Serious Eats - seriouseats.com

I was a vegetarian for 14 years.
And then I ordered a grilled vegetable sandwich that came with bacon on it. I didn't check to see if it had been left off. It hadn't. The first bite was so delicious.

There's no going back to a pork free world.

I am with both of you! Bacon got me everytime I had been veggie for over a year. Also, salami and sausage are big contenders.

Several years ago I decided to become a vegetarian. It only lasted for 2 weeks. My grandmother's potatoes and sausage dish had broken me. I've never tried to go vegetarian again.

I was vegetarian nearly the entire time between the ages of 17 and 30. The final stint I was really extreme, eschewing eggs, dairy, all meat, and only allowing small amounts of fish. I was too busy to have such a complicated diet, and as such, I was very undernourished. Also, I developed a very antagonistic relationship with food, everything was off limits. Eating was a pain, and I didn't enjoy it. Needless to say, I was quite thin. But since I'd never really liked meat, I didn't think I was missing much.

Then I saved up to go to the French Laundry. And I figured since I was there, I should have the full experience, not just meat, but even the foie gras. That was the beginning of the end. Once you have Thomas Keller's torchon of foie gras, it's hard to go back to brown rice. I realized I'd grown up eating bad meat, and that actually things like bacon and a nice cut of beef were delicious. So I rejiggered my relationship with food, looking for quality ingredients and taking the time to make good meals.

Now I'm a Moderationist. I eat everything, in moderation. And I'm much happier, albeit a little heavier. I don't ever imagine going back to vegetarianism again.

For 3 years in college. I officially quit because a doctor told me I wasn't getting enough iron, but secretly I loved meat and that was just an excuse to go back toeating it. My younger sister is still a vegetarian, but she was never much of a meat fan.

I realized that I had been unintentionally eating meat all the time while I was vegetarian (stuff like dim sum - often has lard in the pastry and little bits of meat even in the "vegetarian" things) so I gave it up and started eating meat intentionally. Makes life much easier when traveling.

i was a veg for about 8 or 9 years 9 (age 7-14). my mom convinced me eventually to start eating chicken because i was very thin and not subsituting the meat for necessary viatmins/minerals in my diet. i started eating chicken, and i felt so much better. i had more energy, i was able to gain muscle and play sports better. i didn't start eating beef until several years later, couldn't beleive what i had been missing, then found out i had high cholestrol and had to cut back on the meat again. it was so sad!

Never been, never will be a vegetarian, but I'm credited by a couple of my friends for getting them to revert back to their meat eating ways.

I wasn't strictly vegetarian, but I was something like 99.99% vegetarian while on a raw food diet for 1.5 years. I stopped when I realized being obsessed with making sure none of my food was cooked really sucked. The first cooked meat I ate to break my diet was Chinese take out beef and broccoli. I didn't even order it; I told a friend to get me steamed broccoli and inside the container was...lots of beef to go with the broccoli. Oops. I initially picked around the meat until I realized, "Uh, this is dumb, I'll just eat it." Unlike what I was led to believe by popular raw foodist doctrine, eating meat (Chinese take-out meat for that matter, probably not high quality stuff here) didn't cause my body to painfully convulse or instantly get cancer from the poison of cooked food. Hell, I didn't even get a stomach ache. It was kind of disappointing.

Ever since getting off the diet, I haven't liked meat as much as I did before going on the diet (which might mean I used to eat too much of it). (Another note: I'm not a fan of bacon. Don't shoot me!) However, I became addicted to baked goods. Erm.

I have been a vegetarian since age 13, but I relapsed for nearly two years in college - I was haunted by fried chicken dreams, and I can still remember the amazing first fried chicken meal I had a the soul food restaurant up the street from my house. Bacon was also a revelation, and within months I was cooking everything I possibly could with bacon - spaghetti sauce (it's brilliant - chop up a couple of slices of a nice smoky bacon, fry it up, then build your sauce in the bacon fat with shallots, garlic etc...amazing depth of flavor), sandwiches, etc.

Then I gained 20 pounds (despite having a bike as my only means of transportation), realized I was getting sick all the time, and decided I'd have to go back to veg - simply because moderation isn't something I'm good at (it's also why I quit drinking). I kept eating fish for the next four years, but quit after learning a lot more about mercury levels. If I ate more meals out of my home (I live in NYC but I'm an avid cook), I think I would find vegetarianism a lot tougher than I do, for the reasons listed above.

While I am not one of those proselytizing vegetarians (I think that attitude is counterproductive, as it leads to people thinking all vegetarians are crazy or militant), I do get a small thrill when I have my meat-eating friends over for dinner and they tell me they're surprised that they don't miss the meat.

I was a vegitarian for five years. I came to live in Spain and within a few months, i found myself starving. Also, it was impossible to go out to a resturant or to a friends home for dinner.. After a while I was sick of Gazpacho and cheese. So I started to eat a piece of chorizo and it all went down from there.

However, returing back to meat has been hard on my body. Stomach for the first month. Now my teeth. Anyone have the same problems.¿? If so any advice???

