The self-proclaimed vegan ninja remembers feeling ill as a teenager when he was served a meal of pork.

His stomach turned. This was an animal, a pig.

“I had a physical reaction to it,” he said.

“Another time I was served a piece of meat with veins in it. It looked ­disgusting to me.”

The shift in dietary choices happened over many years for Maguire, who has released his first book called vegan ninja – a cookbook of confronting ecological proportions and personal meaning.

Ninja refers to Maguire’s fight against prejudice for his beliefs outside the middle class convention.

“When I became vegan [in 2000] people knew so little about it, it was an affront to them,” he said.

“It was somehow threatening, ­challenging their way of life, undermining the mainstream system.

“For me, there had been a gradual realisation I can exist without eating meat.

“I stopped eating chicken, steak, sausages, I physically could not eat it any more. I learnt about where my food came from. An egg is a living thing, or the leg of a cow, it became unappealing to me.”

Maguire’s first concern was for the environment in which food is grown.

“I thought about the chopping down of trees for grazing land and growing grain for cows, the trees are the lungs of the earth. And the expensive and degrading way food is grown, how the animals are confined and trucked.

“I became self-righteous in the initial stages, as though I had seen the light. I got on my soap box telling ­people why they should be vegan and it turned people off.

“I know now that people make their own decisions. They can consider other possibilities and not be confined to convention or idealism. 

“People need diversity.

“You don’t have to be vegan to enjoy vegan food.”

So what are the benefits to living as a vegan – no meat, dairy, honey or eggs?

“Physically I feel lighter and more energetic,” Maguire said.

“I am fit and healthy. I made a ­conscious decision and it feels right.

“I feel good within myself, men­tally, and also because I have chosen to put first the welfare of animals, the environment and my own health.”

Maguire is the only vegan in his family, which includes wife Julie and five children.

He was a journalist for 25 years and quit work because of a medical ­condition.

“I was at home and had time to be in the kitchen,” he said.

“The recipes and writings in my book are the result of five years work.”

vegan ninja is not only a recipe book, it scrutinises issues such as why humans eat animals, nature’s inter­connected web, the link between meat and environmental degradation, additives in processed food, vitamin B12 deficiency and genetic engineering.

Ninety recipes range from boiling a traditional Christmas pudding to pizza, spaghetti bolognaise, stir-fry, dressings, sauces, vegie burgers, zucchini muffins and desserts.

The Nepal earthquake recovery receives a percentage of the money from every book sold. Maguire, wife Julie and daughter Eve, visited Nepal four years ago where they helped install a solar light system at a remote community health centre.

“When the earthquake struck I wondered, ‘Are those people alive, is that building still standing?’

“I realised how rich I am living here.”

vegan ninja is available at Organic Feast East Maitland, Blackbird Artisan Bakery East Maitland, from the author on 0434 494 316 or through the publisher www.echobooks.com.au/shop/vegan-ninja