The lowdown from:
Donna Caputo
Age: 45
Occupation: Bookkeeper/administrative assistant/English instructor/waitress
Home: South Euclid, Ohio

Donna's been a vegan since April 1994, and she agreed to take a little time out of her busy schedule to give iVillagers a taste of what it's like to go meat- and dairy-free.

What's being a vegan all about?
Our basic philosophy is that we don't want our diets to be a burden on the earth. I get the nutrients I need without the exploitation of animals. But there are also health reasons: Animal protein takes a long time to digest, and food that takes longer than three or four hours can make you sluggish and interfere with your natural cycle of ingestion and elimination. Meat and carbs eaten together generally take up to eight hours to digest.

Avoiding dairy products also has health benefits. It helps minimize mucus accumulation, and the calcium in raw nuts and leafy green vegetables is easier to absorb than the calcium in dairy. Eating vegan also helps me hydrate my body enough to keep it healthy: I eat 50 to 70 percent high-water-content foods (vegetables!) rather than drinking lots of water.

How did you decide to become a vegan?
I'm an animal lover, so I never liked the idea of eating animals. But I used to think that vegans were taking the vegetarian thing too far. Then I edited the book Fit for Life for a computer company that put it on disc. I was often tired, and the way the authors explained how our bodies use a tremendous amount of energy to digest food made sense to me. Make it easier on the body to digest, and you increase your energy level.