any vegans?

plink

hey all...
wondering if there are any vegans out there...? i've been vegetarian for about 4/5 years and now i'm making the move towards veganism...looking for any tips/insight from others! also i'm looking for vegan safe lists, cause i know there are many foods not vegan that i dont realise!

thanks!

county

meat pies i think are a no go

embraer170

Do you eat eggs presently?

plink

embraer170 wrote:

Do you eat eggs presently?

today is day one of veganism for me...until today i didnt eat eggs as such...like i would have foods ie baked goods with eggs in them but not like a boiled egg or something. the same with milk etc...but i just have to try cut out all the things that have dairy in them, i dont have a problem not eating whole eggs/milk/yoghurt/cheese etc

plink

county wrote:

meat pies i think are a no go

no way!!

embraer170

I'm a lacto vegetarian. I don't eat meat/fish/eggs but I do eat dairy products. I don't see myself going further anytime soon.

Now to answer your question regarding products with hidden non-vegan ingredients. The list (just like the list of those with non hidden non vegetarian ingredients) is huge. Many of the E numbers are highly questionable and even then you can't be sure.

plink

yeh, thats what i'm worried about. its tricky business. the best way to be sure is to make everything myself.
does anyone have any info on different brands and their vegan safe foods? theres a list on nestle.co.uk but i couldnt find a similar list for any other brands.

Stark

Why would you go vegan? It's not like it's cruel to milk a cow. And I believe chicken eggs are unfertilized so you're not killing any animal there. I wouldn't eat battery eggs myself but I would eat free range eggs without feeling the slightest bit of guilt.

plink

to be honest, food that comes in anyway from an animal scares me...i dont know how to explain it. but seen as this is a vegetarian/vegan forum i dont see why its odd that i asked??

plink

Stark

Not odd, just something I always found curious. I could never understand why someone would go vegan on ethical grounds.

What is odd is that pink font you keep using. It's impossible to read.

Tar.Aldarion

i think it's quite kind on my eyes...usually i would complain.

plink

well as i said, it is a vegetarian AND vegan forum, so ya know. what i find strange is that theres no other vegans??
weird.

cat...is that font better...!

Tar.Aldarion

go back to the other colour or type normally

plink

ha.
yea i like the pink better.
anyways, this is day two of my veganism. loving it. i will be so much healthier. can't wait for it to be a routine thing that i wont even have to think about.

Tar.Aldarion

be very careful about gtting the right vitamins and mineals etc its much harder for a vegan.

Matthewthebig

Healthier?

I have never understodd that train of thought.

Humans are omnivores

ie meat and veg

plink

Tar.Aldarion wrote:

be very careful about gtting the right vitamins and mineals etc its much harder for a vegan.

yea i know...i'll cross that bridge when i get to it...it'll be cool.

Tar.Aldarion

proper vegan or vegetarian diet is much healthier,its even a reason some people become one.

humans biologically are designed as herbivores like an ape.

plink

Matthewthebig wrote:

Healthier?

I have never understodd that train of thought.

Humans are omnivores

ie meat and veg

umm...yes...everyone to their own opinion and all that. but why bother posting in a vegetarian/vegan forum if it doesnt interest you??

plink

Tar.Aldarion wrote:

proper vegan or vegetarian diet is much healthier,its even a reason some people become one.

humans biologically are designed as herbivores like an ape.

exactly. humans are the only species to drink/use anothers milk which is by nature made for the animals young. i find that freaky. thats like us bottling and selling human breast milk to dogs. weird.

Tar.Aldarion

he's just saying he doesn't get it.
you can eat food that has all the benifits and none of the sideaffects of meat.that is why people do it for health reasons.

Kitsune

There are ethical problems with eating dairy products. While it is true that milking a cow doesn't hurt the cow, you have to remember that dairy cows have their calves taken away from them very early so that humans can take the milk the calf should have been fed. Now I dont claim to be Doctor Dolittle, but I would imagine that to be traumatic for both cow and calf.

K.O.Kiki

You know, I used to think that there was something to the whole ethical thing.
Then I realised that it's bollox because the prime reasons I eat are

• To keep me alive
• Taste!!!

Now that's not to say I'm a meat-guzzling pig (or dog, more accurately); most of my dishes are vegan/vegetarian; I just pay no attention to that. I adore the freshness of vegetables, but if the mood/weather/people/anything of decent sigificance suit it, the dish will have some animal fats to go with the vegetable fats.
As for health, remember that unless you get your nutritional needs & exercise, "going vegan" won't save you a damn -- hell, it just might kill you a little earlier Just make sure to read some good books/guides first; or, ideally, take some cooking lessons, etc.
Humans have adapted to be omnivorous; it's how we survived (males hunting/farming; females gathering nuts, berries, etc.) for millenia.

Back to "ethical", for cryin' out loud, animals are NOT PEOPLE! Yes, they have feelings, but they won't react the same way as a human would, EVER; stop thinking in human terms, that cow is not going to be as "traumatized" as you think. Really, go to a good farmer & follow up on this, you may be surprised at what you'll learn.

