Hey, new to the world of vegan and having meat cravings!!!

[Oggy]

I've been almost 100% vegan (1 day I had meats (the meat day I turned into a raging monster and I fell out with my mother, not sure if it was anything to do with the meat, but I've been very chilled and calm being vegan used to be hot headed) and another day I had prawns) for 4 weeks and feeling great, I don't think its wrong to eat animals as other animals eat animals but what I think is wrong is the farming of animals and the very fact WE don't kill the animals ourselves, we by it in plastic packets in every corner shop which is pretty sick TBH.

 

I'm doing well and feeling better than ever, but.... I'm having a severe meat craving!!!! What do I do??

 

Maybe I should just grab a veggie burger at MD's.

[DaN]

Dont do it!

 

Welcome & good luck on your veganism.

 

[apple]

I'm not sure if the veggie burgers at fast food places are vegan--I think a lot of them use Morningstar farms burgers, which have eggs. Boca is alright if you want a burger though! I know Red Robins EVERYWHERE have boca burgers, and they'll dress up a burger with a TON of toppings for you. It's the only chain restaurant I found that will replace a meat patty with a veggie patty on ANY of their burger choices.

 

I am of course, assuming that you aren't looking to make something yourself It's a little bit difficult when you are finding new things to eat, and the cravings you feel are probably because you aren't trying enough new things. Think of it as "crowding out" the meat products with new non-animal products, not "cutting out" the meat products. And look into a few vegan cookbooks, they're a huge help when transitioning. A lot of them teach you the basics of cooking if you've never cooked before.

[Gaia]

Yes, that is what you do when switching over. Grab a meat alternative. Go to a grocery store and check out the vegetarian/natural market section. Boca has a vegan burger, and so does Morning Star, but you will have to look at the label of ingredients and see if it is vegan or vegetarian (vegetarian will have cheese or egg whites - like Quorn does - in them). I even saw that Bahama Breeze now has Rice burgers out for those that are allergic to soy.

 

When our family went just vegetarian, we had meat cravings because our bodies missed the comfort of the known tastes that our brains recall. It has taken awhile, but being vegan is now just a way of life and not much effort has to go into it. But the first few years were dependent on commitment and figuring out other foods for our bodies to crave instead.

 

Funny that you crave meat (though you are going from omni to vegan). Our biggest hurdle (from being vegetarian to vegan) was cheese. We were already on skim milk, so the nut and grain milks were easy to adopt into our diet. But cheeze still alludes us. I have come close with garlicky olive oil and nutritional yeast, but it just isn't the same.

 

But since then, we have had a whole world of whole foods opened up to us, so we don't miss much anymore. Now it is just annoying to go out to eat and find dairy in everything. It is easy just to say that we are allergic to dairy, and look for alternatives that way (instead of saying we are vegan and don't want to eat dairy).

 

Are you doing any protein shakes while tackling the vegan diet and working out/exercising?

[zinzen]

Grab your balls and be a man, man!

There is no addiction here, its all mental, suck it up.

-Tom

I mean all this in a kind caring way of course

[Tasha]

I

Maybe I should just grab a veggie burger at MD's.

 

OMG Don't do it !!! Sersiously you'll feel like S**T

 

If anything if you have a craving for fast greasy food. I heard Burgerville carries vegan burgers.

 

It's so easy to go Vegan. But it must be tough for some people who are just changing up their diets and especially if you're around friends and family who don't eat the same as you.

 

Good for you Oggy !!!! I don't remember what it was like to go vegan because it felt like it was so long ago. All I know is I feel so much better on this diet plus I feel not so guilty by not eating or consuming any animal products.

 

I'm sorry if I sounded a little harsh. I'm not trying to sound like that.

It could be you're not eating enough heavy full filling foods.

[robert]

Welcome to the group!

 

I hope you enjoy our forum community.

 

All the best and welcome aboard!

[dropSoul]

Get some flax oil/seeds and eat walnuts (there's other sources too that are vegan), that will give you the brain food EFAs that you would get from meat.Then grab a Boca vegan or Amy has a few vegan options. There's actually a number of vegan patties out there. Bake some sweet potato fries. Chow.

 

A fellow activist, though I'm not much of one lately, died a couple years back. He was No. 1 at Tyson on the kill floor and he went veg. Guys would fall to their knees begging God for forgiveness for their murdering chickens. Killing an animal, especially a huge one like a cow, is no easy thing and once they look into your eyes, that's it.

 

Peace begets peace in your body and on earth. Your heart, the spiritual one and the biological one, responds best to the food that requires the least harm. It really does.

 

I lost the taste of cheese when I saw the calves been ripped away from their mother, no looking back, it's like not a food anymore. But I used to eat it all the time.

 

So peas to you and welcome!

