Hi Atouria, welcome to
VB and congratulations on the transition to vegansim
Vegan Outreach has a stellar starter kit.
Please do not let the word "vegan" in it scare you.
The information applies just as much to vegetarians as
vegans. Just add milk and eggs if that is what you are into.
Vegan Outreach will mail you a very nice printed copy for
free. You can also download a pdf version for free or read
it on the web for free.
The kit includes unique and thoughtful essays by
Vegan Outreach founder Matt Ball that will help you
make vegetarianism a rewarding and lasting committment.
It has a better recipe section than most starter kits that
I have seen. Best of all it also has an up to date,
complete, easy to understand, and brief nutrition section by
Jack Norris, a vegan Registered Dietician.
Assuming you have a solid reason for starting veg*nism
the two best things you can do to make your commitment to it
last is to learn good nutrition and to learn to cook a small
set of recipes you really like.
Here is the url:
http://www.veganoutreach.org/starterpack
Vegan Outreach also hosts a web site of health articles
for people on plant based diets:
http://www.veganhealth.org
I would ignore the nutrition advice from other veg*n sites
on the web.
There are a number of web mavens who sound as if they know what
they are talking about and they really don't. There are also people
who I call "food cultists" who recommend certain types of vegetarian
diets for reasons that have nothing to do with ethics or
nutritional science. Unfortunately some "food cult" advice can
also be found on some of the Animal Rights sites on the internet.
Animal Rights sites also frequently give incomplete nutrition
information because they believe if they give people too much
information it will turn them away from trying vegetarianism. Many of
these sites also have out of date information.
Vegan Outreach takes the philosophy that if they tell people what
they need to know to be vegan and feel healthy that these
people will not quit being vegans thus increasing the number of vegetarians.
They research what they say and on of their founders is a registered dietician
who keeps up with the latest research.
HTH