Reddit mentions: The best vegetarian diets books

Hi, /u/DeceptiveSpell --

So happy to hear you're invested in learning about where your food comes from and it's far reaching impacts. Really awesome that you're open and aware to a different way of living :)

A few thoughts from me. (I've been Vegan for 1+ year, after being Vegetarian for 3+ years.)

• I don't know if everyone will agree with this analogy, but when making changes to my diet I've always found that it's kinda like someone trying to quit smoking. Yes, you can tapper off the cigarettes, or start taking Nicorette, but in order for it to truly stick, you really have to WANT to quit. Because it's a real lifestyle change. You have to really make that decision within yourself and...commit. Just.. quit. Just don't do it anymore. Not saying it will be easy or you won't have cravings for a while (which will pass over time, I assure you). But gradually tapering off may not actually be the "easier" way to go about committing to this.
  
  
• After 3+ years of being Veggie, the thing that changed my heart, my intention, and my commitment to this way of eating was research. Educating myself. I love learning, and reading more about these subjects forever changed my mindset. It was almost like The Matrix - once I knew the truth in my heart, I could never go back to the time before I knew that truth. Highly recommend the books [Why We Love Dogs, Eat Pigs, and Wear Cows] (https://www.amazon.com/Love-Dogs-Pigs-Wear-Cows/dp/1573245054) and The Humane Economy as starters.
  
  
• See if there are Vegan variations on the foods and recipes you enjoy eating. I for one love jackfruit and eat it often as a shredded meat alternative in things like burritos, nachos, pulled pork, etc. Also I adore Beyond Meat which you can get a Whole Foods for ground beef alternatives. Just made an awesome spaghetti bolognese with it! Lots of Indian and Asian can be easily made with no meat. And falafel sandwiches are another favorite. I promise as your body detoxes, you will crave meat less and less. With the exception of lox and bagel, which I still crave and am trying to find Vegan alternative, I honestly have no cravings for meat, cheese, etc. anymore. Just that damn lox...
  
  
• Be warned, the first couple months of transitioning to this kind of diet is not particularly easy on the gut. The struggle with gas is real, but your body normalizes after a few months. Haven't had any issues with it for a while.
  
  
• Finally, even though I stand by my first point, transitioning is not 100% easy 100% of the time. Don't be too hard on yourself if you take a misstep and say, eat a sandwich without realizing it had a mayo aioli on it. We all make mistakes, and our mistakes are valuable because they teach us, so that next time you remember to read the label more carefully, or ask the waitress a few follow up questions.
  
  Good luck! Happy to help if you have follow up questions - just PM me :)

Looks like you got a jump on the basics but depending on how much you've researched the ethical topics below are some great resources to help keep you motivated. And once you understand the ethical necessity of a vegan lifestyle you'll find it is really a breeze!

earthlings - very graphic film but helpful to remove any doubts one might have regarding how we treat animals

eat like you care - a short and concise framing of the logic behind the ethical rational for veganism

Why We Love Dogs, Eat Pigs, and Wear Cows - another relatively easy read which lays out a bit broader argument

There are loads of other great books and films out there and I really suggest taking the time to educate yourself about the way we use animals as it will make the transition so much easier.

Good luck and welcome!

I've found the biggest reasons people quit veganism after deciding that it's the right thing to do is:

1. Not knowing what to eat or how to prepare it
   
2. Losing motivation
   
   I think that #1 is most important to nail down, because if you're already convinced that veganism is the right thing to do, you shouldn't have much problem sticking with it unless you run into food-related problems. This video covers just about everything you need to know about vegan food. Basically:
   
   

• Eat enough calories
  
• Have a few go-to recipes for each meal
  
• Use happycow.net to find vegan-friendly restaurants (virtually everything at Asian restaurants can easily be veganized)
  
• B12!
  
  Eating vegan won't feel hard or restricting at all if you know how, and what to cook. Just like non-vegan food, vegan food can taste disgusting or flat-out amazing. Don't be discouraged if the first vegan food you make turns out terribly, because it probably will. Figure out what you didn't like about what you made, and try to improve it for next time. Vegan cooking can be very different, and it will probably take getting used to.
  
