Veganism

[Agent M]

Still, both can get dangerously unhealthy. My aunt has eating issues, she's a vegetarian.

[Peter Murray]

What's wrong with mango sorbet? Shouldn't it just be made from mangos, water and maybe sugar? I'd have thought that vegans can eat that.

Bread shouldn't contain eggs, either, though I suppose it depends how you make it - I can't imagine how it would taste.

[drea]

I like the theory behind it. Sort of. But it's also kind of an emotional decision? Do you feel right eating unfertilized chicken embryos? Because that's what eggs are. Where I live, we have real cattle farms and chicken farms and that kind of thing. It's a different view of food. By eating meat, I'm supporting the farmers who otherwise would be going down the tube. Chickens are also stupid. Ever had ostrich meat? It makes the best chili, and it's really lean, so it's healthy too. Or healthier at least.

[vegan_chick]

You see, I know that eggs are usually unfertilized, but I don't eat eggs because of the conditions the chickens are kept in. Each have room about the size of a sheet of paper. they can't even stretch their wings! the cages are stacked on eachother so the urine from one cage usually leaks into the other cage. it is NASTY!! they do the same with cows that are used for milking. kept in small stalls that are very dirty. Cows are forced into pregnancy to keep up milk production. their colts are then put in filthy veal crates to be slaughtered not long later.

It talks about this in the link that I put on the first post.

There are GREAT substitutes that taste just as good as meat and fish. and they are a lot healthier!

Drea: two thumbs up to the farmers in your area. I WILL sometimes eat eggs if they are organic, and cage free. we need less factory farms and more family owned farms.

I agree that veganism is a huge emotional change. What I did was take it one step at a time. first, I stopped eating red meat, then I only ate fish, then I eased into vegetarianism, eating less and less meat. I hardly noticed when I became a vegan!

Good luck, try reading the link I put. there are good sites attached to that, and lots of good advise. Even if you don't want to become a vegan or vegetarian, just read it!! please? this means a lot to me.

[Gryphon]

VC:
Drea: two thumbs up to the farmers in your area. I WILL sometimes eat eggs if they are organic, and cage free. we need less factory farms and more family owned farms.

If you can, find the chicken eggs that are brown. Those are healthier. I think those might be the organic kind.

[drea]

That has something to do with it, at least. I agree with you Vegan Girl about the conditions that most animals are kept in. They're just set up for slaughter and abused. The egg issue also has something to do with the fact that comercially produced eggs come from chickens with all kinds of things in their food to make the eggs be white and pretty and uniformly shaped.

Of course, I don't like eggs to begin with. But you have to be careful about what you eat.

[Kathy Li]

Actually, whether the eggs are brown or not won't tell you whether they're free range or locked in little cages. It just tells you what color the ear feathers are on the hens that laid them. But if you have a problem with chickens in little cages, you can also buy free range alternatives.

Peter--I'm willing to bet the mango sorbet problem has to do with whatever suspending agent is used to keep things mixed and not-be-a-granita. I have a soy allergy, and I had to give up most chocolate, because they use soy lecithin to keep everything mixed up together. Lecithin used to be made from eggs. I also found to my surprise that I had to give up Gatorade, because they used soy oil to suspend the color in the drinks. Luckily, they came out with the clear-non-colored versions of Gatorade and I'm happily hydrating and loading up on Potassium again.

Read ingredients labels. It's an education. Also impetus to learn how to cook.

[talkingbeast]

Yeah, didn't Nita say something about reading food labels being incentive to make homemade?

My parents have been getting eggs from a community supported agriculture farm in their neighborhood. It's a cool system; you pay for a "share" for the farm at the beginning of the season and then you get some of whatever is fresh throughout the summer. Aound Easter time, my mom got a bunch of eggs that were already colored (green, blue, speckled, etc.). Shell color does have to do with the variety of chicken. I've noticed, though, that the yolks of the farm eggs are an intense yellow compared to what we've gotten from the store, and I think that is due to the chickens' diet.

Whether bread contains eggs (or other animal products) depends on the recipe. Eggs can help you get a nice texture, and my family makes a traditional, rich and sweet Easter bread that's full of eggs and raisins. I used to work in a pizza place, and we had to be careful of the vegan orders. Our dough came in pre-weighed, frozen lumps. The medium size was vegan, but the large contained some whey.

I think there are good environmental reasons for being a vegetarian. It can be healthy or not healthy depending on what you put in your mouth! But I see veganism as having more to do with how you feel about animals. I get a little irritated when someone implies anyone can be a vegan; a friend of mine had severe favism and referred to soybean oil as "liquid death." Most of the replacements would not work for her. But even trying to be humane in food production doesn't always work out as planned. The chickens at the CSA farm have room to move around, but we've also had some of them die on hot summer days.

Just wondering, have all of you read "The Restaurant at the End of the Universe"?

[talkingbeast]

I meant to add: one of the grocery stores in my area sells free range eggs. The sign above them says "vegetarian eggs."

[Kathy Li]

Oh, man. That's a good one. Almost as good as a (gentile) diner's "Jewish breakfast special" I once heard about that was essentially an Egg McMuffin deal. Is there any dish that could possibly be more treyf-ridden than an Egg McMuffin?

[talkingbeast]

Hee hee! I ordered potato pancakes in Grand Rapids, Michigan once so I could have something vegetarian for dinner. They came with bacon.

[Peter Murray]

kli6 said: I'm willing to bet the mango sorbet problem has to do with whatever suspending agent is used to keep things mixed and not-be-a-granita. I have a soy allergy, and I had to give up most chocolate, because they use soy lecithin to keep everything mixed up together. Lecithin used to be made from eggs.

Ah. Ok, so vegan mango sorbet can be made by using a liquidiser (which I don't have) on mangos, and putting the result in an ice cream maker (which I do have), and putting up with any problems you get from not having an emulsifier. Or you can go with the soy lecithin, if you're not allergic.
A former colleague was allergic to soya. She could eat British chocolate, but not the Belgian kind, unless she took her anti-allergy tablets first.
Ingredients labels are important, yes. Microwaveable sweet-and-sour noodles and almost all the fizzy drinks and fruit squashes I can get round here contain aspartame, which makes me feel ill. (It used to just irritate my teeth - it's got worse.)

talkingbeast said: Yeah, didn't Nita say something about reading food labels being incentive to make homemade?

"I know," Nita said. "I'm beginning to see why Mom was so intense about it. I guess I'm just going to have to learn."
After all, she's got plenty of time to learn, in between destroying a civilisation, saving the universe and oh yes, that thing on Mars.

You mentioned Restaurant at the End of the Universe because of the uh... what's it called... the thing that Peter Davison played in the TV series, right?

[talkingbeast]

I've never seen the TV series. I was thinking of the cow. Someone referred earlier to food which would rather be eaten than wasted and, well, she came to mind!

[Peter Murray]

Yes, Peter Davison played that cow or whatever in the HHGG TV series. "I'll just nip off to the kitchen and shoot myself. Don't worry sir, I'll be very humane."

[Rysade]

Woah. You sure that was a cow? Man, Arthur was NOT happy about that...