Flirt

I am a flirt. Hold your comments, please, because I mean a vegan flirt. My name is Nicole, and I have been flirting with veganism.

For the past year or so, I have cut down on the amount of meat I eat. In fact, most of the time, I go for the vegetarian choice on the menu instead of the burger or chicken breast. After watching some coverage of Food, Inc. and the like, I decided to do some research into vegetarianism and veganism.

I picked up The Kind Diet, Alicia Silverstone's vegan cookbook. The first part of the book is a discussion of veganism: how she arrived at being vegan, the cruelty of the meat and dairy industry, the health benefits, etc. I've always heard rumors of the benefits - clearer skin being one. But I hadn't really thought about how kind of strange it is that we drink the milk of other animals. In the animal kingdom, that's not normal. I also didn't know about the research being done into the relationship between dairy and cancer rates. We are told that you have to drink milk to get calcium, but according to The Kind Diet, the calcium in milk actually makes your body use more calcium than you're ingesting. It's actually been a huge marketing campaign by the milk industry (similar to the "A Diamond is Forever" campaign started by De Beers). You can get great levels of calcium from so many other things - greens, almonds, sesame seeds, soybeans - and their calcium is actually more readily absorbed by the body.

While veganism really intrigues me, two major things will prevent me from becoming truly vegan.

1. Sushi
2. Cheese

I cannot happily live without these two things. But that I have made some changes. At home, I've cut out out all animal products (except for cheese and seafood). No eggs. No milk. No butter. If I'm out, then I look for the vegan option. I believe that every little bit helps - me and our planet's animals. Although I don't label myself as anything, I guess at this point I am closest to a pescatarian (occasional vegan), but I make no promises; we'll just have to see how this goes. For now, you can just call me a flirt.