Has anyone here ever gone back to being a omnivore after being a vegetarian for a long time? I’m starting this process and am starting out slowly, with chicken noodle soup and the like (mmm… I really missed that). I’d like to hear how other people have done this.
My wife - a decade a vego - started with hot salami on pizza.
As a vegetarian myself (for about 4-5 years) with no intention of going back to omni, I have to ask, why did you decide to do this? I mean no disrespect, and I’m not one of those weepy, ultra-sensetive ‘oh-the-poor-animals’ kind of vegetarians. I tend to think I’m pretty blase about meat and meat comsumption and think “oh, yeah, if I had to go back, I could,” but then I’ll be walking through the woods and see some hunter with his fresh kill slung over his shoulder or see some smashed deer on the side of the road, etc., and think oh god, people eat that?? Dead animal flesh?? shudder gag
Just the same as if I hadn’t eaten apples in 4-5 years, I’d probably be conditioned to think apples are pretty gross.
I’m just curious what your original reasons for going veg. were, and why you decided to call it quits.
Polling-style questions like this are best served by In My Humble Opinion. I’ll move the thread there for you.
At pldennison and Peta Tzunami’s excellent World Series party last Saturday night, I had a hot dog for the first time in ten years. Of course, both my hosts and I were vegetarians, so it was a veggie hot dog. But, damn, it was strange.
It wasn’t meat, and it never tasted like meat, but it reminded me of the first time I had a veggie burger that actually lived up to the “burger” part.
Anyway, I have no interest in going back to eating meat ever, but just the thought of eating a hot dog was bizarre.
sorry about that manhattan… thanks for moving it to the proper place… I’m kind of new at this!
So why did I become a veggie, and why am I trying to stop? Frankly, there’s no valid reason for me to stick with it. I gave up meat when I was a sweet little idealistic sophomore in high school and had done some reading about the icky things they do to the poor widdle cows and said, “F*** it! I’m goin’ veggie!” It was also a rebellious thing against my parents, too, I think now. Over the years, I’ve used the “health reasons”(my grandfather died of heart disease, my brother has had colon troubles), “I just don’t like the taste of meat”, and the “it keeps me from eating with people like YOU” arguments.
So… I’m no longer idealistic, I don’t like cows, it won’t pose any threat to my health if I eat it only once or twice a week like I plan to, I’ve been anemic and easily fatigued ever since I gave it up, and, frankly, I miss the taste of kielbasa. I still have the “ugh” reflex every time I look at red meat, but as of now, chicken and turkey look really yummy. So it’s just a matter of time.
I don’t regret at all becoming one, though - I tried a lot of new food that I wouldn’t have tried had I been a meat eater (like tofu and chapchae and pad thai… mmm… ), and it in effect severed dinner-time relations with my family, which made the transition to college a lot easier for me (if you haven’t eaten with them for three years, it’s pretty easy to LIVE without them).
But it’s time to move on.
kinda dissapointed dissapointed the reason wasn’t something more noble than “because meat is yummy”
Where I go to school http://www.northland.edu there are a fair amount of “almost” vegetarians – people who think factory farming is cruel, terrible for the environment, etc., but they don’t want to give up meat completely, and/or they want to eat a more “local” diet, so they’re vegetarian (or even vegan) except for fish or game they caught & killed themselves. Interesting movement. I think if I were to try and live self-sufficiantly out in the wilderness (a la Walden) I might go back to eating fish, but I don’t think I could slaughter a mammal or bird or anything that would actually cry and bleed. And if I can’t kill it myself I don’t think I have any business eating it.
shrug That’s just me, though. Do yer own thang, but I ain’t got no advice for ya.
ps. I used to be aenemic before I went veg, but now everything’s a-ok.
pps. mmm… tofu…
I went back to coffee after declaring I would only eat meat.
Montfort claims:
A veggie hot dog? Impossible; vegetables don’t have assholes.
(The predecing was stolen from Sluggy Freelance).