So, after a recent case of gout, and years of being overweight, I’m thinking of cutting red meat out of my diet. It doesn’t seem like it would be too difficult to do, as most places that serve beef also have some sort of chicken or fish available. As far as my diet goes - I’d be mostly just be cutting out burgers, Italian beef sandwiches, steak tacos, cheesesteaks, and meat toppings on pizza.
I’d love to hear from any Dopers that have cut red meat out of their diet and how it went. Did you feel healthier? Lose weight? Find it incredibly difficult?
I went from omnivore (who preferred her steaks still mooing) to full-on vegetarian. I personally had no problem with it, because I love all kinds of food more or less equally, so there are still plenty of delicious things for me to eat. My only issue was finding meatless options at certain restaurants, but as you say, there’s *always *a non-beef alternative.
But yes: I do feel a lot healthier, I did lose weight (and find it much easier to maintain now), and in general, it was a breeze.
I was a vegetarian for about a year and a half, and during that year and a half I was sick. Not very sick, but under par a great deal of the time, and on one occasion, very very sick.
Yeah, I lost weight. Lots of it. I didn’t need to, either.
And after that very bad case of the flu, the next time red meat called to me, I answered.
I am just not cut out to be a vegetarian, apparently.
I haven’t cut it out completely, but have cut way back. Ground turkey or chicken is a good substitute for ground beef in things like tacos and meatloaf. I eat the black bean burgers from Costco instead of hamburgers if I’m at home (still occasional hamburger out). Steak maybe once a month.
I very rarely eat red meat, though when I was living with my mom, red meat was common. It wasn’t hard to cut out - when I moved in with my husband, who grew up mostly vegetarian, the way I cooked changed until meat of any type was more of a condiment in any dish than the centerpiece. So, even though we’ll often have chicken or shrimp, it’s usually mixed into a pasta or a curry.
I don’t think I lost weight when I started eating less red meat. Not eating it was never a decision I made, but something that just happened. I can tell you that I do feel mildly sick the night after eating a lot of beef. I’m not sure if that’s related to the “a lot” or the “beef” part or both, but it doesn’t happen as much if I’ve eaten a lot of seafood, chicken or veggies.
Like Wort, we’ve cut way back on the red meat. We still eat it regularly, but its frequency as a menu component has been lessened. No problems. We are losing weight, feeling healthier, and saving money by not eating fast food at all and using eggplant and squash where we once would have used beef. Pork and chicken are still in the rotation to provide the requisite need to rend animal flesh.
I switched to just chicken, turkey, and fish last October and found it to be a very easy transition. I’ve given myself the option to ‘cheat’, but I’ve exercised that option very rarely (e.g. for Hungarian goulash or my annual campfire beef stew).
Chicken is available everywhere beef is so finding alternatives is not a problem. Turkey and veggie burgers are fairly common as well. I like turkey burgers quite a bit and that makes a big difference; it eliminates the yearning for beef burgers.
I also came to the realization that while I miss the very best burgers, Italian beefs, and steaks – most of what I ate was fast food junk. I really don’t miss crappy burgers and rubbery Italian beefs.
As far as feeling better: I made a lot of dietary changes all at once and it is hard to identify which changes have had which effects, but overall I feel a LOT better. I’ve lost thirty pounds and my cholesterol has dropped into normal range.
I think that giving up red meat was a big enough mental hurdle that I was forced to re-assess all of my eating habits. I figured that if I could give up beef, then I could cut out some other junk as well, I could cut down on my portions, and I could start enjoying foods that I never liked.
I had a year a couple of years ago where I was just turned off red meat for no particular reason. I didn’t find cutting it out of my diet difficult at all. We still don’t eat a ton of red meat - I get tenderized steaks (which are shockingly cheap, and nice to fry up) and have them about once every two weeks, and hamburgers about that often too. I like a really good cut of steak occasionally (and it has to be a good, tender cut, or it will take me forever to eat it and I just basically get bored with chewing). I’d say I’m about 3/4s off of beef. Pork is a little more frequent. Chicken is my go-to meat, and fish about as often as beef.
I eat very little red meat these days because I am watching my food and the really lean ground beef is just too flipping expensive when Wal-mart sells fresh boneless, skinless chicken breasts at $1.79/pound. That said, in and of itself I am not sure that cutting red meat would be a great path to weight loss: for me, I overeat all the things around the red meat, the potatoes and bread and butter and sauces and cheese–and I can over eat those just fine if they are sitting beside a steak or a chicken breast. It’s like a vegetarian who orders fries and a milkshake when their friends get the fries and a burger. It’s not going to help.
But you may be different than me. Red meat may be what you overdo, and it may help with the gout. It’s certainly worth a try.
I went vegetarian during my first year in college, ten years ago, and I am still vegetarian today, with a few slight variations. (I’ll eat meat on special occasions or if somebody’s gone to great lengths to prepare it.) My verdict is that if you’ve been eating it regulary throughout your life, you’ll probably experience some cravings for it after you first give it up. For me that stage lasted three or four weeks. After that, I found that I had basically no desire for meat anymore.
