Veg*n Slowly going vegan what foods to avoid?

[Fluffball]

Hi everyone!

After being a vegetarian for about 6 months now maybe less ive slowly weened myself off milk. It was the hardest thing I had left to do! I still crave it but like all things will power is the key. I have bought soy milk, and juice and I drink that whenever I want milk. I dont like the soy very much even the chocolate flavour... anything else I can try to help make it taste better? Or is it a taste you aquire over time?

I dont eat eggs anymore either not even free range. When I get my own chickens maybe then I will eat it.

My question is:

When you go shopping what ingrediants in foods can you not eat? What foods do you have to avoid? I want to go vegan and if I make a good list on what to avoid it will be much easier in the future.

Also how did you all cope with not eating chocolate and cakes? All the sweet things. I really want to go vegan at least giving up milk and eggs is a start.

 

[tiny_maggs]

Hi and congrats on going vegan! I've been a vegetarian for four going on five years and I was a vegan for a whole year, but I'm not a vegan anymore.:ashamed: It wasn't really hard being a vegan, I could go without dairy and eggs, that wasn't the problem. It's just that one day there wasn't really anything to eat in the house, there were some Boca "chick'n" patties that contained milk and egg products, and I ate them, and from there I just started eating things that contained milk and egg ingredients again. I would like to go vegan again some day though.

As for the ingredients that you have to watch out for, whey and caisen which come from milk. Also if a product says 'contains natural and artificial flavors' it could contain non vegan ingredients. If you also plan on not eating honey you might want look out for that.

As for the sweets, if you bake you can substitute things. If the recipe calls for milk you can use soy milk. There's also subsitutes for eggs, I use 1 table spoon of flaxseed(that's already ground) and 3 tablespoons of water and mix it together and there you have a substitute for one egg. Some dark chocolate contains no milk, you just have to check.

I hope that helped some.

 

[Fluffball]

Thankyou heaps tiny_maggs!

I do hope I can stick with it all! Thankyou for the help with the egg and milk substitutes for cooking, I was thinking I could never eat cake again, but luckily I can now.

Ill be making my list now and researching what to buy and what not to buy. Thankyou for your help I appreciate it alot.

 

[BabyGrl]

That is the hardest thing for me. I am still not totally off it but hopefully one day i will be.

 

[tiny_maggs]

I'm glad that helped Fluffball!

This might help you further, http://www.vegcooking.com/askVeganChef.asp

 

[mlissa09]

Hi,
I'm new here but I couldn't help myself from going to this thread! I know this site is about guinea pigs but I'm gald it has a vegetarian place in here!
I'm vegetarian, it's been maybe a year or more, and I've tried vegan....... probably at least 100 times. I'm serious about it. The longest I went without eating milk, eggs or honey and with the right products was about 3-4 months. Then I slipped. After many setbacks, I'm trying it again.
www.caringconsumer.com/ingfactsheet.asp will give you a great list of which ingredients in your food are or aren't vegan.http://www.peta2.com/STUFF/s-accvegan.asp
http://www.vegcooking.com/Guide.asp
those are two great sites that show you um what are accidentally vegan in supermarkets near you. You can always try Whole Food that sells organic milk and eggs if you like.
Good luck!

 

[homeschoolmama]

I have been dairy-free for almost a year now. Well, except for yogurt. It's a really long story, trust me. I have found that the "light" versions of soy milk are not nearly as thick, and a lot more like cow's milk. I prefer the non-flavored rather than the vanilla or chocolate, as soy is naturally sooo sweet. It's still a bit of an acquired taste, but this seems to be a little closer to what I'm used to. The one thing that really helps me, is not to drink it alone. I have it in cereal, or add it to my tea... but plain soy milk in a glass still tastes just a little "off" to me, and I've been drinking it for over 5 years!

Other than that, I do eat chocolate. Several dark chocolates are dairy-free; especially the all-natural ones. Check the ingredients closely, but there is plenty of chocolate out there for you. I've found that if I check at the health food store, I'm more likely to find dairy-free choices than in regular grocery stores. I also eat sweets. Not very often as I have to watch my sugar intake, but I bake my own most of the time. I have used the flax/water substitute in cooking, but haven't had it turn out well in my baking. I have found though that I can substitute 3Tbsp of applesauce for 1 egg in almost all of my old recipes without a problem.

 

[tiny_maggs]

Homeschoolmama, have you ever tried soy yogurt? I just finished eating some strawberry soy yogurt by O'Soy and it's delicious, Silk soy yogurt is good too.

 

[Sabriel]

I'm vegetarian and I have a nice full head of hair. Soy has a ton of protien. So much so that the meat industry utilizes it as a filler. Adding soy can push the protien level of meat up %17! Now, imagine eating it without the meat. Even more protien.

And I didn't just glean that from a PETA fact sheet. I used to work in the industry so I know what's going on there. But I got out of it and couldn't be happier.

