Quote:
Originally Posted by lovalotz
Okay..Some of you girls may think i'm crazy, but I'm thinking of adopting this diet. Not for weight loss purposes, but for environmental reasons. This isn't the first time that I have thought about becoming a vegetarian, I guess i was always too unsure about it. (Meat IS good, I'll give you that!)
So here are my questions:
Is it safe for a growing girl to do this? (I'm 15)
Is anyone else a vegetarian? Any words of wisdom?
What can i do to mantain a balanced diet?
Please and Thank you's
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Being Veggie, and Vegan are two different things, just a FYI
Veggie's just dont eat meat, but are still allowed to eat basically anything else. And use anyting else.
Vegans dont consumn or use ANYTHING thats is a animal product (or tested on animals) at all. So no leather products, no eggs, no this no that hehe...
In addition, you'll have to start learning how to read a label. There are many, many grain products (like breads) and other processed foods that have animal products in them. Like Eggs for example. And you can't eat those eigther. So all those cookies, and snacky foods out there are usually off limits, unless you get a "Vegan Cookie." Vegan Cookies are actually pretty good LOL.
Anyways... Just a little clarification on the whole Vegan/Veggie thing, since it's very, very different. Being Vegan is an entire change of lifestyle, not just ordering pasta (and it can't be an egg noodle hehe) for dinner instead of steak, and getting ice cream for desert (they have Soy ice cream though, and thats pretty YUMMY hehe ).
Oh and another thing... Learn how to COOK!
Since the majority of places dont always have a Vegan Menu, and your server isn't going to know if a meal contans animal products unless it's obvious, you end up cooking for yourself a lot.
But there are a lot of really yummy Vegan meals. They have a bazillion Soy meat substitutes products that taste as good if not better than the meats they are replacing. And you can get everything from burger and hot dogs, to deli slices (soy mayo wasn't my fav though LOL). So it's not like your JUST eating salads. Start eating mixed nuts too (preferably lightly to unsalted kinds heh) those make a great snack and are healthy for yah.
I bought a whole bunch of Vegan Cookbooks while I was doing the Vegan thing and had a lot of fun being creative with what we were eating. You'd be amazed how much oliveoil you end up using LOL.
I made the most AMAZING Vegan lasagna last year. Homemade sauce, spinache, tofu, and some other things. No cheese on top obviously