The Ultimate Vegan Guide: Compassionate Living Without Sacrifice (Second Edition)

The Ultimate Vegan Guide: Compassionate Living Without Sacrifice Three months ago I was attending a professional conference at a university campus when a young man handed me a booklet titled "Even If You like Meat .. You Can Help End This Cruelty" from Vegan Outreach. The booklet had pictures and stories of factory farming and the cruelty and suffering that the animals are put through so we can eat them. It also gave suggestions to eat other foods and go vegetarian. I have to say that I've enjoyed my chicken in all forms, bacon, ham and beef in every fashion imaginable. However, after reading the booklet and doing some simple research online I decided that I wouldn't eat meat, eggs or dairy if the animals had to suffer. My innocent meat eating,egg and milk beliefs were shattered. I guess I thought those happy cows in California that talk were real. I didn't know much real dairy cows were suffering. It gives me the shivers every time I think about pigs being dropped into boiling water while still alive. The screams are echoing in my thoughts like a distant nightmare.That was three months ago and I really wish that the Erik Marcus book "The Ultimate Vegan Guide" had been available as it would have saved me lots of money and time looking for information on how to get meat, dairy and eggs out of my diet. I bought and read "Becoming Vegan" by Brenda Davis and Vesanto Melina but that book reads like a nutrition textbook full of scientific jargon and nutritional analysis. I felt frustrated on how to get started. There are lots of websites, but the information is scattered and often on a specific topic. Like coming in mid conversation. So I bought a bunch of vegan cook books - thinking maybe I could learn about being vegan that way.I wanted to get a good overview, what was this vegan thing all about, how do you get started, but the cook books only gave a few pages of intro and then listed ingredients and recipes, many of them with strange ingredients unfamiliar to me. The cook books assumed I had been vegan for years. How do I get started? Where do you get those ingredients and what if I don't have time to cook?Finally I found this book and it set me straight. It gives great advice on how to get started. It covers what being vegan is all about, what to do and what to avoid. Forget doing like I did and bookmarking over 100 different vegan websites. The author points out the best sites on the web. He takes his twenty years of being vegan and lays out a plan for beginners like me. He gives great suggestions on how and what food to buy, where to buy it, and what cook books (just two or three) to get started. How to eat vegan if you don't cook all the time, how to get adequate nutrition. And most important for me, all the justifications and logical reasons from health to reducing cruelty to phase into a vegan lifestyle. Erik Markus clearly explains what to do and why you would want to do so. He lays out a very sensible plan for adopting vegan eating habits.I think this is a great book for everyone to read, even if you think you will never give up meat,dairy and eggs. He has great suggestions for removing some of those from your diet. I hope lots of people read it. The book reads very easily without technical jargon and is a perfect guide for anyone even slightly interested and will get you started on the right foot.

If yiu need arguments on whybyou should become a Vegan, this is your book. It is very well written from that point of view. But here are a few reasons I felt short-changed. There is only one receipe, the authors favorite. Although he does promote a friend's book with lots of them. The author is so knowledgeable on this subject he assumes his readers are equally knowledgeable when it comes to vocabulary. It would have taken seconds to explain words such as tamari, or tunimi. (I am guessing as to the spelling.) I had to visit dictionary.com more than once. I would have appreciated a chapter on supermarket shopping. But perhaps the biggest drawback was there was not a word relating to diabetes. I still don't know if vegan and diabetes are compatible. I seldom give only three stars to a book I read from cover to cover.

Before purchasing this book, diets of solely excluding red meat, being vegetarian, becoming a "pescetarian", and going back to eating all animal products entered and exited my lifestyle. My reasoning for limiting meat and animal products from my diet has always been because I didn't think it was right to kill and exploit animals for food when other sources of the nutrients animal products provide are abundant. In late 2008, I was on the brink of making the switch back to being vegetarian when I read a disturbing account of a dairy cow dumped and left for dead. That was my wake up call. I not only had no other choice to immediately stop eating meat, I had to cut out ALL animal products from my diet and lifestyle and become vegan.I was lost. I didn't know where to start on finding information about what and how to be a vegan and be healthy. I also live in the south where resources, stores, and restaurants are very limited. Not to mention vegetarians, let alone vegans, are extremely rare and thought of as freaks. I stumbled across Erik's blog, [...], and it was there that I heard of his book, "The Ultimate Vegan Guide." I immediately ordered it and read it religiously front to back. I took notes, I marked pages, it was my bible for months. The book is not only incredibly informative, but easy to understand, non-judgmental, and funny. Erik's sense of humor and relatability truly make reading about being vegan and becoming vegan fun and easier than going at it alone. It breaks down all aspects of why people choose to become vegan...the treatment of animals raised for food, nutritional benefits, and the environmental impact of eating animal products. He also breaks down the day to day stuff that is seemingly the most confusing and difficult like what staple groceries to always have on hand, easy recipes, cooking utensils and appliances, etc. He even goes through popular fast food joints and restaurants and tells you what to order that's vegan friendly. At the end there is an entire section devoted to activism, and he lists websites to fantastic and relatively unheard of(outside the animal rights and veggie communities) organizations that are directly responsible for reducing the suffering of animals raised for food today.Bottom line - this is a fantastic, informative, funny, and must have intro guide on becoming vegan. He clearly shows you that being vegan is definitely NOT living without sacrifice. Whether you've decided to go vegan for animal rights issues, health issues, environmental issues, or are just curious, your questions and fears will be answered and addressed in this book. You will not be disappointed. Buy it today!

This is a good guide for a beginner, or a longer-term vegan who would just like a refresher course. :) I'm not sure 'ultimate' guide is appropriate, but it is fairly comprehensive. I'd recommend it.

Bought for my son whose Vegan and he recommends this read.

Bought Kindle version and have been reading on a relatively small smartphone. The text is laid out very well. Quick to read and full of relevant to the point information.

American and boring. Not worth the money. I've already re-sold it

Very interesting read. Especially for new vegans.