Leo,
clothing is things like wool, leather that come from animals. I personally own leather products from before I went vegan that I have no intention to stop using and I don't have any issue with buying leather goods second hand, mainly belts really. My own reason for veganism has more to do with quality of life than killing animals which puts me at odds with a lot of other vegans.
There are a lot of common myths in the vegan and vegetarian communities that are being used to support the diets. I don't know if you've been exposed to any of them but a good site by a, I think vegetarian but maybe vegan, who goes out of his way to debunk them for the sake of intellectual honesty is this one:
Beyond Vegetarianism--Raw Food, Vegan, Fruitarian, Paleo Diets It doesn't deal with the ethical motivations which I think are hard to challenge while being intellectually honest, just others.
"i mean, i know God approves of eating meat in the TANACH, but for crying out loud, not like this! do you know what i mean?"
Yeah I know exactly what you mean. That's very in line with my own thinking. I do think we eat too much meat and because it's all driven by quotas the animals suffer. Despite being a vegan, I still think it would be an awesome thing to be able to go back in time and experience what it was like to be in Jerusalem on one of the major festivals and bring an offering. One of the things I do find interesting biblically from a veg standpoint is the lack of meat consumption until after the flood.
Mad Cows Disease can take years to show up and I'm concerned in the states in a few years we'll start seeing people with it because the regs haven't been tightened.
I do eat soy products and I try to limit my soy intake. I drink rice milk instead of soy milk and lately I've cut out TVP which based on my research is the only thing that's reliably caused issues in studies. It's very heavily processed. I also eat seitan, an excellent source of protein made from wheat gluten that's very tasty and can be prepared for cheap at home from vital wheat gluten. There are other good sources of protein. Generally vegans have to be more concerned with ensuring the consumption of complete proteins which are a combination of a grain and a bean, not necessarily in the same meal. There are some other complete proteins that are vegan, like in quinoa.
