Hello Ron,

Thanks and yeah it has been stressful.

My b levels were checked along with diabetes, and they were fine. I do take some supplements. I started taking them since last year when this all started. I take a chewable multi vitamin. I also take b12 500mcg one a day, b6 100mg one a day, flax oil capsules for omegas 3s and a few others for other things.

That is interesting you are vegan, I am vegetarian. I have given thought to veganism but that seems rather hard. My girlfriend is vegetarian too and she sometimes cooks vegan meals. I used to cook more, but my cooking has grown lazy with lots of pain issues.

I see the supplements link and will go through it.

The family thing is complicated cause I never knew my dad, he left when I was a baby. So his side of the family is a total mystery. My grandma has parkinsons, but I am not sure if that is a related cause or not. As far as I know, no family has had neuropathy. But I cannot speak for sure since my fathers side is an unknown factor.

I'm gonna give those podcasts a listen, and I am hoping when the snow melts in Michigan I can move around come the spring.

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.