  If you're willing to buy a cookbook, But I Could Never Go Vegan! should be perfect. It's recipes are split up based on common excuses or worries people have when it comes to vegan cooking ("But I love sea food!", "What about cheese?", "Why does vegan food need to be so healthy!", etc). Thug Kitchen also has a lot of great, and healthy, recipes. They have a trailer if you're interested in seeing the, uh, "tone" of the book. Lastly, there's Isa Does It. I'd say her recipes are a bit fancier and take a little more effort to prepare, but if you're willing to learn she'll teach you everything from what to stock your pantry with to how to the different ways to chop tempeh. There shouldn't be any problem following anything in any of these books if you're willing to read the directions.
  
  I don't personally watch a lot of vegan cooking channels on youtube, but it might be worth checking out TheVeganZombie, Peaceful Cuisine for asian food, and the channels here.
  
  On staying motivated, I think it's pretty much required to constantly be reminded by why you want to be vegan in the first place. Regularly visit vegan communities like here, watch vegan, environmental, or animal rights-related documentaries like cowspiracy, earthlings, or Forks Over Knives, subscribe to vegan youtube channels like Bite Size Vegan or The Vegan Activist. It takes a lot more willpower than most people have to stay vegan in a community where everyone around you hasn't given the ethics or environmental aspects of meat production much thought. Worst of all, they might even view you as... weird... for even bothering. Just try to keep in mind the reasons other people get defensive, or even hostile when bringing up veganism, stay calm, and all will be well.
  
  I wish you the best of luck, hopefully you found some of this wall of text useful :)
  
  
  

Fordlandia: The Rise and Fall of Henry Ford's Forgotten Jungle City is an amazing book. The main point is about Ford trying to create a company town in Brazil in order to grow rubber. But the books gives you a great picture of Ford the man, the company, what the era was like and the larger philosophical and economic ideas behind this project. Honestly, for me it read like fiction- I couldn't put it down.

They Marched Into Sunlight: War and Peace Vietnam and America October 1967 looks at the Vietnam war from three different perspectives, from students protesting, to the actual front and then from the government officials. The narrative is amazing and it's so well researched that it was captivating as well, but I think he really captured the feeling of the times as well, which is so great to see in a book.

Michael Pollan is know most for Omnivore's Dilemma (which is a great read) but I really love his first book too, and that doesn't get as much attention, which is still very interesting is The Botany of Desire. He goes through the history of 4 different plants, apples, tulips, marijuana, and potatoes. Not too interesting on the surface, but he makes the stories fascinating. It's a great in its overarching nature about our relationships with plants.

[Marriage: A History by Stephanie Coontz] (http://www.amazon.com/Marriage-History-How-Love-Conquered/dp/014303667X) is another one I always recommend. It is an expansive work showing that the idea of Marriage has been in flux since the beginning and completely depended on the culture and time period. It's well researched but also a compelling work.

Welcome and congrats on your decision!

Here are my tips on getting started:
There is a great plant-based diet you might be interested in, it's called "The Starch Solution by Dr. McDougall":
https://www.drmcdougall.com/health/shopping/books/starch-solution/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R_7rrkG3xYk

1.1) Learning new recipes
It takes a few weeks to learn new recipes and get to know new products.
Also, there is quite a bit of misinformation in the area of nutrition.
It will take a while until you see "through the fog". Just hang in there :)
http://www.chooseveg.com/switchnditch (get their free guide on the homepage!)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bmnPM6QzDTw
https://www.youtube.com/user/thevegancorner
https://www.youtube.com/user/hotforfoodblog
veg restaurants: http://www.happycow.net

1.2) Doing your research (health, ethics, environment)
No worries, 3 documentaries and books and you are fine :)
http://www.forksoverknives.com/the-film/
http://www.cowspiracy.com/
http://www.nationearth.com/earthlings-1/ (graphic)
Watch these with your husband, if possible, so that he is part of your journey and understands the basics.

http://www.amazon.com/Eating-Animals-Jonathan-Safran-Foer/dp/0316069884
https://www.drmcdougall.com/health/shopping/books/starch-solution/
http://www.amazon.com/Love-Dogs-Pigs-Wear-Cows/dp/1573245054/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1457183607&sr=1-1&keywords=why+we+love+dogs+eat+pigs+and+wear+cows
Also has a great TEDx talk here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o0VrZPBskpg
(I am not affiliated with amazon, btw)

2) Really, no need to worry about protein
http://www.onegreenplanet.org/natural-health/vegan-sources-of-protein/
http://www.forksoverknives.com/slaying-protein-myth/
http://nutritionfacts.org/topics/protein/
You can enter your meals into http://www.cronometer.com just to be safe.

