becoming vegan...sloooowly.

November 9, 2006 9:46 PM

I'd like to gradually remove meat and dairy products from my diet, primarily for health reaasons. Are there good books that talk about how to systematically do this with a high likelihood of success? I'd like to make the change over the next two years.

I'm motivated primarily by what I've been reading about The China Study, hitting middle age, and just taking better care of myself. So I'm looking for some good books that emphasize the empirical advantages and behavioral modification tips, not so much naked Peta members doing guerilla street theater or anything to do with crystals, etc.

posted by mecran01 to health & fitness (21 comments total)

No sources, but I think your idea of doing it slowly is smart. Perhaps start by making a list of all the meals you cook at home regularly. Then, pick two or three of them (preferably your least favorite or most unhealthy) to get rid of. Replace them on the list with vegetarian/vegan recipes you enjoy. Every few weeks, repeat.

One way to make a difference right away is to eat less beef and stick to more poultry. That way you'll still get your fix of meat, but will be doing so in a more healthy way.
posted by chrisamiller at 9:58 PM on November 9, 2006

I've read many books on vegetarianism/veganism. Can't say I've ever seen any that recommending doing so slowly.

If you live in a major city, becoming vegetarian is pretty simple and I'd recommend going cold turkey (I did, 17 years ago). Being Vegan is *much* harder, especially if you eat out often. Few things will annoy your friends and dinner party hosts as much.

If you're adventurous, I'd recommend trying some raw food, particularly the recipes in these books. They're delicious, vegan, and, because of the "novelty" of raw, you'll probably interest friends in joining you (for dinner, not veganism in general). If you do do so, don't tell them they're vegan, just that they're raw. Vegan's a dirty word to most non-vegans, ime.

The first book linked is superb but requires multiple uncommon kitchen appliances (like this blender), but the second book (which isn't as good and doesn't have tasty pictures) allows you to make some delish dishes very quickly--though I'd ignore most of the stuff in the book that isn't a recipe.

I'd never seriously considered veganism until I discovered raw food--it made it a realistic possibility.
posted by dobbs at 10:26 PM on November 9, 2006

I know a couple of vegetarians who have a hard time keeping their weight down. I think it has to do with cravings (i.e. "meat" = "more food", therefore no meat = eat more food). It comes down to portion control, and having healthy snacks on hand in case you do get hit with those cravings.

Good luck! I am not a vegetarian but I've often said that I could become one (I don't eat much red meat); I think it might be an interesting thing to try some day. Not sure I could do the vegan thing, though.
posted by rossination at 11:35 PM on November 9, 2006

I doubt you'll find any sources that have you take two years to convert, that's a really long time. I'm having a hard imagining why you want to take so long, I would think that would make it harder, not easier. But I guess that's beside the point. When I first began to switch to being a vegan, I referred to myself as "a vegan at home" -- that is, everything I cooked for myself was vegan but when I ate away from home I was more relaxed about it, allowing cheese and eggs in small quantities when it was inconvenient to avoid them. Even now I sometimes just have to make reasonable guesses about what's vegan and then not ask too many questions. As you're doing it primarily for health reasons and not ethical ones, this might work for you, too.

Perhaps you could ease into it using a strategy like that, first find alternatives for one meal or class of dish (like something instead of eggs for breakfast, or fillings for sandwiches, or soups/casseroles without meat/cheese). Or replace one meal a week with a no-animal product meal, then gradually increase the number of no-animal product meals. Or try a new (v*gan) recipe once or twice a week and add to your cooking repertoire.

If you really want to do it, though, it shouldn't take two years. Honestly, the best way is just to jump in and do the best you can and try to improve as you get used to it. The sooner you start improving your diet, the sooner you'll improve and protect your health.
posted by redheadeb at 12:06 AM on November 10, 2006

Maybe the Great American Detox Diet by Alex Jamieson, the vegan-chef fiancée of Morgan Spurlock? This book explains the diet she made for him after he finished Supersize Me. Some of it is kind of repetitive, some of the recipes are a little out-there for a beginner (although I personally love the seaweed wrap sandwiches), but all in all I think it would be a good book to start with.

From personal experience, I think your idea of becoming a vegan slowly is a good idea. I'm vegetarian after being a pescetarian for a few years (veg plus fish). Now I'm cutting down on eggs and dairy (although I don't think I'll cut them out altogether). This gradual stepping-down process worked well for me as it let me notice the effects on my body that each step had. For example, when I cut out fish I noticed my skin got quite dry and I started taking flax seed to combat this.

