On Sat, 18 Oct 2003 11:30:56 -0700, WD West wrote:

> The older I get, the more I am leaning towards becoming a vegetarian.
> Not for any health reasons but it seems so hypocritical of me to care
> as much about animals as I do and then consume them. My problem
> (which I hope is not unique) is this: I was raised in a "meat and
> potatoes" family. Every meal, every day, had some form of meat, from
> bacon in the morning to a roast etc. and night. Somehow the idea of a
> meatless meal seems like no meal at all. For instance, I could eat
> salad to the point of bursting but when I get up from the table I
> wonder, when are we having the real dinner? I have tried Garden
> Burgers and the like and, while the flavor was acceptable if not good,
> the texture obviously is not at all close to a hamburger. It is
> possible, I suppose, that the tactile part of eating meat plays a
> part. Is there any choice between continuing to eat meat and never
> really enjoying a meal again? If there isn't, I will probably choose
> to pass on enjoying food but I'd rather there was a choice. Can
> someone suggest a cookbook that may benefit someone such as myself?
> Is it simply becoming used to meatless meals and how long does that
> take? My thanks for any guidance you may provide.


There's heaps of vegetarian recipe web sites around, one of my favs is
www.fatfree.com.

I think the best advice I can give you is "go slow". I don't think it's
reasonable to go from a 3 meat a day diet to a 7th level vegan (don't eat
anything that casts a shadow ;-) ) in one step. I started to first cut out
red meat (for cost and health reasons)so when I actually decided that I
had a personal moral problem with eating meat I only had to cut out fish
and chicken. First up I just stopped eating meat directly, then gradually
cut out products that contained meat, and now I'm at a stage where I don't
eat anything that contains something that resulted from the death on an
animal.

None of these steps were part of some kind of grand plan - at each stage I
always thought I was quite happy there. Once I'd gotten used to the change
in diet though I'd start to reconsider, which usually ended up with me
becoming "more strict". I'm currently pseudo-vegan, in that I'm minimising
my dairy intake when eating at home.

The taste issue is something that will come in time. I was from a similar
background to you (though not usually meat for breakfast!). If something
didn't have meat in it then it wasn't a real meal and didn't represent
value for money. My concept of a meatless diet would have been salads all
day and steamed veggies at night.

The first big change you'll probably notice is that you won't feel quite
"full". Meat is heavy, and has a way of weighing you down after a meal.
It's initially hard to get used to meals that don't do this, but after a
little while you'll love it. You can finish a huge meal and not feel like
you need a nap to let your body digest it :-)

You'll also most likely learn to cook. I've always enjoyed cooking, but my
concept of it when I ate meat was a little, um, blokey . I'm getting to
the stage now where I can actually cook, and don't even need to follow a
recipe.

The bottom line is this though. If you don't like the concept of
unnecessary killing to support your life, you'll change your diet. After a
month of salads sheer desperation will cause you to learn how to cook good
tasty vegetarian meals


Ben

- coming of age during the plague of Regan and Bush
watching capitalism gun down democracy
it had a funny effect on me, I guess

Ani DiFranco