I’m not a doctor so I can’t totally answer this, but I read this analogy in a book somewhere and it’s always stayed with me: “Eating one burger or one ice cream cone is probably not going to kill you -- but we don’t just eat one in our lifetime.” Imagine an empty glass bottle: Every time you eat an animal product a marble goes in. 5 marbles, 10 marbles, that doesn’t seem so bad...but it all adds up and it adds a lot up faster than we think it does.I can’t 100% guarantee that if someone eats a plant-based (vegan) diet they absolutely, positively, won’t get any kind of sickness (cancer, heart disease, etc) but what I can tell them is that with every bite of animal product, they make the propensity to get sick much more likely. So knowing that, is a cheat or slip even worth it?Another problem with the occasional “cheat” is the mental effect it has. Unhealthy foods are very addictive and as long as we keep eating them, we keep being addicted. It’s hard to break the chain and build new habits when you’re cheating. Plus one slip might lead to another and then another. Go all in, you can do it! For more information about animal products and heart disease, see Preventing and Reversing Heart Disease by Dr. Caldwell Esseltyn Jr.
