someone prove me wrong, please

Personally, I don't think anyone should subject themselves to being vegan, but not for any moral reason. It's just too hard, and hey, live a little. I am a chef, actually, and have done vegan dinners before. A recent client mentioned that I was a godsend, as they were so bored with the same old same old, yet completely dedicated vegans. Even their pet food was veggie.

It sounds like you are currently caught in an existential dilemma, seeing the negatives on both sides of any decision you want to make, and therefore becoming incapable of making a decision at all. I think we have to accept that while noble goals are a good thing, we essentially make decisions for ourselves. If the decision to become vegan is good for YOU, then go for it. This is the opposite side of selfishness, the side that goes into an idea or project because it makes you feel positive about yourself, which makes you better equipped to help others, or support other causes. Slavish devotion to anything without personally WANTING to do it can make you bitter about your cause in the end. If you have to debate over it, it may not be right for you.

I agree with cav. There are a number of things to consider:

Why do you want to become a vegan? Health or moral reasons?

Could you contemplate a life without meat and dairy products?

Are you aware of the things that you would have to do as a vegan in order to maintain a full complement of vitamins and minerals in your diet, in order for you to stay healthy?

As far as your decision having any significant existential fallout, I think that you are making a mountain out of a molehill. After all, going along with your reasoning, let's say a meat cutter loses a job because of you. On the other hand, a vegetable farmer may gain another job, so it is really a wash entry.

You know what? Why don't you try out the lifestyle for a week or two, and see how it goes.

And, it doesn't have to be all or nothing. I was an ovo-lacto vegetarian for 15 years. It'll probably be easier for you to go off red meat for a while, and then off chicken, etc. Do it in stages and see how it goes.

You need to maintain good nutrition. With vegetarianism it's not necessarily a protein issue (you can eat tofu and peanut butter) - it's more likely that it's an issue of iron and too much fat. When I was a vegetarian, I was generally borderline anemic. And when I wasn't, I was overweight.

I was an ovo-lacto vegetarian for about nine years.

I became a vegetarian for ethical reasons. I stopped for health and lifestyle reasons. It is very difficult to keep a varied, healthy, low-fat, balanced diet without consuming at least some animal products, especially fish, lean meats, and eggs. As a vegetarian, and especially as a vegan, you must take a good multivitamin every single day. And an iron supplement, and make sure you take that at a different time from your calcium supplement, because it is difficult for the body to process both at the same time.

Vegans must be very careful to pair their complimentary proteins correctly. Many vegans are misinformed about which proteins compliment each other. (Always always always have a whole grain with your legumes or nuts! The legume does you little good if you don't complete it with a whole grain. Two legumes, or a legume and a nut, do not make a complete protein. And wonder bread is a waste of your time on absolutely every level.)

If you find that veganism is the right move for you, be very very careful. Remember your proteins. And remember how much fat there is in peanut butter and in soy products.

And take careful note of how your body reacts. Mine developed more and more severe food allergies while I was vegetarian. I started with one life-threatening allergy, but over those nine years it slowly expanded to many more. I was also borderline anemic a lot of the time, despite taking supplements.

With regard to the question about causes, I believe that if a cause is so important to you that you truly want to make massive lifestyle changes because of it, then you should do so. But veganism isn't the only way to go.

If you are a vegetarian or even if you aren't, and you want to become a vegan because of the treatment of animals on factory farms and because of your potential impact on the earth by eating unethically farmed food, think about this. It makes a much bigger difference to lobby for more humane treatment of animals on those farms than simply to change your eating habits. Make sure the corporate farmers and the legislators know about your position. Write letters. Sign petitions.

Most importantly, make your dollar work for good. Buy organically grown produce. Buy free-range or wild meats and fish. Tell your grocer that you will buy more of these products if he stocks them for you. Tell him that all your friends will too. Then follow through and do so. If something is full of chemicals and wrapped in eight layers of plastic, don't buy it. Write to the company about packaging that impacts the environment in a less harmful way.

There are many ways you can help the earth without becoming a vegan.

