In any bookstore, you'll find a huge selection of books devoted to food. As residents of an industrialized nation, we have witnessed people making the connection between the food on their table and where it came from. In recent years, popularity has surrounded book titles like The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollen or weight-loss advising titles like Eat This, Not That! Not to mention movies like "Food Inc." and the locally-produced "Killer at Large."

These books contain topics about organic, gluten-free and lactose-free foods. Books about vegetarian and vegan diets have long been in these sections, but have become super hip with Skinny Bitch by Rory Freedman and Kim Barnouin. While it's not advertised as a book about going vegan, the authors advise eliminating animal products from the diet for weight loss.

As the media has focused on food, more people are making the shift to vegetarianism and veganism. We've witnessed this change in our own city with the addition of restaurants such as Vertical Diner, where you can get animal-free diner-style dishes; City Dogs, a vegan hot dog/taco cart that serves very convincing fake meats; and bakeries such as City Cakes and Cakewalk Baking Co. that specialize in animal-free sweets.

With so many expanding food options, local vegans are sharing their knowledge and experience through blogs. I caught up with three of these bloggers to talk about their take on the diet and lifestyle and why we are seeing a more and more people turning to veganism.

What is Veganism?

I've heard people say they are vegetarian and then continue talking about how much they love sushi and couldn't live without chicken. The perception may be that red meat is off limits, but it's all animal products -- anything with a face. Vegetarians don't eat animal flesh -- meat, fish or poultry. Vegans don't eat anything that comes from an animal, including dairy products and sometimes honey (but that's a can of worms I'm not going to open in this article). Vegans will avoid cosmetics tested on animals and clothing derived from animal ingredients.

Reasons for Being Vegan

Aside from religious reasons, I've found three main motives for going vegan: health, animal welfare and environmental impact. While the latter is the least common rationale for going vegan, most will tell you that the reasons change overtime and overall, you feel like you are doing a good thing for all three of those reasons. Because I'm writing about the diet choice and not the horrific details of factory farming and how animals are treated, I'll spare you the images you can easily find on the Internet.

For Krystina McIntyre, founder of vegansalt.com, reading Peter Singer's Animal Liberation, which led her on a path to research animal cruelty. "The more I knew the more I wanted to learn," she says. The vegan of 3 ½ years says we're "taught not to think about where our food comes from. Yet we're taught to love our cats and dogs." Describing herself as a former meat-eating American, McIntyre says she more-or-less went "cold tofu" and spent a month craving cheese and chocolate.

Kristin Thomas of Vegansaltlake.com (and also was a blog where she shares recipes Beansandgreens.net) became a "longtime vegetarian because I did not want to harm other beings." Although she thought that was being achieved as a vegetarian, she started listening to Vegan Freak, a podcast that taught her that dairy cows and egg-laying hens don't have a happy life. The vegan of 3 ½ years says "I was still using and killing animals by consuming dairy and eggs. I had to go vegan."

In the case of JD Norton from vegslc.com, he had a girlfriend who bet him he couldn't give up meat for a month. He made it 30 days and then some. The real change came when he read Diet for a New America by John Robbins. Norton confesses that he still has a weakness for cheese; he talks on the blog he shares with two others about how he always thought it was baffling that "someone can call themselves an animal lover and yet eat animals; they should probably call themselves domestic animal lovers."

Now a parent, Norton is raising his daughter on a vegetarian diet. He realizes that at some point in her life, she will want to find out what the big deal is with a Happy Meal and is happy to let her make that decision on her own. He has found tremendous support from a pediatrician and has read loads of advice on the subject.

Challenges of Being Vegan

Being vegan is not difficult at all, all three of the bloggers I talked with agree. The real challenges are in social situations.

While visiting with McIntyre, we shared stories about omnivores becoming defensive and arguing about things like the intelligence of animals. "Some people put up a wall and don't even want to hear about it," she says. Her take on it is that some people feel that you are saying you are better than them because you don't eat animal products. She adds that facing someone who doesn't consume animal products puts them in a situation where they are confronting the slaughtering of animals, something they know that is bad.

"It's a respect for life," McIntyre says. When it comes to animal welfare we can look back at a time where "slavery was justified by the same arguments that we hear now."

Going to other people's homes can be tricky, Thomas says. She's a member of a book group that takes turns serving dinner at monthly meetings. "I've long since given up on anyone catering to my special requirements, so I didn't expect them to take that into account when cooking and told them so. But I've been pleasantly surprised at each meeting that someone has made something vegan for me." She adds that being vegan makes it harder to make new friends. "You have them over for dinner and they are hesitant to invite you over because they don't know what to cook for you. She's found dining with non-vegans isn't so bad with restaurants like Squatters or Chinese and Indian restaurants.