Kitsune

Well since you have no problems eating meat, obviously you wouldnt have any problems with eating dairy products. Just remember other people might. I personally don't eat dairy products because I dont think they taste nice (With the exception of a good mature cheddar). Other vegans have diferent reasons.
Theres a lot of doublethink involved in believeing that it's natural for humans to eat meat because of our hunter-gatherer heritage. It was natural for us to eat wild animals, not animals slaughtered on a production line. So unless you want to don a calfskin, grab a spear and go capture a wild boar, that argument is "bollox", as it were.

K.O.Kiki

You misunderstood me.
Someone here made the assumption that humans are herbivores by nature.

I countered that by pointing out that, over time, our ancestors developed the ability to process nutrients from fauna in their digestive systems (maybe not as well as flora, but I digress). So we are omnivorous now, by survival.
Once our ancestors realised this, they started to farm & keep animals -- for which, incidentally, they had to work hard. It's only really with the separation from farm-type work through cities that societies exist wherein the males do not have to do "manual" hunting -- it being replaced by office "work".

And incidentally, while I do eat both meat & dairy, don't think that they are mutual! For all you know, I could be lactose intolerant -- think of Asian countries, plenty of meat consumed there, but little in the way of dairy.

On another note, don't use the word doublethink. It doesn't exist

Tar.Aldarion

K.O.Kiki wrote:

Back to "ethical", for cryin' out loud, animals are NOT PEOPLE! Yes, they have feelings, but they won't react the same way as a human would, EVER; stop thinking in human terms, that cow is not going to be as "traumatized" as you think. Really, go to a good farmer & follow up on this, you may be surprised at what you'll learn.

This forum was not set up for this,your comment will just lead to a big ole flame war,so less of it.You really think a vegetarian has never heard what you just said.Come off it.

Tar.Aldarion

K.O.Kiki wrote:

You misunderstood me.
Someone here made the assumption that humans are herbivores by nature.

...So we are omnivorous now, by survival.

by biology we are,Our hands, teeth, feet, intestinal tract...even our body chemistry is that of an herbivore.

K.O.Kiki

Tar.Aldarion wrote:

by biology we are,Our hands, teeth, feet, intestinal tract...even our body chemistry is that of an herbivore.

Explain canine teeth away, then.

Anyway, humans are quite suited to seafoods (but not, it seems, shellfish-not since we started polluting the oceans on a grand scale, anyway); Aquatic Ape theory at work there.

Tar.Aldarion

K.O.Kiki wrote:

Explain canine teeth away, then.

explain gorillas canine teeth?the big ole veggies.


Apes, or anthropoids, are distinguished from other primates by their complex brains and hence intelligence, their large size, and their lack of tails.
Human teeth are smaller and more uniform in length,as we evolve our canines are becoming less and less pronounced and even if they were not there are mammals with canines that are huge which have always been vegetarian.Canines cannot be said in this case to be either for carnivores or herbivores but given the rest of our chemistry the latter is pointed to.

K.O.Kiki

Now that I think of it, a decently-sized population of the apes are omnivorous (possibly close to all if you include insects). They eat eggs, and many actively hunt & eat small prey.
I'll include species once I find some books (not w/me ATM).

One more thing: Can you explain why humans never learned to digest flora as well as other species? We lack the ability to extract nutrients efficiently from many flora. Why is that?

As for the issue of "shrinking" canines, it could be a simple case of adaptation due to the miracle of cooking; tenderising thus requiring weaker canines. Just a thought.

Tar.Aldarion

K.O.Kiki wrote:

Now that I think of it, a decently-sized population of the apes are omnivorous (possibly close to all if you include insects). They eat eggs, and many actively hunt & eat small prey.
I'll include species once I find some books (not w/me ATM).

yip they sure are,most infact(because they eat small animals sometimes).I'm just saying that canines are on both sides of the fence.

One more thing: Can you explain why humans never learned to digest flora as well as other species? We lack the ability to extract nutrients efficiently from many flora. Why is that?

I don't do biology but i will learn about that if you want,maybe we are just getting better at it slowly?

As for the issue of "shrinking" canines, it could be a simple case of adaptation due to the miracle of cooking; tenderising thus requiring weaker canines. Just a thought.

I don't Think we have had tender food for so long as to evolve because of it tbh.

K.O.Kiki

A few millenia does wonders for evolution (it's speeded up by civilization, see?).

Anyway, Japanese scientists are investigating into the possibility of children born with unusually distended thumbs. Their reasoning? Videogames!

waldo

For those commenting on the goodness of dairy: http://notmilk.com/ We have one of the highest consumptions of dairy products in the western world, also one of the highest rates of heart disease. There are huge vested interests in the dairy industry in Ireland, Europe and the States. I'm not a vegetarian, but I don't eat much meat. I dont drink Milk, but I do eat small amounts of cheese.

No I dont believe we were designed to eat other animals. I'll still eat small amounts of the stuff though.

K.O.Kiki

Our rate of heart disease is based on many factors (not just diet-related), so putting it all down to 1 is preposterous. Gotta look at everything, ya know?

Hmm... program on last night, from that series about Indonesian "Hobbits".
Seems we (Homo ¬_¬ Sapiens) ate them...