Ex-vegetarian first bite of meat dish after three years

An ex-vegetarian has revealed what it was like to bite into a juicy turkey after years of eating ‘processed’ alternatives for three years.  

Joanna Booty, from Bracknell, Berkshire, went back to eating meat after spending three years as a vegetarian as she found meat alternatives to be unhealthy and ‘too processed.’

Sherlock star Martin Freeman recently revealed that he has given up being a vegetarian after 38 years for the same reason.

He spoke on the Dish podcast with Nick Grimshaw and professional chef Angela Hartnett and admitted that now he has returned to meat-eating, he could finally indulge in the ‘food of the gods’ – pork pies and scotch eggs.

Joanna said she struggled to eat a balanced diet that she enjoyed and it was challenging when she did not have a stable source of lean protein. 

The 48-year-old said what tipped her over the edge was when her American husband cooked a turkey for Thanksgiving.

‘I couldn’t resist, and that was the end of my vegetarian era. It was glorious. I realised that the vegetarian diet just didn’t work for me and I decided that I would eat meat in moderation,’ she said. 

‘It was a really pleasure to enjoy a full roast again. I had eaten roasts just without the meat and with veggie gravy while I was a vegetarian. 

‘But there is no more delicious combo than succulent roast turkey, gravy, bread sauce and cranberry sauce. 

‘And the other culinary reunion that really made it for me was pigs in blankets. Even though these are not exactly lean, low salt protein, they are infinitely more delicious than any fake meat products.’

Joanna, who runs Bergamot HR, added: ‘I was never keen on fake “meat”. It has hundreds of ingredients, many of which I don’t recognise. And whilst I am not an expert, this did instinctively put me off. I couldn’t really be sure of what I was eating. I don’t love tofu. I will eat it, but it isn’t my first choice. 

‘I had a very unpleasant reaction to tempeh [fermented soybeans], twice. It made me violently sick a few hours after eating it. It was only the second time that I realised what had happened. I am never sick – I tend to have guts of steel.’

She said she enjoys meals a lot more after eating meat again and feels like she is in  better shape as she consumes lean protein.

Meanwhile, Katherine, from Dublin, said that she has more energy now since going back to eating meat.

She was a vegetarian for six years and said it was a choice she made when she was quite young and was ‘unaware’ of the factors that go into the diet. 

She tucked into a large steak after more than half a decade of eating alternatives and said she had forgotten what meat had tasted like, so it was like ‘trying everything again for the first time.’

Katherine said she wouldn’t have been able to try half of the dishes she has enjoyed tucking into with her partner if she was still a vegetarian.  

In December 2022, the full-time student said she started eating meat again. She told FEMAIL: ‘It was six months prior to that I had been thinking about going back to a non-veggie diet. 

‘I can only describe it as an itch I couldn’t scratch with a veggie diet, I’m also a full-time student and I put a lot of time and effort into my studies so I didn’t have the  luxury of preparing elaborate meals.’

The 23-year-old said towards the end of her vegetarian diet, she was eating a lot of meat alternatives that made up around 60 per cent of her diet. This led her to question why she actually stopped eating meat in the first place.

‘Due to me not prioritising my diet, I wasn’t having enough protein, iron, so I wasn’t feeling my best so in combination with just craving some diversity in my meals, that’s when I considered eating meat again.’

Katherine said you need to be ‘fully dedicated’ to vegetarianism if you want it to work and added: ‘I didn’t have the taste for [it] and I lacked the effort, I found eating meat is just far more convenient for me and I personally just enjoy food more now.’

Speaking about her experience of eating meat for the first time in six years, the nutrition student said she ‘just bounced back’ into incorporating it into her meals and feels ‘a lot healthier’ now than she did when she was on a vegetarian diet. 

She said: ‘I feel as if I have a bit more energy. When I was fully applying myself to my veggie diet I felt great, but towards the end when I wasn’t putting the effort into my meals I would feel fatigued and low energy.’

A recent study found that plant-based meat products offer no ‘clear benefit’ for heart health.

People who ate fake sausages, burgers and mince also seemingly had worse blood pressure than their meat-consuming counterparts. 

Experts labelled the ‘health halo’ surrounding plant-based meats unjustifiable and urged the food industry to ‘re-evaluate the development of the next generation of meat alternatives’.

Study co-author, Dr Sumanto Haldar, a lecturer in nutrition science at Bournemouth University, said: ‘At present, producing these plant-based meat alternatives often involves a substantial amount of processing.

‘The end products can be high in salt, saturated fat and additives in order to match the taste and texture of real meat products.’

Martin Freeman said he originally turned vegetarian as a teenager because he was ‘never comfortable’ with eating animals.

But he had a change of heart later in life because he is trying to eat fewer processed foods and enjoy having ‘what I like’.

He said: ‘I like meat replacement things, but my reservation about them is that they can be very, very processed and I’m trying to eat less processed food.’

But the Sherlock star has faced backlash from the Chief Executive of Vegetarian Society, Richard McIlwain, who claims he’s just ‘giving into his meaty cravings.’

He told MailOnline: ‘For me it feels odd. It feels like he’s just giving into his meaty cravings.

‘Where he talks about tucking into a scotch egg and a pork pie, he should know that they’re just as ultra-processed.

‘He bemoans about the fact that vegetarian foods are over-processed, and then talks about eating scotch eggs and pork pies.

‘I’m not sure he’s got this health angle quite right to be honest.’