Cork GP Dr Doireann O’Leary has shared the reasons why she gave up her vegetarian diet last year, after seven years of following a plant-based regime.
Dr Doireann revealed on Instagram that she embarked on a vegetarian diet because she was concerned about the “carcinogenic effect” of meat and processed meat. Things changed however after she and her husband Peter welcomed their second child in February 2024. Six months after her youngest son arrived, she found herself feeling “extraordinarily drained” at the end of the day, both psychologically and physically.
Although she was feeling like that, Doireann’s bloods were normal, including her B12, folate, vitamin D and iron levels. “A lot of this was my own fault as I wasn’t getting enough protein in,” she admitted, adding that vegan and vegetarian diets are very healthy diets and it is possible to get enough protein in when adhering to them. “If I had worked harder at it, I could have done that,” said the GP, who has 242,000 followers on Instagram and has her own range of health and beauty supplements called Supplements Made Simple.
When Doireann went on holidays last summer, there were fewer vegetarian options available to her, so she began eating more fish. “I started feeling better so I came home and officially quit vegetarianism,” she said, adding that she has felt “so much better” since then.
In a previous post, Doireann shared the changes she experienced after giving up her meat-free diet and said that she wished she had done it sooner. She explained that she was feeling brighter and healthier, less anxious, was sleeping better and her gym performance had improved, adding that vegetarianism “hadn’t been working for me since becoming a mom”.
“When you adhere to a vegan or vegetarian diet, you can feel very stuck in that,” she said. “You can forget that if it’s not working for you any more, it’s okay to make a change – pause, quit or just reassess.”
Follow Dr Doireann on Instagram here.