Like most decisions, tellmeverything's vegan decision can be easily unmade (in this case with a large bacon & egg sandwich).

Absolutely no-one on Earth can assess all the possible repercussions of all of their actions, and therefore it's not worth worrying about what might happen at the 'n'th degree.

Once you start getting into the cycle of indecision, it's very hard to get out of and it would eventually lead to you staying in bed all day in case you did something that ultimately lead to the destruction of the planet!

It's just a case of getting some perspective. I'm not trying to make a joke out of a serious subject like vegetarianism, but it's not like you're contemplating becoming a Nazi or a cannibal (where the human consequences are so obviously bad), is it?

hey!
i got alot out of the replies i heard here, and some, such as graham, especially understood what i was trying to say...about the n'th power and all. i see now that while i shouldn't avoid doing anything for fear it will lead to "the destruction of the planet", i probably also shouldn't do anything too consuming when i don't even know the results will be good or even existent! i'm going to stick to vegetarianism, since i can do it without being dominated by it, unlike the choice to be a vegan. honestly, i eat badly enough that vegetarianism has been a big change for me, and i'd probably die as a vegan...truely.

Tellmeeverything - Perhaps you could try being vegan part-time, maybe on weekends or something, to see how you cope? Whatever you decide, I'm pleased you seem a bit happier now!

If Vegatarians eat Vegatables, what do Humanitarians eat?

And just where does baby oil come from anyway?

and buffalo wings?

Oh uh... I've started a topic hi-jacking.

Sorry about that.

But...

There is no lobster in lobster sauce
No duck in duck sauce
And precious little crab in crab rangoon.

may as well be a vegan...

There is also no squid in "Squid Brand Fish Sauce"

But there IS bop in the "Bop She Bop Bee Bop"!

For the Canucks who at some point enjoyed the fine fare at Ontario Place: There is also no beaver in Beaver Tails....more's the pity...

Well, hell, I just can't resist....

There is no french in the French Fries!

Okay, but seriously. My short story may help. I am a vegetarian, the few animal products I still eat are eggs, dairy and fish, on a very small scale. I became vegetarian because I refused, as an adult to cook beef. And I got to the point where I realized that I really didn't like eating beef. So it was only chicken for me and occasionally pig. I was not even eating fish then.

I have never really liked turkey or other birds. Well after a few years of that, there was the nasty chicken incident. I got quite sick from some frozen chicken. I had a previous incident with breakfast sausage and have never gone back. Well needless to say I was a bit shy on the chicken avenue. I moved to pork for a bit, pizza w/canadian bacon. And finally it had been so long since I had chicken, I decided to get over myself and have chicken again. Well, what I did not expect was, the chicken tasted so strange to me that I was totally uninterested in having chicken again.

If you have ever removed sugar from your diet, and then tasted it at some point later, you know that a small amount is very SWEET.

Well I had a few vegetarian friends at the time, so it was easy to be vegetarian. I really had no intention of going there, but, oops, it happened.

Now, of all of those friends, I am the only vegetarian left. Bizarre! They were very political about their choice as well. I never have been.

So my advice is this:

EAT. Eat whatever you want. Try to make healty choices for your body. But DO NOT let anyone tell what is right. If you want to put it in your mouth do it (--okay but really, wash it first, okay?--). And do not let anyone guilt you into a "moral" choice. You will be giving up your happiness. The sad truth is, animals will always be killed. If you don't eat them, someone else will. Fast food chains are not going bankrupt. Marycat posted some excellent advice on how to make a difference. Hey, I love leather. You eat the cow, I get to wear it.

Don't let PC guilt mess up your life. It becomes a bad cycle. "You're not good enough because you don't..."
Whatever.
Be the best person you can, make the best choices for you. In return what happens is, you become a better person everytime you respect yourself, that like a ripple will effect others in a good way.

When people ask why I am a vegetarian, I always say something similar to, "I'm not eating that." And then I get razzed when I won't eat asparagus. "But your a vegetarian, you're suppose to like vegetables." Ewwww, asparagus, yuk!