And finally some basic help on getting started:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y2k4NHjAP84
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=htf5eCgyt5Q
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8o9uzH_vrXA

That will keep you busy for a month or two, but it will also get you over the hump :)
Let me know if you got any questions or need help.
Good luck!

I see things in almost the same way as you do. Cheers, it's good to know that there is someone else who thinks and feels in the same way as I do.

#1 God - You may find Pascal's Wager food for thought.

#2 Soulmate - There is absolutely no such thing or person to any other. The universe is indifferent to you and to what you make of it. Every person is simply the result of an egg cell fusing with a sperm cell, end of story. Every living thing is simply the manifestation of a successful reproductive cycle. All the tamasha around it is because humans want so badly to give meaning to meaninglessness. Stanley Kubrick puts this very nicely into words. Also - pick up "The Manipulated Man" by Esther Vilar from your bookstore - I'm sure you will enjoy every moment of reading it.

#3 Needing to get married - hmm, what's the need? Marriage is a construct of the human mind that makes it socially acceptable that one person may fuck only one other (polyandry/polygamy out of scope of discussion at the moment, even though it is the same principle but with larger numbers), and it exists primarily to stop everyone from fucking everyone/everything else - that is the core reason, all else is mental masturbation. For all the folks who glorify marriage as an "institution", the layers and layers of customs and beliefs and laws are built around this singular core. Life as we know it has been around for millions of years without the need of this "institution" for all except a fleeting moment of geological time in which human society evolved.

Some more fuel for your brain :)

#4 Laws around marriage: Immoral != Illegal. For all the holier-than-thou "civilized" people holding humanity, human intelligence and human morality to a higher ground, this FUBAR'd society that we must tolerate everyday is a direct outcome of all that "humanity, intelligence and morality."

The fun part: your kids get to revel in it and screw it up further and tighter for everyone else as much as themselves. Enjoy the products of your thoughts and actions - and don't whine about it since this is just what humans wanted, right? /s

#5 All forms of life are valuable, even if only to themselves and at their own scales, men/women included. We humans cannot judge the value of other life forms and decide that a chicken's is less valuable than a cow's, or that a fish's is less valuable than a plant's, or a woman's over a man's. One form of life must kill another if it wants to survive - जीवो जीवस्य जीवनम् | There is an interesting book by Melanie Joy that explores this thought further (albeit from a western perspective.)

One observation about (corporate) jobs today: In colonial times, it was necessary to physically control the people of a colony in order to control its production and profits. In today's times of economic colonialism, being physically present to lord over your subjects is no longer a necessity to drive exactly the same outcome - though both forms are equally coercive and equally dehumanizing.

Username relevant.

It's true! She really made me feel positive and hopeful about advocacy. This talk gives you a bunch of simple tools that you can use to start making a big difference.

You can probably write to her through her website here. Or on her facebook page here. She seems super approachable and I'll bet she'd love to hear from you. She seems to be on a lecture tour...maybe she's coming to a city near you.

She has also written a book Why We Love Dogs, Eat Pigs, and Wear Cows: An Introduction to Carnism.

And if you search for Melanie Joy on youtube, you can watch a few more of her presentations and interviews.

Eating Animals was a great expose of the meat industry but Foer isn't vegan, which irked me. He is more of an apologist, who advocates for welfarism. I'm more in the "total liberation" camp. Singer is good, but he argues that animal testing is necessary. (It's not)

I also recommend this one for understanding to the psychology of speciesism: Why We Love Dogs, Eat Pigs, and Wear Cows by Melanie Joy, PhD.

She has great TED Talks, too.

Hi there. Thanks for taking the time to write this post. I read every word as I know everyone's time is valuable and gave this the attention it deserved.



My wife and I have already started restricting red meat. Meaning we only have it once in a blue moon. She has given up chicken entirely, which means I have all but given up chicken. My next goal is to give up pork. Pigs are an incredible animal with a degree of intelligence that I once heard is greater than a dog's and akin to a 3 yr old child. They are sweet creatures and I hope I can one day give up the meat they produce.


