Should I give up being a vegetarian (for health reasons)?

In My Humble Opinion
1

Here’s my issue: I have been a vegetarian of one stripe or another since 1997 and I am thinking of switching to a Paleo dietary lifestyle after years of struggling to get my weight and my PCOS in check. No matter what I eat, this seems IMPOSSIBLE on a well-balanced vegetarian diet. I eat what I should: beans and legumes, lentils, squash, broccoli, tons of raw and flash frozen veggies, walnuts, a little tuna once in a while, EVOO, occasionally a Luna bar, I really like tofu, etc. - in essence, I never met a healthy food I didn’t like. (Unfortunately, the same principle applies to baked goods, and I am working in earnest to curb that.)

It seems like no matter what I eat, I still feel like crud. It doesn’t matter if I eat like a saint. It doesn’t matter how “clean” the food is. Here’s a true story: Yesterday I went to an organic, non-GMO vegan restaurant and ate a raw kale salad w/ blueberries and apple cider vinegar for dressing…and was sick all afternoon. I am so d*mn frustrated by all of this! What the heck am I supposed to eat if KALE makes me ill after I eat it??? I can handle lentils, beans, chicken, and Luna bars. The rest is a crap shoot…pun totally intended. :stuck_out_tongue:

I am run down and tired all the time. I have been working very closely with my endocinologist and she says that all my bloodwork is pretty much ideal. Metformin has stabilized my blood sugar and every thing else is just ginger peachy…So why do I still feel like this every darn day?

I’ve ruled out just about everything. At this point, I think it’s my diet.

Some back story: Initially after the switch to a veggie lifestyle I gained a lot of weight - about 90 lbs in six months (YIKES, right?). This was from a combination of medications, lack of proper PCOS diagnosis (which didn’t happen until 2007), and my insatiable cravings for carbs, which are abundant in vegetarian diets. I reintroduced seafood and poultry into the mix about the time I got my PCOS diagnosis (because low carb is incredibly monotonous and darn near impossible to maintain when you’re a strict vegetarian) and I lost about 30 lbs. without making any other dietary changes. This struck me as really strange, but I chalked it up to the fact that the lean animal proteins might have replaced some of the high carb stuff I was consuming.

I will spare you the long, tedious, and sort of disgusting details of what I’ve gone through, things my doctors and I have tried, and all that jazz. Suffice it to say: I have tried just about everything. I even had my f’ing gallbladder removed earlier this year…and that seems to have made many aspects of this worse. I have fatty liver, but aside from that, I’ve been inspected from head to toe, inside and out, and everything else is fine like wine.

My hypothesis is that because my liver is already taxed (fatty liver/Syndrome X), I will continue to feel like crud until I get some of this weight off and restore my liver to better health. This would also account for the gallbladder removal making these fatigue and “brain cloud” symptoms WORSE, as the liver must work much harder when the gallbladder is removed.

I am eager to get this underway! I just joined a walking study through the metabolic health facility at my college. Now, I need to get this diet thing sussed out.

Maybe some people just aren’t meant to be vegetarian? I love the feeling of living a compassionate life, but maybe I need to re-examine my definition of compassion to extend to animals treated in a humane fashion for my consumption? I haven’t eaten any mammals in years, and I am reluctant to do so. At the same time, it seems stupid for me to put my health at risk if this is, indeed, what is making my PCOS so hard to manage. At least three of my doctors have recommended the Paleo diet to me, including my endo. Paleo advocates eating grass-fed free range animals. I might be willing to warm up to this if I know the animals have been treated well and aren’t pumped full of hormones.

I am sort of hoping someone out there has had this or a similar experience. In either case, I am in need of some guidance. I am eager to hear your response.

2

If you are struggling this much with PCOS, then I think low-carb would definitely be the way to go. I can see how that would be hard as a vegetarian. I think it’s up to you to determine if it would need to include meat, to be doable.

I have PCOS, and I used to be vegetarian. I also used to weigh 300 pounds and have a crappy crappy metabolism, no energy, etc. Now, I eat paleo, I eat meat with every meal (I do get pastured beef and pork directly from farmers), weigh 175 pounds (would like to lose a little more), have energy, and feel a lot better.

You know what helped me make the switch, and embrace it? Knowing that the dalai lama is not vegetarian, for health reasons. If it is good enough for him…

Please also look at HIIT (high intensity interval training), it can do fantastic things for your metabolism. And also strength training / weight lifting.

3

Have you tried an elimination diet?

I’ve had friends who developed food sensitivities later in life. In particular one friend had a catastrophic health crisis due to a CT scan gone horribly awry (turns out she’s allergic to contrast, oops). This friend has been dealing with severe health issues ever since and is only just now at a point where she can consider working again.

She, and at least two other friends I can think of, worked with their doctors through an elimination diet, which is basically (like it sounds) eliminating all but the most bland and innocuous of foods for a couple weeks, and then adding potentially triggering foods back in one at a time. If you have a bad reaction, then there’s your problem food (or one of them).

Lethargy and bloat can be symptoms of gluten-sensitivity – and you can be sensitive without being allergic/intolerant, it’s a matter of degree. So that may be something to look into. At the same time, since you’ve had so many problems, I’d recommend doing this one food at a time, with the help of your doctor, because it could be just one thing that sets you off, or a bunch of things. You’d be surprised at how often corn and soy shows up in foods, for example, even where you’d least expect them, and both are potentially triggering. Several of my friends have problems with gluten, and/or dairy, and one is even allergic to nutmeg.

An elimination diet will take several weeks to complete, and you’ll have to be very strict with it for the duration or you won’t get the necessary information you’re looking for. But I’d take this approach before just blindly taking a wild stab at yet another diet that may or may not work. You need to know the root of the problem before you can fix it.

4

How overweight are you right now? Being obese makes for huge “brain cloud” and related lethargic feelings.

5

Although I do not have PCOS and have never struggled with weight gain - I could have written a lot of the OP. I do not believe it is possible for ME to enjoy good physical or emotional health on a vegetarian diet. Changing my diet to limit fermentable carbs, and to get most of my calories from fat and protein rather than sugars, made an enormous difference for me.

6

My husband’s doctor has him trying this low FODMAP diet - essentially eliminating certain kinds of carbs that some people can’t tolerate very well. It’s not intuitive at all - no stone fruits, etc. But he feels a lot better now, whether it’s because of that or because the relatively strict diet has eliminated something else that made him feel bad.

7

You sound like me (except that I am an omnivore).

It took me years to figure out what the problem was. I am sensitive to certain foods. And it seems pretty random when you look at it.

Things I can’t eat without getting sick:

Eggs
Orange Juice
Coffee
Lettuce (any leafy greens except spinach)
Scallops
Watermelon

Things which MAY trigger a reaction:
Beef
Beans
Sweet Peppers
Cucumber
Onions

The way I figured it out was to keep a food journal. I wrote down everything I ate and if it made me sick or not (and how sick).

Now, I feel great 90% of the time. The other 10% is usually a conscious choice (cause sometimes I just NEED to have a glass of orange juice or a salad KWIM).

8

I’ve been Paleo for over 2 years now, and I’ve never been healthier or felt better. It’s a great way to eat, I recommend trying it for a few months to see if it works for you.

9

You could try downgrading: for example, allow yourself to eat fish but abstain from poultry or red meat, or eat fish and poultry but not red meat.

10

I have a friend who was a vegetarian for 20 years, then tried eating meat and got a turbo-charge of energy and lost 15 pounds without trying. I think that, given you feel so bad, it’s worth it to try eating meat for a while.