defying the odds

so i've decided to remove meat from my diet. that is correct. i have decided to become a vegetarian. more so, i've decided that i would like to ultimately switch to a vegan diet. this means that i would refrain from eating eggs (which i already do since i don't really like eggs much), dairy products (i am lactose intolerant anyhow...but oh dear dear dear...i love cheese), and apparently honey. i guess stealing bee's honey isn't nice...

i don't really eat much meat other than fish. oh that too. there are many types of vegetarians. some eat only egg products in their veggie diet. some are dairy only in their veggie diet. and others are both. and some are fish in their veggie diets and some are all three.

i don't really eat fish outside of sushi. except i am allergic to it. so wait a minute. i'm allergic to raw fish, i'm allergic to lactose and i don't eat eggs...i hardly eat red meats....what do i eat? i don't know, to be quite honest. ok, i think i'm going on a rant here of nonesense..

i really like eating sushi. i don't eat it all the time, mostly because it's expensive and i only eat it with my mom. i love albacore tuna.

so right now, i think i'm going to start out vegetarian and eat fish and cheese, but phase out the cheese pretty quick. i understand there are cheese alternatives, i dont know how good they really are. cheese isn't very healthy for you. in fact, it is very bad. so. i think i have a good chance. eventually i'll phase out the fish. that might take a while. it's going to be my biggest weakness. and when i say fish, i really mean fish. you see, there are so many healthy fish. especially cold water fish like salmon. high in healthy oils. i won't eat shark or crestasians or shrimp, etc. they have poor removal of toxins and so the toxins build up in the muscles, which we eat. that is not healthy. that goes for pigs as well. OH. so thats why there are religions that ban pork.

well, let's see how well i do. i have some roast beef in the fridge. i guess i better feed it to my cat. thats another question. what about pets? i mean, people are against killing cows and stuff but what about cats and dogs who eat chicken and beef in their food? i buy my pets the best food available. it's called Wellness. It includes chicken or fish. I don't think they ever include beef, though. Cats and dogs are carnivores by nature. I guess the justification is that pets need to eat meat whilst humans are not biologically created to eat meat (here is my question, don't we have enzymes in our pancreas that are secreted to digest meat? i am confused...).

i decided to find out exactly how we digest meat...the first site i visit is called "TeenHealthFX":

Dear TeenHealthFX,

How long does it take for meat to digest in your body?

Signed: How Long Does It Take To Digest Meat?



Dear How Long Does It Take To Digest Meat?,

That’s an interesting question and TeenHealthFX is curious about why you would like to know.

The answer is, it depends. Everyone’s GI (gastrointestinal) track is different. So meat could take anywhere from a few hours to a day to digest.

Write back if you have any other questions.

Signed: TeenHealthFX

what the hell? that's funny stuff. no seriously, what goes on?

From: NYCVeg (proxy2.nyu.edu)
Subject: Lose the enzyme to digest meat?
Date: May 23, 2004 at 7:34 pm PST

I have been a vegetarian for 13 years. On two occasions in the last few years, I accidentally ate a couple of bites of dishes containing meat (bacon, in both cases). Both times, I had a violent gastro-intestinal reaction (I'll spare you the details--but I know it wasn't psychosomatic, because the first time I didn't know the dish contained meat until long after I got ill). When I mentioned this to a friend, he told me that, after a certain amount of time, your body loses the enzymes that enable you to digest meat. Does anyone know if this is true? It's an interesting theory, but I can't find any evidence to back it up. Thanks!

hmm....weird. that still doesn't explain it. here is someones response:

From: Elise/FL (adsl-155-83-143.mia.bellsouth.net)
Subject: Re: Lose the enzyme to digest meat?
Date: June 9, 2004 at 2:30 pm PST

In Reply to: Lose the enzyme to digest meat? posted by NYCVeg on May 23, 2004 at 7:34 pm:

Hmmm. I don't know about the enzyme but I do know that weaning babies on to meat is something that has to be done very slowly. By contrast, giving a baby veggies or grains doesn't require any special program. So apparently, there is an adaptation at work.

My daughter, who was given a dish with meat in it (unbeknownst to both of us) when she was 3, was violently ill that night. I only recognized the source of the problem when I was able to see it floating in the toilet bowl after she'd thrown up.

That is insteresting. I had no idea you had wean babies to meat. i remember once i ate a roast beef sandwich in the 7th grade. i had bought a really cool drink called "Orbitz" that made me terribly ill and I threw up. When I threw up I had thrown up the whole chunks of roast beef. It had not been digested! It was very bizzare.

this guy is a bit more scientific:

From: Cornelius Garbanzo (ustlnx15-n2.ust.hk)
Subject: Not very likely
Date: May 23, 2004 at 9:49 pm PST

In Reply to: Lose the enzyme to digest meat? posted by NYCVeg on May 23, 2004 at 7:34 pm:

Digestion does not function at the level of abstract mental concepts such as "meat." It functions at the level of molecular chemistry. And at that level, there is nothing in meat that is not found in plant foods. If your body can digest the proteins in plant foods (if it couldn't, you would be dead), then it can digest the proteins in meat, since they're both made up of the same amino acids. There is no such thing as a "meat enzyme."

If you ate an entire meal consisting of nothing but bacon, then I can see how your stomach might be overwhelmed by the sheer magnitude of fat, protein, and salt. But I can't see why a few bites of anything would trigger a violent reaction, unless it was either poison or something you're allergic to. If you've been accustomed to a low-fat diet, then maybe the fat in the bacon could trigger a gallbladder attack. Could that have been it? It's kind of hard to guess without further details.

very interesting as well. poison could be very close to it. the beef we consume these days is filled with antibiotics and other bad things for us that are supposed to help increase the amount of muscles produced, etc.

Another kid says that his parents are veggies and he's been raised as such and three times he has thrown up from eating food that wasn't spoilt and turned out that it had been because there were chunks of beef. he asked his doctor and the doctor said:

he was basically like "duh" meat is extremely dense, contains higher levels of heavy metals and fatty acids that are difficult to break down, as well as a number of antibiotics, hormones, chemicals, etc..

hmm! well, here is what i don't get. why can't i find a site that explains the process of meat digestion? all i find are vegetarian websites telling me why it is bad to eat meat! WHAT IS GOING ON HERE?!

everyone says too much red meat is bad for you. and it is true. i was looking at a table of how much protein a person should get and you need just 3oz's to get a high amount to meet FDA standards. furthermore, apparently, meat contains too much and we get too much of it that we store it as a toxin. eww. no wonder red wine is good for eating red meat.

whoa. i just found out that uric acid is contained in meat. cow meat. that means i'm eating cow PEE. that is disgusting. that is...enough for me to say no more. you know, the other day i was eating steak with my boyfriend (carl). by then i had already been pondering the idea of vegetarianism. maybe it was because i was thinking about dumping flesh for life or maybe i wasn't that hungry....but when i really had to force myself to eat the steak. it tasted strange. it didn't taste good. i felt wrong.

this seems to answer it best for me but i really don't feel totally satisified as to why we can digest meat. well, heres something else. we need ruffage which is indigestable celluose in plants and such. we can't digest it but we need it because it is fiber. strange.

http://www.juiceguy.com/meat1.html

thats the site that seemd to be most helpful.

wish me luck!