I recently skimmed some chapters in the book The China Study, by T. Colin Campbell, and as a result dropped animal products–including dairy– almost completely from my diet! 
 
   It took 5 years for me to get around to reading it after a vegan friend encouraged me to do so.  I encourage you, dear reader, to go to a bookstore and at least look around page 37 and Chapter 3, “Turning Off  Cancer.” 
 
  The same researchers who alerted us to a cancer-causing toxins on apples and nitrates in hot dogs noticed mounting evidence linking the ingestion of animal products–like dairy, meats with cancer.  Campbell and his research team then studied about 20,000 Chinese people in about 170 villages (because they have similar genetics) and found a similar correlation– when people only ate a plant-based diet none of them got cancer — whereas the group that included animal products did get cancer!  They studied rats that are omnivores and live for 100 days, and found that when the rats were started on a plant-based diet then switched to a diet that included animal products, they developed cancer. Then when the same rats were switched back to a plant-based diet the cancers went away.
 

Animal protein has all the proteins (amino acids) we need, but these can also be acquired via plants, but plants have the right balance of fiber . Also there are so many other toxins and chemicals that are in meat that we can avoid by eating plants as a protein source. 

The next item to keep in mind when switching to a plant only or plant mostly based diet is to make sure you are eating real plants–not genetically engineered plant-bacteria or plant-fungus hybrids that allow the spraying of larger doses of pesticides.
  The “organic” label means the plants are not Genetically Modified Organisms (GMO’s).

For some countering views, which may be funded by the meat industry, one can look at the first chapter of the book Nourishing Traditions. There are beneficial nutrients that we can get from animal products….in these times, however, we can feed everyone and help build healthy, non-toxic, ethical beings by eating a mostly plant-based diet.