Needless to say, we are moving in that direction but are taking small steps. Not sure if you are a reader but if you are, and haven't read it already, I suggest you pick up a book called Omnivore's Dilemma. Read the first couple of reviews for a feel of what you'd be in store for if you decide to read it. Basically takes you through the food chain from start to finish. The parts that got to me particular was how "organic" may not necessarily mean organic in how we believe it should be, the industrialization of the food chain and how synthesized corn is used in everything including animal feed (going against evolution meaning animals cannot digest it correctly but its used because it fattens them up fast and cheap), and how "free range" is not free range. Check it out- and thanks again for your post.

It's not at all about ketogenic or other carb-restricted diets, but The Omnivore's Dilemma tells the story of Joel Salatin's success in rejuvenating exhausted farmland in the Shenandoah Valley (after generations of sharecropping). The book also delves into the more typical practices of modern American industrial-scale agriculture. Salatin's approach incorporates multiple animal types--cattle, pigs, poultry, etc.--and the careful rotation of animal species through his pastures to support and improve the quality of the soil and the grasses it produces. The turnaround he accomplished on depleted farmland is nothing short of extraordinary. His ultimate goal has been to get to the point of relying only on nature's input of sunshine and rainfall to have a healthy, productive, and sustainable farming method.

Some vegans feed their pets vegan, others don't. It's not a huge deal since most pet food is scraps off the slaughterhouse floor and "meat not fit for human consumption." Most of the time it's not like your further supporting the slaughter of animals. Dogs are easier fed vegan than cats. I saw one post of a guy who successfully fed his ferret vegan. It's probably floating around google somewhere. Anyway. What you feed your pets isn't the main focus of veganism.

Yes....you should go vegan. Why aren't you one yet?

Best Speech You Will Ever Hear on Veganism: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=es6U00LMmC4

Earthlings http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ce4DJh-L7Ys

Vegucated: http://www.filmsforaction.org/watch/vegucated-2/

Mercy For Animals: http://www.mercyforanimals.org

Vegan Outreach: http://www.veganoutreach.org

Vegan Kit: http://vegankit.com

Why We Love Dogs, Eat Pigs, and Wear Cows: http://www.amazon.com/Love-Dogs-Pigs-Wear-Cows/dp/1573245054/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1375333626&sr=8-1&keywords=why+we+love+dogs+eat+pigs+and+wear+cows

Hello! If you’re doing it for food reasons I would suggest to start with

Nutrition Facts

Lilykoi

I’d suggest them because they’re backed by science, and (nutrition facts especially) really helped me transition.

Becoming Vegan UK amazon

Apps as well. If it helps you download Cronometer just to make sure you’re getting enough of certain nutrients.

oh she glows app

Vitamin B12 to ensure that’s not something you end up deficient in :)

I’m located in Canada, but I was able to have free appointments with a dietician to talk about my diet as a vegan. Not sure if that’s available to you.
I also let my family doctor know when I was transitioning, and she did a full blood panel and then I try and do them every 6-8 months.

Edit to add: I’m fairly positive this YouTuber that I follow is in the UK.

Vegan UK also some UK groups, depending on your location.

hope this helps!

Hey there! I just made a gigantic batch of pancakes and I thought about you and your kids. It might be something they would like. Whenever I make them I mix up a crazy amount of batter and freeze the extra pancakes. Then they have easy breakfasts and something to toss in their lunch boxes whenever we are short on time. We get pretty creative with the pancakes, usually adding fruit, nuts, and sprinkles onto each pancake before the first flip.

I use 3 cups of whole wheat pastry flour, 1 cup soy milk powder, 1 tsp baking powder, a little salt, and enough soy milk (or whatever milk is around, even water is good) to make it into a thick batter.

I also make french toast in big batches by saving the batter in the fridge and making fresh french toast with the leftover batter. I use chickpea flour, soy milk powder, and milk or water for the batter. Maybe a little vanilla in there also.

I got the idea about adding soy milk powder to baked goods from Becoming Vegan: the complete reference to plant-based nutrition (comprehensive edition) by Davis and Melina. It has a lot of great tips with regard to feeding children. The comprehensive edition is large but I have never wished for the condensed edition instead.

I would be interested to hear any easy recipes that are popular with your kids.