Misconceptions

Ten or more years ago, if you knew a vegan, they were most likely hippies or straight-edgers. It has never helped that extreme animal-rights activists give vegans a bad name by setting fire to McDonald's restaurants or setting minks free.

Nowadays, it's common to find vegans in your neighborhood, workplace and schools. Norton says that people will say "But you don't look like a vegan ..." and he laughs "What does a vegan look like?"

Most of us are raised in a meat-and-potatoes environment, and we have learned that you have to eat meat for protein and dairy for bones. Vegans are far from the pasty-white malnourished waifs you might envision. In fact, the vegans that I have known get their blood work done and find their protein and calcium levels are normal.

Thomas says that "a vegan diet is so diverse and full of plant nutrients that it is hard to be malnourished when eating as many beans, grains, vegetables and nuts as I do. Most American's don't actually eat enough of these whole foods."

Health/Environmental Benefits

Cancer, heart disease and obesity are among the biggest health problems facing our country. According to goveg.com, vegetarians are 50 percent less likely to develop heart disease and they have 40 percent of the cancer rate of meat-eaters.

But the health benefits don't just see a long-term impact. I was impressed to learn that both McIntyre and Norton very rarely get sick with the common cold. McIntyre said she had been a little bit sick when we met, but you wouldn't know it by her healthy glow. Norton said he used to have cold after cold after cold before he went vegetarian, but has had very few in the last 15 years.

McIntyre said she had always been a little bit chubby and was pleased with the results of losing 25 pounds without really trying.

Thomas says her health has been better since going vegan. "I used to have pretty frequent migraines and since going vegan, they have dropped to about one a year."

Thomas cites other benefits, such as knowing that she is not part of the exploitation and killing of animals. "I live across the street from a cow pasture. It makes me sad to look at them and know what is going to happen to them, but I can at least look at them and know that I am not contributing and that I am doing everything I can to prevent their suffering," she said.

Norton mentions the vegan movement being related to the green movement. As people have become concerned about their carbon footprint and have begun recycling and driving hybrids, more people see the benefit to the environment of going meatless.

At vegetarianvegan.com, one figure suggests that more than 1.3 billion human beings could be fed each year from the grain and soybeans that go to livestock in the U.S. (It seems hardly ethical to feed our food and not feed our people.) And according to Environmental Defense, if Americans skipped one meal of chicken per week, the carbon dioxide savings would be the same as taking more than 500,000 cars off U.S. roads.

Advice for Going Vegan

It's easier than ever to go vegan right now; you can find faux meats like MorningStar's Chik'n Strips and Riblets, hamburger grounds, sausages, phony baloney and fakin' bacon. If you go to Asian markets, you'll find chicken not-from-the-sea-or-land. With dairy products, there are plenty of fake cheese options, Nayonnaise, Toffuti sour cream, coconut ice cream, soylicious frozen treats, just to name a few. The only dairy replacement food I have not found yet is for cottage cheese.

Some people will make the vegan/vegetarian transition with eliminating foods in a series of steps, but as McIntyre says, just go "cold tofu."

Thomas advises, "Expect to cook dinner and not rely on takeout." She adds that it's good to get some vegan cookbooks and have a good time learning some new recipes. She recommends Vegan Freak: Being Vegan in a Non-Vegan World by Bob and Jenna Torres and Vegan Nutrition by Vesanto Melina.

Salt Lake's Vegan Bloggers

Each of Salt Lake City's vegan bloggers that I met with have a lot of knowledge that they are eager to share from their own experience and knowledge of eating a compassionate diet. McIntyre felt like she has learned so much about the vegan lifestyle that it would be a waste not to share it. She wants to help people get in touch with what they are doing because "somewhere in everyone, there is a compassionate person."

Thoughtful and articulate blog entries educate both the seasoned and newbie vegans about a world of experiments in McIntyre's kitchen as well as her latest project of arranging a produce pickup for Sugar House (read more about it on her blog/ vegansalt.com). I highly recommend reading her entry called "Tyler Durden vs. The Vegan Police."

Norton's blog, vegslc.com, has three bloggers: Norton (vegetarian for 15 years), Amanda Rock ("the most strict vegan of the three of us") and Deb Henry (a new vegetarian who is making the transition). "I hadn't found a blog with everything I wanted," Norton says. "I wanted to help to share my progression, thoughts and recipes." In one of his entries, Norton creates a dialogue about why you would give up meat, yet eat fake meat.

Thomas moved to Utah from Boston, where she co-founded the Boston Vegan Association with Eric Prescott. "When I moved here there was no organized group, no restaurant listings, no way to meet other vegans" she says. "I missed the community of vegans that I shared. I started the vegansaltlake.com as a place for vegans in the area to come together and get to know each other, plan meet-ups and review restaurants." Although she says she hasn't had much time to devote to the Web site, she hopes to create a resource for anyone in SLC who is thinking of going vegan to get information and find support.