As far as weight is concerned, I gained some weight at first until I learned that I couldn't just substitute cheese for meat. I feel much more energetic and healthier now that I'm vegetarian and my digestion is much, much better. Good luck with this process!
posted by hazyjane at 12:06 AM on November 10, 2006

P.S. TryVeg.com does have some practical tips on becoming a vegetarian in steps (but over about a month or so -- you could always drag it out if you want to). There is some propaganda there, but it's easily avoided if you don't want to see it.
posted by redheadeb at 12:13 AM on November 10, 2006

I remember reading a summary of the Harvard Willett diet study (which at the time was touted as being a breakthrough in the study of diet and health, although I don't know if that was just people blowing smoke) in which he pointed out some of the basic and some surprising findings.

My understanding is that while red meat is bad for you, seafood and the like (properly prepared, of course, no deep frying) offer significant health benefits over a vegetarian/vegan diet. And the people who have the healthiest diets in the world tend to eat a lot of seafood along side their vegetables. He also recommended eggs as having a surprising effect on overall health.

So perhaps instead of phasing out meat, you should focus on phasing out certain kinds of meat.

Part of the problem with statistics advocating the vegetarian/Vegan lifestyles as being healthier then diets involving some kinds of meat and animal products is that they tend to lump all meat eaters together as a single group.

So the people that actively watch their diet and maintain a healthy intake (including non-red-meat meats) get lumped together with people that eat McDonalds twice a day. And in America with our sky high obesity rates, the group of unhealthy eaters is so large they statistically overwhelm the healthy meat eaters.

People that advocate the meatless lifestyle take advantage of this fact, and point out that statistically the average person that eats meat is less healthy then the average person whom doesn't.

The fact is, if you like your life on a diet of one kind or another, you will live longer then if you just shovel food in your mouth. And since being a vegan/vegetarian is being on a diet of one sort, it is healthier then the general population of gluttons.

But when you compare only people that watch their diet (in one way or another, weather it's avoiding certain foods, or restricting calories, whatever) Vegetarian / Vegan diet's tend to trail behind some other diet options that include meat in overall health benefits.

So basically it comes down to this:

Not watching what you eat < Being Vegetarian/Vegan < Eating a diet heavy with seafood (an other white meats), whole grains and vegetables.
posted by Jezztek at 12:23 AM on November 10, 2006 [1 favorite]

I've made it veg+fish over a couple of years. First I stopped eating red meat. Took about a year to get completely comfortable with that (I really loved my red meat). Next, I just started replacing, say, a few meat-based sandwich lunches per week with a veggie sandwich or salad. Then, every now and then, I'd try a whole week without any meat. Finally, I just decided to make the leap -- but by that time, I'd already replaced about 50-75% of my diet with veggie stuff. As I said, I do still eat fish, probably 2-4 times per month. At this point in my life, I don't feel the need to cut out eggs & dairy, though I am eating way too much cheese.

I've also recently begun making simple raw foods with a normal household blender & food processor. I can't recommend raw foods highly enough. The foods are fun to make and the flavors are really a lot more interesting, varied, and delicious than you'd imagine. And, during weeks when I eat mostly raw, I swear I feel more energetic & clear-headed (may be placebo effect, I realize).
posted by treepour at 12:26 AM on November 10, 2006

Jezztek: true, but presumably being vegetarian in a primarily omnivorous society requires enough attention that it forces you to choose more carefully (or encourages it, anyway). So by going vegetarian, you force yourself to pay the kind of attention to your food that leads to making healthier choices. A friend of mine is considering going vegetarian for exactly this reason; a large number of foods are now off-limits to him because they trigger health problems, and keeping an eye out for anything that contains those is quite an effort. He thinks that going vegetarian may help him watch what he eats (although it doesn't help that he can't eat soy or nuts - that's his major concern at the moment).
posted by spaceman_spiff at 12:45 AM on November 10, 2006

Diet for a Small Planet by Frances Moore Lappe, and Laurel's Kitchen by Laurel Robertson and Carol Flinders should prove pretty useful. I became vegetarian by giving up chicken and eggs first, pork second, both times motivated by expose documentaries on farming methods. Then I gave up beef and lamb, and lastly fish. This happened over a period of about six months, IIRC.

In my experience, many vegetarians are actually starchetarians, loading up on pasta and rice and skimping on actual vegetables. Adding high-fat foods like cheese or nuts for flavour makes waist control difficult. Don't fall into that trap.

