Vegetarian before it was cool

I have had many people ask me about why I am a vegetarian, why I became one at such a young age, and why I decided to stick with this way of eating. The story really is not that exciting, but here it is!

My family stopped eating red meat due to the high blood pressure and heart disease that runs in my family on my Dad's side. A year or two later, my Mom saw a show on PBS where Linda McCartney (the now late wife of Beatle Paul McCartney) was talking about vegetarianism and meatless cooking. Her famous quote from the time was that she would "not eat anything with a face." My Mom ordered her cookbook and we stopped eating meat!

My Mom and all of my sisters are still vegetarians. My Dad and brother are what I call "social meat eaters" because they eat meat at restaurants, outings, and parties but don't cook it for themselves at home. I have decided to remain a vegetarian for a few reasons:

• I was raised with it and am used to it
• I think raw meat is terribly disgusting
• I don't know how to cook meat and don't want to learn because I think raw meat is disgusting!
• I have seen too many shows about mistreatment and filthy housing of animals raised for meat 
• I don't like the idea of all of the hormones and antibiotics given to animals used for meat
• The idea of Mad Cow Disease is enough to give me nightmares...after I learned about prions I wouldn't kiss The Bee after he ate beef until he brushed his teeth! I am not THAT nervous anymore, thankfully!

Recently, I have been considering starting to eat fish or maybe poultry because I am finding it very hard to follow both a vegetarian and gluten free diet. It is very hard to keep weight on and I worry about getting enough protein/other nutrients. It is still only a consideration at this point...I'll have to see how I feel after I am officially tested for Celiac. I also worry about eating too much soy, which has been linked to breast cancer and also increased estrogens (and endometriosis is a disease linked to estrogen dominance...I don't want to increase my estrogen if it will make my endo worse!).
 
It is a lot easier to eat meat free now that there are so many more options on the market for vegetarians, especially compared to 24 years ago! The original veggie dogs from the 1990s (called 'Tofu Pups') were fluorescent orange and really gross. They were impossible to cook over a camp fire because they would fall off the stick! I hated them! There was also a terrible product called "TuNO"...yep...fake TUNA! I don't know why anyone thought that was a good idea!

Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on how you look at it) many of the quick vegetarian products, such as Boca and Morningstar products, contain wheat, which I no longer eat. I say that it may be fortunate because The Bee and I eat way healthier without as many processed foods in our diet! We have made 3 kinds of homemade veggie burgers and they are WAY tastier than anything you can find in the freezer section!

I want to point out that I am not a snotty vegetarian (oh, I know they are out there, though!). I don't care if other people eat meat. What I DO have a problem with is people picking on me because I DON'T eat meat, which actually has happened! If people make rude comments about my food (this has happened at work in the lunchroom before) I don't hesitate to point out that meat is the body of a dead animal. Not sure why dead bodies sound more appetizing than veggies and other non-faced food!

Oh, and just to make sure you believe me that I am not a snotty vegetarian, I cooked meat for a second time now! This time it was Caesar chicken (again, in the slow cooker) that I made for The Bee. Once cooked, it looked pretty tasty, but when it was raw? Ugh! I was gagging putting it in the slow cooker!

So, there you have it! I am a vegetarian because I was raised this way! I sometimes wonder how much of a role my eating has played in my fertility issues (too much soy may be partially to blame for my infertility?) and my digestive woes (I used to eat A LOT of products containing grains with gluten). Also, did you know Celiac is linked to infertility? I am not upset about being raised a vegetarian, but it is making it hard for me to make food choices right now. If I was raised a meat eater and was worried about gluten, I'd totally try the Paleo way of eating. Have any of you considered that? It is all meat, veggies, fruit, and nuts. No grains or dairy. I think doing that would be too much of a shock on my system, though, since I am going on a quarter century meat free!