Congratulations!

Going vegetarian has never been easier.

Congratulations! You’ve just taken the first step toward one of the best choices you can make for yourself, the animals, and the planet. This guide is packed with info, tips, and recipes to help you establish eating habits that you’ll feel great about.

Going vegetarian has never been easier. The explosion of vegetarian foods means that you can pop everything from bean tacos to veggie “sausage” into the microwave and finish the meal with frozen nondairy “ice cream.” You can order a latte with soy milk in the neighborhood coffee shop, enjoy a veggie burger at the ball game, and stock your kitchen with wonderful products we could only dream of 20 years ago: flavored rice mixes; microwave tofu entrées with exotic sauces; soy-based “cheeses,” “mayonnaise,” and “milk”; and imitation meat products that can be used on their own or in your favorite recipes.

Veggie food isn’t just a treat for your taste buds; it’s great for your health, too. Leading scientists are now proving that what we eat directly affects the quality of our lives. While animal foods contribute to cancer, heart disease, obesity, and many other top killers, a vegetarian diet can make us healthier.

With the right food selections, you can lose weight permanently, prevent heart attacks, and even reverse existing heart disease. Studies have shown that vegetarians have stronger immune systems and lower cholesterol levels than meat-eaters and are far less likely to die of heart disease or cancer. Meat and dairy consumption is also linked with diabetes, arthritis, osteoporosis, clogged arteries, obesity, asthma, and impotence. The estimated medical cost attributable to meat-eating in the U.S. is more than $100 billion a year.

A vegan diet helps animals. Modern high-pressure agriculture commonly keeps cows, calves, pigs, chickens, turkeys, ducks, and other animals in overcrowded stalls, cages, crates, or sheds where they are often unable to turn around or take even a single step for their entire lives. Deprived of veterinary care, exercise, sunlight, and even the feel of grass beneath their feet, these living, breathing, thinking, feeling beings, whose senses are so much like our own, suffer and die at the rate of millions per day just so that we can have burgers, patties, nuggets, and wieners. Deciding what we will eat means choosing between the horrors of factory farming and respect for animals.

It’s easy to live and let live, and this guide will show you how. Dig In!

You’re in good company! Just a few of the famous faces who never eat animals ... Alec Baldwin Paul McCartney Pamela Anderson Alicia Silverstone Prince Woody Harrelson Joaquin Phoenix James Cromwell Chrissie Hynde Natalie Portman Kim Basinger Shania Twain