My Vegematarian Journey
How Do I Feel Now?
So far, it has been a week since I have finished this month and a half challenge to be vegetarian. And I feel that for the most part, it wasn't much of a success in terms of my actual health.
During my last week of the challenge, my body started to feel weird. In particular, my chest, felt as if my arteries or something in my chest was clogging up. I would have to randomly while sitting down at my desk doing work, get up and stretch and maybe breath more deeply and a few big gulps of water to try and calm down that feeling. As you can see from my food diary on the blog, I didn't necessarily eat the healthiest. I ate a lot of carbs, a lot of fried stuff, and junk-food-esque food. And in reality, I feel that it was all on me for not planning accordingly. Granted I don't really like eating vegetables so where was the real expectation that my body was going to handle this transition successfully.
During this week, post-diet, I started eating meat again. From tacos to sushi, to even chicken sandwiches. Again, my body was just not enjoying that time. I would wake up with stomach pains each morning after I had consumed meat. I don't know if it's because my body had gotten used to literally eating heavy carbs with no meat for nearly two months, but if that's the case then that is totally understandable.
Another weird symptom I am feeling now is a general sense of dizziness when I get up too fast. If I shake my head a little too hard, I feel a sense of grogginess as if there is some input lag. Just last night, I guess I got up to fast but I nearly fell over from how dizzy I got standing up. Even when I was sitting down it felt like I was still falling to the side. I don't know if it is because of that Iron Deficiency that I may have experienced from the lack of real veggies in my last two months of eating, and the lack of iron in meat consumption. Whatever is the case, I did not feel too great after these instances and have been monitoring my own body behavior more closely now that I have been experiencing these weird phenomena.
Apart from all this scary talk, My face has been noticeably clearer according to my partner, and I lost 2 pounds not really changing anything but my diet (albeit an unhealthy one).
Some Critiques I have for the Diet
First things first, the privilege to even be on a vegetarian diet is immense. In an article by Sophia Durose, Being vegan is a privilege, she not only rights about how veganism is a privilege but also reflects on her own privilege being a vegetarian. She has grown up eating nothing but vegetables as her parents kept her away from eating meat. So she was already privileged in a sense, of not having those cravings for food she never paid attention to or could crave because she never got to taste it! She also mentions how incredibly difficult it can be for a college student or person trying to make ends meet, to actually live day by day as a vegetarian or vegan. She discusses how college students are concerned over other issues like exams and class for them to really take a stab at this diet change. There is a cost of entry, a lot of time involved in meal planning, and a reliance on creativity in the kitchen that is difficult for any beginner to really try to get a grasp on when they can't really bring food to the table because of their low income or because they are focused with school.
Which is exactly how I felt about my own diet. I couldn't really pay attention to what I could make in a week's time while managing my 21 unit course load. So often I opted to eat out, or just make something very cheap, fast, and satisfying like eggs. My ability to be creative was hindered by the fact that I had so much to do in my classes and in my own life that It was hard to as a beginner, really make healthy choices while doing my day-to-day tasks. I would be so busy that even looking at recipes or doing something other than classwork, would get me on edge. So I feel that this transition would've been a lot easier had I been on a more relaxed schedule or during summer or winter break.
DuRose, S. (2019, August 26). Being vegan is a privilege. The Daily Pennsylvanian. https://www.thedp.com/article/2019/08/vegan-environment-healthy-ivy-league-sophia-durose-upenn-philadelphia
Harking back to Perignon's study with her team, they also found that in terms of a "sustainable diet". The most sustainable diet would be considered a diet with relatively low nutritional value like the diet that I was eating. Full of startches and a real lack of expensive fruits and produce that require extensive land use and resource use to produce. So in reality, the diet that I chose unknowingly was the best diet for the environment because these crops that I consumed (fries, flours, soybean) are all relatively easy to grow and already mass-produced. But once I introduce the consumption of fruits, my environmental footprint grows. They however reflect on how even though that is technically the best diet, it is not healthy for your body and that trade-off isn't worth it if you are trying to reduce your impact.
And it definitely was not worth it, as I was experiencing dizziness, some weird chest pains, and now stomach pains that can be from the lack of meat I had this past month and a half, or because I damaged my body eating so unhealthy for the past month and a half.
What also shocked me was that my strict vegetarian diet wasn't necessarily what I should do to live sustainably. Perignon and her team also found that the emission reductions were more drastic in just reducing the amount of meat when compared to eating a little amount of meat and restricting meat entirely. For instance, high meat-eaters, who eat 100g of meat per day, saw a 7.19kgCO2/2000 kcal emission factor. Compared that to a low meat-eater, who consumes less than 50 g of meat a day, their emissions were at 4.67kgCO2/2000 kcal. That is over two kilograms of CO2 emissions reduced in just eating less meat. Meanwhile, fish eaters when compared to vegetarians and vegans saw a plateau in emission reduction. Their emissions were 3.91 kgCO2/2000 kcal for fish-eaters, 3.81 kgCO2/2000 kcal for vegetarians, and 2.89 kgCO2/2000 kcal for vegans. The drastic reduction in emissions isn’t as noticeable when compared to just eating less meat in general. So in the end, I could just become a pescatarian and reduce my carbon footprint roughly to the same levels as a vegetarian (granted I make local purchases of fish and more sustainable fish options). Even becoming a flexitarian is a more tempting diet, being able to eat meat although on rare occasions can make a huge impact, the need to specifically remove an entire class of food is definitely not necessary. I mean, just eating your caloric intake requirements for the amount of energy you use up in a day is enough to drop your emissions by 10%, so preventing overeating is another way to make a big impact on your carbon footprint.