[djshrew]

I'm not sure if the veggie burgers at fast food places are vegan--I think a lot of them use Morningstar farms burgers, which have eggs. Boca is alright if you want a burger though! I know Red Robins EVERYWHERE have boca burgers, and they'll dress up a burger with a TON of toppings for you. It's the only chain restaurant I found that will replace a meat patty with a veggie patty on ANY of their burger choices.

 

I am of course, assuming that you aren't looking to make something yourself It's a little bit difficult when you are finding new things to eat, and the cravings you feel are probably because you aren't trying enough new things. Think of it as "crowding out" the meat products with new non-animal products, not "cutting out" the meat products. And look into a few vegan cookbooks, they're a huge help when transitioning. A lot of them teach you the basics of cooking if you've never cooked before.

 

 

I believe that the boca patty that Red Robin uses actually contains milk products. I found multiple sites that say their patty's aren't vegan:

 

 

http://www.veganeatingout.com/redrobin.html

http://www.veganrepresent.com/forums/showthread.php?t=5532

 

 

which sucks!! before I went vegan I loved their veggie burger. According to other sites, Johnny Rockets does offer a vegan boca patty.

http://www.johnnyrockets.com/themenu/ingredients.php

 

not the healthiest choice. I would imagine the best thing to do is to eat meat alternatives. some regular grocery stores have good options but a health food store will have options you've never seen before.

[Lean and Green]

I like DropSoul's understanding of what goes down behind the scenes at these factory farms. I never had any of that knowledge when I crossed over to vegetarianism and then veganism though. It was just willpower to consume a cleaner diet for a healthier body. I craved cheese for a while. After time, all cravings subside so just stick with it. You lose the urge. You're just used to it as that's the way you've eaten all you life it's all you know.

 

Break a habit my making it a habit to not consume animal

 

Enjoy the forum and welcome my friend; we're here to help. I look forward to getting to know you and seeing you around. If you fall back you fall back but this is a journey worth sticking to as i'm sure you'll realize right quick if you haven't already It will click and you'll wonder how you survived any other way!

[VeganGirl2006]

Welcome!

 

My advice is to avoid it for six weeks. It takes that long for something to become a habit. Right now your body is going through a detox, getting all that crap out of it from years of eating meat. Once you get past the detox part you are going to feel fantastic! I guarantee that! If you are craving meat, there are plenty of vegan substitutes that will help satisfy that craving. Someone earlier mentioned Boca burgers, which are pretty good. You can also get the meatless ground "beef" and make that into tacos or spaghetti.

 

Stick with it and your body (and the animals) will thank you!

[Odidnetne]

When I still had meat cravings at first I ate spicy bean dishes, and the cravings vanished.

[MollyMormon]

Good luck overcoming the cravings. You'll get there. I agree with you. If you can't kill it you shouldn't be allowed to eat it. I have killed it, and I won't eat it for the same reasons you pointed out.

[Odidnetne]

If you can't kill it you shouldn't be allowed to eat it.

 

Amen.

[Oggy]

I love you guys

[DaN]

Yeah, I agree, you guys are awesome!

 

[Liberacion-Igualdad]

I'm doing well and feeling better than ever, but.... I'm having a severe meat craving!!!! What do I do??

Hey Oggy! Welcome to the board.

 

I think you've received great advice already. One thing that helped me a lot the first couple of months after going vegan, was the conscious choice of making the connection between, for example, the smell that was hitting the 'pleasurable' parts of my brain on the one hand, and the truth behind it on the other (a murdered animal, the 'product' of someone's enslavement, torture and death, et cetera.)

This way I managed to gradually generate a rejection reaction, which has actually become for most of these smells (and sights, too, but that was easier.)

 

I don't think its wrong to eat animals as other animals eat animals (...)

I know you didn't ask about it, but since I'm a vegan for ethical reasons...

 

There are two, somehow related, problems with that argument. On the one hand, it assumes from the outset that because other animals (or at least, some of them) do something, then we are justified to do the same, simply because of that. I think that further argumentation is needed for that to have any validity. We could start by answering 'Why is it a justification? How so?'

 

On the other hand, even if one can provide proper argumentation to make this statement valid ("other animals do it, therefore if humans do it is OK") the logical conclusions anyone can draw from it would conflict with basically every moral rule most humans hold (and I suppose you hold many of them too).

 

Other animals exhibit behavior, such as rape, fighting (and killing) for mating, infanticide, cannibalism, etc., that we regard as immoral when it is a human doing said action (that is, we don't regard the fact that "other animals do it" as a justification at all).

 

Why so?

 

Because it makes little sense to base HUMAN morality on the actions of other animals (or even on the actions of other humans). Human morality belongs to human moral agents and I'm of the position that its conclusions must come from logical thinking/argumentation. Lions' morality doesn't have anything to do with humans'.

