I’m allergic to beef. I know this for a fact. When I got my allergy test last year, it registered as a very small allergy - less than my shellfish allergy, however, the shellfish allergy is also very low. Turns out that there’s a portion of people that are naturally allergic to beef.
But I guess a beef allergy is not a life-threatening allergy. No one told me to avoid beef, like they did with shellfish, no one told me to carry an Epi-Pen for that and use it. I still eat beef and I have never, ever noticed an averse reaction.
You certainly can be allergic to a specific meat. However I think the people who claim to be violently sick after a tiny bit of meat are mostly drama llamas.
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 had people try to serve me pizza with pork products on it (pepperoni, gah, grease-fest!) and explain that I could just pick off the pepperoni. Right, but the grease has still soaked in and that’s what gave me negative effects. And then the carnivores would sniff, look down their nose at me, and tell me they feel sorry for me because I won’t eat processed crap. I don’t judge them for their cheeseburger-and-fries diet so I don’t know why they act like it’s acceptable to judge me because I try to eat a little healthier. I’m just trying to keep control of my cholesterol; I don’t not eat red meat because I feel sorry for the cows or any of that bullshit. For me, not eating meat helps in that regard. I could give less than a rat’s ass about what YOU eat.
I’d never seen store-bought caesar with anchovy (like Kraft or whatever), so finding it at this take-out place was an unpleasant surprise. As I said, I got sick before I realized I’d eaten anything off, so it wasn’t psychosomatic.
The most traditional recipe was made with Worcestershire sauce–which does contain anchovies. In some later versions, extra anchovies are crushed into the dressing–which can still be subtle. Or just draped on top–which is extra fishy & salty.
Lower quality dressings may not have it, but it’s supposed to be included, so I’d be wary about Caesar salads if you eat out, and also keep an eye on the ingredients for store bought (which you’re probably doing now anyway).
I wasn’t suggesting that your illness was psychosomatic, just that anchovies are commonly included in traditional Caesar dressing, so you’re likely to run into it again.
ETA: Bridget Burke
Ah, I didn’t know about the Worcestershire sauce. My father taught me about the anchovies, and I’ve subsequently eaten at restaurants where they did indeed drape white anchovies over the salad (delicious; not like those salty, tinned beasts). I also picked up a recipe a few years ago that calls for 8 anchovies to be blended into the batch. The anchovies have a noticeable effect on the flavor; the dressing turns out quite different if you use white anchovies instead of tinned.
It’s important to remember – and I’m not saying that anyone is suggesting this in this thread – but psychosomatic doesn’t equal “being a drama queen.” If someone is having an actual psychosomatic reaction to having ingested meat, they have no more physical control over their reaction than they do over a true allergic reaction. I.e., psychosomatic doesn’t mean “faking it.” It just means a physical effect with a mental or emotional cause.
Its interesting to note that if you are avoiding red meat because you feel it is unhealthy, recent studies suggest that it is only processed red meat that is unhealthy, and seriously so to increase the risk of heart disease, a very common disease, by over 40% with just a couple ounces a day (possibly also other meat, if it is the nitrites and stuff they use and not something in red meat that forms when it interacts with them), validating claims by vegetarians that eating meat is unhealthy, but only because of the way some meat is processed (of course, vegans claim that milk is unhealthy too, but studies like this one (note that both of these are actually multiple studies aggregated, not just one, so more reliable) invalidate that claim). I don’t like that stuff either and it has probably been at least 10 years since I last ate hot dogs or bacon (even before I knew how unhealthy they are, I just didn’t like them that much), although I’ll eat pepperoni and sausage on pizza (which is only a small amount compared to the 2 ounces quoted in the link, and it says that having that much once a week or less won’t hurt).
I didn’t say that I “feel” it is unhealthy. I* think* that keeping the amount of fat in my diet at low-ish numbers helps keep my cholesterol down. It doesn’t help that much, which is why I brought poultry back. I don’t have any other risk factors for heart disease like high blood pressure. I exercise regularly (and vigorously – about an hour a day 5-6 days a week).
All that is a hijack anyway. The OP’s question was with respect to vegetarians eating meat: does it make them sick or just whiny? Both, IMO. Projectile diarrhea can make one rather whiny.
I’m sure far more vegetarians claim a small bit of meat will make them ill than are actually allergic.
I had a roommate who had been vegetarian for 14 years. But whenever she had too much to drink at places where both food and booze are abundant, eg cookouts, she would eat meat.
We all went to a Chinese buffet once that had strong rum-based drinks. She cheerfully and drunkenly bragged that she had eaten six different kinds of animals in one sitting that night. She seemed to suffer no ill effects afterward.
