Ahh... the old "go vegan" guilt trip is coming. Yes, I put some sort of "Go Veg" message into most of my projects. This website is no exception.

Why should you go vegan? There are many reasons.

1. The enviornment. Only a small fraction of the calories consumed by farmed animals are actually converted into the meat that people eat. This means if you eat meat, you are literally wasting tons of food and water that could help feed the world. Farmed animals produce about 130 times as much excrement as the entire human population of the United States, and since factory farms don't have sewage treatment systems as our cities and towns do, this concentrated slop ends up polluting our water, destroying our topsoil, and contaminating our air. And meat-eaters are responsible for the production of 100 percent of this waste about 86,000 pounds per second! Whether it's the overuse of resources, unchecked water or air pollution, or soil erosion, raising animals for food is wreaking havoc on the Earth.

2. Animal welfare. If you ever decide to go vegan, this should be your main reason. There can be many other (like those listed below), but this is the only one that will make it last. Do you love animals? Cute kittens, overly happy dogs, wise-cracking parrots, or even funny looking ducks, etc? Well, chickens, cows and pigs are animals, too. We enslave them, rob them of anything they can produce for us, then kill them to cook their flesh. Let someone abuse your beloved pet like that and I bet you'll show some emotion then.

3. Your health. Vegan diets will add absolutely no cholesterol to your body. This lowers blood pressure and reduces the risk of heart disease (which is the #1 killer). Your calorie intake will probably be reduced, thus you will probably lose some weight (if you eat healthy foods, not vegan junk foods). Usually, vegans intake more fiber than omnis, which profoundly decreases the risk of colon cancer. There are many more heath benefits. This is just a sampling.

4. You may discover a whole new world of foods. There are so many wonderful ingredients that people completely overlook like seitan, tofu, nutritional yeast, curries, tempeh, exotic spices, lesser known veggies, etc. Similarly, there are so many cultural cuisines that most people don't even try that are full of flavor and have a good selection of vegan choices like Thai, Indian, Moroccan, Vietnamese, Ethiopian, Bengali, and Mediterranean. Chefs preparing vegan feasts concentrate on perfecting the balance of ingredients and spices to optimize the taste of food. When well prepared, vegan meals can be quite astounding.

Be sure to check out my vegan recipe eBook: 1000 Vegan Recipes