Eeeeeeeeeeew I ate meat

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

I’ve been almost vegetarian for about 7 years now. At times I eat fish, but no red or white meat. So last night my parents-in-law made a pasta dish for myself and my meat-eating husband. They made separate dishes, as normal, one for me, one for him. I ate most of mine, and all the time I’m thinking “this tastes a bit fibrous, maybe there is tuna in it”. It’s difficult to tell, though, with the sauce and everything, and it was really quite nice. Once I finished I phoned my mother-in-law like the dutiful girl I am, to thank her. She wanted to check that we’d each got the right version of the dish. And, yes, I know, you have the punchline … I ate the wrong pasta. I’d eaten (and enjoyed, no question about that) pasta with tomato sauce and a substantial portion of lean beef mince.

So I spent the evening trying to decide if I felt sick or not. My husband thinks it’s hysterical; we’ve made a pact not to tell his parents because they will blame themselves somehow; and my best friend says I’m now going to veggie hell.

I gave up meat for ethical reasons (and yes, I know that’s inconsistent with eating fish - these are my boundaries and I can live with them) not health, so there’s no problem there. I feel kind of guilty though. I’m still not interested in meat as a conscious thing, but I do feel a bit weird about this. I know there’s a lot of veggie Dopers (hey, I lurk you know, I’m just too chicken to post much). Has this sort of thing happened to anyone else? What happened?

2

Although it doesn’t happen often and I usually stop eating ANYTHING I’m suspicious about, it has happened to me. It is an especially easy mistake to make with “hidden” meat by-products. For example, the rice and beans side at TGIFridays. I had asked our server if they were vegetarian–no meat products–and he assured me they were, so I ate them that and subsequent times. Well, as part of my “write 'em if they piss you off or when they please you” attitude, I wrote a positive letter to TGIF’s telling them I appreciated all the veg-options and liked their rice and bean dishes. Not only did I receive a nice letter back and coupons for future visits, I got a personal phone call from their PR/Mrktg Director. He felt incredibly bad informing me that the beans and rice actually contain pork fat, and apologized profusely (and this is before everyone started suing everyone else for those kinds of mistakes).

I was also served a Minestrone soup at a posh hotel restaurant (on a weekend trip with friends). The description said Italian vegetables and pasta in a light garden vegetable broth. After a couple spoon fulls, I went, “Hmmm–chewy?” None of these vegetables should be “chewy.” I stirred around a little and found chunks of ham. When I spoke to the hostess, she apologized that it was not mentioned in the description and told me to eat whatever I wanted from their dinner buffet (which was like $11.95/person) for the cost of the soup (which was just $3 or $4.95).

I try not to be very careful about dishes at restaurants that might have…questionable ingredients and always ask, if I do have suspicions. The bottomline to me is that I’m making every conscious effort to avoid it. While I, too, am an ethical vegetarian, I don’t flog myself if it was beyond my control–something unrealized. I accept that it was an unintentional mistake–one I try not to make again, but a mistake just the same. (Of course, I still usually feel bad, but I don’t punish myself for it.)

Hope that helps,
Peta T,

In answer to your sig:
“I was just thinking that, too.” :wink:

3

Well you are lucky.
The same kinda thing happened to me.
I was late to catch my train to go back to London and I had no choice but eat some pasta with a tomato/meat sauce.
I thought whatever! (i’m veggie just because it happened and it makes me feel healthier)and ate the pasta but still left most of the meat.
1 hour later i has cold sweat and was feeling very vrey sick.
My best friend who’s also veggie told me later that it happened to her on holiday and she spent the whole night in the loo, vomiting.

Meat is very rich and when your body is not used to it anymore it can create some reaction…
Well it didn’t kill us though huh?

4

While I’ve heard about it from several vegans who have accidently ingested meat, I’ve been lucky so far never to have gotten as far as eating enough of it to make me ill. I can usually spot it before taking a bite, but if I don’t, I figure it out after the first bite–meat stock/fats, rennet, gelatin, etc. are harder to spot, but I also think that if you make a mistake eating these products, they’re not as hard on a vegetarian system since they’re more processed down.

Cheers!