 

[carly]

Well there is a ton of places on the net that have full lists of stuff to avoid - when i first became vegan i wrote a bunch in a notebook that i carried around so i could always check.
Some of the main ones i have found to avoid are :

gelatin
casein
D3 (which is in some soya milks, so be careful!)
glycerin (unless its vegetable glycerin)
lactic acid (unless its beet derived)
lanolin
oleic acid
pepsin
propolis
royal jelly
rennet / stearic acid
whey
carmine / cochineal
shellac

I found it SO hard to give up chocolate and sweets - i used to love cheap jelly sweets so it killed me, but i just kept reminding myself what was in that crap. After a few weeks your body adjusts and stops craving everything that you can't eat - it's just the initial transition period thats hard!
You'll soon become a pro at label-reading, and if in doubt phone/email the company and ask for a list of the ingredients and that way you can check for yourself.

Good luck!

 

[Greenwalker]

Everyone else seems to have everything covered, except cookies! Try Trader Joe's vegan chocolate chip cookies. It says "vegan" right on the package and I think they taste BETTER than regular cookies! My non-vegetarian mother tried one and said (not kidding) "Oh my God; they accually taste like real food!"

 

[donna4909]

Actually, stearic acid is not necessarily vegan unfriendly. I use it in my candles, lotion, and soap, and the kind I use is derived from palm/veggies.

http://www.thesage.com/catalog/FixedOil.html#StearicAcid

 

[Maisiepaisie]

My mom says that I can't become a full vegan. She said I still need to eat chicken and fish, I need the protein...But I love chickens, I can't eat one, and I love fish,I can't eat that....I'm not touching beef, thats scary....oh what do I do? I don't have the heart to eat chicken or fish, but if I don't have protein my hair will fall out! And I'm not a big fan of eating vegies. I will only eat carrots,lettuce,and brociilee.*can't spell that*

There's protein in tofu, rice, potatoes, cereals, wholegrains, soya milk, beans and pulses (including beans on toast). If you eat a balanced,varied vegan diet including some of these foods there's no way you will go short on protein.

 

[Weatherlight]

Hehe it's kind of funny...broccoli has over 50% of its calories as protein.

Humans need only about 5 - 15%.

Vegans tend to be vegan because they want their consumer choices to support good and not support needless suffering/death. On that note, I've gone from avoiding animal ingredients to other things that contribute to needless pain, including clothes made with sweatshop labor and slave cocoa. I go for fair trade certified whenever I can. Maya Gold (by Green & Black's) is some really awesome, rich chocolate. I find now that I don't need a whole bar--if I want chocolate, I just break off a piece and it's like wow that's enough for me hehe. I don't drink coffee now really, but I got some from Equal Exchange for my workplace.

 

[PeruRodent]

Rice Milk! Try Rice Milk! It's really good! o.o

 

[JarBax]

Good point Weatherlight! I always buy fairtrade products, where possible too. I can highly recommend Tradecraft plain chocolate for the same reasons - one portion does the job!

 

[Whit23ney]

I have a question here. When I decided to become a vegan (just 4 days ago) I did so because I wanted to stop or at least reduce animal cruelty and do something good for my diet as well. Reading this thread about all these ingridients I have to avoid is making me think this Vegan thing is an enormous pain in the ass. I mean, having to check every label of everything I eat to this http://www.caringconsumer.com/resources_ingredients_list.asp list???
Having to ask the server if all of the ingridients in my dish are free from "here can you look at this list for me and see if there are any of these in anything the chef used?"
I mean, I don't wanna throw out my leather belt, or my leather boots (which I bought so long ago that it's too late for the animal that died for them) and my car has cloth material but the steering wheel, dashboard, and door handles are all leather. Our couch is leather, and a bunch of other random stuff is leather too I'm sure. To be a good Vegan do I have to throw it out? I feel like a hypocrit or something but my question remains....Can I be a good Vegan and not be so strict? Can I just watch out for the obvious meat/ dairy ingridients in my foods and still be doing something good? I don't want my entire life to revolve around "watching what I eat" but at the same time I'm dedicated enough to pay attention and make the effort to avoid certain things. Thoughts and Suggestions welcome. Just don't attack me.lol.

 

[JarBax]

'To be a good vegan', you would not eat/wear/use any product that was in any way linked to animals, so yes, that is a 'pain in the ass'! (I've been there!) If you want to watch out for the obvious meat and dairy products, then I would call you a vegetarian. I suppose it's all in a name - and so long as you are doing the very best you can do, then does a name really matter? By not drinking cows milk, you are not contributing to the mal-treatment of dairy cows - and that seems to me like a good step in the right direction!

So long as you can live with the choices and decisions that you make for yourself in this life, then what ever anyone else may, or may not choose to call you is really irrelevant. In making an effort, and paying attention to avoiding certain things, you are indeed doing 'something good'!