veganism: I'm not Vegan, I am vegetarian and have been for ten years or so. And I feel great! What are your views on Veganism? (If you are Vegan, you MUST take a supplement because Vitamin B12 and Vitamin D are ABSENT in plant foods. You may need to take an iron supplement. Ask your GP.)|||I think whatever your personal beliefs on the subject is great for you.... have you ever stopped to consider how multi-vitamins are made? Have you ever considered that if you have to take supplements to stay healthy, then isn't something therefore lacking in your diet that your body needs? If that is the case then why leave that out of your diet when your body needs certain vitamins and minerals that a vegan diet can't give you? I don't think any diet that could possibly put your health at risk is good for anyone.|||It has 0 effect on my life, so I honestly could care less. If it makes the person happy, vegan it up! More steak and milk for me :)|||Well I'm neither but whatever. Sometimes I may inquire about certain things on here from time to time and question the reason why they don't eat meat but ultimately I guess I've gotta respect their decision.|||Veganism is terrific, as long as you focus on the produce aisle more than the frozen foods. A variety of organic fruits, vegetables and raw nuts and seeds can satisfy all dietary needs. Your nutritional advice is erroneous, and asking a GP is unlikely to help- nutrition is not a required course in medical school, and most doctors do not take it.|||I went vegan several months ago after being vegetarian for over 20 years. I have been so happy with my decision. I'm cooking more out of necessity and eating better than I have in my life, in terms of variety, taste and healthfulness. I do supplement B12, but my vitamin D levels are fine between fortified foods and sunshine. I've teetered on the brink of mild iron deficiency my entire life (even as a meat eater) but it's not any worse now than it was then; I do take a small amount of supplemental iron daily.|||It's not the life for me, but I think if you can live and be healthy then why not?|||Scottie, B12 is NOT absent in plant food. Its available in many plant foods but not in useful concentrations for the amount of each product we want to eat. Some vegans do take plant based b.12 supplements, some don't....its not as clear cut as your MUST / ABSENT comment This site has FACTS about B.12 should you wish to learn: http://www.vegsoc.org/info/b12.html The site describes the re-absorption, quantity stored in the body and atrition rate. It also discusses nomadic vegan groups in Iran who live perfectly happilly without supplements, i don't suppose ANY of them have ever seen a GP, let alone asked them about it. Your tone seems like you think your diet is right and they are wrong - thats not too helpful. Veganism meet some peoples moral beliefs, just as vegetarianism does. If vegans started to remind you what happens to dairy cows and egg-laying hens then i think one might wonder why anyone who is veggie for animal welfare reasons would eat dairy. I think taking a plant based b.12 is far more natural than the process we used to get dairy these days I see dairy and beef farms approx every other day because we visit them to see about rescue Jerseys. The farms I'm talking about here are nationally recognised as being the best in the industry, they have viewing gallaries and consistantly win awards so we are not talking about the average or less, we are talking about the BEST here. And this is UK farms which are recognised as having the best husbandry in the world. Artificial incemination every year Cows would naturally calve every 2-3 years. Dairy farms artificially inceminate them every 11 months. This causes excessive stress on the cows body, increses the chance of prolapse and generally "wears them out" Protein enriched feed The feed they are given is enriched with artificial growth foods. these are generally made with cattle meat protiens. Bribe/feed caged carousels These suck. They are large rotating carousels where the cows are caged in a space where they cannot move. They have "black boxes" on thier legs which communicate with the main operating computer. They are fed just the right amount of food depending on how much milk they gave yesterday. They have added growth food if thier production drops One person can milk about 400 cattle on a carousel so there is no time for checking the animals health - they just milk them dry and kick them out. killing bulls, excess calves and free martins at 1 week old All bulls are killed at 1 week old, although some farms iin the UK started ( in 2006 ) shipping them to Continental Europe for veal again. They do not keep any back for breeding as they bring in new blood lines. In the UK we don't use dairy bull calves for veal anymore in country. They are either killed, or shipped out. Bull calves go to make low quality leather products such as cheap sofas. They kill all free martins as there is a good chance they will be barren. Strangly, they feed these animals with colostrum at birth to keep them alive, but then kill them a week later. excess feeding to produce 60 lites of milk per day The growth food is all designed to produce excess milk. Cows are naturally designed to produce about 15 litres. The european targets for 2009 are set at 90 litres, i don't think it need me to tell you if this is heading the right or wrong direction. intensive rearing means low husbandry checks As mentioned above, most automatic dairies have one milkmaid per session, thats it. I know a dairy farm with 1200 cattle and 3 employees. Tell me how they can ever check the cattle.... removing calves from mothers after colostrum feed This is stressful, cows bawl for weeks for thier young, calling them to be fed. Obviously the calf cannot "run to mom" because its in dog food by now. killing the cow at 7 years old Cows can naturally live to 20 years old. Production dairy cows are killed after 4-6 births so are never kept after 7 years old.