5

I eat corpse. I thought long and hard about it, and came to the conclusion that it’s not unethical or immoral to ead dead animals. (I don’t want to turn this into a debate, and I know that I will not convert a vegetarian nor a vegetarian change me, so I won’t go into the decision process.) However, I have many friends who are vegetarians. We respect each other’s beliefs. Before I became aware of how many foods have meat in them, I never “woulda thunk it”.

It never occured to me that refried beans have animal products in it. They’re traditionally made with lard.

Jell-O brand gelatine is made with animal products (horse or cattle hooves, I think), and my friends are very careful only to use vegetarian gelatine for their “jello shooters”. Never considered that there’d be carcass in Jell-O!

Vegetable soup is often made with corpse-stock.

Several years ago I went for several weeks without eating meat. Not because I was trying to become vegetarian, but just through coincidence. (Lack of funds, foods I ate just happened not to have carcass in them, etc.) Then I had some prime rib. It was good. But I did get sick afterwards. I did make a conscious effort to not eat meat about three years ago, before I exmined the question closely. When I decided that eating meat was okay and went back to it, I didn’t get sick.

6

I’m surprised that any but strictly traditional restaurants would use lard in their beans. A light vegetable oil like canola or safflower (or plain ol’ Wesson) would be more economical. (I used to render a strip of bacon when I started making MY refried beans, but my wife found out and beat me severely, so now I use a teaspoon or two of canola instead.)

Minestrone is hardly ever made with meat stocks, in my experience…wasn’t it created to be a hearty meatless dish for Fridays and the Lenten season? Like Peta, I’d be unpleasantly surprised to find ham floating around in it.

7

Quick question for the OPer and other like-minded veggies:

I completely respect your decision to not eat meat. You said that you do it for ethical reasons, not health. What is your feeling of letting prepared meat go to waste? Is it more of an ethical no-no for you? Would you eat meat, if say, your husband was going to throw out a dish? Or has the thought of participating in the whole meat food chain so grossed you out that you couldn’t bring yourself to do it?

And to clarify, I mean no disrespect at all for this question. Just curious. I imagine there would be many different answers for this.

8

FYI, though I can’t recall which brand, there is a beef stew on the market where the meat is processed soya and it’s one of the more well known ones.

9

Charley: I hope your friend was kidding when he/she said you’d go to “veggie hell” after unwittingly eating meat. If you want, I can befuddle said friend with all manner of 16th-century theological arguments on the nature of sin and damnation :slight_smile:

Skribbler: If your story is true, a great deal of my faith in ingredient lists is shot to pieces. How can a major manufacturer get away with that?

10

Funny, I make every effort to avoid vegies. Imagine my horror the other day while I was munching on my steak when I bit into a piece of corn!!! I almost vomited. Sure, the cook said it was a mistake, but I belive that he is a secret Vegan agent trying to slowly replace my glorious beef products with plant by-products.

11

Charley, I’m an omnivore but I no longer debate this topic. There are few ethical positions that are completely consistent in everyone else’s eyes so I respect yours. But have you ever looked into the eyes of poor li’l Charlie Tuna when he’s being clubbed over the head or heard the screams of a stalk or broccoli being harvested? :smiley:

All kidding aside try not to freak out about it too much. On the positive side your husband apparently enjoyed a meatless meal without complaint or even notice it appaears. Maybe you won’t completely wean him from animal protien but find a middle ground. Even folks like me can enjoy a vegan meal. I still like meat but eat far less than I used to and rarely keep meat in the fridge anymore.

12

The reason you liked it is that humans are meant to eat meat. Its the fat. Fat makes things taste nice. Youll never get a horse to eat meat without desguising it. I dont want to get into an argument about vegitarianism here though.
Soup is made with stock which is made by boiling the bones of a chicken (with some meat still on it) overnight. Frankly, soup is pretty tastless without it. So peta, not only were you eating bits of meat, you were also drinking the stock. from chicken bones. mmm.
I know someone who got this baked potato and cut it open, and there was this enormous, cooked earthworm in it.

13

Coupla comments.

Yes they are, but then lard is itself an animal product – rendered animal fat (usually pig), to be exact. You can get hydrogenated vegetable products made to be used in the place of lard (such as Crisco) but lard comes from animals. That’s why you’ll find “vegetarian refried beans” in cans at the supermarket – because regular ol’ refried beans are not vegetarian. (I, a meat-eater, only eat vegetarian refried beans because I think they taste almost as good as the lard-y kind and because I’m rather put off by the idea of eating lard.)

