Tarnicus: Bacon is a perfect example of a difference between us, where we most likely have many similarities :) It was a visit to my mother's cousin's piggery when I was 7 that had me turn vegetarian. I went back to being omnivorous from 16 to 22, and realised that I wasn't living the way I desired, and have been a vegetarian ever since. I have never been a militant vegetarian but have certainly experienced a lot of "you should eat meat" comments, including from my old counsellor.
skeletonbow: I've vastly increased my whole plant based food consumption incrementally over the last 4 years, and decreased my animal product consumption and my health has markedly improved for it. I eat what I want though and did not go about it in a "give up this, give up that" fashion, so I still enjoy meat/eggs etc. just far less of it than I used to eat, and bacon is the magic blanket of flesh that would be the very last thing to go if I ever wanted to go that route 100%. :) I follow T. Colin Campbell, and Esselstein and various others writings and the more I pay attention to their science based recommendations the better results I see so I keep doing it. In fact, I just bought $200 of groceries today without even realizing I didn't buy any meat, although I did get eggs. :) The key for me has been to just seek out healthy food and start eating more of it, and what has happened is that as I find healthy dishes of this nature I simply have less meals total where I am potentially eating higher amounts of less healthy or straight out unhealthy food. I've eliminated several health problems from doing this including some serious ones, so I know I'm on the right track.
Having said that though, I firmly believe that about 95% of all vegetarians and vegans out there secretly eat bacon when nobody is looking and will never admit it. I just have a hunch about it. :)
Haha I have met quite a few of those "vegetarians" who only eat meat in closets! My only meat consumption since 22 has been accidental, usually in the form of it being in takeaway or restaurant meals, often from Asian cuisine. I will never forget eating at a Chinese restaurant in the 80s and seeing under the vegetarian menu "vegetable chicken". WTF kind of vegetable is a chicken? Unless they were referring to it's state of mind :P
Increasing plant-based foods is a wise decision for most of us, and my current diet and lifestyle has been far too unhealthy. When I used to work out regularly, I had one friend who had the lowest body fat I had seen (around 5-7% from memory) and looked ripped like a Greek God. It belied his state of health, as he over-consumed animal proteins at the expense of his kidneys. I tried to suggest he get a few greens in but he considered it to be a waste of time. His breath disagreed. "Kidney breath" is a scent I know too well from being with a woman who was diagnosed with stage 4 kidney failure and had an autoimmune kidney disease. She started to increase her plant foods and decreased her meat consumption (was vegetarian for a while) and her kidney function improved. She is far healthier now and had been given a death sentence by her doctors. I was aghast when they wanted to put her on immunosuppressants and told her that her diet didn't matter. Seriously what kind of "specialist" can study medicine and not see how vital nutrition is?!?!