udor wrote:
There are two possible explanations both can be true individually or appeared at the same time:

1. You had a severe allergic reaction to one of the ingredients. Vegans and vegetarians often experiment with exotic spices and fruits and vegetables that most of the common meat eating households don't utilize, hence you couldn't know that you are allergic.

2. It was psychological. I experienced many meat eaters, who are so extremely conditioned of decades that plant based food can't taste good and many more culturally biased prejudices that some will never even try a dish if they know it is vegan/tarian. Some of them get a similar reaction, independent from the actual taste, based on the negative expectation.

Someone mentioned an allergy to me this morning and it is very well possible. Like you said, this is a whole new way of eating for me and it's possible they used something I'd have never tried (and maybe never heard of, either). I can believe this.

There is no doubt in my mind that it's also possible that some aspects were psychological on some level. I had no real idea what to expect and had a pretty good idea I was going to come across something I wouldn't like. It's probably to be expected. I have actually fixed some vegetarian meals for myself. I don't know if they were vegan or not because I don't know what ingredients went into the bread (I didn't bake it myself) but it was fine. I've even had vegan mashed potatoes (no milk or butter). They didn't taste how I'm used to them but they were okay.

I don't think, therefore, that I'm prejudiced against this type of food but even if I were, I can't see it making me nauseous after I have it in me. Normally things that turn my stomach don't even make it into my mouth.  I can live with it not tasting good. The nausea was a first time in my life that I remember (outside of physical reasons).

Alexey VS wrote:
I switched to a vegetarian diet since I was 8 and slowly slid into vegan diet without intending to do so simply because I found I function much better on a diet without animal protein (dairy/eggs which I consumed on regular basis, and now only whenever I eat processed foods when I go out). According to the latest scientific research the food you eat affects not only your digestion but also your microbiome, cellular metabolism and consequently the entire cascade of metabolic processes that take place in your body. Moreover, your microbiome literally fights for the control of the decisions you make as it is a significant part of human nervous system linked to your brain. As you switch your diet, the bacteria in your gut that survive on the food you provided it before can literally rebel as the new biomatter in your gut can give life to new family of bacteria while starving the old one... Oh, and if you think that all sounds like science fiction, consider the fact that bacteria can not only alter your DNA as per most recent findings (http://www.the-scientist.com/?articles. … n-Genomes/) but also outnumber your human cells 10 to one: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/20 … 085914.htm

To make this more relevant to the questions you are asking, as it was mentioned in previous posts, it can take a long time to transition to a new diet because of the factors I've mentioned, and it's one of the most life-changing decisions you can make along with more traditional big ones like whether have kids or not and who to marry. Interestingly enough, all of those decisions will feed off each other and determine the quality of the life you lead, no pun intended ;-)

I don't know if what you've said here is true or not but it's certainly food for thought (pun intended).  You're right when you say it sounds like science fiction but I won't discount it as fiction just yet (further research is necessary).

Believe it or not, though, after the one bite of the food, the mild to severe nausea that followed and the still upset stomach all day today, I do know something is different and it's not all a bad thing/feeling.  I would hope it's not an allergy and is just something I'm not used to eating. If that's the case, there might be a way that I can use these same ingredients in a way that is much more tasty for me and get the benefits of eating these things.  It is interesting to me, though.

Lovely Day Media wrote:
My question to the vegans out there: If you weren't vegan your whole life, it means you had to switch at some point. When you switched, did you get sick the first time you tried something?

I grew up eating a "standard American diet" with almost no vegetables. I'm not sure how I made it past eight or nine years old without dying. I was sick all the time, in and out of doctor's offices and had a very poor immune system - probably because of how I ate. I didn't enjoy vegetables growing up, because my family relied on "convenience food," which had mushy over-cooked vegetables, that came from cans or were frozen. To take that horribleness even further, my mother made most fresh vegetables in a southern Appalachian style that involved boiling them to death and covering them in fatback drippings. I will never, ever, as long as I live get the smell of "biled" cabbage out of my nose.

To be honest, I didn't like food much at all, would only eat a few things throughout adolescence and was a bit pudgy despite eating almost nothing. Food grossed me out, because I had only been exposed to gross food. As a result, I was out of shape, my metabolism sucked and I had really bad cellulite on my legs and thighs by the time I was 13 or so.

After I went to college and moved away, I found that I really enjoyed RAW vegetables - especially salad without any dressing. I'd eat that and plain rice most nights of the week and it was just delicious to me. I was probably eating vegetarian for 3 months before I even realized it, and for the first time in my life, I was genuinely enjoying food. I think I was suddenly aware of it one day when I went into someone's house where they were cooking pot roast, and I kept thinking I smelled dog food. Finally, I saw a crockpot and was like ... oh...okay. It was a weird experience, because I didn't even associate red meat with being people food anymore.

That was in 2000, and while I've gone through two short periods during the past 15 years (of six months or less) where I opted to eat some wild game and local free-range-type local poultry again - for about 14 years, I've maintained a diet that was either ovo-lacto vegetarian, or completely free of animal products. I have never identified as "vegan," because veganism is about more than just diet; it's about the personal grooming products you use in your shower, your clothing choices and your politics. During the times when I was eating animal products, I'd start having digestive issues, horrible heartburn, increased pimples on my face and also VERY bad PMS. I never once had PMS on a vegetarian diet, and the complaints many other women have about pain and emotional issues during their cycles have been completely foreign to me, except when I ate animal based foods.

