Vegans, personal choice, and healthy eating...

Vegetables aren't food.  Vegetables are what food eats...

Eating healthy is smart.  No doubt about it. But Vegans take it to an extreme that borders on religion.

First of all, there is nothing unhealthy about meat.  Our American diet certainly does consist of more meat, eggs, and dairy than healthy, but that doesn't make the foods themselves unhealthy.  Eating animal protein is the easiest way to get enough complete protein, minerals, and vitamins in our diet.  Avoiding animal products requires either supplementation, or a careful balance of plant foods not usually found in the same region.  Hardly natural.

Some folks object to the idea of eating animals.  A vegetarian diet supplemented with eggs and dairy is a healthy and responsible way to avoid killing animals for food.

Vegans, however, seem to take this all to the level of religion.  They spend an incredible amount of time worrying about what they put in their mouths and whether it offends their ideology.  They try to impose their beliefs on others, campaigning for our society to remove all animal protein from our diets.  Recently, they protested against Starbucks for using a natural food coloring that contained ground beetles (a common food and textile dye that has been used for centuries).

There is nothing unnatural or immoral about eating animal protein.  Our bodies are designed to process these foods.  Eating only vegetables requires an inordinate amount of effort to remain healthy.  Killing animals for food is as moral for us as it is for the sharks, bears, and tigers who will kill humans for food at any opportunity.

Vegans are welcome to follow their religion.  They are not, however, welcome to impose their ideology on me.  I have far more respect for people who quietly follow a vegetarian diet for themselves while respecting my choice to choose my own diet.  Not only do I respect their choice, I actively support it.