I am not strictly vegan (except for Lent this year I am eating no processed food or animal products, except apparently not Sundays since I ate half a cupcake today), but I prepare almost all of my meals and seldom use any animal products. The rest of my family is omnivorous and I have bites of their food sometimes. American food is very tempting (which of course is why it is so successful, 69% of adults are overweight, and 35% of adults are obese). Are you saying you are not vegan only in that you eat dairy and eggs? I don't have any trouble at all avoiding these, assuming that I am cooking for myself, not sure why you would find it difficult. I really like the podcast "Main Street Vegan", and the book. Victoria Moran is a great supporter of veganism and a great speaker. It seems that most of her motivation comes from her disgust at the treatment of animals in the factory farming that we use, but there is a lot of health info as well.

Main Street Vegan podcast -- http://www.unity.fm/program/MainStreetVegan
Susan Voisin's vegan recipes etc -- http://fatfreevegan.com/
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Ron

Well, I do not eat any meat at all. My main issue with being vegan would be milk and cheese are in so many things, for example coffee creamer. Even the "non dairy" creamer has casein, and I would have to not buy any store flavored coffee creamers. I do not eat egg often or even really like eggs much. I use flax seed as an egg replacer in baking products.

Another example is vegetarian products like morning star, they have egg in most of their products. I like to eat morning star on occasion. I guess those are examples of products I'd not be able to buy.

I try to avoid animal products as often as I can. I do not buy anything with gelatin either. So no marshmallows. I also find their are vegan substitutes for things like marshmallows online but are very expensive.

Also when me and my girlfriend go out to eat with her parents on occasion, if I was vegan there would not be much to get. If I go with them to a bar I can only get pizza and fried food. I don't eat fried food much and only when I go out with them. Usually all I can get is pizza, cheese sticks, or poppers.

I guess I am just saying that I already have a lot of limits as a vegetarian. I have been vegetarian since I was 17. I am 26.

I don't really like American food much. I actually like oriental food more. My favorite food is Thai food because I love spicy and they have so many vegan options. I like their vegetable curry with tofu. It is my favorite dish. I also like Indian and Lebanese foods.

I think that is really awesome you prepare most of your meals without animal products. We are working on ways of slowly eliminating animal products like dairy and eggs. Like I said, I don't like them that much, it is just an ingredient in things. I can work on it more though, there is more I can eliminate from my diet. I am vegetarian because of animal cruelty mainly. I will check out the podcast.

I got my girlfriend a book by Dr. Neal Barnard, he is vegan and founding president of the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine. He has a vegan cookbook, we have made some good recipes from that book.

I would rather there not be a link between nerve disorders and autism, because that is scary to me but I know there likely is. Glad your son gets relief from famvir and gabapentin, never heard of recurring shingles till now. My grandma had them a long time ago.

I was told by my local neurologist that he doesn't know what else to give me for neuropathy, he referred me to UOM and is just basically telling me to wait for the time being. I see his point but still wish he'd give me another med to try in the mean time. I saw a new family doctor today and got a few blood tests, like getting my thyroid checked.

I appreciate your positive thoughts. I wish the same for you and your sons.

I am sure once I get to UOM since it is a huge center I will find out about a lot more.

I would get tested at your new neurologist's office for B12 deficiency. Vegans can have serious deficiencies in B12 levels, since they don't eat animal foods. You should get the numerical result and see if it is below 400pg/ml. Labs today still report levels below that as "normal", which is dangerous.

Vegetarians also get low in zinc and methionine (a sulfur containing amino acid). The phytates in vegetables can complex zinc in the GI tract and make it unavailable for absorption.
Low methionine leads to low SAMe levels. SAMe is a methylation carrier for methyl groups to make neurotransmitters.

It might be useful to get the DNA testing for methylation as well.
If you have a MTHFR genetic error, the little B12 you are consuming may not get activated to methylcobalamin. Some of our posters here have had this test and found they had this problem.

Here is our B12 thread:
http://neurotalk.psychcentral.com/thread85103.html

If you are not eating animal products, you need to supplement B12. And if you have PN too, then BONUS, you need it for that too. I am not familiar with the zinc and methionine problem, should check it out. Thanks.
Ron

Yes, do check the zinc issue out. Zinc you know, is secreted in seminal fluid and an average adult male can lose up to 5mg in each ejaculate. Men lose zinc this way, and women lose iron for obvious reasons.

Zinc is most plentiful in seafood and meats.

After testing, one of the best zinc supplements should you need one is OptiZinc. It also has copper added to it, to avoid losing copper.

Oh my, I'll have to be careful.