My exSO is a pescatarian and this Sunday accidently ingested a small amount of ham that was on his pizza by mistake. He swears this gave him a rash and that he will get very sick if he eats meat of any kind.
I’ve heard this time and time again from various vegetarians that eating meat makes them violently ill. Now if someone on very low protein diet suddenly decided to scarf down an entire porterhouse and then suffered gastrointestinal distress, I might not be surprised.
However, I’m convinced my exSO is just being silly and ridiculous because he regularly consumes eggs, whole milk, lots of cheese and butter. He eats plenty of seafood: sushi (tuna, salmon, yellow tail), octopus, crab, lobster, muscles and oysters. All of this in additional to any number of “veggie” products like soy burgers/tofurky and the like and has no problem consuming chicken or beef broth in soups.
How then, with this diet, could a little ham give him a rash? Does such a reaction even make sense?
So what is the truth of the matter? Can vegetarians get sick from eating meat? What, physiologically, would be the cause? How much of it is just in their heads? How then do you explain “flexitarians” who only occasionally eat meat? What are the differences and likelihood between a pescatarian, ovo-lacto vegetarian and a vegan? Is chicken stock enough to sicken a vegan (as I’ve heard) or does it take a Hardee’s thickburger (which make me ill).
I don’t know about a rash, but I’ve seen (once) a vegetarian decide to get off the vegetarian diet…with a steak and lobster dinner. I don’t think she ate a lot, but she did throw up afterwards. It should be noted that she’s not a picky or whiny person and certainly doesn’t do anything just for the attention, she’s pretty tough and probably would have held it back if she could.
It can give them tummy troubles, especially if they try a lot after not eating any meat for a long time. They basically adjust though. It works both ways btw…if you change your diet radically and quickly you usually get some short term stomach issues.
Well, since he’s your ex-SO, I’ll just say…he’s a nutter. Unless he’s specifically allergic to ham, he’s not going to get a rash just from eating the dreaded meat. He’s not going to get ‘very sick’ either…again, assuming he’s not specifically allergic to pork.
Exactly. If you try and down a lot after not eating for a long time you are going to have issues. But vegetarians, especially vegans are a bit nuts about it sometimes, as if it’s poison…which a lot of them have convinced themselves it is (and convinced themselves that humans really can’t and shouldn’t eat meat because it’s not natural or whatever :rolleyes:).
Not unless he’s allergic to pork (or to whatever they are using to cure the ham…usually salt and sugar, but maybe something else). If he really does get a rash every time he eats pork then he should definitely go see a doctor. If he’s not allergic, then he should go see a shrink.
I’m sure it’s partially psychosomatic, and I’m not sure about a rash, specifically, but it’s rather well known that radical, sudden changes of diet can make you physically ill. This also applies for people who eat tons of really crappy food (or even just non-crappy meat) suddenly eating like a rabbit. Your body goes “what the hell are you putting in me?” and rejects it. This is why radical changes in diet shouldn’t be sudden.
I was a vegetarian for about 3 years, as my gf was one and as Jules said, it pretty much makes you one. About 6 months after things ended, I started eating meat again and I felt mildly queasy later, as if I’d eaten too much of something rich. I got over it. ETA: A smidgen of ham on some pizza should not have caused that much drama, though.
I do know someone who went vegetarian when she developed an intolerance to red meat. She likes it, but one small nibble of meat will have her confined to the bathroom in a half hour or so. It really is no joke for her.
When I started eating meat after ten years of vegetarianism, I didn’t experience any real adverse reaction beyond what you’d expect from an unusually fatty meal. For years afterwards, though, I would vomit if I had meat in large quantities. A steakhouse burger, for example, is more than I can usually process.
I do think motivation comes in to it. I was highly motivated to eat meat. But I recognize that our brains are really, really, really influential when it comes to food. Lots of people have food aversions, and it really is all in their head, but it is also a strong physical reaction. Avoiding rotten or poisonous food is so important that we are wired to react very strongly when we feel that it is for any reason off.
I’d been a lacto-ovo-vegetarian for about five years when, backpacking through Italy on a hot summer day, I decided I just wasn’t getting enough calories and went for the salami panini from a street vendor. Frankly, I was expecting a little sick and queasy under those conditions, but I was fine.
LOL- a lady just told me two days ago that she was allergic to meat. I though “Huh- you are made out of meat,” but fortunately kept that thought to myself.
I’d say that consuming chicken, beef, and fish products is pretty far away from being vegetarian.
To answer your question, I’d say it depends on the amount and type of food we’re talking about, as well as the particular person’s system. I’m sure I’ve accidentally eaten small amounts of gelatin on occasion because that’s one of those random foods they’ll sneak in anywhere. (I’ve seen it in yogurt and Pop Tarts, among other things.) On the other hand, one day about 20 minutes after eating lunch, I suddenly felt flushed and really hot, and had to sit down before fainting. It took a while to figure out what had happened, but eventually I noticed the ingredients list on the take-out salad dressing I’d eaten. It contained anchovies. (Who puts fish in salad dressing?!)
The vegetarians I’ve known who have become meat eaters by choice switch with no or few problems - MAYBE the tummy problems of a rich meal - in one case it was a girlfriend who’d been a vegetarian over 30 years - though she did start with fish, add chicken, eat a steak, and the BACON!!!
The vegetarians I know - including some of the same people - who eat meat non-voluntarily and discover they’ve just had meat, tend to get ill.
I’m suspecting psychosomatic in most cases.
(I do have a girlfriend who is deathly allergic to chicken - turkey is fine - chicken its epi pen and the emergency room. She eats a lot of other meat though.)
It’s ironic that some people believe that fish isn’t meat, same for seafood (and insects); in my thinking, meat is flesh from ANY animal. Milk and eggs aren’t really different either, sort of like separating fruits, vegetables and grains; so there’s really only two food groups. Of course, people have all sorts of weird ideas about food, starting at petty arguments like whether tomatoes are vegetables to whether a capybara is a fish so it can be eaten during Lent.
I have a friend who turned vegetarian. After a year he thought he’d go back to meat, ate a steak dinner, and barfed it all up. So he stuck with the veggies after that. There are probably a lot of people who don’t handle a shock to their digestive system well, doesn’t seem to be that unusual.
My youngest daughter was a vegetarian for about 5 years. When she decided to start eating meat again, she took it very slowly to avoid stomach upset. However I doubt that one small piece of meat would physically harm even a vegan if they didn’t know that they ingested the meat. The exception would be if they were actually allergic to the food such as some people are allergic to peanuts and eggs.
It’s not ironic. Fish aren’t cute. Milk and eggs can be got by exploiting animals without killing them. ANd a significant amount of vegetarianism in the west is based on how animals are treated prior to death.