 

As one member from another forum put it, in response to a post regarding this issue:

 

"Yes, it is remarkable the number of apparently intelligent people there are who, as soon as they have finished telling us about how unique, special and superior human animals are, say they want to follow the morality of lions when it comes to dinner.

 

I often wonder whether a new stepfather, having killing all the children from his wife's first marriage, could try this for a defence in court: "well, judge, I got the idea from this documentary about lions, see..."

 

Don't think that will work, do you? And what will the judge say - humans should not take their moral lessons from lions!!"

 

What do you think?

 

Welcome again.

 

Samuel.

[dropSoul]

Animals eat other animals and they are built to do that. Short intestines to pass the flesh quickly and not get the ill effects (like colon cancer, high cholesterol), teeth to rip flesh from bone, tongues to tenderize the meat, claws, protective thick skin, sure footedness, night vision, etc., We are built more like herbivores, even our jaws (the way they move) and teeth are more like an herbivores, and our intestines are long like theirs, so we get the ill effects of too much meat/animal products.

 

So seriously, the healthiest diet is one that treats your human body parts kind and does not contain the body parts and fluids/menses of other beings. It makes sense.

 

Rock on with your fitness goals!

[aluck]

I think they about covered it, just wanted to say welcome, and kudos on a healthier, smarter, more ethical lifestyle. Stick with it man!

[Oggy]

@ Liberacion-Igualdad, Thanks for your advice. About animals eating other animals, I feed my kitten organic free range chicken meat on the bone because she thrives on it, as dropSoul said about the difference in intestines. My kitten would probably suffer malnutrition if I tried feeding her fruit and vegetables the same way humans suffer malnutrition when eating an all meat Atkins based diet.

 

Humans can eat meat and survive very well on it for a short time, but my point was that WE don't kill the animals ourselves and that's whats wrong! And I doubt many of us would kill an animal for food if we had to do it ourselves.

 

I have no choice but to feed my cat raw organic free range meat, its whats most natural for her. But turning vegan myself and still buying meat, is that so wrong?

[Liberacion-Igualdad]

Hey Oggy!

 

I want to clarify something first. My argument was that, on an ethical ground, saying that it's not wrong for humans to eat other animals 'because other animals do it' is not a valid justification (for the reasons I explained in my previous post.)

 

Of course, the oppossite argument would be equally invalid (that because it is morally unjustifiable for humans to use, exploit and kill other animals to eat, then it is also unjustifiable for all other animals to do so).

 

You say that it's the fact that 'we' don't kill the animals we eat what's wrong. I disagree. I think that killing other animals is wrong regardless of who does the killing, since it is an infringement of that animal's interest in continuing to live. Of course, I'm leaving kill-or-die situations aside, when moral judgments are really hard to make.

 

I totally agree with you, though, that most of us wouldn't kill another animal to eat with our very hands. But that's besides the point.

 

One of the most important things to bear in mind is that we, as human animals, do not need to eat other animals to live a healthy life. We eat them because we like the taste, or because we are used to do it, not because we need to.

 

Obligate carnivores, on the other hand, unlike humans, DO need to eat other animals in order to be healthy (unless, of course, proper supplementation is given to them.)

This is the case for cats.

 

I know there are vegan "pet" foods (fortified with all the nutrients that are essential for them, just like 'regular pet-food') for both, dogs and cats, and that dogs thrive on this diet while some cats may develop certain problems. I think these problems can be sorted out in time.

 

Now, I don't mean to say that all vegans feeding flesh to the cats that live with them are acting immorally. For one, if there is no vegan "pet" food available in their area (like here in Chile) I see no other option. If you can't afford it, the same is true. If the cat developed problems while on a vegan diet, idem.

 

Also, I can understand why many won't even try to feed the cats that live with them a vegan diet out of concern for their health. What can I say? It is a hard subject still. It is all messed-up since we began to 'domesticate' other animals, and I guess we'll have to deal with this for as long as we keep breeding them.

 

What about a 'freegan' approach to feed cats?

 

Anyways, my former post didn't have much to do with domesticated animals, but that's my opinion on it.

 

Kind regards,

 

Samuel.

[apple]

I believe that the boca patty that Red Robin uses actually contains milk products. I found multiple sites that say their patty's aren't vegan:

 

http://www.veganeatingout.com/redrobin.html

http://www.veganrepresent.com/forums/showthread.php?t=5532

 

which sucks!! before I went vegan I loved their veggie burger. According to other sites, Johnny Rockets does offer a vegan boca patty.

http://www.johnnyrockets.com/themenu/ingredients.php

 

not the healthiest choice. I would imagine the best thing to do is to eat meat alternatives. some regular grocery stores have good options but a health food store will have options you've never seen before.

 

craaaaaaap!!!! I guess I'm done eating there...thanks for the knowledge!!