Being Vegan no more

I was a vegetarian for a few years but the idea of going vegan was never appealing to me -- either intellectually or physically. It is fairly easy to spot vegans, there are a few in our community and they are the fragile people who are teetering on the edge of one crisis or another and never really able to shake that cold that has been going around lately. In fact, I consider it a great testament to our bodies stamina and durability that we can tolerate a vegan diet for as long as some people keep it up... Here is a wonderful essay/rant from a recovered vegan at Voracious:

A Vegan No More
When the doctor first told me that I had numerous vitamin and mineral deficiencies, that I was almost anemic, and my B12 was so low she wanted to give me an injection immediately, I refused to believe her. I actually asked her to show me the blood test results because I thought there had to be some sort of mistake. But there was no mistake, it was right there in black and white; deficiencies and abnormalities across the board.

The results explained perfectly why I had been feeling weak and exhausted for more than 6 months. Whereas I had previously lived for working out and even an hour on the elliptical wasn�t enough for me, lately doing more than 20 minutes at a leisurely pace caused me to yearn to spend the rest of the day in bed recuperating. When I could I slept till noon, I felt lightheaded when I stood up, I couldn�t remember simple words or the names of my friends, and I was freezing cold even in the midst of a sweltering Saudi summer. Of the myriad symptoms I�ve listed here and the ones I will not be describing publicly, the absolute worst of all was my depression. This awful, lifelong foe I�ve been battling on and off was sneaking back into my life, painting the edges of my world a sickening black and stealing the joy that I had fought so desperately to regain.

The doctor, who was kind and very understanding, was surprisingly knowledgeable about vegan diets and had a career long specialization in nutrition. After ruling out any other possible medical condition, she patiently spoke over my tears and my hitching sobs and explained that yes, humans are healthiest when eating a large amount of varied plant foods, but that we would be wrong to ignore the small amounts of animal products that many of us so essentially need. �Most human bodies run optimally on the occasional animal product. Eggs and bits of meat every so often are small but very important parts of a healthy diet.� she said, a look of sorrow on her face. She could see how hard this was for me.

One person who comes into the bakery ordered and was served an item that the counter person thought was vegan but was actually contained a substantial quantity of egg. This person wolfed down the item and said that he felt really really good and that we were making some awesome vegan food. The standing comment in the kitchen is that someone needs to tie xxx down and feed them some bacon.