One of "those people"

At the risk of being annoying...I am, as of Monday, (attempting to be) vegan.

Or geez (which rhymes with CHEESE), "mostly vegan."

As opposed to "mostly vegetarian." Which I have been for years, though I've had pretty serious lapses. (Including Texas smoked BBQ & the quest for the perfect grass-fed organic beef hamburger.)

But I just can't do it anymore. I have to pretend to know a whole lot less than I do (i.e. lie to myself) to keep it up.

Luckily cheese is the only dairy product I will miss. I already choose soy versions of most dairy.

Because recently--say the last year--I've become irrevocably fascinated with nutritional science, and the (unfortunate, unbelievable, maddening) politics of food in this country. (My mom was a lifelong employee of the USDA, though a rural division that dealt mostly with environmental issues and farm subsidies.) I began reading the stuff as a way of opening up a second avenue of freelance writing. But there you go. Knowledge is nonreturnable.

So, just because I think kindly of you, I would like to recommend, without further comment on this topic here (possibly ever), the following books, if you are interested in finding out how what you don't know about nutrition is an amazing amount of scary shit but also an amazing amount of very cool shit:

The China Study
Eat to Live
The World's Healthiest Foods (great for everyone, omnivores included--this guy is not a vegetarian)
Eat, Drink & Be Healthy (ditto)

Enjoy. I am.