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Richard Tallent’s occasional blog

Vegetarian?

A review of recent studies on vegetarianism just came out that shows that vegetarians tend to lose weight.

I became a vegetarian once in college. Not due to any PeTA horror stories, worries about health, etc. I did it for Lent, just for the halibut since I’m theoretically a Protestant (ok, I protest Protestantism too, but that’s not the point).

After 40 days plus, I didn’t really feel healthier, and this was long before I started gaining weight (I was a beanpole when I got married 7+ years ago, now I’m 45 pounds heavier), so I don’t have any personal anecdotal evidence to support the review. Quite the opposite: I know several overweight vegetarians. Even my brother, who is mostly vegetarian, mostly vegan, and always kosher, seems to have developed a bit of the Tallent Tummy.

I’d be curious to see how protein sources like turkey, chicken, and fish impact these studies, positively or negatively. I would suspect that high-protein, low-fat meats would actually be more beneficial to weight loss than the same bulk in grains and fruits, so I’m not quite ready to make that shift in lifestyle again.


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