Very few of us were raised vegan, so at some point, we did make a lifestyle switch. When you first go vegan, it's common to have cravings left over from the pre-vegan days, and it's fun to try to "veganize" old favorites. Here are some traditional meals and treats gone vegan.

I myself am not a perfect vegan. Nor am I a perfect vegan activist (whatever that means) -- far from it. But I will always seek to do better, both in my personal veganism and as an activist. And I have to tell you that each time I encounter a vegan or vegan activist my heart swells.

Think about someone who loves animals and wants to live more compassionately. He checks out veganism, but is bewildered and discouraged by what seems to him to be a lot of rules and a lot of deprivation. He turns to a vegan for help and is told that, "veganism is easy."

For those unfamiliar to veganism, it can be to easy overlook that the compassion associated with helping animals is meant to extend to helping humans, as well. The beautiful thing about choosing a plant-based diet is that in one choice, you can start to help save the world. Literally.

It seems to me that some of us vegans have lived too long in a bubble, surrounding ourselves only with people of similar thinking. Many have lost touch with the idea of reaching out, in compassion, to other humans and helping them along in their path of life.

When I first went vegan, I simultaneously decided that I was probably never going to find a partner who shared my beliefs. I assumed that it would be difficult to find many men driven by something that was very important to me: compassion toward animals.

In the realm of food politics, stereotypes run rampant: the over-energized raw foodist, the protein-hyping omnivore, the compulsive juice cleanser. There's one stereotype I'm particularly concerned with, one I've unfortunately been accused of: the overzealous vegan.