every living creature does.  Some people anthropomorphize, which is to say the more something looks and acts like a human the more they empathize with it, but just because plants suffer differently than we do doesn't at all meant they don't suffer.  Trees have been recorded screaming while being cut down.  Plants on the periphery of a field of the same plant will produce chemicals to attract harmful bugs to them to protect the other plants.  A plant is only valuable if cooked or eaten alive; at least we have the decency to kill the animal first.  I value all life; I don't prefer animals to plants or vice versa.  All have the exact same right to existence and the same life force, and I'm sad that nature is set up so that we have to eat other living things in order to survive.  But there it is, it is so, but it's human hubris to believe any living thing is thrilled or doesn't suffer when it's killed to be some other creature's supper.  So for me, I don't have the moral problem you have with plants vs. animals, for me it's what's the appropriate food to eat, and since I don't really know, I have to take in all the evidence and decide, and realize I might be wrong so I'm open to change.  I wish you and your children only the best, and I'm sorry if I've complicated your day.  You are fully free to ignore every thing I've said; I won't be offended.  But I've worked around this subject much of my adult life, and have learned the complications are much more prevalent than the clarity.

[therese83]

Swordss2,
Thank you, I feel a bit better and i think the carb craving may have been part of it.  Thank you for pointing that out.  Once you make the choice you cant face meat at all.  I am pleased that i can learn from my children.  I am a teacher and i like to think we can learn from each child.

Paxiled ?  "Experiment on my children"  What the hell???, they chose to be vegetarians, I have 2 who LOVE to eat meat, we joke about it !  The 6 year old says, I like to eat the pig LOL They are very healthy children.  What are you on about?

""but the life of a plant and the life of an animal are equal in value and both suffer pain""  Are you serious?  An animal and a plant have equal feelings , a plant doesnt have a nervous system, Or was that a joke?

Most kids are reared on chicken nuggets, fish fingers and chips.  My two daughters eat much beans, lentils, pumpkin, fruits and vegetables in Season, organic, they LOVE vegetables and experimenting with salads.  They eat Oatmeal, they are GREAT eaters compared to any other kids i have met. Juices and smoothies, whole grains, beans beans and more beans.  Everything with fresh lemon to absorb the Iron.The 20 year old went through puberty with beautiful glowing skin, she is very balanced and a very mature mind.

Paxiled thank you for trying but you make a lot of assumptions.  I have to say my two girls in fact my four children have maybe had an antibiotic once or twice in toddler years.  What do you thik the majority of kids are eating out there, crap I would say, but thanks for trying.

[Paxiled]

Don't misunderstand, I didn't say people couldn't be vegetarian, I said being vegetarian is more complicated than just giving up eating animals.  I managed health food stores for 18 years, and most of us were largely vegetarian, but few of us were entirely so.  Supplements are okay, but they're supplements -- not the whole enchilada.  It is also true that in the world of holistic medicine, each person is considered an individual, so while vegetarian diets may work well for some, they may harm others.  What I said about children is that, since they're at the stage where everything is still developing, and they have so much natural energy, any deficiencies aren't likely to show themselves until later, although mental ones can show more quickly.  For example, those who force wheat and dairy into themselves when they can't really digest either won't be noticed for a long time, but it will lead to chronic inflammation which will show eventually in arthritis or auto-immune diseases, potentially.  Just depends on the person.  But it might show right away in a child exhibiting too much anger or aggression or depression.  Diet is complicated; no aboriginal people are vegetarians, they eat what they can get, but most people traditionally eat a lot more vegetable than animal food.  It is also true that many people who call themselves vegetarians actually eat fish once in a while or eat dairy, which are obviously not vegetable foods but animal foods.  So again, I'm saying that if you want to eat by philosophy rather than science, that's okay with me, but don't experiment on your children.  See a good holistic nutritionist and make sure they're getting what they need, and realize there are a lot of theories about proper eating out there and nobody knows who's right and who's wrong.  Probably we're all somewhere in between.  I agree that factory farming, whether of plants or animals, is cruel, but the life of a plant and the life of an animal are equal in value and both suffer pain, so there's no moral advantage to eating one or the other but there might be health benefits.  Now, if you want to be a moral eater, go become a hunter-gatherer, but my guess is none of us are likely to do that.  As to Karma, not all believers in Karma are vegetarians.  Tibetan buddhists aren't vegetarians, just as one example, and neither are Taoists, but both believe in karma.  Very few Japanese are vegetarians; fish is an important part of the diet of the most devout Japanese buddhists.  And so-called Indian Hindu vegetarians, as I said, eat a lot of dairy, so they're not actually vegetarians at all.  Eat by reason, not philosophy, but that very well can still lead to a vegetarian diet depending on the individual.

[Swordss2]

Hi therese83,

Congrats on making the change to vegetarianism, I personally agree with your philosophy. Paxiled, though I respect their opinion, is assuming that vegetarians do not research the implications of this lifestyle change; I am a vegetarian and I make a huge effort to get all the vitamins I need everyday, as well as taking a variety of supplements. I am certainly more aware of what I eat than most carnivores, and I am sure your family is the same!
To address your question about weight gain; this could be because when you excluded these high protein foods, it is possible that your intake of carbohydrates increased. Protein will keep you fuller for longer with less calories that carbs. Of course there are many possible reasons for this gain, it may not even be related to you becoming a vegetarian.

Good luck and I wish you well! :-)

[therese83]

"Whatever effects this will have on your kids won't be noticed until they're older"

What does that mean ?

Wont they  be fitter healthier, entitled to cheaper health insurance  and live a longer life ;-)  And i want to stay around a bit longer myself to see them !

We have got to think of philosophy in life with all our actions.  I wouldn't like to eat an animal that has been cruel treated eg. a chicken that has been kept in a space the size of A4 piece of paper.
If you think about Carma, that has got to be bad hasn't it ?

[Paxiled]

Not everyone is suited to be a vegetarian, and just eating a vegetarian diet isn't the same as eating a vegetarian diet that suits who you are.  Whatever effects this will have on your kids won't be noticed until they're older -- young people are very adaptable.  There are certain nutrients, such as B12 and methionine, which are very difficult to get on a vegetarian diet.  Now, in India, vegetarians aren't really vegetarians at all, they eat a fair amount of dairy.  There aren't very many humans who can digest dairy, but India is one place where many of those people are, and so they get their animal food from that.  PETA types eat by philosophy, not by health, and that's fine, but that's a vegan diet, not vegetarian, and it's often an unhealthy diet because as long as food doesn't contain animal they think it's fine.  That's not true; one still needs to eat whole grains, a variety of legumes for protein, avoid simple carbs, etc.  There are many books on healthy vegetarian eating, and also many who don't believe vegetarianism is going to work for everyone.  Some believe blood type has a lot to do with it, some have other reasons.  You have to discover what works for you individually.