How to Become a Vegetarian

Unfortunately, not everyone actually manages to stop eating meat. There is a lot of misinformation around online that makes out it is very difficult to become a vegetarian. This is not to say that you might not find it difficult to change your diet after a lifetime of eating one way. Rather, we want to make it straight forward to become a vegetarian – and help you past any obstacles you might face along the way.

How can I become vegetarian?

It isn’t a complicated process, becoming a vegetarian. You simply need to not eat animals or fishes. For some people, this is a sudden, all or nothing process – eating meat one day and then stopping entirely the next. For other people, it might be a process. We recommend stopping eating meat and fish in one go. It may seem hard at first, but this is mainly because it is different to how you’ve been eating up to this point.

What’s the different between a vegetarian and a vegan?

A vegetarian is a person who does not eat meat or fish. A vegan is a person who does not eat any animal-derived products. This means that a vegetarian still eats milk, cheese and other dairy products. They can still eat eggs and honey too. As long as it does not come from animals being killed, it is largely still acceptable in a vegetarian diet.

Vegans do not eat any of the above items. They do not eat anything that is derived in any part from animals. As a result, vegans do not eat eggs, dairy or honey. Many do not use animal derived products in their day to day lives either – in clothing, medicine, cosmetics and the like.

Is it hard to stop eating meat?

Lots of people think that it might be hard to stop eating meat. This is mainly before they have made the decision to stop. When you have eaten meat all your life, you are simply used to the idea of it – and the traditional meals you’ve been having. Stopping eating meat isn’t hard in itself – it’s can just be hard to break habits.

What are some easy ways to stop eating meat?

One of the important things to consider is that you are doing something new to you. Things may well seem strange for a while, but this is an adjustment period.

An easy way to get through this adjustment period is to alter dishes you already know , so the transition seems less immediate. Use lentils or veggie mince in a bolognese. Try a smoked tofu ‘BLT’. Eating vegetarian isn’t as different as you might have thought.

Advantages of being vegetarian

Public Health England advise eating a diet that is low in saturated fat and high in whole grains, fresh fruit and vegetables. For a vegetarian, this is much easier than if you were basing your meals around meat. Some people have concerns that eating a vegetarian diet will not  provide them with enough of the nutrients that often come from meat and fish. However, protein, iron, calcium, zinc, vitamin B12 are all present in vegetarian foods like dairy and eggs.

How is becoming a vegetarian better for the environment?

One of the many advantages of being a vegetarian is knowing that your diet has vastly lower impact on the planet than a meat-eating diet. Livestock farming is one of the world’s largest net contributors to C02 production. Cutting meat out of your diet makes a huge impact to your personal carbon footprint.

Eating vegetarian food for a year saves the same amount of emissions as taking a car off the road for 6 months. However, eating veggie is not just about emissions. More land is used to raise cattle alone than for all other animals and crops combined. A vegetarian diet takes 2.5x less land to produce than a meat based diet. Animal farming also takes up a huge amount of water resources – a single chicken breast takes more than 735 litres of water to produce.

If you want to learn more about becoming a vegetarian, we have a huge range of helpful and inspirational articles here: https://vegsoc.org/eating-veggie/

We also have a massive bank of recipes: https://vegsoc.org/eating-veggie/recipes/