Very little is unhealthy in moderation, but people manage their health in different ways. I know that skipping the gym on Wednesday won’t actually directly lead anyone to a lifelong downward spiral of sloth, but I also know that if I skip the gym on Wednesday, it makes the rest of my fitness routine harder to stick to.
FWIW, I was veg mostly because I wanted to try something new and get into a different set of eating habits, and I had wasn’t an enormous meat eater to begin with. There was no ethical or particularly coherent health aspect involved. It just seemed like a good idea. I stuck with it ten years, and then decided to do something else. I don’t owe anyone any kind of coherence or clear explanation for what I eat. and do not eat.
One more anecdote: I was lacto-ovo vegetarian for 20 years, until about 13 months ago. My first non-veg meal was salmon sashimi. Within a month I had my first steak. No ill effects.
Fair or unfair, the experiences I’ve come across with vegetarians is that they seem to feel entitled to special treatment, I.e. if they visit you, they expect you to change your menu around and only cook tasty gourmet veg meals
Maybe you need better friends? When I was veg, I might be a bit put out if someone invited me for a dinner knowing I was veg and then put meat in every single item. But I never had a problem filling up on side dishes. I’d generally not even mention it unless someone was prodding me as to why I wasn’t taking any meat.
There are rude people everywhere, but IMHO meat eaters are a lot more likely to try to harass vegetarians for their choices than the other way around.
Veg here, for probably longer than you have been alive. I don’t eat chicken stock, etc. I’m very strict. Low on the dairy for health and weight control, so I usually choose soy but I’m not quite vegan.
From personal experience I can tell you I became violently ill, to the point where I needed medial attention and almost needed to be hospitalized. I was invited to dinner and asked if there was meat in the sauce. I was sure I could smell it. I was repeatedly assured there was not, and what I was smelling were “spices”. Against my better judgment, I had the sauce. Turns out there was meat in the sauce, but when they heard I was coming to dinner, they strained it out. I found this out when my boyfriend called them from the ER, where he took me after 12 straight hours of vomiting and diarrhea. I was so dehydrated I had to be put on IV fluids.
As far as expecting special treatment, I don’t. I just expect people not to lie to me about ingredients.
I actually dont eat much meat, most of what I eat is soups, rice, yogurt and ocasionally meat. I hate when vegetarians try to convert people to being a vegwtarian or vegan.
I just googled this because I have been a vegan now for a while and was told by my nurse practitioner I should eat some meat bc of iron levels will get too low. About two hours ago after eating a fresh beef hamburg pattie I made for myself I started feeling like someone had punched me in the gut. This has happened twice now and I can tell you right now it lasted for about a good hour and a half and I am not feeling very friendly towards that darn nurse! :eek: I know she meant well, however, since it has now happened twice, it answers my question and hopefully yours. I am never going to do that to myself again and will seek other avenues to get my iron up. Man I felt like I was gonna die!
If you do want to reintroduce meat into your diet, you should do it very slowly, and little by little – not a whole burger! Maybe start with just a slice of deli meat with your dinner, then the next day have two slices, and then next day maybe a chicken wing, then a little slider, etc.
I’ve been a vegetarian for over 20 years now. The last time I ate any quantity of meat was an occasion when a well-meaning parent of my daughter’s new school friend made me a surprise lunch (I thought I was just dropping the kid off, but the mom had obviously gone to some trouble for me), the main component of which was a chicken breast. Rather than make a big deal out of it and embarrass her, I ate most of it, and I had stomach pain for the next two days. This may have been psychosomatic, but it sure was a definite and unpleasant effect.
I’ve often discovered small pieces of meat in restaurant foods. In fact, there’s one place I stopped ordering pizza from because there was invariably a little shredded ham or stray pepperoni on my pizza. I generally just pick the meat off without comment. I won’t “pick the pepperoni off” pizza, though, because it’s saturated with grease. I also notice when sauces, soups, and gravies are made with meat stock, and I don’t eat those if I can help it.
It’s been my experience, as mentioned upthread, that there are more meat-eaters who are obnoxious about pushing meat on vegetarians than there are vegetarians who are obnoxious about not eating it. I’m completely content to refrain from eating foods that have meat in them without commenting about it. I really appreciate it when others return the favor and refrain from commenting about me not eating meat. And I really, really, really appreciate others not trying to trick me into eating something I find distasteful. After all, if you bit into a cockroach on your pizza, you might not be allergic to it, but I’ll bet it would make you feel sick anyway. And I’ll also bet you’d resent being called “whiny” if you complained about it.
