Vegan

I'm giving you props for this.

Sugar is poison. For close to ayear I was caffeine free, and avoided sugar at all costs.

I fell way off that wagon.

A very good friend of mine was a vegan for years, and it started getting in the way of health, so 30 days probably won't be bad.

I wish I had the will power to kick these habits. I love me some steak.

As far as make-up goes, a lot of the good ones don't test on animals or use animal biproducts.

Estee Lauder
MAC
Clinique

Here is a linky:
http://www.caringconsumer.com/resources_companies.asp

Good on ya girl, that would be very difficult for me to do.

Vegan diet in my opinion is not wrong, but makes it tough to keep up with the amount and variety of nutrition that you need to maintain a healthy body.

For example, there are a number of proteins that you can get from soy, but there are others in meat and fish which are paramount to sustain life. And these supplements have been added to the human diet for thousands of years. Let's face it, humans have evolved into omnivores; there's no sense in fighting it. Skin pigmentation evolves, dietary needs evolve, everything evolves or dies.

This is not to say one cannot live on a vegan diet, one can, but I personally do not think it's very healthy using the average implementation (un-researched, home-grown, vegan diets). You need to do a lot of extra work to be a vegan, you can't just start eating only lettuce and celery sticks and ignoring everything else. You really need to know what you need to do to avoid diseases like osteoporosis (espeically women).

As for additives, preservatives and humanitarian concerns, you can easily find foods which are free of these things. Cage-free eggs, foods which are fresh, foods which contain "no additives or preservatives", etc.

I do not think that red meat is good for people in general. There's a strong relationship with the consumption of red meat and the development of certain cancers, especially when undercooked. You can't just ignore these findings. Sure some people can eat red meat every day and live to be 103, but are you willing to take that bet? I'm not, so I rarely eat red meat. I've probably had red meat once in the last 3 or 4 months; my prerogative. Poultry and fish are amazing for humans (fatty acids and such), but fish are becoming polluted so what to do now? Can only get farm raised fish $$$$$; this is a cause worth fighting for in my opinion.

About adopting the whole vegan mentality? Personally, I have to say that I lack a little bit of respect for people who look down on other people for their choice of diet. Or look down on people in general, which is a sign of insecurity. You only look down on someone if you believe you are in need of being "above" something or someone. Do you look down on bears? They hunt and they're not always the most humane killers either ;) Basically, if your comfortable with who you are, then you don't need these kinds of things.

Take humans who hunt for instance, and people who are anti-hunting. Hunting is a primitive, natural activity that *must* be done for certain reasons. Yes there are people who over-hunt and those tat are just bad hunters/practitioners in general. The ethical hunter (possibly an oxymoron to some people) goes out to hunt animals with the desire to "harvest" the animal and to cause the least amount of suffering possible. You cherish the animal and you are thankful for the nourishment that it provides. This is such a natural thing that it's not even the least bit wrong in my opinion.

This story could get long, but it's beside the point.

If your choice to be vegan is for health purposes, then why do you feel that you might need to adopt the mentality of someone who is an extremist anti-use of animals for anything. You don't need to be someone who doesn't wear leather or someone who hassles the Target employee to find out if the makeup is animal-tested or not if you don't want to be. While I don't agree with all uses of animals for all research purposes, I don't see wearable leather as evil or wasteful. If you raise an animal for the leather only, that is wrong. But if the leather is a product of the harvest, why is this wrong?

In the end, if you want to be vegan... don't do more harm than good. And if you want to continue eating certain meats, you can find an abundance of information about what meats are beneficial, which are not, and you might need to do a little more exploration of the foods you buy but I'm sure you can find ones that are free of "bad stuff".

As I gnaw on a carrot stick, I say, Ringer, I love you're overwhelming comments. I didn't say I needed to adopt the ways of an extremist, but attempting vegan for 30 days has brought a spot light to my lifestyle that is, perhaps, not animal friendly. After reading and learning, it became apparant that I am not comfortable, to say the least, with most animal handling practices. And call this left of center, but I want to avoid ingesting something lived an abused life only to die a cruel death. I don't want that kind of 'energy' I think food can carry to be passed on to me. Not to say I will shun cage-free chickens and free-roaming beef. I feel this period of veggies and brown rice will give me more than adequate time to evaluate potential foods. I'm not saying eating meat is wrong for the human body and I do agree that is is difficult to get balanced nutrition when you subsist on mostly fruits and veggies. And while I completely understand the 'ethical hunter,' I'm finding it difficult to find an ethical slaughterhouse. The choice to take on vegan-ism for 30 days turned into internal moral eating debate. I don't believe vegan could be my way of life, but it did illuminate the down falls and potential harm my habits could have and unsavory practices I wish to have no part in.

You know, I don't think I could do it. I mean, I could calm down on the sugars, but I don't think I could give it up. I'm conditioned to like it. My conditioning has been conditioned.

- Trew Life Advice

dude veganism is HARD.

i was a vegetarian (pretty strict) for 2 years. i didn't eat meat and strove to cut out any animal byproduct that i was aware of in the foods (ie - no marshmallows, etc). this also extended to 'vegetarian soups' that just so happened to come in chicken broth. it was all about reading ingredients and never being comfortable. it was all about going to mcdonalds and ordering french fries for dinner and pretending nobody dropped a chicken nugget into the fryer or something. no fun.

asking questions at every restaurant you go to, making waiters do all this extra footwork so they can find out for sure if your food contains bleached sugar that comes from animal byproducts.

why not just go kosher? i mean, what we essentially were asking for was an assurance that no animal product gets fried up on the same pan that our t.v.p. (textured vegetable protein) was being prepared on. TVP chilli, TVP burgers, TVP chicken, TVP everything. vegan cookies, no more gummy bears/worms/gummy anything = just a pain in the ass.

it just sucks that veganism/vegetarianism turns into fashion and that what starts as a healthy attempt to maintain your own body turns political and potentially socially ostricizing to others who don't share your convictions.

vegans shouldnt need to feel like they have to join P.E.T.A. to be vegans.

I could never do vegan either. I don't know how to cook much of anything anways, so limiting my selection would probably mean starving.

Here's my favorite recipe:

Thing on a Stick
(a.k.a. Bachelor's Delight)
SERVES 1

Impale something on a sharpened stick. Cook over a pile of burning stuff until bored. Serve hot and enjoy.