What happens if a long-time vegetarian eats meat?

Someone who'd been a vegetarian for years told me that if they ate meat, their body wouldn't be able to digest it, because they'd have lost the enzymes to break down meat.



Is this true?What happens if a long-time vegetarian eats meat?
It can have an affect, but nothing serious, try eating small portions, adding something like yougart or fruits with a high enzyme content like papaya or mango even persimmons, I am a lacto-ovo vegetarian 90% of the time, I still eat a burger here and there, chicken once in a blue moon, fish and seafood at chinese restaurants, mainly for the protein and minerals.



But if you intersperse your diet with the occasional meat or fish meal, just be careful on the portion size and help it with a digestive helper, even papaya extract tablets juices or a great drink is a mango lassi, an Indian youart and fruit like shake serve in Indian restaurants to aid with the heat of the food, it also aids with digestion and tastes great too.
Your body is pretty good at what it does, so it doesn't keep making things it isn't using. If you are vegetarian, your body will stop making the enzymes that digest animal protein. If you eat meat after being a vegetarian for a long time, you will probably throw up, or at least feel queasy. Your body will start making the enzymes again if you eat meat a few times.What happens if a long-time vegetarian eats meat?
No-your body doesn't "lose" enzymes. Your small intestine and gall bladder may have a hard time dealing with that amount of fat all of sudden, so often people will feel ill at first.



I think this is propaganda intended to imply that not eating meat somehow alters your GI tract, making it weaker (by omnivores), or that our that specialized substances are required in order for the GI tract to deal with meat, showing how hard on your body it is (by vegetarians).

Our bodies were designed to deal with all types of foods-the decision to avoid killing other creatures to live is a function of the cerebrum, not the GI system : )
the most that will happen is that you get a little bit of an upset stomach for the first 3 or 4 times you eat meat, providing that you eat one portion that is (and most eat well over a portion of meat in one go, one portion of meat is surprisingly small) if you eat to much it might make you sick, but otherwise, it will (sorry it sounds so crude) come out of the other end.



the enzyme would be reproduced by the body when it recognises it and the effects of an upset stomach will go .What happens if a long-time vegetarian eats meat?
It depends. I've stopped being vegetarian before and sometimes I get sick. Sometimes I don't. It depends, I think, on how long you've actually been meat-free and on what specific meat product you eat. For example, if you got fish sauce, you probably wouldn't get sick (other than from the nasty smell) because it's already fermented and taken in small amounts. If, on the other hand, you decided to eat a pound of bacon, you'd definitely get ill.
I don't eat anything that had a face, had some mussels after not eating them for a long time, and felt rather nauseous.(no, no-one else did)

If I accidentally ate meat I'm sure its just the idea of having eaten animal flesh that would make me sick.
No it is not true... that's a myth or more accurately a lie being spread by fanatics to anyone who dares break the "Code"..



You may have a unset stomach for a day or two especially if you splurge or binge eat (which happens anyway whatever the food is) but that is it..
my friends mum ate chicken after being veggie for 20 yrs as someone told her to eat it occasionally to get protein (so stupid!!!) she did and it gave her a bad stomach- sickness and diahorrea i think.

i was given chicken in a chinese restaurant the other day, i thought it was tofu as it was covered in sauce. turns out they brought me the wrong meal from the kitchen. i only had a bit but it gave me a dodgy stomach and it tasted so fatty, even though chickens not meant to be?! eugh!
It will take much longer to digest leaving the person bloated. This usually happens after not eating meat for a month. When I first tried to go vegetarian I went cold turkey. Then I ate a cheeseburger. I was bloated for 2 days.
I've been a vegetarian for 2 years and the first time I ate a meal with a lot of meat in it it made me feel sick. Sure you would digest the meat but meat takes much longer to digest then plants do.
Some people admit to not feeling well when they eat meat or other animal products after a long respite, but others feel stronger. So I would say it's to do with an individuals body rather than loosing the enzymes to break down meat.
it's true. if someone who has been a vegetarian for a long time and they try to eat meat, their stomach will get very upset and it won't be able to digest it.
Well.. sometimes thats true. Some people can eat meat easily after not having it for a while, others eat it, and it might make them really sick.



So if you want to eat meat, start off small, just to be safe.
I slipped a few month ago while vacationing in New Orleans. I ate shrimp and I couldnt digest it for days. It was stuck like a lead ball.
You may just feel ill for the first few times you have meat because your stomach won't be used to it. But you will still be able to digest it.
partially true your body wont have the enzymes readily available, but with time will develop them.
yes that's true. i've heard of vegetarians who hadn't eaten meat in7 - 10 years randomly ate meat again and ended up in the hospital with meat poisoning.
After 20 years accidently ate some and was violently ill for days.
Yeh. I knew this person who had been a veggi since they were 5 or so. one day they decided to eat meat and they ended up in hospital. I call it karma.
They would be able to digest.Unless,they got rid of their gall bladder which stored an enzyme called bile.I guess they would not be used to meat..that's all
i wounder if the same thing would happen if you stopped eating vegatables for a year.
Yes, it's true.
they person can get sick.
that is absolute bollocks.

You don't lose enzymes just because you're not eating meat.

You'll be fine, you won't get sick, even if you haven't eaten meat for ten years, then suddenly eat two pork chops, you'll be completely fine.



What, are you supposed to get sick if you suddenly ate a cheese you've never eaten before? Or a specific type of tea??

Np you're fine.



I ate a lot of pork last year- no meat for 18 years, then suddenly ate about 3 lbs of meat, felt fine, not sick, nothing.



Your body had those enzymes in its biology when you were born, way before you started eating meat. They don't care if you eat meat or not, they are there anyway.



Not that a huiman is very well designed to eat meat anyway..
he or she dies