been a vegan for 3 years, have this horrible urge to eat a steak?!

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Hi, this craving probably means there is some nutrient that your body is requiring. Rather than eating meat, perhaps try to get this nutrient from a vegan source? If you identify the nutrient and fulfill your body's need for it , the craving should go away without you having to eat meat.

You may be low on iron. Try to eat a lot of high iron foods such as dates and other dried fruit and dark green leafy veg like kale and broccoli.

It may also be protein that you're requiring, so try increasing your intake of beans and nuts to see if this helps.

Cravings are a signal that your body wants something, but it will never be a specific food, rather it is something that is found in that food. If you can find a way of getting this through vegetarian sources then you can cure the craving without having to compromise your beliefs.

X

This was a Friends episode. Phoebe's solution was that she would eat meet during her pregnancy, and Joey would become a vegetarian so that no additional animals would be harmed.

Seriously though, as long as you eat a healthy vegan diet and take the proper supplements your doctor recommends, your diet will not adversely affect either you or your child. Also, if you eat a steak after three years of being a vegan, you're going to be very sick. If you must, have a bite or two of meat at first, then build up gradually.

You may have a deficiency in certain nutrients. That's the only thing I can think of.

I was a vegan for a few weeks, and I started craving dairy and eggs.

But it wasn't the vegan diet itself. It was the fact that I wasn't eating the right foods.

Here are some foods that are a must for vegans:
Beans, nuts, whole wheat, pasta, soy milk, almond milk, or rice milk, cereal,
mock meats(optional)

The above are essential for iron, protein, and Vitamin B12.

For calcium, make sure you are eating bread, greens, almonds, and soy milk or rice milk.

For vitamin D, eat mushrooms(porta bella are great) and stay in the sun.

For zinc, eat wheat germ, add chocolate powder to your soy or rice milk, eat pumpkin seeds, and cereal.

Boca, Morningstar Farms, Lightlife, Amy's Kitchen, Worthington, Yves, Tofurky, and Tofutti have great vegan products, too. You can find these products at a whole food store/health food store and Pathmark, Stop & Shop, or Shop Rite.

And, if you're pregnant, make sure you take your prenatal vitamins.

Vegetarian

Talk to your doctor and listen to your body. Taking pills is never a substitute for getting nutrients naturally through your diet. Humans are naturally meat eaters, otherwise we wouldn't need Vitamin B12 and we do.

If you miss something in your diet, as an adult, it's probably not going to hurt you too bad. You can change your diet or take pills and probably fix it. But what you eat now directly affects your baby. He/she is developing every day. What you miss in your diet this week can affect him/her for life. If he/she is born with some sort of defect because you didn't eat properly, how will you feel? How will the father feel, knowing you could have done better? Being pregnant is a serious matter.

If you know a vegan who has had a healthy baby, talk to her and see what changes she made to her diet. Be sure and ask her how long she was vegan before she got pregnant. Your body can store some nutrients for a long time and if she was a short term vegan, she might still be working off of those stores.

If you don't want to eat meat, at least consider adding eggs and dairy products back into your diet during your pregnancy.

I'm vegan now, but was vegetarian before and during my pregnancy a few yeas ago.. I had low iron levels and was told to take a supplement, but I have trouble swallowing tablets and couldn't take the iron as often as I should have.. I gave in and started eating meat for the rest of my pregnancy, probably the second half.. It made no difference to my iron levels, all it did was make me physically ill and feel incredibly guilty.

So I would say stick to your current diet, as long as you're healthy, and try an iron and B12 supplement if you're not already taking one :)

I say do it. If you do make sure you do it right, nothing from Sizzler. That's my guy opinion.

Now my opinion as a scientist, I would say I really hope you know your essential amino acids and where you're getting them from. And just cause you're taking a supplement doesn't mean you're body is actually breaking it down. If it's a supplement from a pill, most of your money is being pissed away literally, that's why your urine is dark. If you're not taking a supplement and don't know your essential amino acids, just eat meat till you have the child, drink milk, have some cheese, then you can go back to you're alternative diet.

Congratulations by the way.

I say stay strong and don't give in if you're vegan because of your morals. If you're vegan just for the health benefits than I guess it would be fine. And tell your boyfriend to butt out, that don't need his peer pressure haha. Talk to your doctor too, he might think it's a good idea to put meat back in your diet, if only until your baby is born.

If you believe strongly in being vegan, stick to your beliefs. Otherwise, eat the meat, because it tastes f*****g good and you've probably forgot what meat is like. Nah yeah but stick to your beliefs, it's natural to crave when pregnant.

First try eating foods high in iron. If that doesn't help then just eat a steak. There's no vegan god that will smite you down for giving into your pregnancy cravings.

I would recommend eating the steak, I've had that and its your body needing the protein in the steak.

Been there, done that

You've been a vegan for 3 years, and you're asking us if you should give in to your "meat urges?"

Troll