There are many reasons to avoid animal products and go vegan - in health terms, vegans have much less risk of heart disease, are less likely to develop cancer and most find that they automatically lose some excess weight. Vegans also avoid food-related diseases like BSE, salmonella and food poisoning. Going vegan supports animal welfare - animals are often farmed in appalling conditions - by not using animal products, you don't support that industry. It's an environmentally sound choice - animal farming is resource intensive - 25% of the earth's surface is used for cattle grazing, causing big environmental problems like desertification. A vegan requires only 1/8th of the land a meat-eater needs. It is also often considered a more spiritual path, as eating this way is more in tune with nature.

I am raw vegan. During the last four years of being raw I have been predominanatly vegan, though I have sometimes eaten honey and when in Iceland in winter time I often ate fish once or twice a week. It hasn't been hard for me to avoid everything else and right now being 100% raw vegan feels great to me. The thought of eggs has repulsed me since someone described them as 'chicken's periods' to me some years ago and although I used to love milk and cheese, I now find them equally repulsive when I consider cow's milk is designed to nourish a calf, not a human. I lost interest in meat long ago - in fact I was always picky about it and the less it resembled a piece of animal, the better.