[Cart Horse]

I've been vegetarian (eat some fish, eggs and cheese) for 9 or 10 years now. I'm in my fifties.

After a few years of not eating red meat or chicken, I started to get ill, losing mental acuteness and libido, but this was quickly fixed after a few weeks with multivitamins. The cheap artificial multivitamins seem to do the trick. So you do need to supplement your diet if you are not eating red meat it seems. You also just generally need to eat sensibly.

I think that it's not healthy to eat a lot of meat. A small amount is probably pretty healthy. Our western diet, in Australia at least, consists traditionally of a big hunk of meat, with some vegetables on the side. That's definitely wrong. Too hard to digest that lot.

Travels to Asia introduced me to the idea of delicious food consisting of a small amount of fish or meat accompanied by lightly cooked or uncooked fresh fruit and vegetables. The meat is the garnish.

I also encountered in particular in Vietnam a pig butchery which was ghastly. There's a lot of screaming and fear from the pigs. Not nice. I came home a vegetarian

I'm not religious or fanatical about what I eat (in my opinion) but for health, animal cruelty and environmental reasons I would strongly prefer not to eat red meat or chicken. I eat fish only occasionally. I need to take vitamins.

I eat mostly raw food which I prepare doused often in lemon juice or the like. I have learnt to cook things like curries and decent omelets. That becomes fun. Horses for course though. It is good to eat though!

Marina it's most important to stay healthy whatever you do. Learn to cook a bit and follow your heart.