Buttt... This lead to people believe that I was okay with dairy/eggs, and when others picked for me I had a hard time rejecting.
And dairy and egg producing animals are hurt big time: children taken away, caged, slaughtered, selectively bread to have unnatural bodies (hen only lay ~12 eggs per year in nature vs. 300+ for domesticated variants). This is maybe worse than wild animals being killed.
After 12+ year vegetarian I went vegan 7+ years ago. I regret not doing so earlier.
I don't eat many eggs, but I find when I cut out dairy and eggs entirely, I do end up suffering some health problems.
TL:DR; 1) loss of nutrients and problems for the hen when they lay unnatural amount of eggs. 2) lot of issues to these hens such as loss of calcium, yolk and other items stuck inside and causing infection 3) killing these hens when they stop laying eggs (and therefore the implication that their life was only to serve you and treat them as a resource.)
That said, since there are so many vegans out there that don’t have any medical problems, do you think the health problems you face when not eating dairy and eggs are because you are not eating certain food groups? Perhaps a health exam will find out if you have some nutritional deficiencies?
Where is the data tracking the health of these 'so many vegans'? All of my lifelong vegan friends ran the gamut of health problems from Hashimoto's Disease and other thyroid-related issues, to severe obesity, seemingly from the highly processed food-like-products they ate. Most though were chronically under-weight, and had to take several supplements. Of course, I only know 8 vegans personally and well enough to comment on.
The reason I consume dairy and eggs is because I think that fundamentally dairy and egg (honey too) production CAN be ethical, whereas I think intentionally killing an animal for food can never be ethical. I'm aware not everyone shares the same opinion - but for me, killing a conscious being for food is not something I want a part in, even if it had a great life before the slaughter.
However I should also note that I carefully select dairy and eggs I consume, only from organic, free range farms that I've researched. I choose the vegan option if I can't be sure of the provenance of the dairy/eggs. In practice I'm vegan most of the time and consume very little dairy/egg.
I do think I might become some form of vegan in the future though, once I've thought about it more.
However, there are a whole bunch of moral inconsistencies in my position. Per calorie, harvesting certain crops probably kills more conscious beings than certain types of fishing. And I'm not sure certain water creatures (bivalves?) even meet the threshold of consciousness, yet I nevertheless would refuse to eat them.
There are a lot of difficult moral issues at the edges that I think most people ignore. For me, the overall goal of my diet is to try and find a balance between providing me adequate nutrition for a healthy life while reducing overall negative moral and ecological impact to everything that isn't me.