# Will eating meat make a vegetarian sick or just whiny? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [February 6, 2013, 12:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-eating-meat-make-a-vegetarian-sick-or-just-whiny/649436 "2013-02-06T00:48:40Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Dallas\_Jones](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dallas_jones/32/3277_2.png) [@Dallas\_Jones](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dallas_Jones)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2014, 4:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-eating-meat-make-a-vegetarian-sick-or-just-whiny/649436/41 "2014-04-13T04:37:01Z")
I think it is the sudden change in diet rather than the content of that diet that matters. I recently re-read a book about the Lewis and Clark expedition. These guys were working physically very hard every day and crossed the continent on a diet of almost exclusively red meat, deer, elk, buffalo, up to 10 pounds per man, per day. When they reached the Columbia River basin the local natives had stores of fish, mostly salmon. Dried salmon, smoked salmon, fresh salmon, and this gave the travelers the shits and stomach cramps to the point that they would rather buy dogs from the Indians than eat fish. They had similar reactions to trying to eat the local vegetarian crops of camas root and wapato, although they did get used to them somewhat. The Corps of Discovery over wintered here at the mouth of the Columbia, in the middle of a seafood wonderland, and in a few months they had killed 131 elk, to the point where they had almost eliminated the local herd. And they couldn’t wait to head back east for buffalo. Their systems had become used to red meat and fat and could tolerate little else. I do not believe the stories of a few bites of meat causing a vegetarian distress, but I could certainly see where a sudden change of major types of food would cause issues. ---
**Author:** ![chelseab](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/cdc98d/32.png) [@chelseab](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chelseab)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2014, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-eating-meat-make-a-vegetarian-sick-or-just-whiny/649436/42 "2014-04-13T18:25:58Z")
I believe you and the others are right about the quick change in the diet being the culprit here. I used to love meat, steak in particular, and would eat a large portion without any ill effects, hence my ‘distress’ at finding it is the meat doing it. About being whiny, I don’t know how anyone could be honest and take that attitude. I believe everyone is different, and to say you felt like you were punched in the gut and googled it to see if there were any answers out there, obviously shows the sincerity of the person. Geez. :smack: ---
**Author:** ![China\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/779978/32.png) [@China\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/China_Guy)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2014, 2:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-eating-meat-make-a-vegetarian-sick-or-just-whiny/649436/43 "2014-04-14T02:17:33Z")
Hmmm, part psychosomatic and part physical? I remember getting back to HOng Kong in the 1980’s after my first trip to China and about 18 months of being hardcore vegetarian. Scarfing down a Big Mac and then blowing chow about an hour later. 10 years into vegetarianism and then a plate of Fernando’s ribs in Macau (anyone else love these or even know what I’m talking about?), and things were hunky dory. An abnormal amount of gas though for a while when I first started eating meat again. ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2014, 3:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-eating-meat-make-a-vegetarian-sick-or-just-whiny/649436/44 "2014-04-14T03:52:50Z")
> [@Dogzilla](#): > > I was ovo-lacto-pesco for many years. If I accidentally ate something with chicken stock or beef or pork fat in it, I would get very bad stomach cramps and horrible diarrhea about 30 minutes after eating. I figured out that it was the fat, not the meat protein, that was messing me up. When I decided to work chicken and turkey back into my diet, I had to totally avoid greasy fried poultry and could only eat skinless grilled and even then sometimes, I’d get a bit of a stomach ache. Enough drama caused to make me want to just stay close to my home bathroom for a few hours. Gradually, my system has decided it can handle some grease so now I am experimenting with other lean proteins like lamb and bison. I’m still afraid of beef and pork, but mostly because of how meat is mass-produced in this country and because it’s full of hormones, steroids, antibiotics, pesticides, and, well, poo. If it’s “clean” meat, I’ll try small amounts until I’m sure I won’t be stuck in my bathroom for a few hours. I eat meat. But the odds of pork giving me diarrhea within an hour of eating it despite eating meat nearly daily are better than 50%. A lot of people find pork harder to digest than beef and poultry. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-eating-meat-make-a-vegetarian-sick-or-just-whiny/649436.md?page=2)