vegan

There are more resources used for continuing use of animals, with taking more land and more water to raise the animals that need to be fed. There is great destruction to the environments for this, more than otherwise. It is not even better for health than just having meals with whole foods from plants all the time. There is reason to care for animals and not still use items from them. Changing for this latter is vegan, while the former issues need awareness to be responsible with and not be ignored, and many of those are supportive reasons for why being vegan is good. What are any of us doing using animals still? It is an insanity continuing with the addictions we could get over, there are healthy and tasty foods to have anyway without anything from animals.

Based on the product title, the design of the bottle, the product description, and even the brand logo, you'd think vitamin D is vegan. Every marketing design decision on these store pages lures you into such a conclusion. But it's not! Vitamin D/cholecalciferol is a molecule that is exclusively made in animals. Almost all vitamin D in production is extracted from lanolin, the waxy secretions in sheep's wool. In theory, lanolin could be called a vegetarian product, since wool is something sheep are sheared for and not something sheep are made of. In practice, almost all lanolin is extracted from the wool waste byproduct of dead sheep slaughtered for meat. If a company doesn't claim a specific non-kill source for its lanolin on the bottle, the lanolin came from dead animals. It is up to debate whether a product that is the side product of animal slaughter that would have happened anyway is vegetarian or not. Vegan it is certainly not.

There is vitamin D for sale from vegan sources, extracted from lichen. It also costs at least 20x more. These bottles are not it! The vegan-sourced product pages go to great length to emphasize their cholecalciferol does not come from lanolin. These pages just list "cholecalciferol" in the ingredients list with no specific source. Technically, none of the language on these pages is a lie! "Veggie capsules" refers to the cellulose the pill walls are made of. If you "somehow" end up believing that the whole pill is made of vegetables, that's your own fault! If you see a brand name like "forest leaf" and think its products are made from leaves, nobody can help you! The company is blameless! The only outright lie in these screenshots is the "vegan friendly" label. Curiously, that claim only appears in the product image, and not in the text searchable description of the product itself.

Ok then, you'd say, that's innocent marketing speak, nobody would be mislead by it, we all know about cholecalciferol. Yet half of all customer comments on the "vegan friendly"-in-image-only product praise it for its vegan content! (Thanks AI summary!) Many of them bought this product because they thought it was vegan. Tsk tsk! And what is vegan-"friendly" anyway? Am I vegan friendly because I am a friend of vegans? Is that a legally-enforceable phrase?

My opinion is that while the amount of lanolin in vitamin D pills is tiny and comes from waste products, these pills are still not vegan and not vegetarian. A pure vegan lifestyle would not condone them. Yet these companies say everything short of a lie (and sometimes literally lie) to make consumes falsely think their products are vegan. And vegan consumers let them! And even praise them for it.

I would be fine if vegans/vegetarians accepted that a negligible amount of animal product to supply a vital ingredient that could not be acquired in any other way (until a few years ago when lichen cholecalciferol became available) where sun exposure alone is not sufficient for modern climates and lifestyles is acceptable. But in the meantime, these companies are exploiting the naivete and well-wishes of consumers for profit by greenwashing their products, spreading misinformation rather than knowledge. The customer reviews is proof that misinformation is happening, even if no single phrase describing the product is legally a lie. We should not allow ourselves be exploited!

Shoutout to the "kosher" and "no shellfish" labels.

When I decided I must be vegan I had already been going without meat, several years. I was glad thinking I did not contribute to harm to animals being used for meat. I was wrong as I did not know more about it. I learned when online and found communication about it that there were all these issues, all of them. I did not stop caring about issues to animals, but knowing all the issues, except, at that time, about the healthiness of a way without animal crossing, which I would have wanted, mattered, as I saw. So I made efforts to be vegan, and have been now for the last twelve years. I only found there is the very healthy way, which I started using, earlier in the year back in 2016.

In a fairly bipartisan bill too (but also does because it does other stuff besides this)

The abuse and slaughter of animals is a primary reason for any to be vegan. But there are the environments being ruined with animal agriculture, so there is environmental reason to take being vegan seriously. Likewise with all the more resources being used for animal agriculture, and all the water, and all the land, for it, and there is the contribution to emissions associated with climate change with the warming of this planet. Having just all whole food from plants is also very healthy for us. Being vegan is done for the animals but all these things as more reason make a strong argument for it. And I found it is not hard at all.

Bit unexpected with everything going with the national park service, but welcome. Appears the decision might have been made by the contractor?

The U.S. government is preparing to breed billions of flies and dump them out of airplanes over Mexico and southern Texas to fight a flesh-eating maggot.

That sounds like the plot of a horror movie, but it is part of the government's plans for protecting the U.S. from a bug that could devastate its beef industry, decimate wildlife and even kill household pets. This weird science has worked well before.

Carnists would rather breed the next plague and cover the planet in flies than stop torturing and murdering animals. It's a great plot for a horror movie except in real life.

New Vegan, here and I have a serious hole in my first two weeks into giving up genocide. I need something that fills the niche of nabs, Lance peanut butter and toast"chee" crackers.