You must not do much cooking, Nukeman. Stock is made by extracting (usually by boiling) the liquid and flavors from different types of food. Beef stock is made from beef. Chicken stock is made from chicken. And vegetable stock is made from – surprise! – vegetables. It’s entirely possible to make a hearty vegetable stock (from winter vegetables in particular) and not only use it in intentionally vegetarian soups but use it in place of chicken stock in pretty much any soup that doesn’t call for beef stock.

14

I prefer my earthworms fried.

15

Charlie, look at it this way- did you “order” veggie and got meat by mistake? Not a relapse. But if you “order” meat and get veggie by mistake, yes it is.

Relax, I’ll bet there isn’t a single veggie out there who hasn’t accidentally ingested a little dead protein. So maybe “veggie hell” is just where you’ll all meet!

16

Oops. That made it sound as if I didn’t know lard came from animals! What I meant was:
“It never occured to me that refried beans have animal products in it. But I found out later that they’re traditionally made with lard, whereas I had previously assumed they were just beans boiled in water until they became mushy and then stirred around until they lost their shape.”

17

“It never occured to me that refried beans have animal products in it. But I found out later that they’re traditionally made with lard,* whereas I had previously assumed they were just beans boiled in water until they became mushy and then stirred around until they lost their shape*.”

Fixed the italics.

18

Johnny, just to clarify, it’s the addition of fat (through lard or oil) that makes refried beans so darned creamy, as opposed to just smashed and chalky. So even vegetarian refried beans aren’t great for you because they’re generally not low-fat because they’re made with quite a bit of oil. If you care – about fat content, that is, as opposed to just meat/no meat. You can pulse black beans in a food processor with a little water, but they won’t taste the same (or have the same texture) as vegetarian refried beans that are made with oil, which in turn won’t taste the same as “real” refried beans with lard.

Mmmm . . . I’m off to the Taqueria for lunch, for some vegetarian refried beans and chicken soft tacos – hey, I’m not a vegetarian. :slight_smile:

19

I don’t eat meat because I have a very active imagination. I bite into a hamburger, I see a cow. That, and stories of how animals are treated at the factories we call “farms” caused me to cut white meats out of my diet (I had previously stopped eating red and pork meats for a year.) Occationally, I’ll have shrimp dishes when I have Chinese food with my godfather, as it’s the only source of protein available. (we’re talking dim sum, not resturants with tofu) And I am realistic enough to know that gelatin is everywhere.

But I’ve accidently eaten meat before. I had a similar rice and beans incident in high school, I had asked, they had said know, I bit into it, and SURPRISE! Meat. I think I wrote an article in the paper. (yea, I was one of THOSE girls.) My best friend was vegan, and while traveling through Coasta Rica, she had soup with chicken broth (she was assured it was “good vegetable soup”) and spent the rest of the day throwing up. Her doctor’s explaination is that some people have a weak digestion system to begin with, and it gets used to digesting only the reletively simple proteins in plants. An animal protein throws it into overdrive, causing the sweating and vomiting people talked about. Of course, there are some people, veggie or not, who can eat nails and be fine.

I find traveling vegetarian really difficult, especially the last time my family drove to Florida. We’re Yankees, through and through, but we love the South. And my family loves Southern seafood. Which leaves me with a LOT of Caeser salad (anchovies paste is OK in my book, hell, they’re canned fish…) and grilled cheese sandwiches to eat. We stopped in one resturant, and they offered nachos. HOT DAMN. I am increadbily excited, I get my food, a nacho is dipped into the Good Stuff in the Middle, and I realise when they listed “chili” on the menu, they weren’t talking about the peppers. I was about two steps away from tears. Lip quivering, the whole nine. The owner saw me, and came over, and apologized for the chili mishap on the menu (I assured her it was my own damn fault, to which she said “Dahlin’, when you need to eat, you need FOOD, not wilted lettuce!” told me her daugher was a vegetarian, and that she THOUGHT they had some pasta hidden in the back. They did, and there was great rejoicing.

20

“Swiiiiiiiiiiddles…please don’t eeeeeeeeeeeat us…”

– Fifteen Cute Li’l Anchovies with Big Sad Eyes Standing Up On Their Tails