Mankind has been eating a huge variety of diets for several thousand years? People have been touting vegetarian diets as better for hundreds of years but there is no absolute proof that one diet is better than another since mankind seems to thrive on so many different ones.

I would go back and see what your grandparents ate and try to match that better, rather than read what other people unrelated, who don't know you are doing or saying to do. Remember, books are written to make money for the author, not to help an individual such as ourselves. If people are interestes in vegetarianism, there will be a lot of books on vegetarianism and they aren't going to say it's no good, they're going to say how wonderful and "perfect" it is for you.

My grandparents lived into their 80's and that's fine for me right now. I'm pretty sure I'm genetically okayed to live at least that long (have had my DNA tested for longevity) and just after the War was about when things were pretty good, not too much processed food (other than Wonder Bread :-) no fast food, etc. I keep the fruits and vegetables simple; eat at least 5 a day (I normally get around 8-9 when I'm working on it) and try to stay away from too much packaged stuff. I occasionally have a soda but I don't have enough to be addicted to them; I get my caffeine I want (have been DNA tested for caffeine metabolism too; I should not drink more than about a cup of coffee a day, it could hurt my heart) in coffee or tea.

How about drinking flavored or herbal teas? Making your own flavored waters? I drink sparkling water because it comes in a can and reminds me of soda without having calories or sugar, etc.

I believe that just as you cannot learn to do "relationships" (there's no such thing; it's me relating to you and you to me, there can be no guide) one cannot learn to do "diet" and just follow some book because the book and its author does not know you. If drinking milk did not appear to bother you and you enjoyed it, I would keep drinking milk. People have been drinking cow's, sheep's, horse's, etc. milk for thousands of years too, far longer than they have been drinking soy milk, which was, relatively speaking, just invented recently.

Work toward making your own balanced diet; you need protein, cholesterol, fat, vitamins and minerals. No, you don't need the majority of your fat from eating fast food, you never did! Change things you want to change slowly. You've seen how changing all your milk over did not work, might drinking some less milk and another beverage work better? Have you ever tried powdered milk? It's extremely cheap and would be your milk but without all the milk fat, if that is what you are objecting to.

Look into "whole" foods or nearly whole foods like eggs and potatoes. Did you know a potato is a complete food, with the exception of not having any Vitamin A? You add a little butter and you have the food that kept the Irish alive for a couple hundred years! You have to eat the potato skin, too (I always eat my baked potato skin) as that has your Vitamin C you need. Explore foods instead of diets? Find something you like and build on it.