An awakening America is recognizing, “What we eat is infinitely more relevant than anyone ever thought.” Two-thirds of Americans are now obese, clearly credited to nutritional illiteracy, greedy corporations, and the failed Standard American Diet. (SAD)

After losing 100 pounds and overcoming terminal heart disease, I first began a step-by-step learning journey into vegetarianism. It’s worked for me. The story of my evolution into the karma-free, plant-based wilderness, the subsequent improvement in the quality of my life, enhanced connectivity to my creator and the emergence of skills I didn’t know I possessed, had been diminished by a life of eating from the trough of the Standard American Diet.

It happens daily. Hoosier parents dumbstruck when their kids come home from school announcing, “Mom, Dad–I want to be a vegan. Everyone’s doing it.” One of 200 kids under the age of 18 is embracing vegan-ism. A potential problem, since becoming a vegan is the destination, not the first step. Simply not eating red meat without food literacy can be unhealthy.

One discouraged 14-year-old said, “My dad got mad because I wouldn’t put cheese on my bean burrito. He said I might as well just stick you in your room with a bottle of water and carrot like a rat.” Concerned parents approach me as if becoming vegan is worse than discovering their offspring are doing drugs or coming home drunk. Plus, “How the heck do they get their protein without eating meat?” “Shouldn’t they drink milk daily?”

Read more: http://www.ss-times.com/2012/05/10/increasing-interest-in-veganism/