I was raised SDA, and while there may be some communities that are mostly vegan, I don't think that is particularly the norm. I don't think I even knew what vegan was until I was adult. School lunches (SDA schools) almost always had cheese (burritos, english muffin pizzas), and in grade school everybody got milk with lunch.

I am now 99% vegan. I say this only because there are a few snacks that I am finishing up that do have non-fat milk and stuff in them. But, I have not had anything else dairy or any eggs now in about two weeks. Feeling so good now too. I plan to be totally vegan soon. I feel like it's the right thing to do for me.

I'm confused about it even though I am always fascinated by vegetarian or vegan topics. 14mo ago I had just turned 40 and I was over weight( 173lbs), felt like crap and my legs and ankles always ached from being overweight. On my own, without any info, I cut out processed foods( which I see as a poison to your body) and ate only whole natural foods. No meat, No eggs, just veggies, fruit, 1 cup of dairy( yogurt+small amount of F.F milk) a day, nuts, seeds and fish 3 times a week. I did some research and found out this diet is called "Pescatarian' A vegetarian that eats some dairy and fish. I would like to know if this is the correct way to describe my way of eating. If anyone knows, please help. Anyway, I feel great and it was the best thing I ever did! I lost 65 lbs in 10 mo., I'm down to 107lbs., i have no aches, my hair got thicker, my nails grow fast, my skin looks younger and I have loads of energy. Can't sit for a minute energy! I didn't miss any processed foods or sweets at all and I still don't. I love the food and have found ways to cook healthy meals so I have some different choices. This is what I eat every day- B- 1/2 c. all natural high fiber cereal w/1/4 c. of F.F milk, 4 different fruits, berries, a few almonds, and sometimes a whole grain source. (about 450 calories) L- 1 F.F yogurt w/ berries, 1 kiwi and 1 plum.( 220 cal.) S- grapes if needed. D- lg. salad w/ tuna or nuts or i make tilapia w/ veggies. ( 230 cal.) If i need a snack later I eat grapes,carrots or celery. It comes to 1000-1200 cal a day depending on dinner and snacks. It works for me!

There's nothing unhealthy about eating eggs, for me, dairy seems to do me good, as opposed to ill (Swiss/Dutch/German ancestry, very lactose TOLERANT.) You could go with free range eggs and I'm sure there's some low cruelty produced milk...somewhere.

I've been vegan for about a year and a half and honestly, it was the best decision that I could have ever made.

Before I made the decision to go vegan, though, I did a lot of research. Not just on vegan health/nutrition but also nutrition in general. I read everything I possibly could get my hands on - both pro and anti vegan - and in the end, the decision to go vegan was a no-brainer.

I'm 31 and had been overweight my entire life. Between eating healthier and watching my portion sizes, I wound up losing close to 70lbs in a little over a year and feel absolutely amazing.

Being vegan is only as hard as you make it. The first month should be your learning/transition phase. Go to the supermarket and spend a few hours reading labels, do some research on line about what types of things vegans eat and then slowly start to transition things out of your diet. Once you get to a point where you think you're ready, then try being as vegan as you can be for 30 days. If at the end of the 30 days you feel like this is a lifestyle that you can maintain, then go for it.

The most important piece of advice I can give you is this: don't stress yourself out over being perfect. We all make mistakes and even the 'best' vegans still have mishaps sometimes.

One way to make it work is to not let being vegan be all that you are. Remember, that while it may be important to you, you don't want to drive your friends away. You're still you, just on a different path than they may be. I don't turn down dinner invitations and when I'm out with my friends, and I don't preach to them. If they bring it up in conversation, we talk about it, but I don't make it the topic of every meal. I look at the menu and see what I can make work for me. No matter where you go there is always something that you can eat - you just have to be a little bit creative sometimes.

In regards to the B-12 issues - just take a supplement. You don't need as much as you think, since the body stores it. Also, there are a lot of foods that are fortified with B-12 as well. Soy milk & some cereals are just two examples of places you can find it.

You've already been veg for a month, so you're a bit ahead of the game, but I have some resources/information that I've been working on putting together that you might find useful:

docs.google.com/View?id=dg7k5jxd_96cnjtz5d8

Whatever decision you make, just remember that humans don't need meat/animal products to survive. Many people have lived long, healthy lives without them. What we do need is a well-rounded, healthy diet - which you can get no matter what avenue you decide to take.

Arianwen - I'm not sure how Canadian standards stack up to American but Free Range here simply means 'not caged'. Chickens can still have very little room and can show extreme signs of stress. Male chicks are killed in the egg industry as well since there is little use for them.

Dairy has also been linked to various cancers and diabetes. Similar, male calves are killed in the dairy industry and generally used as veal. Continuous milking is stressful on female dairy cows and dairy cows live much shorter lives than non dairy cows and eventually become meat for consumption.

With eggs and dairy, there are also the hormones involved but I believe organic eggs and dairy come from hormone free chickens/cows. For me, I take less issue with eggs but I am happy and healthy not eating them but dairy concerns me a bit.

To my knowledge, free-range here means they get to go outside and eating the varied diet they were meant to eat. When I can afford it, I buy glass bottle organic milk from Avalon which is a small operation that probably treats their cows properly.

I've been a lacto-ovo Vegetarian for 20 years.

I tried to see if Free Range meant something different in Canada but it seems it may be the same as here in the US.
http://www.veg.ca/content/view/272/101/

"Alternatives to standard egg production methods are being used in Canada to a small degree. While these are an improvement, they are by no means free of cruelty. Chickens can live up to 12 years, but most alternatively-raised hens are still hauled to slaughter after a year or two. And male chicks are killed at birth, just as they are in factory farms.

