A slight detour

Normally I post nothing in the least bit controversial because honestly I'm just not a controversial person. And you're all knitters, so you naturally want to see my knitting. Which, by the way, I will digress back on track to say that the Tangled Yoke Cardigan is progressing nicely. I've finished the main body up to the armholes and have just started the sleeves. So far so good.

Oh, so the detour. A fair bit of whining and temper tantrum-ing has been going on at Chez Spaz as of late. Okay, so maybe it's just the Spaz doing the whining and not so much DH. But anyway, I just want to put this out there. DH read a book recently which has made him convinced that a vegan diet has enormous health benefits. He claims that the book gives plenty of evidence that eating animal derived products has a high correlation to not only heart disease (as I probably would have expected) but also to cancer, osteoporosis and a host of other diseases.

Now I would never try to argue against eating more fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and legumes and reducing the amount of fats, cholesterol, and processed sugars that seem to be everywhere. But I can't buy into the idea that skim milk, eggs, cheese in moderation, and lean meats and fishes are bad. Maybe I'm a product of a highly effective ad campaign launched by the meat and dairy industry, but an entire category of food can't simply be BAD. I'm sure that anything in excess is to be avoided.

So anyway, this has sparked heated debate about what Chez Spaz as a whole should be eating. I apologize in advance if I offend, but I can't help it. I LIKE meat. I was raised on meat. I ate meat at just about every meal. A meal felt like a side dish if there wasn't some sort of meat involved. I've always been a picky eater, and many dinnertimes in my youth were spent in a stare down to see who would give in first. It wasn't easy to get me to eat at least the minimum amount of food, so my parents often resorted to bargaining with me to at least eat the meat if nothing else. So I'm used to the idea of meat being a highly integral part of my diet. I don't change readily, so I'm not doing so well with the idea of mostly NOT eating meat.

Anyway, the question for you is, are any of you vegan or mostly vegan? If so, why are you vegan, how did you successfully make the tranition, and do you have any recommendations? I'm currently aiming for most meals to be meat free and allowing dairy products. But even this is hard for me.