At this point, I'd guess that 80% of the food I eat on any given day is from fruit and raw green vegetables. A common breakfast for me is about four big handfuls of grapes, and half a box of spinach blended together into a drink. Some days, I juice five oranges and blend a whole box of strawberries with it and have that for breakfast. At night, I eat a lot of rice, potatoes, some beans and more raw vegetables prepared in different ways. I make dressings out of ingredients like raw cashews, sun dried tomatoes and herbs. I try to remember to eat a Brazil nut everyday, because it is a vegetarian source of selenium. People will say, "That's a lot of sugar." Yet, I'm 32 and have something very close to a 6-pack stomach year-round. People mistake me for being ten years younger than I actually am, and other than a couple of old sports injuries (a natural consequence of being an athletic person if you train long enough and hard enough) I'm exceptionally healthy. Even my iron levels are perfect.

For me, it's an innate part of the food I like, what I find delicious and what my body craves. I don't care what other people eat, because it's none of my business. I only know what I like and what makes me feel good. I go to the farmer's market on Saturdays and take a giant suitcase as well as a backpack, fill them both up with very ripe produce (buying it right when it's ripe, you'll save 50-75%) and base my meals around it all week. Changing how I ate just sort of happened.

Lovely Day Media wrote:
I've even had vegan mashed potatoes (no milk or butter). They didn't taste how I'm used to them but they were okay.

I replace the dairy with full-fat coconut milk and nutritional yeast (NOT yeast like in bread; it's different). I've fed them to total meat-eaters who had no clue the taters didn't have butter and milk in them.

Same with "milk gravy." I grew up in the south and sometimes like heavy, savory breakfasts in winter. I once took a vegan gravy to a work potluck, and it was placed side-by-side with the regular meat gravy with no labeling at all. It was all labeled "gravy." At the end of the potluck, I went to get my gravy dish and the woman in charge of the food table said the people were raving over how delicious my gravy was. There was none left, and the regular meat-gravy dish was still half full. These were low-income and special needs clients for a human services organization; many were obese or diabetic, and almost no one among them were particularly health conscious.

I'm dating someone who will admit to be a "meat and taters" person. He absolutely devours my food and often gets seconds. His friends were laughing about how he'd never eat vegetables until he met me. He said, "You put a lot of spices and flavors in food, so it tastes good." I love heat, chili peppers, curries, etc. Good tasting food doesn't have to be bad for you; you just have to know how to make it.

Koryn wrote:
I have never identified as "vegan," because veganism is about more than just diet; it's about the personal grooming products you use in your shower, your clothing choices and your politics.

Ya know ... you've once again enlightened me to another mistake I made without being confrontational about it. You're 100% correct when you say being vegan is more than just about what a person eats. If a person eats no animal products or byproducts but wears leather coats or shoes ...

Thank you very much for sharing even more enlightening, entertaining and thought provocation. I'm one who does eat peanuts and cashews but should probably eat more of other types of nuts, too. I don't know that I could go 100% vegetarian for the rest of my life and never have any other meat or product, but it's clear the benefits of some vegetables I am yet to eat or don't eat often enough would probably do me a lot of good.  I just have to make up a plan, make up my mind to follow the plan and get it done.

If it's going to be like it was at that event, it's going to be a lot easier said than done but if it were easy everyone would do it. Most radical changes in life aren't easy to do even if they are for one's long term good health (for instance, quit smoking).

Lovely Day Media wrote:
Ya know ... you've once again enlightened me to another mistake I made without being confrontational about it. You're 100% correct when you say being vegan is more than just about what a person eats. If a person eats no animal products or byproducts but wears leather coats or shoes ...

Thank you very much for sharing even more enlightening, entertaining and thought provocation. I'm one who does eat peanuts and cashews but should probably eat more of other types of nuts, too. I don't know that I could go 100% vegetarian for the rest of my life and never have any other meat or product, but it's clear the benefits of some vegetables I am yet to eat or don't eat often enough would probably do me a lot of good.  I just have to make up a plan, make up my mind to follow the plan and get it done.

If it's going to be like it was at that event, it's going to be a lot easier said than done but if it were easy everyone would do it. Most radical changes in life aren't easy to do even if they are for one's long term good health (for instance, quit smoking).

Almost no one eats enough fruits and vegetables. The USDA recommended daily allowance is really only the minimum amount. When I was working in the fitness industry, I frequently advised clients to try to fill 75% of their plate with vegetables - as much as they could hold - and the starch and protein would have to be small enough to fit in the remaining quarter of the plate. That seemed like a HUGE amount of vegetables, but everyone that I ever got to actually eat that way reported feeling better, having less digestive issues over time and when combined with regular exercise, fat loss came a lot quicker. You also have less bloating in your belly after a few weeks of adjusting to the new way of eating, because all the fiber helps move waste along the digestive tract faster, and is generally known to reduce colon cancer risk. I'm not an anti-meat person - not even remotely - but I am strongly pro-vegetables.

Tony From Syracuse wrote:
No pics of the offending cuisine?

I have pictures ... just have no clue how to post them to the forum. I also haven't resized them yet. In terms of the forum, they're big enough to need their own zip code.