Edit to provide link to Becoming Vegan: The Complete Reference to Plant-Based Nutrition (Comprehensive Edition)

Have you read that book "Where the Downvotes Come From"? It's an amazing book.

There's a passage that explains that some downvotes come about because of the discomfort of people when they hear the truth about a subject that secretly bothers them, but they have no courage to admit it. Or, sometimes, because it is the mainstream way of thinking.

Some get aggressive; some joke (see below); some downvote.

Very entertaining, really.

Of course, there's this other book people should REALLY read, that's called "Why We Love Dogs, Eat Pigs and Wear Cows".

What sort of price range?
You could look at vegan bags/wallets from (high end) Matt&Nat or (low end) Urban Outfitters?
Cool tank tops or tee shirts?
Cook books or other books?
And who doesnt like snacks really? Just search vegan in the food section of amazon and you could find some gems! YUM!
Thanks for reaching out here for ideas! Now I'm hoping my secret santa stumbles across this!

I just have to underline this. How Not to Die is amongst the best books on nutrition ever. As long as someone is open to reading it, it's perhaps the best gift you can give them. Sadly, the folks who need to read it the most, are the most likely ones to ignore it.

Another book that is quite excellent, though a little older (but appears recently updated), is Becoming Vegan

That’s not heartless, it’s actually quite common. If you’re interested in the reasons why learning about that sort of thing frequently doesn’t influence people to make a change I’d suggest reading Why We Love Dogs, Eat Pigs, and Wear Cows a book by Dr. Melanie Joy on the social phycology of meat consumption.

The long and short of it is that your experience is typical of most people when we learn about these things. We’re initially shocked and disgusted, sometimes we even vow to never eat meat again, or we have a difficult time doing so for a while. Then those feelings fade and we fall right back into our old habits. This is a result of a phenomenon called normalization. Meat consumption is so normalized in our culture that we don’t question it. It’s easy to justify because everyone is doing it.

I think that things like the environment or health are easier for people to relate to because they’re less normalized. The environment hasn’t been a concern for very long relative to human society, where animal consumption and use has been a part of our culture since the very beginning. Similarly, the idea of living in a health conscious way is a relatively new idea.

We all know that slaughter is a necessary part of the meat production process, but while many people agree that the suffering is unnecessary, far fewer actively believe that animals shouldn’t be slaughtered at all and that it’s wrong to do so. This is the “radical” part of ethical veganism. But when it’s viewed in the context of environmental or health concerns I think it’s a bit easier for people to understand. I think that avoiding animal products for ethical reasons feels more counter to our culture of meat consumption and animal use than avoiding them for health or environmental reasons.

Congratulations on your pregnancy.

Congratulations on adopting one of the healthiest diets in the world that will also reduce your environmental footprint and the amount of cruelty in the world.

Please do yourself, your child, and your family a favor by reading this book from cover to cover. It is written by Brenda Davis R.D. one of the top nutrition experts in the world. She cowrote the American Dietetic Association's Position Paper On Vegetarianism, has sat on international councils and has many authoritative credentials

Becoming Vegan 2nd Edition/Comprehensive Edition

The book covers the unique needs of each stage of the human life cycle from pregnancy, infancy, childhood, the teen years, the adult years, and the elderly years.

I would disagree a bit with the above comment (new father here over a year). The same rules really apply, make sure they get their calories in a well balanced whole food way. Try to breast feed as long as possible (18-24 months) Easy to say for a guy, it is very rough in the beginning for the women.

The people who have run into problems were idiots who did not breast feed and used almond milk for formula.

Here is an outstanding book to get which covers everything with science.

https://www.amazon.com/Disease-Proof-Your-Child-Feeding-Right/dp/0312338082

Congrats as your mind is about to be blown.

Additionally--if you want something more to think about--I encourage you to watch Dr. Melanie Joy's relatively short TED Talk
which is based on her book Why We Love Dogs,
Eat Pigs, and Wear Cows. It opened my eyes a ton.

edit: capitalization

It depends on a lot of things Pollan spends a bit of time talking about it in Omnivore's Dilemma

Most beef in the US is grain fed, often corn. The corn is grown with fertilizers normally derived from natural gas and sometimes other petrochemical compounds.