|||Gandhi didn't promote veganism....also the b12 is in some veggies but the soil tends to get overworked by plantings for the veggie to have enough b12 in it.|||too hard to go without ice cream AND chocolate but i'm a vegetarian.|||I take B12 and I go tanning alot so that's how i get my vitamin D haha and I take a multivitamin that doesnt contain bone marrow and stuff... But I'm vegetarian to and I think veganism is great! I want to go vegan but it's really hard because it costs abit extra and I'm only 15...and i kind of feel bad making my parents spend so much on me, but veganism is actually really healthy in my opinion it cuts out alot of the junk I know you're a guy but there's a book called "skinny *****" and it was written by two women who are now vegan it's really inspiring and helps you get motivated and they have a cook book as well but they don't just talk about ridding yourself of all products that are animal associated but refined, processed and genetically modified foods aswell it really opens your eyes.|||I am vegan and I love it. Giving up cheese was the best thing I could have done. I take a half or even a quarter of a B complex vitamin every day or so. I eat enough Iron. I don't worry about it much. I am healthy and well researched, so I know what I am doing. I find it interesting that so many people are concerned with our diet...most Americans get too much meat, salt, sugar...not enough veggies and fruit...whole wheat's. Sure some vegans may go anemic, but how many are having heart problems, diabetes etc. When I was a vegetarian, I was still supporting factory farming. It started to bother me. So I changed. I think that veganism is great for me. I love it, I feel better in my mind and my body. EDIT TO ADD: Hey Mia, I have an incredible recipe for cheese cake...it is so good, I feed it to meat eaters and they love it...if you ever go vegan, let me know, I will give you the recipe :)|||I think people put down veganism, due to lack of education and respect. Anything that is different from the masses is considered weird and wrong. Not many main stream media - show positive images of vegetarians or vegans? Instead ty are shown as hippies and jobless and fairy like! People like to degrade a belief they do not understand. I recently became a vegan - from a vegetarian, -and its a nice feeling. Actually because I have been eating more fruits and veggies, my body feels cleaner and healthy. I think you should try it if you want, but if its not for you, just go back to being vegetarain. no big deal!|||I love the idea of becoming a vegan and I toss it around at least once a month. I've been a vegetarian for better than half my life and I love it. But I just can't seem to get wrapped around the whole vegan lifestyle - it's hard enough to be a vegetarian and live in the mid-west. Plus, I love sweets, even though I don't eat them a lot, but the idea of never being able to have a piece of cheese cake again breaks my heart... As for the vitamin thing, whether you're a vegan, vegetarian or a meat eater you should take a daily vitamin - most people don't eat enough fruit and veggie on a daily basis to get the amount of vitamins and minerals they need.|||For me, I don't think you can really call yourself vegetarian if you're not vegan. I mean what's worse, killing large numbers of animals to feed yourself, or enslaving an entire species, forcing them to breed, live their entire lives overweight, and steal the milk intended for the young that they wouldn't normally have even had? At least if you kill them, that's some sort of release, and if you don't farm them at all that's even better. I think it's just about the worst form of hypocrisy to be a vegetarian and still have dairy. I would rather it be the other way around (no dairy but still meat). I do eat meat (and dairy) by the way, but if I were to convert at all, it would either be to help end world hunger (but would only do it if a large group of maybe 100,000+ did it with me at the same time), or I would switch to no dairy and only hunted meat (not farmed in any way) =)|||I think vegetarianism is ok if its done for health reasons and not just to "save some animals," but veganism sounds a little risky. i mean even with vitamins you're missing out on a lot of health benefits. plus there doesnt seem to be any benefits to it.|||They is some fools.|||more meat for me is my view|||I saw a cute bumper sticker the other day . . . Save a cow, eat a Vegan! I personally don't care if someone is Vegan, just don't push that philosophy on me. I believe God made the animals to provide food and as long as I don't have to kill it, and/or it doesn't look like a dead animal when I eat it I'm ok.