Craving Meat
Hi,
I'm not sure if this is in the right spot but, I have been doing my best to be vegan since February of this year. I have been good except for a few pastries that had milk or egg in them. I have not had any meat since February. Lately, I have been craving meat very badly and it's all I can do not to eat it. Whenever I am around someone eating meat I can't help myself and remember how good it used to taste and would want to eat it.
When I first stopped eating meat I didn't crave it at all. So I'm assuming I'm just not getting a nutrient or something. For vitamins, I usually just eat a Luna bar because I hate taking pills. But that's about it. I do eat nutritional yeast every now and then but not too often because I am allergic to yeast. Also, I have been working out more lately after about a month off so maybe I just want the protein? I don't know and am just looking for some advice.
Thanks!
Try looking into recipes that use TVP (textured vegetable protein) or seitan. They give you something akin to the look and texture of meat and may help satisfy your cravings. Seitan is easy to make from vital wheat gluten and is the closest thing to meat that I have found.
Here is the basic recipe that got me started, I've modified it a bit over the years depending on what I'm going to use it for:
http://allrecipes.com/recipe/chicken-seitan/detail.aspx
Don't worry about the kelp if you don't have any and feel free to modify the spicing.
i second the seitan idea, also keep in mind that if you WERE to eat meat again, it would NOT taste like how you remember. You can actually taste the dead and rot after going without it so long. You could also try some of the analogues they have out there.
I agree with everybody else's suggestions. I had the same problem myself, but I found that seitan is a very good chicken substitute. And TVP is a very good substitute for ground beef.
Actually I looked into WHY people crave meat when meat is not actually a natural part of a human's diet (we evolved as herbavors) and we crave it becasue it is a very easy source of calories. It is concentrated and once our bodies get used to it we crave it.
A study I read about: they took a horse and gave it meat. At first the horse wanted nothing to do with it of course (just like human babies). But after awhile the horse began to crave it, and would eat it over it's oats and hay. They kept this up with the horse for some time and found that the horse's health was declining. Eventually they had to put it down, and then did an autopsy and found that it had heart disease.
So don't feel bad, your body will adjust, it just has to get used to not having that easy concentrated source of energy. Maybe try eating a few slices of cheese and a couple of eggs just to get you through? It is not vegan I know, but it can help ease that craving for meat so you don't completely fall off the wagon.
Koodos to you for being vegan! Personally I am octo-lavo, I tried vegan for a while and didn't take to it too well.
Think about why you chose to be vegan in the first place. Re-read the books/articles/etc. re-watch the videos, re-think about your reasons, and maybe write them all down.
After that, eat something else that will satisfy the craving (a meat sub., something salty, something hearty....etc.)
hi,
one thing I have found since I stopped eating animals is that on the rare occasion that I crave meat, it is actually the savoury flavours I crave, not the meat itself. For a long time I didn't really know how to make savoury dishes that were vegan - the veggies, coconut milk, etc made things taste slightly sweet alot of the time, and i never used savoury spices like "poultry" seasoning or whatever. So, I tried to incorporate more savoury dishes into my diet. Things I have found that help are Braggs, mushrooms, tempeh, seitan (especially in fajitas!), wild rice, and lentil stew & other dishes made with broth and spices like bay, marjoram, thyme, sage, etc (all spices I didn't really use before this). maybe that would also help you? here are some good recipes:
http://vegweb.com/index.php?topic=10359.0
http://vegweb.com/index.php?topic=9615.0
http://vegweb.com/index.php?topic=7553.0
http://vegweb.com/index.php?topic=15523.0
Maybe your body is "craving" vitamin B12, folic acid (B9) and/or iron. All of these nutrients are abundant in meat and sources can be difficult to find in a vegan diet. Maybe if you increased your intake of these three, then your meat cravings would lessen...
i doubt you have a nutrient deficiency or want more protein. you are probably, like snowqueen said, craving it because you want more calories.
if that's not the case it can probably also be satiated with something savory, like tino said.
i wouldn't eat eggs and cheese, if i were you, because then you will have that as your crutch. i'd eat some hearty mexican food for savory+a lot of cals (try easy bean and cheese enchiladas on this site, perhaps?)
Everyone's suggestions have been right on. I also suggest trying to remember WHY you decided to go vegan in the first place. http://www.veganoutreach.org/whyvegan/ I really think vegan outreach has some good resources as far as the reasons to stay strong.
(And I know this may piss some people off, but I can't help it. Humans did not evolve as herbivores. A plant-based diet with small amounts of meat, depending what was caught or not.)
I say your just craving the marinades or the spices of it.
startaurus is back! LOLOLOLOL