I'm Becoming a Self-Loathing Vegetarian

Lately, after meals heavy in animal protein, I've had really horrible stomach aches. Not anything I feel is worth getting checked out by a doctor, but bad cramps and just general pain. Also some very strange bowel movements.
My father said the same thing happened to him thirty years ago, and he decided to try a vegetarian diet for a month. He said he never felt better intestinally. Now, if he even gets a small amount of meat in his system, he gets crazy sick. Last time someone gave him a soup with bacon in it and he had to have his stomach pumped. For some reason, he can eat eggs just fine.
So he thinks I should try going vegetarian for a while and seeing how I feel afterward. Which is sad for me b/c I've spent my whole life making fun of him for being a vegetarian, and I love food.
It looks like I'll be trying to eat vegetarian for a couple of weeks and then re-evaluating things. Maybe I'll end up eating very small amounts of meat, but mostly veg. I don't know for sure.

This makes me sad.
Any advice? hoss?

i've been eating basically only protein (chicken and tuna) this week and that was my diet for two weeks a week ago.

no bowel problems for me and i pooed pretty decently.


maybe its not the meat?

Kwilk, that's sad news in view of your love of food.

Have you:

1. tried eating smaller portions of meat?
2. compared the effects of different meats?
3. had the same problem with poultry?
4. had the same problem with fish?
5. had this problem with foods involving meat stocks?

Perhaps you just need a break from major carnivorous dining and will be able to get back to minor carnivorous dining later.

How about you see a doctor instead of asking us?

Originally Posted by philosophe

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Kwilk, that's sad news in view of your love of food.

Have you:

1. tried eating smaller portions of meat?
2. compared the effects of different meats?
3. had the same problem with poultry?
4. had the same problem with fish?
5. had this problem with foods involving meat stocks?

Perhaps you just need a break from major carnivorous dining and will be able to get back to minor carnivorous dining later.

This is actually what I'm hoping. Maybe a week or two off of carnivorous food will help me out. My diet the last few months has been mainly protein. It happens with beef, lamb, pork, and chicken. Fish is generally okay, and eggs haven't seemed to bother me. Meat stocks don't really seem to do much.
It just seems weird. This has been happening for a long while, maybe a year or so. At first it was small and almost unnoticeable. It has been slowly increasing and over the last two months has gotten to the point where I'm beginning to think I need to change something.

Originally Posted by gdl203

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How about you see a doctor instead of asking us?

I assumed most people on SF knew more about anatomy and physiology than doctors. Not really. I just don't have health insurance and don't really have any extra money to pay for a checkup.

Originally Posted by kwilkinson

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I assumed most people on SF knew more about anatomy and physiology than doctors.

The average SFer has never seen an anatomy up close in the whole 16 years of their life. I'd put my money on the doctor.

What's with people's obsessions with extremes? You said you ate too many heavy meals. How about you just cut down on the meat instead of going to the opposite extreme?

I suggest a trou normand.

Originally Posted by Nil

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What's with people's obsessions with extremes? You said you ate too many heavy meals. How about you just cut down on the meat instead of going to the opposite extreme?

What's with misreading my words? Jesus, buddy. I said I was going to try this for a couple weeks and then reevaluate things. I didn't say I would never touch meat again in my life.

Originally Posted by iammatt

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I suggest a trou normand.

This would require me to actually eat in courses, rather than one meal a day. But if you provide the calvados, I'm in.

Originally Posted by kwilkinson

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This is actually what I'm hoping. Maybe a week or two off of carnivorous food will help me out. My diet the last few months has been mainly protein. It happens with beef, lamb, pork, and chicken. Fish is generally okay, and eggs haven't seemed to bother me. Meat stocks don't really seem to do much. It just seems weird. This has been happening for a long while, maybe a year or so. At first it was small and almost unnoticeable. It has been slowly increasing and over the last two months has gotten to the point where I'm beginning to think I need to change something.
That's what happened to me with dairy. At least giving up butter, cream, etc. was good for my waistline. If I were you, I'd really up the veggies, fruit, and whole grains in my diet, and I'd switch to fish for animal protein for a few weeks. Then I'd gradually try reintroducing small quantities of meat. You are fortunate that stocks are OK. Chickpeas taste great cooked in lamb stock. Much as I agree with GDL's remarks above, I think that it is reasonable in your case to try changing your diet before running to the doctor. If, however, you are having a lot or pain or other well-known symptoms of real GI problems (e.g. blood in your stool), see a physician asap.

Originally Posted by iammatt

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I suggest a trou normand.

I have no idea what this is, but it sounds like a frenchified name for something edmorel might be expert in.

You could have some inability to secrete sufficient amounts of proteases (enzymes that break apart proteins into amino acids). There are a few different ones the body uses (trypsin, pepsin, and one or two others) which either come from the pancreas or the cells in the stomach itself. It could also be an oversecretion of pepsin (or some other reaction to it) caused by the higher acidity needed for the enzyme to activate.

Try eating a large amount protein from a food that doesn't upset your stomach and see what happens (like eating a carton of egg whites or a few packs of tofu or something). Do this on an empty stomach, then do it as part of a normal starch-containing meal.

Originally Posted by kwilkinson

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So he thinks I should try going vegetarian for a while and seeing how I feel afterward. Which is sad for me b/c I've spent my whole life making fun of him for being a vegetarian, and I love food.

Sounds like you had it coming