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Vegan? Not for me, today

There may be good reasons for it, but I'm not ready to go there

Today is Vegan day, a term created exactly 70 years ago.

This is a story about it by my vegan friend and colleague, Vance Lehmkuhl:

http://www.philly.com/philly/columnists/vforveg/20141030_Saturday_s_Vegan_Day_offers_many_ways_to_sample_animal-free_eating.html

Knowing of my sympathy for the suffering of farm animals, Vance has been gently nudging me, for some time, toward vegetarianism, which I might be able to handle (like Paul McCartney) and Vance hints someday I will be vegan.

I doubt it. It's too hard — and unnecessary in my opinion.

I haven't eaten veal is more than three decades because it is cruelty, pure and simple. This is from PETA, but the basic facts are indisputable:

http://www.peta.org/issues/animals-used-for-food/animals-used-food-factsheets/veal-byproduct-cruel-dairy-industry/

Did you know new, hot pop superstar Ariana Grande is a vegan? I didn't. Here's a list of celebs who are vegan or vegetarian.

http://www.happycow.net/famous_vegetarians.html#A

While some of them sing the health benefits of vegetarianism, um, Al Gore is a vegetarian. Just sayin'.

While Vance pushes me from one direction, I had a fitness trainer who pushed me from the other direction, that it's all about protein and there's a reason humans are atop the food chain.

Well, protein can be gotten from sources other than meat, such as lentils, beans and um, hemp (not the form that Woody Harrelson is crazy about), eggs and cottage cheese (although the last two are animal-based and aren't vegan).

I haven't eaten pork for 25 years to protest the factory farming of pigs, which is terrible for the environment and terrible for the pigs.

I am eating very little beef, but know that in terms of sheer volume, no animal suffers more than chickens.

The good news is there have been great strides in recent years in producing food substitutes that do not come from animals and cause no suffering. Whenever possible, I look for those in the supermarket.

As for marking today as Vegan Day, Vance challenged me to eat a vegan meal or at least a vegan dish.

I said, OK — ice cream. (Actually, I will eat vegan all day… salad and pasta and Boca burgers… but I'm not ready to do that every day….yet.)

Vance gave me a pint of Almond Dream chocolate non-dairy frozen dessert. Lactose and gluten-free, no cholesterol, no trans fat and no highly refined sugar.

Is it the same as ice cream? No, not quite as rich, but it depends on what kind of ice cream you eat.

It is very sweet and tastes like chocolate (and is fattening, so it must be good).