Vegetarianism

[Thanatopsis]

Hey those with experience,

I was wondering if you guys think it possible to maintain a vegetarian diet during active duty. I'm thinking that becoming a vegetarian is one of the best things I can do to maintain my health, so I am changing my diet as I enter medical school.

Thanks for your opinions

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[Biodork111]

The only experience I have thus far is OBC...I survived. There are vegetarian MREs and lets just say they aren't the most...popular? Usually easy to get a hand on.

 

[Thanatopsis]

Thanks a lot Biodork! I'll probably be hoarding those MREs.

 

[edmadison]

It's funny, my experience at OBC is that the Veggie MRE's were quite popular. This was because some of the meat choices are a little scary. In fact, my OBC T-shirt had the following: Top Ten things overheard at OBC: "Yes, I really am a vegetarian".

As far as the actual question, while in garrison, you shouldn't have any problems. The commissaries have decent veggies and tofu. My wife (who is a pesca-vegitarian) still has to go to the local "communist" grocery store to get some things (red lentils being high on that list). While deployed, you may be eating a lot of past and peanut butter.

Ed

 

[elderjack21]

The only experience I have thus far is OBC...I survived. There are vegetarian MREs and lets just say they aren't the most...popular? Usually easy to get a hand on.

We would always trade for the vegetarian MREs they are the best! Any of the meals that have meat as the main course are kind of hurting...the pasta's are actually not bad at all now either.

In garrison you will have no troubles being vegetarian. And deployed to any of the large bases you shouldn't have any trouble either. In Iraq we had great fruit and decent vegies trucked in to us. Not to mention at several of the large dining facilities there were Indians working there serving up Indian food which was great.

In Afghanistan I would say the fresh greens were not as good, but you can still easily get by.

If you are on a FOB (forward operating base), your choices will be greatly limited...but I think the majority of docs are at larger bases.

 

[Biodork111]

Yeah, I guess its a year by year thing...when I was in OBC I'd say aloud "hey anyone get veggie that didn't want it?" I would then proceed to get pelted with several MREs...so ya never know I guess!

 

[184013]

YES it is possible....
I served US Army Infantry - roommate and friend was a perfect example of this diet... while deployed in Iraq he maintained a veggie diet, even though our food was very limited... examples include Scrambled eggs with large scoops of peanut butter, or peanut butter sandwhiches with onions, lettuce and ketchup. This same fellow also was a Ranger school grad and only ate veggie meals... obviously some great ranger buddies donated their veg-mre's for his meat mres... totally cool as I much preferred the veggie meals during that time period !
Those are the two worst case scenarios.
My 2 cents... if you are in the medical field there is a MUCH higher chance your population density will be higher...leading to better food. Any standard dining hall in iraq has a HUGE assortment of fruits, fiber, and veggies.. you would have no issues in my humble opinion.