Author, Michael Pollan, visited free-range chicken and egg farms to see conditions for himself as part of the research for his book, Omnivore's Dilemma. He discovered that a lot of companies market their eggs under family-farm-sounding names but are in fact huge industrial-scale operations. For example, Petaluma markets their "natural free range" eggs under the label, Judy's Family Farm. What "free range" means in this case is an enormous shed with a small door out to a tiny grassy area. The farm managers don't want the birds going outside, since these "defenseless, crowded, and genetically identical birds are exquisitely vulnerable to infection. This is one of the larger ironies of growing organic food in an industrial system."

Pollan visited a typical organic chicken farm, where the little doors to the outside remain closed until the birds are five weeks old. They are slaughtered at seven weeks, so "free range turns out to be not so much a lifestyle for these chickens as a two-week vacation option." (page 172)"

I read elsewhere that even though the birds are generally given access to the tiny grass patch at a certain age, they generally don't because they are scared and it is an unknown world to them. I also think free range chickens can still be fed ground up chicken and what not.

Here in the US, some producers are using pasture-raised eggs as a marketing term that indicates that the chickens are living a more natural life but even pasture raised qualities vary and some producers are cramming a bunch of chickens in a small grass patch and calling it pasture raised.

I buy eggs for my dogs which are from a local farm and are pasture raised. The chickens actually get room to move, scratch, whatever and do get to eat a varied diet. I should also say I'm not an animal rights vegan, I became vegan for health reasons but I do like to know where the food we eat comes from and that includes food for the cats and dogs.

I've never heard of "veg.ca" and you should take things you read online with a grain of salt. There's a lot of disinformation out there...

It's extremely difficult to get enough B6, B12 and Iron on a strictly vegan diet. I have a hard time getting enough of those nutrients on a lacto-ovo diet. Even if you supplement, where do they source the supplements from? I wanted evening primrose something or other before, I could not find it where it did not contain gelatin or other animal ingredients (no "health" stores near me, I went to a grocery store.)

That site was referencing a well researched and pretty famous book. Nutritional yeast is a decent source of B12 and some sea vegetables are as well. I also buy vegan supplements (Deva brand) My husband and I both get our b12 levels checked on our yearly checkup along with other vitamin levels.

Here is a website that covers B6 plant based sources:
http://www.veganpeace.com/nutrient_i...vitamin_b6.htm

I also think iron is very easy to get but then again I eat a lot of leafy greens. My iron sources have always been excellent. Also, cast iron pans are good to cook with. Here are some plant based sources.
http://www.vrg.org/nutrition/iron.htm

I am glad we have vegetarians of all flavors and I don't fault someone for saying they are ovo-lacto or ovo or lacto, but personally I highly recommend a vegan diet.

I do not recommend a vegan diet to anyone. I recommend they do what is right for them, whether that is to be an omnivore, pescatarian, vegetarian etc. What disturbs me greatly is how many of my meat-eating friends have gotten flak from vegans especially for eating meat in front of them, I get the backlash, people act weird when they find out I'm vegetarian and think I'm going to go all Meat **** on them, which is completely not the case at all.

I have even received flak for being an lacto-ovo, I get the impression some vegans think I'm not a "true Vegetarian" because I'm not vegan. This is something that has been troubling me for a long long while.

Also, there's a vegan in my Sociology class that is incredibly condescending and arrogant, I can't even stand to sit near her. I've probably been a vegetarian as long as she's been alive, which I find ironic/humorous.

Incidentally, I regularly eat tofu "dogs" etc and while I can get a lot of B12 that way, the B6 is still pretty low. Even with my dairy consumption I think I'm deficient in B6 based on the shortness of my cycles (if you get my drift.) i picked up combo B6/B12 pills today, hope I remember to take them.

I recommend a vegan diet because personally I love it and really wish I had discovered it sooner. I think that critical/judgemental vegetarians kept me away from a vegan/vegetarian diet for a long time. I was never ovo-lacto (or a mix of either) vegetarian so I can't speak for that but I think becoming vegan opened up a world to me that didn't exist to me prior and I'm not sure it would've existed if I still chose to eat eggs/dairy.

I personally shy away from fake meats but if someone wants to include them in their diet, then I say go for it. I follow a more whole foods approach though and try to stay away from processed products.

I will also say people can be asses because of who they are regardless of beliefs. All vegans aren't asses just as all meat eaters aren't asses. Although I know a few vegans/vegetarians, most people I know are not and I've never said anything to any of them about their dietary choices. I on the other hand have heard tons of 'blah blah blah meat is good blah blah blah not eating meat is bad for you blah blah blah'. I don't know why people don't get that I don't want to hear details about how they killed an animal to eat it or cooked it a certain way or what not. It is one of the weirdest responses I get when I say I'm vegetarian (I don't use the word vegan usually).

I haven't gotten the "we're supposed to eat meat" type of uh, baloney in years but I've heard that before.

Ironically, my card-carrying meat eating friend was horrified at my tofu/fake hot dog eatin', she said tofu is carcinogenic etc. I tease her now by eating tofu in front of her. :D

Arianwen, I've had people think they'd get a lecture from me as well. Where I used to work, a man came in and handed me a PETA flyer and asked if I put it on his car. I said no, and he looked at me with a smile like he didn't believe me. I said no, I don't even belong to PETA, I didn't do it, but based on the 200 McDonald cartons in your back seat, anybody could have done it. :lol:

:rofl: