Although Joanne is not able to respond to additional questions at this time, your concerns may have already been addressed in a previous column. Please check the Ask Joanne! Archive, which contains all the Q&As that have appeared here.

I am thinking about becoming a vegan. I have really bad allergies to milk and other things. I have read that a vegan diet can make your allergies better and my mom is very supportive and thinks it would be a good idea to try it. My dad on the other hand is also very supportive, but he loves meat. I am afraid that this would be weird for my family and friends. My brother thinks that vegetarians and vegans are crazy. Do you have any suggestions on how to handle this with my family?

It sounds as though you are contemplating adopting a total vegetarian diet -- not a vegan lifestyle -- because of concerns about your allergies and health. It is important to acknowledge the difference between an animal-free diet and a compassionate lifestyle because one is rooted in the head and the other in the heart.

When people make dietary changes based on theories about what is best for their health, there is no impetus to maintain the diet if their health declines or their hypotheses prove false. Tinkering with what you eat or don't eat to determine what makes you feel better doesn't involve an ethical commitment to anyone or anything outside of yourself. It is a choice that can change in an instant, especially if opposing medical concepts surface. True veganism, however, is a lifestyle -- not merely a diet -- based on the moral conviction that all living beings are sacred.

Our culture finds it easier to accept dietary deviations due to health-related matters than preferences based on principle. There is no need to argue for a way of eating that reverses the progression of a disease, prevents an allergic reaction, facilitates weight loss, reduces your cholesterol level, improves the condition of your skin, or enhances your overall sense of physical well-being. Who could contest this? Where is the controversy? No one would insist that you return to a meat-based diet if it would impair your health. Meat eaters might say they feel sorry for you, but they would not condemn you.

Alternatively, modern society views moral precepts as elective and therefore capable of being modified or discarded whenever they are inconvenient, disruptive, or unsettling to others. In fact, our culture sees this as not only reasonable but necessary in order for individuals to function as part of the greater whole. As a result, people who choose a principled lifestyle are often forced to defend their beliefs and practices to those who see their tenets as optional, not imperative.

To be considered "weird" because one aspect of your life -- your diet -- alleviates a health condition is deemed defensible. To be labeled "peculiar" because of who you are and what you assert is another matter altogether and one that is much more difficult to endure.

Your family does not want you to endanger your health, regardless of whether or not they choose to eat meat. If your decision to avoid eating animal products makes you feel better, I presume that your family would be happy for you. Hence, I do not grasp the problem.