Could not agree with you more. My husband and I are 100% vegetarian and within that 60% vegan - we will eat small amounts of dairy when eating out or out at friends for dinner along with eggs from time to time. Our whole concept of food has changed in the past 6 months and we love the idea that weight loss is now a by-product of eating for health. I am an epidemiologist and have completed countless hours researching the scientific literature (as opposed to the latest for-profit books) surrounding nutrition. It makes me furious and sick at the amount of disinformation out there about food, macro nutrients, GMO's, etc etc. You've likely read the China Study by Dr. Colin Campbell but if not consider as I think you would enjoy it.

I am really happy to find this group as I feel it's just not worth discussing a lot of this in the general forums....I sympathize as I remember the days where a good burger and pizza were in my diary, I counted their calories but go figure I couldn't keep the weight off nor did I lose the body fat. People get very defensive when you being discussing vegetarianism and I don`t have the fight in me to convert a single soul - the evidence speaks for itself and if I hear one more time that I won`t get enough protein I`m going to scream We only eat a whole food plant-based diet with few exceptions, after all there are junk food vegetarians too.

We feel liberated and free of being slaves to food now along with knowing we have done more in the past few months to improve our health compared to all the previous years of dieting and exercise combined.

I'm so glad I joined this group. I am new to trying to become a vegetarian, I ultimately want to become a Vegan. I know it is a slow process. I started eating raw this week and and want to eat raw at least 80% of the time right now. This is the motivation I need to keep me going. I do feel weight loss will be a good side effect to eating healthy. I've been on hypertension meds for so long and i'm still young. I want off the meds and want more energy and health. So thanks and I look foward to hearing future posts. :happy:

Good for you taking charge of your health. You're right it is a process so be patient with yourself and give it time. My husband had by-pass surgery 5 years ago at 48. He was always a healthy weight, exercised regularly and had a very active job. In fact" the doctoes told him he was the type of case that scared the crap out of them. We knew then that despite most of our lifestyle choices being fairly good, we had to consider vegetarianism. It took a long time

Also, when we realized the long term effects of his cholesterol and blood pressure medications we vowed then and there to change everything-he's off all his medications, walks about 10 miles/week and we continue to track everything we eat. It is possible!

Good luck on your journey.....