I don't know but it looks like the vegetarians are a very satisfied bunch.

Veggies enjoy oral sex more than we do apparently

Actually I spent last Saturday in a raw vegan cooking class and they were lovely. Some looked incredibly healthy and happy. Some looked like crap. Kinda like what I saw at AHS, lol.

Got a buddy who has been a strict 100% raw vegan for years.. owns a raw food cafe and is an avid runner/ running coach... he's happy and I think it works well for him. (BUT.. raw food folks don't eat dairy or much grian at all) so vegan isn't too far off from paleo in some ways.

As a dentist I see the results of various diets in ways that others cannot. My question is simply, "How are their teeth?" I remember back when I was macrobiotic, many of the folks complained about periodontal disease or other problems. I personally suffered from a dental abscess during that period. Of course, macro isn't raw food, and admittedly I don't have any patients that I know of who eat all raw, but I do see vegans, and their teeth do not fare well. (Often we end up bidding farewell to their teeth).

I actually live in the same town as the Boutenko family, and while I do not think Victoria Boutenko seems at all healthy, her two young adult children are glowing, fit, and always seem happy and energetic ...my homeopathy teacher and her husband were not the healthiest people I had ever seen when simply vegan, but when they went raw, they really became radiant. They are two of the truly happiest people I have ever known. That said, I've known too many unhealthy and unhappy vegans to count, including myself over a decade ago.

Yes, durianrider. I wouldn't call him happy though, I would call him arrogant.

Hi. I am a happy and healthy vegan.

I try to be reasonable in my thinking and not allow myself to stew over things I can't control. And I try to maintain balance in my life between different things that bring me satisfaction. This helps me be happy.

Some experiments I've started in the past year are working out using the McGuff Body by Science protocol (I love it) and I relatively recently started the Shangri-La diet using flax oil. It seems to be working.

I have met a lot of very nice, happy, healthy, moderate vegans in my day.

I have had two good friends for 12 years, brother and sister, who have been strict vegan for 10 and 6 years respectively. They live on fruits, veggies, nuts, grains and high-protein vegan foods. Both have beautiful skin, thick hair, and lots of energy. Both are active (running, yoga, weights, outdoor activities). They are both truly lovely and sweet people, and ethical vegans, so they do not preach to me about my lifestyle being unhealthy... they are quite open to the idea of paleo. They just don't care what is optimal health-wise, they want to sacrifice themselves for the sake of animals. I went through my own phases with this, but minimizing animal products in my diet (I've been vegetarian and dabbled in veganism) made me so ill it's just not an option.

The man is a bit too thin for my taste but looks healthy enough... lean too. He recently donated a kidney, recovered from the surgery very well. He is a bigshot lawyer making high six figures, he lives extremely frugally and donates a lot of money to charities, and he plans on saving up millions of dollars by his mid-30s and then devoting his life to more worthwhile causes.

The woman has a lot of emotional/mental health issues, but that has been the case almost her entire life (she gave up meat at about age 12, became vegan age 20). My theory is that eating better would help that, of course. She is not currently taking medications though and is doing all right. She is very beautiful and fairly slim but does struggle a bit with higher body fat which she does not like. She eats low fat (despite my suggestions) and about as high in protein as a vegan can. She is currently getting her Masters in nutrition (haha) and teaches yoga. The only thing that worries me is that she stopped taking the pill after years a few months ago, and she has yet to have a menstrual cycle. I keep on trying to make her promise that if she doesn't become fertile within a year, she has to eat some pastured eggs every week. She really wants children in the future so I think if her fertility is in jeopardy, she might go back on her 'ideals'.

Non-scientifically, I have to say that while I have met more than one apparently happy and healthy vegan, a greater percentage seem to be grumpy, pasty, and eager to lay a guilt-trip. That could-- absolutely-- just be a statistical artifact from my sample size.

Also, perhaps, the healthy and happy vegans are the ones that are less likely to wear their veganism on their sleeves, or make it a huge part of their personal identity. Religion, it seems, can operate the same way. Some of the most devout people I know do not broadcast it. Not because they are embarrassed in any way, but just because they're more "lead by example" types. Maybe, similarly, I've met more vegans than I realize.

My friend's (on the left) PETA internship pictures.... she gained about 20 lbs and got all pale and sickly when she went from vegetarian to vegan 3 or 4 years ago. All her "vegan food!" pics are deep fried mock meat and vegan cakes/ cupcakes. The girl on the right freaks me out. This seems to be the case with most regular vegans, raw vegans tend to be healthier in my experience.

A family member has been vegan for 30 years, but not strictly. When he travels he occasionally has dairy, but avoids it whenever he can. He seems healthy and happy to me, despite eating a rather large amount of processed food. He does exercise a lot though and takes supplements. Everyone is different.

The vegans I know look happy on the surface. Being healthy depends on how you measure health. I know a vegan couple who look borderline anorexic and my dead grandma could beat them in arm wrestling.

I know two dedicated vegans - both of them in their early 30s and both different as can be.

One, raised a vegan from childhood, is emaciated yet flabby, pallid/sickly looking, with exceptionally poor vision and crooked teeth. All I know of her lifestyle is that she's a raw-food vegan and isn't into much exercise. She is, however, a very nice, good-natured girl.

