absolute 100% respect for em. i wish i could, butmy current location.. environment (texas...) im surrounded by it, and if i were to abruply stop, my system owl freak on me.

But yes, definitly wsh to be vegiterian, maybe not vegan, but vegiterian. perhaps another life -(A)-

I was vegetarian for 15 years, before lapsing for the last 6 months...


I went from eating 3 steaks per week ("blue," ie, rare enough to moo) one week, to fasting the next week, followed by converting to vegetarian the next. I'd always planned on going Vegan one day, but I like chocolate too much.


Warning: Keeping an eye on your nutrition is a MUST


Late last year, I got diagnosed with "Type 1 and a half" diabetes (it didn't conform to either Type 1 or 2 - meaning I take pills like a type 2, and insulin like a type 1, having some autoimmune components too. yay.) and ended up in hospital since they thought I was going to go into a coma...

After that, with all of the extra nightmare my food was going to be, I started eating chicken again, since I couldn't even have vego pasta!
(I was also rebelling - since I'd been advised that being vegetarian would prevent diabetes!)


Then, a couple of months ago, I started a diet (against medical advice). One of those horrid shakes ones, that specifically says it's not for type 1s. Within 24 hours I had to discontinue using my insulin, because of the lack of kilojoules I was consuming.

But the weight wasn't coming off like it should have. So I started taking one of the natural "fat metabolisers" - being L-Carnitine. It's an essential amino acid that we should get from food...


After taking the Carnitine, I couldn't get my sugar above 3mmol/l (54.5mg/dl for the US) even after eating pure sugar... That was a worry, because it is at hypoglycemic levels - and I was thus at risk of ketoacidosis again.


So I stopped the Carnitine and did more research on it... Turns out it is required to convert fat into energy - and as I'd been vegetarian for 15 years, I was likely hideously deficient in it.

As an experiment, I started taking the carnitine again and discontinued all diabetes medication... Now my body is self regulating like a non-diabetic...



So now I think it was an inaccurate diagnosis and that I have a second chance... (Normally a fasting glucose level of 27mmol/l would be an accurate indication though, since a 7mmol/l fasting is considered "diabetic" lol!)


So yeah... Even though I was watching all of the vitamins and minerals specified in many pieces of nutritional literature, looks like I was missing one!

(Another one to watch is Omega 3... Forget the Flaxseed and other plant-based ones though, they're a useless analogue. You need EPA and DHA which you can get from Fish Oil (yech!) or Phytoplankton (Where the fish get it). Flaxseed and the other plant ones that they rave about only have ALA, which has to be converted to DHA/EPA with a conversion efficiency between 2% and 15%... In other words, if you took a whole bottle of Flaxseed capsules, you still wouldn't get a recommended daily dose!!!)



So I'm pleased to say though, that I'll be returning to my vegetarian state now. I seem to be able to eat well enough again, I'm not that fond of the chicken really (KFC was really the only thing I liked it in... I still had my pizzas vegetarian, my subs vegetarian and the rare chance I got to have pasta was vegetarian too. But then, I'm one of the freaks who likes broccoli, brussels sprouts and broad beans!



As to parents, they will either learn to support your choice, or you have to learn to live with the nagging. But don't give in just because they say so - make whatever choice you want and don't get talked into or out of it by someone else! (Including me!)

I have respect for vegetarians and vegans. Just to have the will to live without meat and animal products.

I do have respect for vegetarians and vegans as long as they don't nag my head off each time I oreder something containing animal products ^^

Granted this was a year ago, dunno what your thoughts on shit are at this point or if you even care : )

Parents nag, I've been a vegetarian for 9 years and my parents still offer my chicken or burgers every time i'm around, its something of a burden to them and something they don't understand. Much like I would assume how they would feel if I told them I'm a fur. It's just something some people don't get and something that some people do.

Doesn't hurt anyone either way... except of course slaughterhouses, blech!

Also, I don't know many vegetarians and vegans who do the nagging, I feel like the "why why why?!" questions of non vegans and vegetarians gets more nagging. People wanna know why? is it for ethical reasons? is it cause you love animals? what if you were trapped in the canadian winderness and there was a deer and you had a gun and you hadn't eaten in a week..? That's what I end up hearing more than my veggie friends shitting on meat-eaters.