I'm a mechanic with a strict schedule, and I will need a snack of that calibur at 7:30am mid-way through my morning workday, lest I get hunger pains, distracted by it, and a little bit pissy over the entire situation.

Chips, for me are the only thing I don't really consider any sort of solution to my hunger. I need calories so I can go-go-go. Chips are kinda hollow to me as utility goes. Nuts with some raisins would be a solid solution.

Anyway, snack thread. Preferably room temperature and camping snacks. Nuts are easily on the board, what else?

Legumes are the best! Let's share some easy meals. I eat pasta with canned baby broad beans once a week. Here's the recipe:

BABY BROAD BEANS SAUCE
Pasta sauce or spread
Servings: 4

Ingredients:

• 2 tbsp neutral oil
• 2 onions
• 1 smoked tofu, diced
• 1 jar of broad beans
• 2 tablespoons of tahini
• 1 dash of soy sauce
• 1 teaspoon vegetable stock powder
• Optional: 1 teaspoon cumin
• Optional: More vegetables, like strips of white cabbage, diced carrots or green bush beans

Instructions:

1. Add oil, fry the onion well, add the smoked tofu. Add broad beans including the water and bring to boil.
2. Maybe add more vegetables.
3. Stir in the tahini, soy sauce and vegetable stock powder and you're done.
4. You can blend everything into a paste or simply mash a few beans with a fork or masher to make the sauce even creamier. Then serve as a pasta sauce or even as a sandwich spread.

Shared with Broccoli

Mrs and I tried lab grown fois gras quail, apparently the first in Australia. Amazing to be able to buy this in a restaurant, after hearing about it year after year.

It was certainly meaty, a flavour you simply don't get with any meat-free chicken, really pungent and distinct (not that I've ever had dead quail).

A place called Bottarga in Brighton, Melbourne. Wasn't cheap, but I'd pay top dollar to support the transition.

Animals should not be going through the abuse for what any of us would have. Why should not any care to have the healthiest way, which could be learned, that would be without contribution to any of that? Many continue on for their preferences even with it possibly being shown as inconsistent with their values or their thinking. That is unfortunately too common, though it was not in my own experience. Being vegan is not hard, there are easy ways to become vegan, I know about this. This Mango Chickpea Salad is refreshing, crunchy and perfect for summer.
Recipe:-https://www.jcookingodyssey.com/mango-chickpea-salad/

About half a week ago, I became self aware of my state as a piece of shit regarding the animal populations of Earth and their wellbeing. It was sparked by a video of animal abuse I saw online that I refuse to describe beyond serial-killer-level psychological torture to a poor, defenseless being.

I realize, there's a set, and a mic, and props. This ain't the first time, this has fucking followers and people will mimic it. We're this shit as a species?! Where is the bottom? Is there one?!

I generally consider myself a fairly strong willed person, and my former diet wasn't too dissimilar from dishes I could make vegan, so, I figure, why not? I saw Blue Planet 3. I know we're fucking up. I had a few holdout food items but, pizza is my favorite food, and I believe replicating it will be fun. There's apparently a few vegan roux recipes with some ways to mimic cheese flavor for mac and cheese. I'm into it.

Anyway, do share any tips with me that you wish you'd known when you started out. What's a good brownie recipe?

There can be thought for change in living for the sake of abused animals, the great harm to the earth, the greater use of resources, and even a better healthy way possible for any of us that is not costly, with not using animal products still. There are ways not really hard to do that, with finding alternatives that will really be liked. I know some things I really like very much and will stay this way gladly.

My current working strategy is a ham hock and chicken stock. I would like to switch to something that doesn’t involve dead animals.

(As a side note - I’ve noticed that if I leave my beans soaking for a little longer, they seem to bubble and ferment. Could I possibly make alcohol this way?)

Whole food plant-based eating is indeed healthy, and I have had this way nearly a decade, though I have been vegan longer. I notice the benefits. Animal agriculture is contributing more to problems in the world including loss of environments and extinctions of species. Why need animals kept abusively and slaughtered for what we would still have from them?

I didn't. What the fuck!

My problem: chicken drumsticks are very cheap - like five bucks for enough I can divide up and make three meals out of. I marinate them in different hot sauces, then I can wrap them in foil and put them in the oven. For extra dopamine I eat them with blue cheese sauce.

The other cheap options are things like velveeta with canned chicken or fish, or chef Boyardee ravioli.

I don’t like eating meat or dairy for the clear ethical reasons and would like to go vegan. I was vegan for about a year or so, but I also have the kind of ARFID where I will let myself starve if there are not those kinds of “high dopamine” foods available.

I’d like some kind of close, cheap, easy approximation. When I was vegan, I had the financial resources to buy a lot of prepared food that met that quick/stimulating need, but I no longer have those resources to do so.

The closest to making something like that work for me is soy curl + coconut milk + curry seasonings. I don’t have the capacity to eat vegetables most days - this is not healthy, but I also physically cannot force myself to do so.

I know lentils are good and don’t require soaking, but I cannot get them to taste good. Indian restaurants make them perfect, but I can’t do it myself.