Going Veg

A friend asked me about going vegetarian recently. He’s a CARNIVORE! And has some anxiety about living meat free. It’s not a hopeless situation. With a little education and encouragement he can change to a very good protein rich plant based diet.

How to start:

• Know what your body needs. Nutritionists like to worry about a vegetarian’s protein and B12 intake. Do pay attention to these things. The protein is really important because they are what make muscles. In the beginning you will need to keep a food journal and look up the nutrition information on what you’re eating.
• Read labels: it will be surprising what does contain protein. It will also be surprising what contains meat or meat derivatives (Twinkies? Yeah, read the label).
• Eat a variety of things. Don’t just eat beans, eat beans and rice and squash and…
• Don’t relight on soy. I know it so convenient because marketing has made it look like a one to one parallel with meat but there are things about soy you should consider before going all monoculture on it. Soy has phytoestrogens that can destabilize your hormone balance making you a little weirder than you already are. So I’d advise going easy on it.
• The most important part is to keep an open mind about food. Most people have deep emotional attachments to a food tradition which makes eating well challenging. For instance in America there’s a cultural message that says; everyone likes chocolate cake. This is not true. I happen to be cake ambivalent and I still consider myself a good American.*

In time your tastes will refine and you will find delight in new flavors. The plant world is very flavorful.

*good American: someone who votes, damn it!