This news flash is news to me. Vegetarian diet (and not much ovo nor lacto) for 25+ years.
I eat fake meat almost every day.
And in the summer, when neighbors cook some unidentified real meat on their grill, and it wafts over, I feel a twinge of carnivore frenzy, ready to fight them for their kill, with my claws and teeth.
(I suspect it was the heme iron in the burger btw)
I'd wager a lot that your craving was due to the psychology of the process you performed, not some actual physiological withdrawal. If you took your time and found other things that were good to eat, rather than 'quitting' your habitual foods, I don't imagine you would have any trouble at all.
My energy level was steadily declining, as you might expect for an iron deficiency. When I gave in and started eating burgers, they were profoundly tasty, and my energy levels recovered.
I've had dietary shifts in the past (from one omnivore diet to another) and nothing like this happened.
I'm on board with the ethical aspect of veganism. I'm annoyed by what I perceive as the ideological aspect, which pretends a vegan diet can easily be perfectly nutritious.
[I'm complaining about this because I'm hoping vegans will take a hard look in the mirror, and start taking nutrition seriously, so I won't suffer from an iron deficiency (or whatever it was!) if I try again in the future.]
Eat whatever you like but it's probably good to pause and really consider what you're wanting and why.
Meat is deeply satisfying and has lots of things we need in it. If you're fine with the process of how the meat makes it to your plate then just own that and enjoy it.
This is in party because once you become a heavy user, your body stops producing various chemicals or becomes accustomed to larger amounts to meet its baseline (such as dopamine and other neurotransmitters). When you stop your body slowly start producing those again and has to become accustomed to the new baseline. That craving is exactly your body telling you that you are missing something.
Is there anything that shows vegetarian and vegan dieters increase the production of chemicals associated with what they are refraining from? Most drug addictions deals with chemicals the body can make itself, but it the substances lacking in a vegan diet would seem to be things we cannot produce.
There are large populations that have eaten that way their entire life. I wonder how their body chemistry is different than those that started veganism later in life. They don't have to adjust. If they started eating meat, what changed in iron or protein synthesis do they go through?
But seriously, after 25+ years, though some of the taste of meat dishes would be good, the idea of eating meat is personally unappealing. Plus, I don't know that my system would even be able to process it. So, I'd expect to be grossed out, have GI plumbing and nutrition problems, and maybe frequent food poisoning.
I'm neutral on whether other people should go vegetarian, but personally I feel stuck with it.
Share your own experience and anecdotes - that's great! Once it reaches "you need to do X" it stops being effective at information transfer and becomes overbearing.
I was vegetarian for a couple years until meat cravings became so strong I started eating meat again.
84% of vegans and vegetarians return to meat: https://www.psychologytoday.com/intl/blog/animals-and-us/201...
Many because they crave it.
Several vegan influencers have been caught eating meat and fish secretly. Conversely the same - some carnivore influencers have been caught eating fruit and other plant products.
Only 2% of US-Americans are truly vegan or vegetarian (and even those tend to cheat here and there).
I have no way to verify your statements about cheating, but I personally do not cheat, as I have no need in it, but my advice to everyone who crave meat to stop torturing themselves and it imitations, you'll abandon vegetarian/vegan life anyway.
Vegetarianism is a diet - choices about food for whatever reason. Many of those reasons have plenty of room for imperfection and still hold - the concept of a "cheat day" is common and often even useful for people trying to change their lives through food choices. In almost every case for a diet, craving a treat is normal and healthy and not a personal failure. "Perfect is the enemy of progress".
Veganism, on the other hand, is a moral philosophy specifically about right or wrong AND it isn't internally motivated/facing/impactful. It isn't a diet or guidelines for personal change and a "slip" or "cheat" is very different (craving and then doing something you think is objectively wrong) than occasionally choosing to miss your calorie or macro target.
Of course there are overlaps since choosing to be vegan requires a massive diet change in the US AND because, like vegetarianism, people choose that diet for many reasons, not all of which are the moral philosophy. People use the term "plant based" to describe the diet only (not a good name but it seems to be out there for better or worse) which is on the same footing as any other diet.
As a thought experiment for why the diet vs moral distinction might matter, pick something you're comfortable deciding is morally wrong (lying? Shoplifting? Infidelity? Sexual harassment? Domestic violence? Rape? Murder? Slavery?) and then think about what a "cheat day" for that would be. To me it invalidates the whole idea. As an example, someone cutting down their violent crime to only one "cheat day" a week might objectively be progress but it doesnt earn my respect - the only correct amount of that behavior is zero in my mind and the worse the "indulgence" or "craving" the more clear that is for me when I think about it.
I hope this doesn't put your back up or come off as "holier than thou" - I'm trying to talk about the shape of the difference without taking a side on the specific moral arguments.
For what it's worth this is a common way I see vegans and non-vegans accidentally offended each other and get into a negative spiral so I really appreciate you asking the genuine question.
Nonetheless I now understand the point you’re making about the framing of “cheating.” Thanks for explaining!
Speak for yourself. I might only have them once/month, but I enjoy the flavors of Impossible Foods and Beyond products.
It never fails: someone wants a fake turkey, or fake bacon, or fake burgers, or whatever. Unwrap the plastic, heat it up, it sez on the label it's vegan. Also you omnivores are killing the world.
So I now refuse absolutely to cook for vegetarians/vegans. I always did make somebody else buy the fake industrial vegan meat substitutes, and amazingly, I caught friction for that. My wife and I are chemical engineers who have been inside quite a few food processing plants and we refuse to touch the output of those. I will eat potato chips every once in a while but nothing vegan at all. I want my vices honest.
Don't hold back!