Sometimes we forget that food labels are important. It gets a little tiring reading labels for all our grocery store purchases. After a period of time, we feel we've come to know certain products and feel comfortable buying them, but manufacturers often change their recipes, and the packaging doesn't necessarily reflect this. Luckily many companies are including allergy information in bold at the bottom of their ingredient lists. It usually looks something like this:
Contains: Milk, Peanuts (or wheat, or soy).
So that is our first benchmark. We also rely heavily on the V that stands for Vegan on many food products. We used to look for Kosher or Parve when we first went vegan, but subsequently found out that Kosher ? Vegan... or vegetarian for that matter. If fish is less that 1 2/3% of the finished product, then it is considered "nullified." and not necessarily indicated on the label. Also:
Kosher Parve products are allowed to contain, according to Jewish laws, eggs, honey, and fish. So you still need to READ THE LABEL! In this matter, Jews Kosher does not concur with Hindu and Jain Ahimsa. But still it is a good help for buying processed food. ~ Source: Jiv Daya
If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!
I stumbled across a list of animal ingredients and their alternatives as compiled by PETA. This list is a great reference point, and I wanted to share it with you, we've added it to our vegan resources page as well.
Animal ingredients are used not because they are better than vegetable-derived or synthetic ingredients, but because they are generally cheaper. Today’s slaughterhouses must dispose of the byproducts of the slaughter of billions of animals every year and have found an easy and profitable solution in selling them to food and cosmetics manufacturers.
Jane and I feel that avoiding these by-products is not nearly as important as avoiding the animal products from which they are derived. If the number of animals slaughtered is reduced, the availability of animal by-products will also be reduced, therefore driving up the price so other alternatives will be sought out by the manufacturers. In the meantime, they are everywhere. This list, while not comprehensive, provides some information for anyone confused about what they're reading on the labels of the products they're buying.
– If you haven’t signed our petition to Oprah asking her to do a piece on factory farming, please consider doing so. We can all work together to make a difference.
If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!
After six-plus months of eating vegan, Jane and I have developed a sense of what foods we might not be able to eat. Since going vegan, we've read countless food labels and many informative articles on non-vegan ingredients hidden in otherwise vegan foods. So we're fairly comfortable knowing what foods we're going to have to scrutinize before throwing them into our shopping cart. Or at least we were until this trip.
Jane and I were at Whole Foods over the weekend, stocking up on some of the vegan products we can't get at our local grocery stores. We stopped off at the olive bar to select some of our favorites and came upon this sign: Oil Cured Black Olives. Ingredients: Black olives, olive oil, salt, lactic acid. Caution: Olives and olive mixes may contain pits or pit fragments. Contains: Milk.
Milk? In my olives? Huh? I'm not talking about olives swimming in some kind of creamy marinade either. These were plain black olives with some spices sprinkled over their wrinkly hides. We looked at each other completely aghast. How many other things did we assume were OK to buy simply because they didn't look like they could possibly have any non-vegan ingredients.
How frustrating! I guess it's back to the Vegetarian Resource Group to check on our hidden ingredients.
If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!
I had lunch with a colleague today. We went to an Indian restaurant he knew of, very close to our meeting site, which was important since the weather wasn't cooperating much. The restaurant shall remain nameless, since it isn't one I care to refer to anyone!
Regardless, our server was great. He helped me find a vegan meal and as our food was being brought to the table, he grabbed my naan (an Indian flat bread usually served to help sop up all the delicious sauces), and said he'd provide a vegan alternative for me. Apparently, naan is made with milk and eggs. Who knew?
Again the food was actually pretty bad, but the service was stellar. I was really impressed that this person cared enough to ensure that my dietary requirements were being met. He certainly would not have suffered in any way if I'd been served the naan, and quite frankly, I never would have known it wasn't vegan.
So, once again I've learned you cannot make any assumptions... ASK, ASK, ASK!
If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!
