You ought to realize that animal products show up in some of the most unlikely places, such as fruit pies, vegetable soups, Easter candy, so on and so forth. The list is unending. If your goal is to avoid animal products altogether, you should make it a habit to look for ingredient lists before taking a bite.
All that gas
When you first start out as a vegetarian, you may start to notice an increase in flatulence. Your bodys reaction to change in diet is very common and perfectly natural. The flatulence is likely caused by the high fiber content in foods you are now having. This, by the way is great for your health. But, unfortunately, it will not likely be effective, since is not designed to eliminate this type of gas, but is targeted towards the sugar that cannot be digested in some beans. Hence, it only works after eating beans and some vegetables.
With time, your body will adjust to the changes in your diet and you will be much healthier because of it. However, if the flatulence is too much of a problem, you may try eating more slowly, chewing your food carefully and avoid swallowing air. Activated charcoal tablets (the OTC ones, available without a prescription) also provide relief, when taken before meals.
The fat risk
In turning vegetarian, some folks end up replacing one fatty protein source (red meat) with others like cheese and soy products. Instead, you should plan meals around legumes and low-fat or fat-free dairy products, by adding just enough of the fattier cheeses to give you some body and flavor.
Its perfectly alright to eat some meat
Believer it or not, meat and animal products can also be a part of the vegetarian diet. Very often, people feel guilty about eating meat or some other animal product, from time to time, and then forego the vegetarian diet altogether.
A lot of vegetarians eat turkey on Thanksgiving and many folks will have a diet almost exclusively consisting of plant based foods. The exception is meat that they have hunted, such as elk.
Basically, you ought to take the level of your diet to the optimal that you are capable of and let it to mature. Interestingly, as the level of meat and animal products is reduced in your diet, your taste often loses appeal and after a while, it can actually become repulsive tasting.
