Diets that (don't) work

So I was reading the CNN main page headlines, which I like to do so I can at least pretend I am keeping up with world news. And since CNN mixes fun stuff in there, it's also hilarious. So today I saw this link to "The top 10 healthiest diets in America", and naturally I get excited thinking that they could possibly talk about raw veganism or something equally awesome.
Well, here's the list:
http://www.cnn.com/2008/HEALTH/12/29/healthiest.diets/index.html
They pick 10 weird diets, whatever, Weight Watchers is the only one I've heard of, and they list the various fallbacks of the 10 diets. The amazing part? No kind of vegan diet made the cut, and the only vegetarian diet on the list is described as "just too hard to sustain".
REALLY?
Vegetarian diets, which are credited with lowering the risk of colon and prostate cancer, heart attacks, high cholesterol and blood pressure, and stroke, are well worth any difficulty. And at least in my case, the difficulty that one might have in maintaining it only serves to boost my self-esteem, give me another reason to change the world, and add some deeper meaning to my daily routine.
I'm coming out of the vegan closet: it's easy, and I feel great in every way. Take THAT, top 10 american diets.

Animal Rights

Humans rights abuses are pimples on the face of society, showing time and again that people are easily able to forget their own humanity. But what about animal rights abuses? People have a hard time remembering their human relatives, let alone that they are also animals. Animal rights is a pimple on the face of society too, but it is one that lies deep under the surface, causing much pain and redness, but not yet emerging to heal. It's one of those you know is simply filled with sebum, waiting to explode, but you can't pop it or do anything to heal it until moves to the surface.

What I'm trying to say is, I feel like animal rights is an issue that has been recognized by some, but definitely not taken seriously by others, and, therefore, has not even begun its biggest fight. I am often tempted to add in the question of, "was that person vegetarian?" when evaluating moral character, but as soon as that idea is brought into the topic, people seem to take away my legitimacy and refuse to hear what I have to say. It is crazy enough for me to mention women's rights or immigration law reform... god forbid I mention animal rights! But these issues are interrelated as all injustices are. We must fight "the man" in unison.

Which led me to thinking about how the animal rights movement might play out in the future. Will it be like other movements that have continued to marginalize groups within the larger group? Will pigs' rights come before cows' rights? Will we fight vivisection before we eliminate factory farms? Will we forget how other injustices are related to the cause? How environmental injustice is directly related to farm animal injustice, for example?

I am wondering how this will play out.

I am hoping we remember the necessity for inclusion.

I'm going to eat 3 year old children

This is equivalent to eating pigs.

Species don't exist. Get over yourselves. That ugly kid you see is just a rearrangement of the same molecules that make up a pig.

So go on and feast upon the flesh of intelligent beings! Just be fair in your judgment of food. Hypocrites aren't allowed into heaven.