On 14 Sep 2006 11:36:11 -0700, "Maggie" > wrote:

>hi
>
>I've just joined the group. My diet needs a major overhaul - currently
>lots of meat and cheese.
>
>Over the last 18 months I've lost about 75lbs, from 200lbs to around
>125, and my cholesterol has dropped from 250+ to around 175. I've just
>been taken off all cholesterol medication but 1500 mg slow release
>niacin a day, and I want to keep it that way! I've also recently taken
>up cycling, and will be training to ride a century next March.

Excellent!

>I think I may be looking at a vegan (or near vegan) diet to this,
>especially as there is a a history of heart disease in my family.
>Does anyone have any advice?

You should be able to tell by your own results that you're on the
right track already. And if you've only "recently" started cycling,
you should improve a great deal more if you keep it up. The only
reason to go vegan is for supposedly ethical reasons, otherwise
just eat intelligently as you've been doing instead of the way you
were eating before. Since there's no reason to become vegan
other than supposedly ethical reasons, you should consider these
facts while you're thinking through what to do:

· Vegans contribute to the deaths of animals by their use of
wood and paper products, electricity, roads and all types of
buildings, their own diet, etc... just as everyone else does.
What they try to avoid are products which provide life
(and death) for farm animals, but even then they would have
to avoid the following in order to be successful:

Tires, Paper, Upholstery, Floor waxes, Glass, Water
Filters, Rubber, Fertilizer, Antifreeze, Ceramics, Insecticides,
Insulation, Linoleum, Plastic, Textiles, Blood factors, Collagen,
Heparin, Insulin, Solvents, Biodegradable Detergents, Herbicides,
Gelatin Capsules, Adhesive Tape, Laminated Wood Products,
Plywood, Paneling, Wallpaper and Wallpaper Paste, Cellophane
Wrap and Tape, Abrasives, Steel Ball Bearings

The meat industry provides life for the animals that it
slaughters, and the animals live and die as a result of it
as animals do in other habitats. They also depend on it for
their lives as animals do in other habitats. If people consume
animal products from animals they think are raised in decent
ways, they will be promoting life for more such animals in the
future. People who want to contribute to decent lives for
livestock with their lifestyle must do it by being conscientious
consumers of animal products, because they can not do it by
being vegan.
From the life and death of a thousand pound grass raised
steer and whatever he happens to kill during his life, people
get over 500 pounds of human consumable meat...that's well
over 500 servings of meat. From a grass raised dairy cow people
get thousands of dairy servings. Due to the influence of farm
machinery, and *icides, and in the case of rice the flooding and
draining of fields, one serving of soy or rice based product is
likely to involve more animal deaths than hundreds of servings
derived from grass raised animals. Grass raised animal products
contribute to fewer wildlife deaths, better wildlife habitat, and
better lives for livestock than soy or rice products. ·