Vegan: (noun) a strict vegetarian who consumes no animal food or dairy products; also : one who abstains from using animal products (as leather)

Vegetarian since the spring of 1997, the owners and maintainers of firstmagic.com became vegan in July of 1999. Here's a list of links that contain excellent information regarding vegetarianism and veganism.

Humans are herbivorous by design. As we are not designed to consume the flesh, muscles, and organs of animals, there are significant health risks involved with a meat-centered diet. More and more evidence is surfacing that directly links a prolonged carnivorous/omnivorous diet to such diseases as osteoporosis, many cancers, heart disease, diabetes, and asthma just to name a few. Keep in mind, it's only been just recently that smoking has been recognized as a health and environmental hazard. In fact, the evidence regarding the dangers of a meat-centered diet is mounting so quickly that a group of eminent doctors called the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM), themselves members of the American Medical Association (AMA), have gathered to change the U.S. consciousness on human nutrition, particularly among the medical community. The PCRM is a nonprofit organization based in Washington, D.C., consisting of doctors and lay persons working together for compassionate and effective medical practice, research and health promotion. Founded in 1985, the PCRM is supported by over 3,000 physicians and 50,000 lay persons.

Not everyone is aware of the fact that humans are built herbivorous.

Human characteristics are in every way like other fruit eating animals (even similar to grass-eaters in several respects), and very unlike the meat eaters and omnivores, as is clearly shown in the table below. The human digestive system, tooth and jaw structure, and bodily functions are completely different from carnivorous animals. As in the case of the anthropoid ape, the human digestive system is twelve times the length of the body; our skin has millions of tiny pores to evaporate water and cool the body by sweating; we drink water by suction like all other vegetarian animals; our tooth and jaw structure is vegetarian; and our saliva is alkaline and contains ptyalin for predigestion of grains. Human beings clearly are not carnivores by physiology -- our anatomy and digestive system show that we must have evolved for millions of years living on fruits, nuts, grains, and vegetables.

Furthermore, it is obvious that our natural instincts are non-carnivorous. Most people have other people kill their meat for them and would be sickened if they had to do the killing themselves. Instead of eating raw meat as all flesh-eating animals do, humans boil, bake, or fry it and disguise it with all kinds of sauces and spices so that it bears no resemblance to its raw state. One scientist explains it this way: "A cat will salivate with hungry desire at the smell of a piece of raw flesh but not at all at the smell of fruit. If man could delight in pouncing upon a bird, tear its still-living limbs apart with his teeth, and suck the warm blood, one might conclude that nature provided him with meat-eating instinct. On the other hand, a bunch of luscious grapes makes his mouth water, and even in the absence of hunger he will eat fruit because it tastes so good."

Scientists and naturalists, including the great Charles Darwin who gave the theory of evolution, agree that early humans were fruit and vegetable eaters and that throughout history our anatomy has not changed. The great Swedish scientist von Linné states: "Man's structure, external and internal, compared with that of the other animals, shows that fruit and succulent vegetables constitute his natural food."

So it is clear from scientific studies that physiologically, anatomically, and instinctively, man is perfectly suited to a diet for fruit, vegetables, nuts, and grains. This is summarized in the table below.

There are some universal differences between carnivores, omnivores, and herbivores, and in every one of these differences, humans align with the herbivores. Though this is only one set of data that shows modern humans are herbivores, it's quite compelling. Here's a table presenting some comparisons between carnivores, omnivores, herbivores, and humans.

(Some of the above data adapted from What's Wrong with Eating Meat, by Barbara Parham, ŠAnanda Marga Publications, 1979)
(Much of the data for these comparisons taken from The Comparative Anatomy of Eating by Milton R. Mills, M.D.)

Physiological Comparisons

	Carnivores	Omnivores	Herbivores	Humans
Teeth: Incisors	Short and pointed	Short and pointed	Broad, flattened and spade shaped	Broad, flattened and spade shaped
Teeth: Canines	Long, sharp and curved	Long, sharp and curved	Dull and short or long (for defense), or none	Short and blunted
Teeth: Molars	Sharp, jagged and blade shaped	Sharp blades and/or flattened	Flattened with cusps vs complex surface	Flattened with nodular cusps
Facial Muscles	Reduced to allow wide mouth gape	Reduced	Well-developed	Well-developed
Jaw Type	Angle not expanded	Angle not expanded	Expanded angle	Expanded angle
Jaw Joint Location	On same plane as molar teeth	On same plane as molar teeth	Above the plane of the molars	Above the plane of the molars
Jaw Motion	Shearing; minimal side-to-side motion	Shearing; minimal side-to-side	No shear; good side-to-side, front-to-back	No shear; good side-to-side, front-to-back
Major Jaw Muscles	Temporalis	Temporalis	Masseter and pterygoids	Masseter and pterygoids
Mouth Opening vs. Head Size	Large	Large	Small	Small
Chewing	None; swallows food whole	Swallows food whole and/or simple crushing	Extensive chewing necessary	Extensive chewing necessary
Saliva	No digestive enzymes	No digestive enzymes	Carbohydrate digesting enzymes	Carbohydrate digesting enzymes
Stomach Type	Simple	Simple	Simple or multiple chambers	Simple
Stomach Acidity	Less than or equal to pH 1 with food in stomach	Less than or equal to pH 1 with food in stomach	pH 4 to 5 with food in stomach	pH 4 to 5 with food in stomach
Stomach Capacity	60% to 70% of total volume of digestive tract	60% to 70% of total volume of digestive tract	Less than 30% of total volume of digestive tract	21% to 27% of total volume of digestive tract
Length of Small Intestine	3 to 6 times body length	4 to 6 times body length	10 to more than 12 times body length	10 to 11 times body length
Colon	Simple, short and smooth	Simple, short and smooth	Long, complex; may be sacculated	Long, sacculated
Liver	Can detoxify vitamin A	Can detoxify vitamin A	Cannot detoxify vitamin A	Cannot detoxify vitamin A
Kidney	Extremely concentrated urine	Extremely concentrated urine	Moderately concentrated urine	Moderately concentrated urine
Nails	Sharp claws	Sharp claws	Flattened nails or blunt hooves	Flattened nails

