Cruelty Free products and food

Thanks everyone! I LOVE Urban Decay! I have their NAKED eye shadow palette among others. I recently bought a facial cleanser from www.nakedeyebeauty.com that is 100% vegan and of course is not animal tested. The bonus part was my purchase went towards a dog rescue My friend told me about LUSH and how great it is. I also downloaded the leaping bunny list on my iphone.

About the meats and dairy, I know its not completely cruelty free I actually do not eat pork or beef (I quit a month ago) and surprisingly do not crave it at all. Its the chicken and turkey that I would have a hard time letting go of. I wish I could give it all up. I hate the way the animals are treated. Regardless of being slaughtered, I still feel they should be able to live a good life. Like you suggested, I actually looked up some of the local farmers here in Missouri last week. I'm still doing research on it though. With the dairy and eggs, I would just like to make sure that they are free to roam and not being pumped with hormones. I was told that cows actually produce better tasting milk when they are NOT stressed. Is that true?

Some things are harder to give up than others, and I applaud you for getting "off" pork and beef. It doesn't have to be an all or nothing transition, so don't be too hard on yourself about it.

What protein sources do you use? When I crave meat, I love a good chunk of seitan covered in mushroom gravy with a baked potato and some veggies or a slab of lentil loaf - it brings me back to that "meat and potatoes"-style dinner that I miss sometimes. As far as poultry goes, chicken-style seitan or Tofurky deli slices can be good substitutes.

With "free-range" eggs, you'll definitely have to stick to local farmers - and even then, be wary. As long as there is a door on the building, they can label eggs and poultry as "free range", even if the chickens are crowded into the building and rarely see sunlight.

I've never heard of cows producing better milk when they are not stressed, but the process of obtaining cow's milk for humans is inherently stressful because they systematically take their calves away so that it doesn't drink the milk produced to sell. I'd suggest watching the movie Earthlings - it really opened my eyes about the truths of dairy and how it goes hand-in-hand with the veal industry, which is something I didn't [knowingly] support, even when I ate meat.

I found unsweetened almond milk to be my favorite milk, even more than cow's milk - the unsweetened Silk almond milk is delicious and creamy, only 35 calories per cup and twice the calcium of cow's milk.

Yeeeaah...bout replacing my protein...I need to work on that. LOL! I need to start taking multi vitamins too. My doctor reminds me about that every time I see him. Is this Earthlings movie going to make me cry? I cry over everything. I do like almond milk, I've bought some before. My boyfriend drinks whole milk when he does drink it. He is also a meat lover, especially bacon. He happens to be a chef and told me that, vegans are chefs worst enemies lol. We are just going to have cooperate on each others' food habits.

The more I find out about all of this stuff, the more horrified I am. The truth is the truth though and I have the power to change the way I live Honestly, my dream has always been to open a animal sanctuary. I love animals.