The energy costs of gathering natural gas, converting it to ammonia, creating fertilizer, transporting fertilizer, growing the corn, transporting corn to the cattle, transporting the cattle to a slaughtering house, transporting the beef to a market greatly exceeds the amount of energy that can be derived from eating the beef.

There are farming techniques that can avoid a bit of this. Pollan talks about this too. A farm that has cattle that eats grass, chickens that eat bugs from the cow pastures, the dried cow droppings are used for fertilizer, etc. The farm tries to stay self contained.

• Eternal Treblinka
  
  
• Bleating Hearts
  
  
• Eat Like You Care
  
  
• Why We Love Dogs, Eat Pigs, and Wear Cows
  

I suggest finding vegan support wherever you can. Check out Carol Adam's Living Among Meat Eaters: The Vegetarian's Survival Handbook. There are some good vegan podcasts like Midwest Vegan Radio, too.

If they are at all approachable, you could try to ask them to read something short or watch something to get them thinking. Present it as a way for them to understand why you've made the decision to be vegan, rather than an attempt to persuade them. I suggest a website that lists quick reasons to be vegan, the book Please Don't Eat the Animals, or the documentary Vegucated.

Oh, it's a book, check it out here! It explores the way we think and why we feel as we feel towards animals and certain stuff as well. It talks about the system and... more things! :)

I tried going vegetarian on-and-off for several years with limited success. It wasn't until I read Why We Love Dogs, Eat Pigs, and Wear Cows that it finally clicked and I've been vegetarian for three years now.

I strongly recommend either of these two books to get a good grip on what you need to eat:

https://www.amazon.com/Becoming-Vegan-Reference-Plant-Based-Comprehensive/dp/1570672970

or

https://www.amazon.com/Vegan-Life-Everything-Healthy-Plant-Based-ebook/dp/B0053GOYLW/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1503983996&sr=1-1&keywords=vegan+for+life

Carnists? Did you just read Melanie Joy's book, Why We Love Dogs, Eat Pigs and Wear Cows? She's on tour in Europe right now.

Don't delete this is the heart of the matter! read this
http://www.amazon.com/Love-Dogs-Pigs-Wear-Cows/dp/1573245054

http://caroljadams.com/spom-the-book/ Coming from a background in science, I've read and enjoyed many of the environmental, ethical and nutrition based books on veganism, but this one on sexual politics really gave me a new perspective to chew on. Obligatory plug for How Not to Die, and also Melanie Joy's book on carnism.

On Food and Cooking by Harold McGee.

I also like Michael Pollan's writing on the natural history of food, notably The Omnivore's Dilemma.

Why We Love Dogs, Eat Pigs, and Wear Cows: An Introduction to Carnism https://www.amazon.com/dp/1573245054/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_gmCADb5BMCRKD

I don't agree with this kind of all-or-nothing attitude. It's not so easy to become vegetarian, let alone vegan, especially after being a meat-eater for all of your life. Just because you believe animals have agency doesn't necessarily mean that eating animals is tantamount to "condoning the torture of farmed animals." You can be a responsible consumer of meat and try to buy from more ethical farms; you can try to cut back on your meat intake; you can do other things that support animal welfare while you struggle with the omnivore's dilemma.

Expecting people to drastically change their lifestyles is exactly the sort of attitude that causes some people to not even try in the first place. Baby steps are effective. Looking down your nose at the very natural act of eating meat is not.

Why We Love Dogs, Eat Pigs, and Wear Cows: An Introduction to Carnism

Also, bot in the comments posted a link to here. Prepare of weird conversations.

Sorry I couldn't get back to you sooner, but as you may imagine, the information below took some time to compile. Due to its long length, I've divided the information into two posts.

These are by no means all the reasons that exist, but I think it's a pretty good primer. The long and short of it, for me, is that there is no really good reason to consume animal products, and plenty of compelling reasons not to. Feel free to ask questions, provide counterpoints, whatever.

ETHICS

"Veganism is a way of living that seeks to exclude, as far as possible and practicable, all forms of exploitation of, and cruelty to, animals for food, clothing and any other purpose."

Avoiding unnecessary harm is a value that many people share, and most would agree that if you can avoid causing or endorsing pain or suffering that it morally desirable to do so. At the same time, many people take the use of animals for food, clothing, entertainment and more for granted. However, these practices cause suffering on a large scale and are entirely unnecessary for most people most of the time.