How do you get enough protein?	Easily. The meat and dairy industries have been basing their claims that we require significant amounts of animal protein on a now discredited study done in 1914 on rats by a pair of researchers named Osborn and Mendel. You'd almost get enough protein accidentally from vegetables and fruits. In fact, animal protein leads to a shorter life-span and higher rates of cancer and other diseases, so obtaining protein through vegetables and fruits is significantly advantageous over animal-based sources. Several studies have concluded the same thing. As an example, please see the details on this study that was performed over 15 years on nearly 30,000 women as posted in the February 1, 2005 issue of the American Journal of Epidemiology. This study concludes that those who reported the highest intake of protein from red meat and dairy products had a roughly 40 percent higher risk of dying from heart disease and that vegetable based protein was clearly superior, from a health perspective. See also: http://www.veggie.ca/nutrition/myths.html or: http://www.all-creatures.org/cb/a-protein.html
Calcium! You need calcium! What about osteoporosis?	Yes. We all need calcium. However, obtaining calcium from dairy sources is counter-productive as the animal protein that's also in those dairy sources actually leeches more calcium from your body than the dairy is providing. This one simple fact is why the countries with the highest per-capita dairy consumption also have the highest osteoporosis rates. There are many sources of calcium available outside of animal products. Supporting studies and more information: www.strongbones.org and: Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine
Environmental Concerns Raising livestock for their meat is a very inefficient way of generating food. Pound for pound, far more resources must be expended to produce meat than to produce grains, fruits and vegetables. Some examples:	More than half of all water used for all purposes in the U.S. is consumed in livestock production. The amount of water used in production of the average cow is sufficient to float a US Navy destroyer. While 25 gallons of water are needed to produce a pound of wheat, 5,000 gallons are needed to produce a pound of California beef. It takes nearly 78 calories of fossil fuel (oil, natural gas, etc) energy to produce 1 calory of beef protein and only 2 calories of fossil fuel energy to produce 1 calory of soybean. If every human ate a meat-centered diet, the world's known oil reserves would last a mere 13 years. Note that this also has a negative impact on our atmosphere (eg. global warming). They would last 260 years if humans stopped eating meat altogether. That's 20 times longer, giving humanity ample time to develop alternative energy sources. 33% of all raw materials (base products of farming, forestry and mining, including fossil fuels) consumed by the U.S. are devoted to the production of livestock, as compared with the 2% that would be required produce a complete vegetarian diet. 260 million acres of U.S. forest land has been cleared for cropland to produce the meat-centered diet. 55 squarefeet of tropical rain forest is consumed to produce every quarter-pound of rain forest beef. An alarming 75% of all U.S. topsoil has been lost to date. 85% of this loss is directly related to livestock raising.
A lot of vegan's talk about the 'ethical' issues behind veganism. Isn't this a bit extreme?	Judge for yourself. Some of the pictures contained below can be disturbing. Our intent is not to shock anyone, but rather to finally illuminate what really happens behind the scenes -- what has to happen so that people can 'enjoy' an omelette, or a burger, or a glass of milk. Here's a gallery of pictures. Another set of pictures. Some battery cage pictures noDowners.org - 'Downers' are livestock/dairy/'meat' animals that can no longer stand due to illness or injuries and are often left to die where they lie -- however long that takes. Eggs. More pictures. Depsite their horrendous nutritional impact, treatment of those that lay the eggs is worse. Ever seen loads of live baby chicks thrown into dumpsters to die? Here's your chance. One man's description of a visit to a slaughterhouse. Another's thoughts on and excerpts from the Details article, "Meat is Murder".

• Vegan.com - A well kept site with great lists of cookbooks, news articles, an FAQ, and all sorts of other interesting information.
• Yesterday's Food Will Become Tomorrow's Food - An researched analysis of early man's dietary habits showing that he was herbivorous; comparisons of modern man to modern herbivours and carnivours.
• Famous Vegans and Vegetarians - A long list famous people that are vegans or vegetarians.
• milksucks.com - Sponsored by Peta. Lots of information and links to various studies.
• Vegan Outreach - Check out this site to find out more information regarding our chosen lifestyle.
• VegDining.com - Guide to vegetarian restaurants around the world.
• Vegetarian Central - Another excellent resource for vegans/vegetarians. Well organized and easy to navigate. A great site.

  The following links are a bit out of date, as much as four years, but still contain useful and practical information:

• Famous Vegetarians - A long list of well known folks that happen to be vegan or vegetarian.
• Vegetarian Pages - A collection of information regarding vegetarianism and veganism.