accidental vegetarian

subway

hi all, please dont take offense at this.
over the past few weeks, under the auspices of eating healthily and saving a bit of cash, me and the OH have ended up replacing chicken with quorn and burgers / mince with dunnes' meat free option.

im not planning on going completely vegetarian, but as i dont usually eat fish or dairy and have now cut out red meat and poulry it seems i am anyway!

is there anything i need to watch out for in terms of my health over the coming months?
ie vitamins and so on? i dont take a multivitamin at present.

thanks!

seamus

Provided you're always replacing your meat with something valid like quorn or tofu, there's not much need to worry.

Watch your weight, particularly your carb intake is all I would say. It's very easy to throw a few extra chips or a bit more pasta or have an extra slice of bread to fill the plate more. If you need filler, use green veg instead.

subway

thanks for the advice,
dont really eat chips or bread so shouldnt be anything to worry about there
will make sure to be strict on the pasta / rice portions.

when you say "something valid" is quorn a proper replacement for meat?
i kind of thought it was just "filler"

biZrb

Don't forget to keep an eye on your Calcium and Iron (I worry about these the most as I don't want to get brittle bone diease or get super tired as a result of low Iron)

You can get Calcium from tofu, almonds and brocolli.

For Iron eat things like beans, lentils, chickpeas, spinach (maybe replace lettuce for spinach in salads). Make sure you take something with vitamin C when eating Iron rich food.

Don't depend on meat replacements too much, try to vary your diet a bit. There are lots of cheap tasty nutritous foods out there.

Peanut

subway wrote: »

when you say "something valid" is quorn a proper replacement for meat?
i kind of thought it was just "filler"

I don't think you really need to be so worried about what is or isn't a replacement for meat. Quorn and tofu can be great for some people, but there are also lots of other options with pulses, beans etc..

Best idea is to just try a few different things (that you may not usually have had) and see what you like!

subway

thing is, im not trying to be vegetarian, ill happily go back to eat meat at some point.
what im mainly concerned with is by eating these "meat replacements" am i going to be defiicent somewhere, ie, should i be eating more pulses etc,
not for flavor or variety, but purely from a health standpoint?

Peanut

I think it's very unlikely - soya/tofu and quorn are both "complete proteins" as far as I know i.e. they contain all the essential amino acids.

But I still think it's not really that much to be concerned about, people seem to obsess about meat and protein a bit, but there is no need to worry about it if you have even a reasonably varied diet (with or without meat).

There's a wikipedia page here that lists the protein quality of some foods.

(Still, it doesn't mean that those at the top of the list are necessarily better, the page reads "To arrive at the final result, all individual amino acids would have to be taken into account, though, so the PDCAAS of each constituent is largely useless.")

subway

thanks again for the info, will take a read through that wiki over the weekend

Tar.Aldarion

subway wrote: »

thanks for the advice,
dont really eat chips or bread so shouldnt be anything to worry about there
will make sure to be strict on the pasta / rice portions.

when you say "something valid" is quorn a proper replacement for meat?
i kind of thought it was just "filler"

From wiki.

Nutrition wise, imitation meat is comparable to animal meat, however they rarely contain the same levels of saturated fat and can often contain valuable minerals and vitamins while still containing approximately the same levels of protein as animal meats.[4]

rockbeer

biZrb wrote: »

For Iron eat things like beans, lentils, chickpeas, spinach (maybe replace lettuce for spinach in salads).

Not the old spinach-is-full-of-iron myth again

No, really, it's not.

UAMS Medical Myths wrote:

Myth: Spinach is a great source of iron.

Reality: Despite what Popeye led a lot of young people to believe, spinach is not particularly rich in iron. In reality, it has about the same iron content as any other green vegetable, according to Dr. Philip Kern of UAMS’ Division of Endocrinology. “Spinach also contains oxalic acid, which prevents more than 90 percent of the iron from being absorbed by the body,” says Dr. Kern. However, spinach is rich source of vitamin A, vitamin E and several vital antioxidants, with more than a half-day’s supply of beta carotene found in just a half cup of the vegetable, adds Dr. Kern. (The idea that spinach contained exceptional levels of iron originated in 1870 with Dr. E. von Wolf whose figures remained unchallenged until 1937, when it was discovered that the content was 1/10th the claim. The oversight resulted from a misplaced decimal point.)

(From http://www.uams.edu/news/medical_myths/)

sweet-rasmus

As said already; no need to worry. It's the protein that you are excluding in terms of meat, so to try and have soya/ tofu/ pulses etc to make sure you get some in your diet.