The other, looks pretty good externally, and has an attractive, model-thin figure. Her complexion is pretty bad, but overall, she's an above-average attractive girl. She has done the fake-meat variety of veganism since she was 20 and is extremely proud of the fact that she can stay "hot" without exercise. That said, she is the most bat-sh*t crazy person I've ever met. She is what I would classify a "militant vegan" and to say that she is perpetually angry and vindictive is a gross understatement. Heaven help you if you cross her. She holds a grudge forever and stalks, insults and threatens violence against people for offenses as benign as agreeing to disagree that veganism is a healthy lifestyle choice.

Based on these two acquaintances, I'm convinced deficiencies from a vegan diet manifest themselves differently in different people. As evidenced by vegan #2, physical appearance is not necessarily indicative of good health.

I have known several vegans and vegetarians in my day, and all of them ended up becoming meat eaters. I usually ask them, well, have you noticed the difference? and the answer is always, "not really". As you can imagine I am trying to gather experiential data here. I myself was once a vegan for a short period of time in my life.

Have there been any vegan civilizations? or is this a strictly modern phenomena based upon moral issues due to ugly animal raising practices?

(One of my elderly goats died yesterday. Buried with full honours)

I know 2 vegans, and they both look like the right chick on the picture.

Such diet could be an good option for some people, however, its very hard to do it correctly and probability for failure is big, especially while young. That depends on genetics - for instance, on positive side, you might have high levels of amylase enzyme as described in Diet and the evolution of human amylase gene copy number variation, on the negative you might be gluten or fructose intolerant so it might screw you big time.

Its probably more healthy then not giving a damn about your food to be honest.

The vegan professor (he was for 20+ years) I had didn't look healthy at all. Bone thin with translucent skin and overall brittle look. Had a friend that went vegan, and he seemed happy for the time (only knew him for about 1year post vegan though). Of course before vegan he binge drank 2-3x/week, ate SAD and basically was your all around college party fella. Hard to say how much eating vegan helped.

My girlfriend, who I live with, is vegan, and she's in perfect health. She hasnt eaten meat in over 12 years, and is incredibly active - ballet, aerial silks, yoga, mini-marathons - and that's weekly. She has times when she has to take iron supplements, but that's about it. She eats real food though, and stays away from processed things. Emphasis on raw, but not purely raw vegan.

I don't think we should lump all vegans as the same - A lot of them don't know how to take care of themselves, but its not just vegans. There are people who can't take care of themselves in every diet, even those on the paleo cart.

A friend of mine is a vegan - so far, no problems with her health. However it'd be interesting to see how she would fare on whole natural foods and avoiding major toxins (grains etc...)

The only difference in the way I feel (perceive my body) on paleo than when I was a vegan is more power on plaeo (from the red meat). I ate a lot of fat already as a vegan so the energy levels have stayed consisted throughout the years despite adding egg yolks, raw goat cheese, beef, chicken, and fish to my diet about six months ago. But it's more than enough of a reason for me to adopt this lifestyle.

I've been vegan for the past 2 years. I was obese and lost nearly 100 pounds. I became more active and healthy. I am now beginning to reintroduce eggs (unfertilized, pastured and organic) into my diet because I find them to be an ethical option for me. My girlfriend and I are giving the Paleo Vegetarian path a try as she has been diagnosed as having minor Crohn's and similar symptoms. Since we stopped eating gluten and grains, she has stopped having stomach and intestinal pains. My girlfriend and I visited a dietitian this past weekend who said that we are very healthy and doing everything right; she was surprised at how knowledgeable we were nutrition-wise. Many people go vegan, but still eat crappy processed foods. I think if you are eating whole and real foods you can be healthy as long as you are keeping track of proper nutrition. It's different for everyone; what works for one person won't work for another. I don't mind if others eat meat; I see pasture-raised meats as a healthy choice. I just don't like eating animals (and after being an ethical vegan for so long; it's hard to just flip the switch).

My husband and I are both healthy, happy vegans. We are not skinny or fat, but right on target. We are moderately active (we do day hikes in the mountains), walk regularly, bike, but nothing too serious. We have both noticed an increase in energy and sex drive in the years since becoming vegan, although nothing too drastic. So far, we have only noticed positive changes (such as improved eyesight), since becoming vegan. I have met other vegans lately, including vegan children, and have seen no unhealthy ones. My father cured his chronic Gout by (maybe not becoming vegan, but say 95% vegan diet with a few eggs from his chickens). It's starting to look to me more and more that the meat/dairy industry is spending billions of dollars convincing everyone a vegan diet is unhealthy, and the propaganda is working.

I was healthy and relatively happy for 5 years as a disciplined vegan, and I am healthy and relatively now on paleo. Was I supposed to get happier or something?

How do you know someone is a Vegan?

answer: Don't worry, they'll tell you.

I met a woman recently. I think she was a vegan, but I could be wrong and she was only a regular vegetarian. She said she ate a lot of nuts and lifted weights very frequently. She was a runner. She was very thin but very muscular. She said it was a lot of work to get enough protein and lift weights to maintain muscle mass, but otherwise the diet worked well for her. I couldn't criticize because she looked great and was strong and she kept up easily on the hike we were doing together.

I lived with a few vegans who were really lovely and health and happy. But, they did describe themselves as "bad vegans" because they would turn a blind eye to dairy and eggs being in products on a regular basis, and would always slowly and secretly destroy brie off a cheese plate while hoping nobody would notice. I don't think this is a bad thing- small amount of dairy and egg was probably a helpful addition to their otherwise quite healthy diet.

I can't say I've met any, but by sheer probability they have to exist somewhere.