Wednesday, 5 August 2015

8 Surprising things that are NOT vegetarian

Being veggie can be a minefield. Things that at first glance seem to be vegetarian, can in fact contain hidden nasties that are definitely NOT suitable for vegetarians.

1. Roast potatoes. You would think you’d be safe with the humble potato, but no. If people don’t have enough animal fat in their diets as it is, companies have taken to adding goose and duck fat to potatoes.

2. Cheese and Onion crisps/potato chips. 
They keep on messing with the ingredients in these so that animal rennet (taken from the stomachs of slaughtered baby calves) is often used. Walkers crisps in the UK kept doing this.

You also need to avoid their meaty flavours you need to avoid as some of them like the smokey bacon and roast chicken contain REAL meat. Yuck! 

3. Guinness & some other alcoholic beverages such as wine and lager. 
They may not contain animal by products, but they are filtered through isinglass, which is taken from the swim bladders of fish. There is no way to ensure none of this enters the product.


4. Chips or French fries. It all comes down to whether they are fried in animal or vegetable fat. The same also applies to other fried foods like fritters.


5. Worcester Sauce usually contains anchovies (small fish). 
There are veggie versions like Free From.

6. Parmesan Cheese tends to contain animal rennet, which comes from slaughtered calves stomachs, though increasingly its been replaced by cheaper and cruelty free non-animal versions. The same goes for many other cheeses. Always check the label.


7. Pesto is also made with animal rennet.  
This is because it contains Parmesan (see above). Pesto is often put in so called vegetarian dishes by restaurants. See this article. 



8. Low fat yogurts such as Müller Light yogurts. You might not expect it, but they have gelatine (gelatin) in them. Unlike other vegetarian, but not vegan friendly yogurts, that use pectin, which comes mainly from citrus fruits.


Saturday, 1 August 2015

Are vegans the only ones with a right to care about Cecil the Lion?

Cecil the lion - a majestic animal killed by a savage beast

Are vegans the only people who have a right to speak out about the death of Cecil the lion? 

Sadly, that's what some vegans (not all, but some) are saying. I’ve read comments all over social media saying exactly that. 

As a vegetarian for 27 years and a vegan for 2, I think that's nonsense. I want everyone whether they are vegan or not to have compassion for animals - even if it’s only for some animals because what's the alternative - nobody except vegans and vegetarians caring about animals at all?

If you followed the rationale of vegans who say only they have the moral high ground to condemn this majestic animal being killed by a savage beast-

Eat meat? 

Why not just wear fur.

Eat dairy? 

Don’t waste your time eating free range organic eggs, just eat eggs from caged, battery farmed hens.

See a dog being mistreated? 

Well, walk on by because the animals you eat are mistreated every day. 

I would rather everybody showed some compassion towards animals than none at all.

We've all got families right? Most of them aren't vegan. But if we persuade them that the hunting of wildlife like Cecil is wrong, haven't we achieved something? 

If we persuade them to eat one vegetarian/vegan meal a week, isn't that progress? 

The message that you need to be vegan to speak up for animals is a damaging one. Maybe one day, those who condemn the killing of beautiful Cecil will go vegan, but they'll go too far the other way if they get shouted down by vegans for actually given a damn even if its for a lion in Africa. 

In an ideal world, nobody would eat animals and compassion would be shown to ALL living things, but this isn't a perfect world.


And, that’s how veggiegirl2011 sees it.