Perignon, M., Vieux, F., Soler, L. G., Masset, G., & Darmon, N. (2016). Improving diet sustainability through evolution of food choices: review of epidemiological studies on the environmental impacts of diets. Nutrition Reviews, 75(1), 2-17. https://doi-org.proxy.library.ucsb.edu:9443/10.1093/nutrit/nuw043
Vegetarian diets are also susceptible to lack some essential nutrients needed for your body. In Elisabeth Temme's study, she and her team studied the nutritional levels of 1,267 children from the Netherlands and how their nutritional intake would be impacted with a reduction of 30% meat and animal-based products, to 100% reduction of meat and animal-based products. What the test did find, was that the nutritional changes varied drastically between a simple reduction, when compared to the full restriction diet. Vitamin B12 dropped to a 49% reduction when compared to reference diets. Saturated fats also were reduced by 26%, and other nutrients like protein, calcium, zinc, and vitamin B1 were reduced by 5-13%. The only nutrients that did increase were fiber and iron levels, but again this article mentions that the iron present in plant-based foods is less bioavailable, so the addition of iron may not be noticeable for the body.
I am sure that my body wouldn't felt stronger symptoms of any vitamin deficiencies I would've incurred If I continued this diet for months or even years. If my body is already acting this way after not eating meat for nearly two months, I wonder how it would react if I continued this for the coming years.
Temme, E. H., Bakker, H. M., Brosens, M. C., Verkaik-Kloosterman, J., Van Raaij, J. M., & Ocke, M. C. (2013). Environmental and nutritional impact of diets with less meat an dairy - Modeling studies in Dutch children. Proceedings of the Nutrition Society, 72, 28-29. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0029665113003558
So Would I Continue?
Honestly, probably not. I am not capable of, particularly now, eating a healthy enough diet while trying to do college and at-home duties with the weight of trying to become vegetarian. I don't know if it is because of the fact that this was for an assignment, but the drive to really plan my meals started to die out once midterms started to hit, and if I continue to eat that way I am sure something dangerous could happen. I say this because most of the meals my mother cooks for the house have some sort of meat in it. And usually, they are chock full of veggies, like stews or meats cooked in a sauce. In a way, I was eating more nutritiously when I wasn't on this veggie diet and that was because a lot of the weight was taken off my shoulders to do the cooking. And because my mom is just an amazing cook who can make vegetables taste good for me aha.
And sadly, statistics do show this trend. The Humane Research Council had a survey with 11,000 vegetarians and vegans, and in this survey, they saw that the rate of Americans returning to meat was 84%. Those involved with the survey said that being the only one with a restrictive diet amongst friends makes it difficult to hang out with them, sometimes the craving for meat is too strong so they break, and some people felt a degrading health system like me. So I am not alone in this decision, it is normal for me to back down considering how everyone else has for the most part haha.
Schultz, C. (2014, December 9). Most vegetarians lapse after only a year. Smithsonian Magazine. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/most-vegetarians-lapse-after-only-year-180953565/
As for what I would do differently, well? I would've probably done more research before doing the challenge so my transition is much smoother. Doing the annotated bibliography after I started the challenge led me to some pretty helpful sources that helped me learn if first of all, vegetarianism is worth it for the planet, and secondly how to even transition into the diet as smooth as possible. And that was I feel, the biggest flaw I had with my diet. I didn't have anything prepared, I went cold turkey. Resulting in lackluster meal planning, and some damages to my health. I wish I had seen this, What to know before you go vegetarian, list by Schipani because honestly if I had known that transiting is key to a safe and healthy vegetarian diet shift, then I probably would've done that a lot more gradually. My "pilot" week, was just me trying to cut the meat off my diet cold turkey again which would result in failures here and there.
Schipani, D. (2017, August 28). What to know before you go vegetarian. EverydayHealth.com. https://www.everydayhealth.com/diet-nutrition/what-know-before-you-go-vegetarian/
If you do plan to take the vegetarian diet shift, I highly recommend you read all the sources I have provided with all my reflections. All of these sources will give you insight on what you are willing to sacrifice in order to help the planet, and from what I have researched already, it doesn't take much to make a big influence. Generally shifting the amount you eat, replacing dairy with alternatives, and just reducing the amount of meat you eat can make a big difference. Enough to warrant staying an omnivore over a vegetarian.