When someone’s trying to eliminate milk and dairy from their diet to become a vegan, the usual metaphor for quitting becomes problematic, to say the least.

They are not going cold turkey.

“Cold Tofurky,” says Jane Velez-Mitchell, gently correcting a reporter’s misstep.

Cold Tofurky isn’t easy. That’s why VegUp!, the support group that Velez-Mitchell founded, is gathered at Native Foods Cafe, a vegan restaurant on Connecticut Avenue, on a recent Thursday evening: to talk about why people slip up.

“I’m Alka, and I’m a recovering meat and dairy eater,” says Alka Chandna, laboratory oversight director for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, modifying the traditional Alcoholics Anonymous greeting ...Read More »