Putting meat back on their menu: after being vegetarian for years - even decades - what makes someone go back to eating meat?

Vegetarian Times, Jan, 1995 by Drew DeSilver

When Jeff and Tna Meyerhoff went to Guatemala in 1989 to do volunteer work, they were contented vegetarians. Both had stopped eating meat while in high school for their health and because raising meat seemed an inefficient way of raising food. Jeff resumed eating meat while in college (his school had a small and unappetizing selection of vegetarian food) but returned to vegetarianism after graduation. When he and Tna left the United States, they had no plans to change their diet.

But after the Meyerhoffs reached their posting, an orphanage in rural Guatemala, they started looking at food differently. For one thing, there wasn't much of it, vegetarian or otherwise. During one five-day period, they ate nothing but tortillas, rice and a few noodles. "That was the first time in my life that I knew I was protein-deprived," Tna says. "One night, Jeff and I lay awake all night fantasizing about every protein food we could think of. I said, 'Wouldn't a burger be wonderful right now?' and he was like, 'Oh yeah, steak!'"

The Meyerhoffs also were affected by observing how the poverty-stricken Guatemalan people were grateful for every scrap of food they could get. "In a country like Guatemala, where there was barely enough food to sustain everyone, it seemed ludicrous that I should be so strict in my diet," Jeff says. "The mere idea of turning down food when other people don't have enough is very much a decision of affluence and privilege. Because we don't have to worry about hunger we can worry about not having to eat red meat."

Despite such thoughts, the Meyerhoffs, both now 33, stayed vegetarian throughout their 10-month stay in Guatemala (one major reason, Tna says, was that "the meat there was really gross" . But once they returned to the United States, they stopped being as "particular" as they had been; they no longer insisted on vegetarian meals when dining out with friends or at family gatherings. "If we go to someone's house and they serve meat, we'll gladly partake of it," Jeff says. Tna, who is pregnant, also says she eats more poultry than she ever has--one serving every three days or so. "My body has said, 'You really need more protein.'"

Despite the ample and solid research about safe and healthy vegetarian pregnancies, Tna has made up her mind. The question is: Why?

Suzanne Havala, R.D., a vegetarian and co-author of the American Dietetic Association's position paper on vegetarian diets, says the problem is often that people don't have the knowledge and support they need to maintain a diet that, while more acceptable today than 10 years ago, still is more outside the mainstream than inside it.

Some 12.4 million Americans now describe themselves as vegetarian, and that doesn't include the many who are trying to give up meat. With so many people experimenting with vegetarianism, it is understandable that some will try it, and find it is not for them. Their reasons vary, from issues of convenience and changing circumstances to questions of personal beliefs. Often, several factors come into play. But it is clear that vegetarians who don't have a strong support network for their choice of what is still considered an alternative" diet have a tougher time sticking with it than those who do.

In fact, some people's support networks are what cause them to question or abandon their vegetarian diets. When a pregnant woman's doctor and family caution her that she and her developing baby need the nutrients found in meat, the misinformation can shake the confidence of even confirmed vegetarians. When a vegetarian feels weak and exhausted--for whatever reason--and friends ascribe it to diet, it can be hard to shake off even the smallest doubt. Anyone who eats a diet that isn't what the mainstream endorses may occasionally worry that his or her diet is inadequate.

That feeling got in Barb Burger's way during her first pregnancy at age 28. Now 40, she embraced vegetarianism in her teens as a way to cut down on calories, but she liked it and stayed meatless. During her pregnancy, however, she found that eating meat was the only thing that soothed her jumpy stomach. "Why? I have no idea, but whether it was mental or physical, it worked," she says.

Burger fits another pattern that emerged from these interviews: Ex-vegetarians often don't return to the standard, meat-laden American diet. They report eating less meat than they used to--often less than one meat meal a week--and many say they may return to a completely meat-free diet in time. Burger says she now eats meat once a week at the most. She has always struggled with a weight problem, and says she could "very easily" return to a completely vegetarian diet if she starts to regain some of the 80 pounds she has shed in the past 18 months. "I'll cut out the meat because that's the easiest way to cut down on fat," she says. "I wouldn't even miss it."

That sentiment is echoed by Robin Purcell. "I could very easily do it," she says. Purcell, 36, became a vegetarian her freshman year in college, for what she describes as health and humanitarian reasons, and stayed meat-free for four years. Then, in her senior year, she chaperoned a cross-country tour for a group of inner-city kids and found it impossible to maintain her vegetarian diet on the road. "The only thing we had besides burgers and hot dogs was salads," she says, "To be honest, I got so sick of salads that I needed something else." Purcell started eating meat again on that trip, though she says it's never become a big part of her diet.