I've been a veggie since I was 12 ... I am 26 now. I come from a "meat and potatoes" family. This dietary restriction was something I developed on my own. I gave up eating eggs in 2nd grade due to a video they showed in school... although I will eat food items with eggs in it, ie bread and recently pancakes and very very recently, certain quiches. I have worked inthe food industry since I was 19. I love love love bacon, prosciutto, pepperoni, mussels, bay scallops ... but feel I am, actually - I KNOW I am missing out. Any recommendations on how to eat to get back to eating meat?

I am not worried about getting sick. A human body is made to process meat. I am still kinda grossed out. How can I get over that?

After five years I was having dreams about fried chicken and ham. I started eating meat again and never looked back.

I was a vegetarian all through high school, but like another poster already said, living in the dorms in college did me in. It's probably better now, but thirteen years ago, I had to choose between greasy cheese pizza, salad or dry cereal. I lasted two months on those things and various side dishes, and then they did "BBQ night" with pulled pork. Pulled pork! My family is Southern, and there's really nothing that matches a pork product. I was done in...ate three pulled pork sandwiches, suffered some dormsuite-clearing gas, and was fine the next day. Haven't looked back since...although I'm grateful for my time as a veg because my veggie tastes are so much more varied than they were when I was growing up. Having the aforementioned Southern family meant that prior to going veg, stewed greens, creamed corn and various potato treatments were all I knew of vegetables. Now brussels sprouts are about my favorite thing ever...made with pancetta!

Bacon, sausage, ham. The pig is, indeed, a magical animal. And I live in Iowa. It's just too easy :)

I grew up in a strict vegetarian household. Eggs and dairy products, but that was it. Veggies, brown rice, I didn't even taste candy until I was 8 years old. So, I get my first job, at McDonalds. They give you a meal. I had a Big Mac, large fries, cherry pie. That first bite? Into the Big Mac? Heaven. Half an hour later I was over the toilet, heaving. Back to work two days later. What did I eat? A Big Mac. I hid my meat eating. Like most kids do with the occasional joint or beer (which I was allowed, btw). I got permission to eat it at 19. I go back and forth now. I can go months at a time without meat and feel no loss whatsoever. But then I need a steak, or bacon, and it's awn.

I was a vegetarian for 8 years. When I got a heart infection, my nurse told me I should eat cow's heart. Since I told her that was never going to happen, I decided to give normal cuts of meat a try. I went to a restaurant and I ordered a pulled pork sandwich. My husband thought I was daring and ordered the conservative chicken, thinking that if I didn't like the pork he could switch with me. My first bite was amazing, I was in shock. Although it may have been the fact that the meds I was on made me have a huge appetite, having meat for the first time in so long was fabulous. My husband thought I was being sarcastic and offered to switch. I told him he was crazy!

In-n-out

Damn you double-double with onions and extra sauce...the saucy korean bbq had no sway over me but you, with your two patties, hand torn lettuce, melting cheese, onions, and that sauce....

"I was a vegetarian from age 6 when I was a stubborn brat and declared myself a vegetarian to avoid having to eat a hamburger one meal."

Wow, Megannesta, your story is just like mine. Only I was 13, and the meal was the ubiquitous Sunday roast beef dinner. And like you, I'm making up for lost time. I had a cheeseburger for breakfast today.

The meal that flipped me (at age 19) was a hotdog at a fireman's picnic. Didn't get sick.

I never much liked meat or chicken or milk or eggs - even as a baby - but ate it reluctantly until about age 22 (I'm 43 now). I gave up fish a few years after that, when I got scared of contaminated water, overfishing, and mercury levels. I've been off and on dairy and eggs through the years, more of a digestive issue than a moral one. For the last few months I've been CRAVING sardines and salmon, and no vegetarian substitute or seaweed would do. I finally gave in and had some sardines and salmon the last 3 days and I FEEL WONDERFUL. I guess it pays to listen to your body as much as listen to the experts.

Thanks to all of the posters above for helping allay the fear that I'd get horribly sick in some way. I still doubt I'll eat meat or chicken, so you can have my serving of bacon....

I was a vegetarian between the ages of 13 and 22. One night (about 2 months ago) I decided that I simply wanted a steak. Right there and then I went to a diner with my best friend and she watched me down a steak. It was incredible. Not only was that night amazing, but since then I have SO much more energy than I did before. For nine years I had issues with energy. It hit a climax last year when I literally could not stay awake at 2pm every day for months. That went away after I started to take insulin pills (I was diagnosed with pre-diabetes at that ime), but I was still kind of low on energy, moody, depressive...

I swear eating meat has been my savior! I feel like a new woman! I literally feel like a completely different person. I have energy now! And I'm not as moody or depressive... wow, things are different! Plus I feel more like "me"... I never saw myself as the girl who'd eat a salad at a steakhouse while her date had a rare one. I saw myself as the down-to-earth-red-meat-eating chick even when I didn't eat meat for 9 years.

I love steak! I can't ever be a vegetarian again!