The use of animal products causes suffering.

• Cruelty in farming practices
  
• The vast majority of meat produced comes from factory farms.
  
• Animal testing
  
• Can animals feel pain?
  
• Animal sentience, the concept that animals are capable of subjective experiences of pleasure and pain, has been well documented among species as varied as chimps, dogs, rats and fish.
  
  This suffering is largely avoidable and unnecessary.
  
  
• Vegan diets are appropriate for individuals during all stages of the life cycle, including pregnancy, lactation, infancy, childhood, and adolescence, and for athletes.
  
• Plant-based diets are actually more affordable, as evidenced by the fact that meat consumption increases with a country's wealth.
  
  Pleasure and convenience are not morally convincing reasons to make choices that endorse or inflict suffering on other beings
  
  
• Not including seafood, the average person eats 31 animals per year, which are bred and raised in cruel conditions for the purpose of being consumed. Seafood is a whole other deal, which I'll discuss in more detail in the environment section.
  
• Our cultures are arbitrarily selective about which animals it is selective to consume. For instance, we keep dogs as pets and eat pigs, despite the fact that pigs are at least as intelligent as dogs. See Melody Joy's Why We Love Dogs, Eat Pigs & Wear Cows.
  
  If you really want a good overview of the practices that go into producing animal products, give the documentary Earthlings a watch at your own risk.

This book is good and written by 2 dieticians

Here you go. Becoming Vegan: The Complete Reference to Plant-Based Nutrition (Comprehensive Edition) https://www.amazon.com/dp/1570672970/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_Tl2TBb25CPDTX

It’s got a good chapter about kids’ needs. It helped me a lot.

I recommend this book: http://www.amazon.com/Disease-Proof-Your-Child-Feeding-Right/dp/0312338082

Becoming Vegan: The Comprehensive Edition

I hope they will include
http://www.amazon.com/Eating-Animals-Jonathan-Safran-Foer/dp/0316069884/ref=zg_bs_14454_1
and
http://www.amazon.com/Animal-Liberation-Definitive-Classic-Movement/dp/0061711306/ref=zg_bs_14454_9
or
http://www.amazon.com/Love-Dogs-Pigs-Wear-Cows/dp/1573245054/ref=zg_bs_14454_14
or
http://www.amazon.com/Terrorists-Freedom-Fighters-Reflections-Liberation/dp/159056054X but i guess not.

If you're interested in a follow on read, The Omnivore's Dilemma talks about big corn a lot, (and how those subsidies cause most of our food to be corn based), and also other agrabusiness like big organic, (and why it's often misleading to call it as such).

https://www.amazon.com/Omnivores-Dilemma-Natural-History-Meals-ebook/dp/B000SEIDR0/

If you want to get royally pissed off at our government and the food industry, I highly suggest reading both The Omnivores Dilemma and Food Politics.

The general run down is: You're eating garbage, and you have been for a long time, and when people try to properly educate the masses (including children), you better believe you're going to be greeted with massive opposition from food industry giants and their lobbyists.

Add this link to your post:

https://www.amazon.com/Omnivores-Dilemma-Natural-History-Meals-ebook/dp/B000SEIDR0/

Book: Becoming Vegan, Melina & Davis, 2014

Site: VeganHealth.org

The book Becoming Vegan is a really thorough book that discusses vegan nutrition. I believe there was a chapter specifically discussing pregnancy.

https://www.amazon.com/CAFO-Tragedy-Industrial-Animal-Factories/dp/1601090587/

https://www.amazon.com/Slaughterhouse-Shocking-Inhumane-Treatment-Industry/dp/1591024501/

https://www.amazon.com/Meat-Market-Animals-Ethics-Money/dp/0975867911

https://www.amazon.com/Every-Twelve-Seconds-Industrialized-Slaughter-ebook/dp/B005ZC7I62/

https://www.amazon.com/Comfortably-Unaware-Choose-Killing-Planet/dp/0825306868/

Here ya' go! https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0312338082?ref_=mw_olp_product_details

Exactly. I recently picked up Eating Animals, and I'm frustrated that the main point of the book is to revert to small scale local-farm slaughter and reducitarianism. I'm worried the movie will be more of the same. Melanie Joy's book however is much more enlightening.