Vegan/Vegetarian Diet

[Guest guest]

Since getting my Vitamix and Excalibur dehydrator I've been trying to eat much

healthier. I've cut out refined flours and sugars almost all the time and have

been making healthy smoothies and ice cream with greens almost every day as well

as making more food from scratch. I've always tried to eat fairly healthy, but

I now realize that there was a lot of room for improvement and I'm changing my

eating habits to be even healthier.

My question is for any vegans/vegetarians on this list. What are some of the

biggest tips you would give for going vegan or vegetarian? I've known in my

heart for a long time that factory farming is cruel to animals, but last night I

made the " mistake " of watching a video about it and I'm very determined to go

vegetarian then then hopefully vegan. I just can't ever look at a hamburger or

chicken breast or even an egg the same way ever again.

From my research thus far my understanding is that you can get everything you

need from nuts, fruits, veggies, and legumes (which now will be much easier with

the Vitamix), but B12 is something that you have to supplement with or eat

fortified foods with it in them. Am I correct?

I have two children and my plan is to start cooking more meatless meals and

eventually switch over to 100% vegetarian meals. My main concern for my kids is

to make sure they get the nutrients their growing bodies need and my main

concern with my husband is just that he'll be a whiner about going meatless. I

guess I could always cook some meat if my hubby puts up a big stink about it.

He's a very caring guy so I think if he saw what I saw about factory farming

he'd be more likely to switch over to vegetarianism at least most of the time,

but I don't think he'll watch anything because sometimes it's easier to shield

yourself from that reality. My other option is to try to find a local farmer

where I can actually talk with them about their practices and see their farm and

how the animals are treated, though the more I think about it, the more I think

of how all animals are thinking beings with feelings and I don't know if I can

meat at all, though humane farming would make it easier for me to do so.

If people want to pm me privately not to clog up the group that's fine, but I

figured since this group is full of healthy eaters and people with experience

with cooking healthy that there might be some people with good insights to share

with me