I agree. I think your tastes tend to adapt to what you eat most often. After I stopped eating meat regularly, I lost my taste for it. It seems gross to me now.
When I was little we had red meat a lot but it was so overcooked I assumed I didnt like it. As soon as I got old enough to cook for myself I experimented with other types of meat and didnt look back for years. I was probably 22 before someone cooked me a proper medium rare steak on a grill, which I enjoyed a lot.
So while like good beef if it’s cooked well now, it’s still not a favorite and I find it really easy to avoid. Without putting any effort into avoiding red meat I doubt I’ve eaten it in the past 3 months.
What you want to do is eat interesting meat instead. Eat legs and thighs instead of flavorless chicken breasts. And if you do, don’t get the boneless skinless breast. Eat pork. Eat a duck. Enjoy different types of fish. I don’t know if lamb is bad for your dietary needs. I think the trick is to not feel like it’s a choice between a steak and a boneless skinless chicken breast, which would be quite difficult for anyone who likes good food.
When I was 16, I went from full out carnivore to cutting out Beef. At first I protested and hated it (mostly because of the idea of not having it. And discovering things like Pepperoni or certain salami’s and such had Beef secretly in them). So i’d make a fuss about it, but i wouldn’t really eat it and i stuck to avoiding it. Though i did love me some bacon and pork.
That said, once you get past the IDEA of not eating it, it’s not that hard. Like now, it’s been almost 10 years, and i tend to know all the things i can find w/o beef at most places. So I don’t miss it, and if i do discover a beef topping or such, I can easily pass on the dish with no hard feelings, sometimes i even feel guilty if I do eat it by accident as I’m so used to the idea of not eating it.
So I’d say, it’s really tough at first, but it’s mostly the principle of it. Now if you asked me to cut back on my pork or such, I’d complain and all again, but I know in my head, that it’s totally possible and that I COULD do it, I’d just have to stick it out.
So my advice to you is (if you can), try to do it on a scale. Cut back on Beef or Pork or whichever of the red meat you tend to eat the MOST of. And then stick without that for a while. You’ll bitch and moan, but eventually it’ll pass, and then the others will be easier to drop out as well after another 9-12 months of the initial first loss. That said, it also helps to have supportive people vs. enablers who’ll just encourage you to indulge once in a while because “what’s the harm?”. Going cold turkey from it, means just that- you can’t slack off or give yourself excuses, because at first it’ll be really easy to slide back to your old ways… You gotta break yourself of the mentality of Meat first before you can truly find it easy- this is basically those first few long months of going w/o it, and finding out the new foods that you can rely on and enjoy and discovering basically your home base/ “safe menu” of things you know you can eat w/o problems or worries that “you’re missing out” in other situations like at parties, or fancy restaurants, or such things.
I went a couple of years more or less meatless, and it wasn’t hard. I like spices and cooking, though I never got THAT much into tofu or substitutes. <and that’s where it gets dangerous for full-on vegans; you NEED to pay a LOT of attention to what you eat, or else you’ll get deficient>
Half the time I thought I was craving meat, I was really craving…salt.
Try something with msg on it when you get the craving but don’t want to give in, as it gives things a bit of meaty undertone. (Doritos would not be the same without it!)
Once in a while, when you crave it, splurge and get a petit little piece of meat, and cook it how you like it, and gorge.
You will be in the bathroom within an hour, as your body goes ‘WTF IS THIS?!’ but it shouldn’t hurt you, and helps keep you on track the rest of the time.
Paying attention to one’s diet is never a bad thing; half the time just doing that small service of paying attention to what we’re actually eating helps balance things out a LOT.
Depends on your environment. In the Midwest, it would take some work. But when I spent a week in the Florida Keys, my animal protein was fish/shellfish only and didn’t even notice that I’d done so until I got home. A friend who spends a month in Sicily every year does the same.
I have found over the last few months that cooking at home and just not eating food prepared for me has made a huge difference. From your description of where your red meat is coming from, it really sounds like part of the problem is eating fast food and restaurant food.
The healthiest change you can probably make is to start cooking more at home, planning meals, and brown-bagging your lunch. It’s a fairly big adjustment - at least it was for me since I had been in more of a restaurant-food delivery rut than I had realized. There’s some planning involved. But I’m also saving about $75 a week!
Just cutting out red meat and continuing to use restaurants as your kitchen probably won’t save you any calories. The other meat and/or vegetarian options are equally slathered in cheese and other fats and oils and salt!
I’m a vegetarian. To be honest, I’ve never noticed any particular health benefit from it. I didn’t lose weight when I stopped eating meat, nor did I feel particularly better.
For the most part, I could happily cut out the red meat. I don’t particularly care for it most of the time, and I’m sort of getting away from it as much I can while still serving it to my family. Just tonight I made burgers for dinner, but had a veggie patty myself, because I prefer them. (Husband is a carnivore, child is allergic to veggie patties.)
