Hello all,

I have a friend who has been a vegetarian for around 10 years and she wants to start eating meat again. I have heard that people who try to do this tend to get sick during the process for some reason. To help her along the way, I wanted to find out how others have done the transition from vegetarian diets to eating meat again without getting violently ill all the time.

My current idea is to ease her into it over a couple week plan using progressively higher quantities of meat over time:

Tuna (from the can)
Turkey Lunchmeat
Chicken Breast
Dark Meat Chicken (adjusting to animal fats)
Lean Beef

I would appreciate any insight into this as I would like to see her succeed with this without going through undue amounts of problems.

Thanks for any help!

-Stromie

Let her have some good natural organic choice pieces of meat before going to the cheap cans and processed lunch meats.

Maybe some nice sliced grilled chicken breast in a penne marinara? With a nice dry chianti?

I think you've definitely got the right idea. Use smaller portions in the beginning and allow her system to figure out how to digest it again. I'd also make sure she's getting enough fibrous vegetables, especially when you get to the point where she's eating beef or pork, as I find that they aid in the digestion of those (although that could just be me).

For what its worth, I was a strict ovo/lacto veggie for over a decade. I started eating meat again about 3 years ago with absolutely no problems and no special care.

This is purely a brainstorm:
gradualism. Soup: start with a broth made of chicken bouillon.
Just broth. Eat that at one meal, on one day - soup every other day.
Two days (or 2x two days) later, add noodles to the broth.
Two days later, add VERY finely minced chicken, with the noodles.
Make sure the meat is cooked to VERY tender - and NO skin or bones,
and absolutely no organ meats - just muscle tissues.
Increase sizes & quantities of chicken pieces in the soup gradually.
Keep it up with the noodles; add some diced vegetables -
celery, carrots, small amounts of potatoes.
You might decrease noodles as you increase veggies.

Go backwards if necessary - less meat, smaller pieces, every 3rd day.
But don't try meat on successive days - not for a month or so.
And start with chicken, in soups. Use herbs for flavor variety.
Graduate to the "other white meats" and red meats,
and "out-of-soup experiences" later on. :gl:

For what its worth, I was a strict ovo/lacto veggie for over a decade. I started eating meat again about 3 years ago with absolutely no problems and no special care.

Holy crap! I did not know this...and I cant picture it!

As far as advise for your friend, see what meat interests her. Unfortunatly I think some of the processed stuff might be easier for her to actually eat. For example chicken patties. I know they make Morning Star Farms fake chik patties, that taste like real chicken already. If she is use to eating stuff like that it wouldnt be that big of a change to switch to the real thing....they are so processed they are pretty much the same anyway. Also you mentioned tuna. There arent that many meat eaters who like tuna...much less a veg liking it. I can not picture someone who doesnt eat meat smelling tuna and still being interested in eating some.

It might also matter why she was a vegetarian too. For example if she became a vegetarian because she doesnt agree with animal cruelity, I'm sure she wouldnt jump at the chance to eat Veil. Or if she just gets grossed out at the thought of eating animal flesh, Im sure she wouldnt be too keen on sinking her teeth into a steak or taking a bite of a chicken leg.

It might also matter why she was a vegetarian too.

Amen to that.

I've been a veg on and off all my life, and the biggest hurdle is always the psychological one for me... Chomping into bone or gristle is always a reminder that the flesh was once a living being... and the fact that someone else killed and butchered the poor thing for my convenience is troublesome for me.

I've done the killing and I didn't like it... I guess it's just what each omnivore needs to reconcile withing themselves.

Steak does taste pretty damn good, though! :)

Thanks for all of the responses guys! The ideas will certainly help in developing a reasonable program for the switch over. I like the soup idea as well as mixing in chicken with a pasta dish. Sometimes I can't even tell chicken is there if it is cooked in a certain way when eating it with a good wheat pasta and some quality sauce.

Hopefully there are no adverse effects to switching over and the process goes smoothly like John's did. My personal opinion is that the switch is as much or more a mental roadblock than a physical roadblock. Going straight to eating a bloody steak or a greasy burger or sausage would certainly make someone who hadn't eaten meat sick, but it seems to me that the mental block against eating meat would contribute to illness far more than a lack of enzymes would. I have always believed that the mind is a very powerful thing and I'm sure it could make you physcially ill if you were very nervous and leary about eating meat.

Just my $0.02

My personal opinion is that the switch is as much or more a mental roadblock than a physical roadblock. Going straight to eating a bloody steak or a greasy burger or sausage would certainly make someone who hadn't eaten meat sick, but it seems to me that the mental block against eating meat would contribute to illness far more than a lack of enzymes would. That's a good point. I was a veggie for ethical reasons (obviously not health reasons, look how fat I was); however, I was craving meat so badly after a decade of abstinence that I was ready to take down a buffalo with my teeth. If your friend is squeamish about eating meat, that very well could play a large role in her ability to incorporate it back into her diet.

I was a vegetarian for 6 years. Not for health or ethical reasons, but because I had had too many pieces of bad meat, and raw meat just grossed me out.

I started eating it again gradually, when I became pregnant with my first child, I just craved red meat.

Now, I don't eat a lot of meat. I still can't stand to look at raw meat. I buy frozen chicken breasts, and that is about it. I might have a little ham during the week, maybe some red meat once during the week ( eating out) and chicken breasts 2 or 3 times during the week. I tend to just stick to cottage cheese, whey, and eggs.

Still not a big meat eater, I get filled up fast.

I would think she would be fine eating meat again, without any problem as long as it isn't really fatty,greasy meat. Those were the only things that really gave me problems when I started eating meat again. My stomach just hurt if the meat wasn't lean enough.