Sun, Dec-06-15, 15:45
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Senior Member
Posts: 374
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Plan: Atkins
Stats: 00/00/00
BF:
Progress:
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I agree that especially when you're younger, being vegan/vegetarian can be resistance to what seem to be the conventional ways. When I was in high school, right after I learned to drive, I announced to my family I was a vegetarian. So then I could get my special foods at a health store (I had a job to pay for it). I kept my yogurt and brewer's yeast in the family refrigerator and felt like I had a diet that wasn't the same as my family's. Even then I had an inkling it was fueled by rebellion and dealing with family turbulence. I still loved meat and missed it, I just wanted to prove I was different!
But then when I went to college I lived in a co-op that was strictly vegetarian. Lots of soy burgers (the mix came in big plastic cartons, anyone remember that?), soy cheese, granola, raisins, whole wheat bread and macaroni. I started having a lot of health problems, bad skin and especially fatigue and brain fog. I had no idea it could have been because of the vegetarian diet. As soon as I moved out of there I went back to eating meat and got better.
My concern is that when vegetarianism is propped up by virtue, feelings of doing the "right thing" (re animal rights, farming, etc.), and dogmatism, then it's harder to separate from it when it isn't really supporting your health and well-being.
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