When I change my diet, for whatever reason, from my norm to something that is pretty different in terms of carbs/fats/protein it could send me to the bathroom. I assume this is because of 2 reasons:
1 - Your (my) body got used to eatting X, then Y comes in and there is a delay.
2 - intestional bacteria have flourshed on food X, and have somewhat adapted to them, so I have more beasties that are X digestors then Y digestors. Now that I eat food Y there are just not enough for the 1st meal.
More anecdotes: most of the vegetarians I know report feeling sick a while after eating hidden meat. They are able to detect meat either by the taste (in which case they will immediately stop eating) or by repeated experience (eg regularly eating at a restaurant, and eventually realizing that they always feel a bit sick afterwards - serious investigations of the restaurant at this point almost always reveal some hidden meat).
As a vegetarian, I’m okay with most accidental meat but pork is not good, I get bloaty and experience symptoms similar to others noted in this thread. 'Course the same thing happens with (cow) cheese, so maybe that’s related.
I don’t think I would get sick, exactly - but no one would want to be in the room with me for a couple of days after. Not only would I be crabby from cramps, I would be stinky too.
I’m not vegan, or even vegetarian, but I did go on a very low-fat diet for weight loss about 10 years ago. After a year of eating very little meat (some chicken, some very lean red meat) I decided I had to have a hamburger.
Baaaaaaaaad idea.
I didn’t finish it - the memory of what it tasted like was much better than the reality - and my stomach and digestive system just weren’t up to handling that much fat. I don’t think it was the meat, I think it was the fat.
However, I’m 100% against the idea of forcing anyone to eat anything for any reason.
before i went vegetarian, i stuck to a pretty healthy diet. at that time, eating fast food or anything deep fried would have explosive consequences.
I am a flexitarian and when I get the occasional bit of chicken broth or whatever, it doesn’t affect me. When I went nuts with sushi, I did feel a bit queasy afterwards, but who know if that was in my body or in my head. Anyway, I can eat just about anything and be fine.
However, it’s not totally bizarre the the body would need to accomodate a new diet. I personally eat a huge bowl of beans drenched in hot sauce every day with no ill effects- no farts, no heartburn, nothing but beany happiness. However, people who don’t eat beans on a regular basis look at me like I’m crazy. It is a fact that eating beans regularly will make you produce what you need to digest them well. It’s an enzyme thing- when you take a beano pill, you are just supplamenting the enzymes in your body. I’ve always heard that there are meat enzymes, too, that need some time to build up.
We’ve had threads about this before, and I’ve seen enough vegetarians post about getting sick after eating meat that for now, even if it’s not a universal problem, I doubt it’s a myth.
I don’t think it’s a myth either, although not universal. People who have cast-iron stomachs will be fine, people with more delicate constitutions won’t.
I was raised on *extremely * spicy food. I’ve since toned it down a lot, and if I go a few days eating the food of my childhood, I do tend to have things I never had before - heartburn, acidity.
Of course a radical change in diet can affect some people! Why people always have to be so sure and positive on one side I don’t know…everyone’s different you know, and what works for you or your friends probably won’t work for everyone else. 
I’ll gladly sit in and relieve them of that nasty rare prime rib 
I’d generally agree with Blake here. But a *whole pound *all at once could cause some gastric distress. However if they were fed some real chicken nuggets thinking they were vegan-nuggets, then no.
Wait-do you mean you sneak meat products into her food?
I was a pretty strict ovo-lacto vegetarian from birth until age 21. Shortly after deciding to become a flexitarian (to eat whatever was served to me) I stayed with a family and said nothing to them about my diet. The first night they served pork chops. I didn’t dare say anything then, so I went ahead and forced myself to eat them with a grin. The result?
Nothing happened! I felt fine afterwards. I began to eat meat with relish thereafter (or with gusto, if relish was not available) and never suffered the slightest gastro-intestinal distress that could be linked to meat.
Only a fantasy, I admit. I don’t much like her.
Poker pro Howard Lederer once won a $10,000 prop bet when he, a vegetarian, ate a cheeseburger. In an interview on ESPN, he said that the person, when paying him off, said his only regret was that Lederer didn’t get sick.
Ok, I’ll bite (excuse me). What’s a flexitarian? You eat bending over? Is this a fancy name for an occasional meat eater? Flexitarian. Heh heh.
My version of being a flexitarian is that I eat a predominently veggie diet, but if I decide not to worry about the chicken stock in my Spanish rice or order fish at a restraunt, I don’t want anyone going “nah nah your not a real vegetarians.”
:smack: Looks like the world is taking that handbasket trip quicker than I thought. What’s next, a term for someone who eats meat a little more than seldom? What about someone who eats meat occasionally? Or someone who eats meat sometimes? Let’s have a contest for a term for that. I propose quasitarian. I may have to get off this thing before my ticket gets punched.
I’m a full-fledged omnivore now, but yeah, flexitarian is just a flexible (as opposed to strict) vegetarian. I gave up on vegetarianism completely when I realized that I was looking forward to sharing meals with friends because it gave me an excuse to eat meat, and got frustrated when those friends would be nice and accomodate me instead! Now I eat my steaks medium rare, and the thought of 1# of prime rib makes my mouth water. This after 21 years of vegetarianism starting at birth!
I kept my change in diet hidden from my mother for many years. I’d been about to tell her about it once, when she suddenly began telling me how dissapointed she was that neither of my sisters was vegetarian and that I was her only child to remain meat-free. After that, I didn’t have the heart (or maybe the guts) to tell her. When I finally broke it to her fairly recently (at 28) she was shocked, but got over it quickly. The fact that she’d managed to convert my father (who later converted my now-former stepmother), my stepfather, and a former lover seemed to make up for losing all three children.
There’s nothing religiously or ethnically significant about my family’s vegetarianism. My great-grandfather in Scotland was a radical in many ways–a lifelong Communist and a conciencious objector during World War One! He converted the entire family to vegetarianism after it seemed to help my great aunt, who was sickly as a child. (The ethical issues soon eclipsed heath concerns as a basis for continuing the diet.) I like to tell people I’m ethnically vegetarian, just non-practicing! 
And your transition to meat was…eventful, uneventful…?
Are you seriously suggesting that the world is going to hell because we have a word for “I prefer to eat vegetarian, but I won’t call you a murderer for putting chicken stock in the rice”? What’s next indeed? A word for people who don’t vote straight party tickets and don’t support every plank of their party’s platform? A word for people who believe in God but don’t think everyone else is going to hell? A word for colors neither black nor white? Surely the downfall of civilization and the destruction of rational thought is at hand!