I gave up vegetarianism after coming to the conclusion that it is not morally wrong to eat animals, and that a vegetarian diet was not optimal for me (I often felt depleted of energy). Once I began eating fish and meat again, my BMI dropped from 25 plus to 20 point something, and I stopped feeling so tired, so I became more active. Now I mostly eat vegetarian + fish, although I'll eat any meat I'm served in a social setting.
posted by Pigpen at 1:39 AM on November 10, 2006

Seeing that you live in "The Middle of Nowhere," Utah, I'm not going to lie to you-- it's going to be difficult to be vegan. Or, at least, more so than it would be in a large, urban setting.

I was vegan for six years, and I made the change in a rather sudden matter. I basically went vegetarian for a few months and didn't really make a big deal about it until my friends started mentioning it. After a while and a lot of thinking, I decided to go vegan and did it in the same manner.

I found that going vegan was definitely a great idea for me. Before this, I had essentially been raised on small-town (North Dakota) food, and tons of fast food. After going vegan, I realized that I was actually making conscious choices about what I ate and taking a much more active role in my diet.

Having said that, though, a lot of the posters above do have a point about many vegetarians or vegans gaining weight, but then there's also the stereotype of the pale, skinny vegan who has no energy. Since these are completely conflicting stereotypes, it becomes quite obvious that neither is really true.

It is important to make sure you don't go veg by just dropping meat from your diet and then adding a bunch of crappy carbs and oil to make up for it. It's hard living in a small town and going out to eat when you're vegan, because a lot of the time you end up at places where the only vegan options are seriously things like french fries and dry toast, which is no way to live.

I personally have always been quite intrigued by something along the lines of the Mediterranean Diet, which I think would also be easy to adapt to veganism if you wanted to.

It's just important, especially as an American, to make sure that you don't fill up on stuff like Partially-Hydrogenated Oil and High Fructose Corn Syrup. They're used as cheap filler in so much American food (even vegan) and I think they're a huge portion of what contributes to some of the "waist control problems" mentioned above.

Luckily for you, the web is full of information for vegans, including a ton of great recipes. Good luck, and feel free to contact me if you have any questions!
posted by atomly at 4:22 AM on November 10, 2006

Jezztek:
Not watching what you eat < being vegetarian/vegan eating a diet heavy with seafood (an other white meats), whole grains and vegetables./i>

Not necessarily the case. Seafood particularly is chock-full of stuff like mercury and other toxins, so you have to be careful about how much you ingest. It's possible to have a mostly meatless diet with a few servings of fish each week. But it's unnecessary, really.

The key is having some good cookbooks (I hope you like to cook...) to guide you so you're not eating quesadillas every night. I highly recommend Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone by Deborah Madison, which is an excellent primer and has something like 1,300 recipes as well as great sections on pretty much every vegetable you can think of. It's not just a cookbook but also a resource. The Moosewood series is great as well.

Having good cookbooks and enjoying cooking are key because they allow you to keep your diet interesting and healthy. You can do this without lacking anything in my diet: all the carbs, proteins, fats, and vitamins that you need.
posted by The Michael The at 5:41 AM on November 10, 2006

I'd like to gradually remove meat and dairy products from my diet, primarily for health reaasons.

That's fine. And remember that it doesn't ever have to be total. It's not an all-or-nothing game that you lose if you eat one hamburger. If there are health benefits to be had from eliminating meat from your diet, someone who eats only veggies three or four days a week is doing a lot of the same good for herself that a total vegetarian does.

Are there good books that talk about how to systematically do this with a high likelihood of success?

A few good cookbooks (and good veggie restaurants) are your best system, especially if you don't live alone, because you'll have to compete with the millions of non-veggie food sources. And you'll need good stores. Look for local sources -- they'll have good books and food for you.
posted by pracowity at 5:55 AM on November 10, 2006

Thanks, I actually live in Orem, Utah which has, oddly enough, a large collection of conservative health fundies who eat the same as the hippy contingent.

My desire to do it over two years is because I am debating whether to drag my family along or not, or partially.

In addition to those mentioned, Andrew Weil's is pretty good, and like him I don' want to be religious or ideological about it.

My reasons for wanting to cut out all beef/dairy stem in part from the presumed lower cancer rates, and the fact that my dad has type II diabetes and has had a quadruple bypass.

Thanks all!
posted by mecran01 at 6:18 AM on November 10, 2006

As far as I know, there is almost no science to suggest that eliminating meat and dairy, as such, will make you any healthier (unless you have specific intolerances). One can eliminate the harmful effects of meat/dairy-rich diets --- too much fat, certain hormones and chemicals in the meat and dairy supply etc. -- by eating better (organic, low fat) meat and buying organic dairy products. There is no inherent (personal) health benefit to being a vegetarian, ideological issues aside. I'm not condeming vegetarianism, but there's a lot of nonsense out there about this. Humans are biologically designed to eat meat. We can go without it, but we aren't necessarily better off for doing so. There are of course ecological reasons and "moral" reasons to consider, but the jury is at best still out on the "health benefits" of vegetarianism.

(/ Prepares to be attacked by the vegetarian mafia . . .)
posted by fourcheesemac at 7:13 AM on November 10, 2006

I got a lot of mileage out of a cookbook called Almost Vegetarian (subtitle: A Primer for Cooks Who Are Eating Vegetarian Most of the Time, Chicken & Fish Some of the Time, & Altogether Well All of the Time).

It would also be handy if you live in a household where some folks are exclusively vegetarian (less so vegan, since that's not the focus of the book) and some are hardcore carnivores.
posted by bcwinters at 8:07 AM on November 10, 2006

As far as I know, there is almost no science to suggest that eliminating meat and dairy, as such, will make you any healthier (unless you have specific intolerances). One can eliminate the harmful effects of meat/dairy-rich diets --- too much fat, certain hormones and chemicals in the meat and dairy supply etc. -- by eating better (organic, low fat) meat and buying organic dairy products. There is no inherent (personal) health benefit to being a vegetarian, ideological issues aside.
Thanks, I am not trying to call you out or start the usual debate, but if you have any links supporting this, I'd love to read them. I am mostly leaning on The China Study at this point.
posted by mecran01 at 9:01 AM on November 10, 2006

There is alot of bad hype out there about veganism but let me first say that any dietary plan that is abused will not be good for you. I know way too many vegetarians that live on cheese and bread, which is a horrible diet, and vegans that live on processed products from the freezer section. Every diet needs fresh food, the more the better. I think going as cold turkey as possible will be the best way to get used to it, and the quickest positive impact on your body.

Now, if you do decide you want to do it gradually I recommend cutting out red meat, cheese and stuff like fast food first. Cut your portions of meat down to 4 oz a meal, which is the amount of protein the average body can process at a time. Start eating fully vegan when you are at home cooking. There are a ton of wonderful recipes out there. Ive been vegan for 8 years and never have to worry about getting bored with my food. Check out vegweb for starters to get some recipes. You mention cooking for the family, if you have kids I recommend trying some recipes in the archives on the Vegan Lunch Box

Good luck with your diet. Every single person in my family has been diagnosed with high blood pressure, high cholesterol, heart disease and diabetes.

Except me. My doctors accredit my vegan diet and exercise to my health.

If you have any further questions feel free to contact me via the email in my profile.

fourcheesemac
There is a wealth of scientific information that proves the health benefits of cutting meat and dairy out of your diet, ESPECIALLY anything that is not free range. It is of course possible to eat a healthy diet including meats but the portions are very small and not to be eaten every day. On the other note, there is no scientific proof that humans are biologically designed to eat meat.

Im personally concerned about eating anything that when its not taken in moderation will severely harm your body and health. Just give me a plate of fresh veggies please!
posted by trishthedish at 10:15 AM on November 10, 2006

The book you want is called The Gradual Vegetarian.

But as for cooking everyday? Sure I own vegetarian cookbooks, but the book I use most is How to Cook Everything. I highly recommend recipes like "roasted root vegetables" (which I serve with "quinoa pilaf") and "lentils and rice with carmelized onions". He's also got a nice assortment of soup recipes that become vegan simply by choosing veggie stock instead of chicken stock and olive oil instead of butter. I don't yet own Mr. Bittman's book on vegetarian cooking, but I probably ought to put it on the old wish list. As for online resources, you might look around Veggie Venture and Fat Free Vegan. It's worth checking the link lists on Fat Free Vegan. too.

Good luck. I now turn you over to my friend, Elisa, who is "Veggie Going Vegan."
posted by ilsa at 10:44 AM on November 10, 2006

[this question is fairly specific, please take "is veganism healthier" arguments to email or metatalk]
posted by jessamyn at 10:55 AM on November 10, 2006

Many good suggestions above. I'd add a little one: if you eat out regularly it would be an immense help to frequent restaurants that specialize in vegan/raw/natural/vegetarian foods, because if you try to parse thru the menu of traditional restaurants you can frequently become discouraged eating side salads with vinegar & over-boiled broccolli, or get incorrect answers from waitstaff about ingredients.
posted by iurodivii at 12:09 PM on November 10, 2006