How to determine what is vegan?

Question

I understand the basis of a vegan diet, and I am ready to transition my lacto-ovo vegetarian diet to a vegan diet. What I don't understand is how to tell if a product has animal by-products in it--things like salad dressings, certain chips, etc etc. Any advice?

Answer 1

Read the ingredients? If it contains milk or eggs, it will be labeled 99% of the time in the allergy information.

Answer 2

here is a checklist

http://www.veganwolf.com/animal_ingredie...

Answer 3

i think reading the ingredients would help a lot in that situation.

Answer 4

read the ingredients. if its vegetablee or canola or any oil as olive or corn . your ok. if it does not say it it mostlikelyy animal fat. when you go to a restaurantt. asked for oil and vinegar or lemon and oil. its safer

Answer 5

It may be easiest to focus on buying fresh fruits and vegetables, and simple staples to form the basis of your diet. Avoid processed/packaged foods in general.

For those things you do need, as others said, check the label. Generally, the shorter the list of ingredients, the better. There's plenty of chips with just potatoes, oil, and salt in them. (I love the Kettle Chips myself!) For salad dressing: make your own? Or just put on a little olive oil, lemon juice, and salt & pepper. You don't need to smother veggies to make them taste good!

For things like soap, shampoo, cosmetics etc. shop at stores that cater to vegetarians, like Whole Foods and Trader Joes. Look for products that specifically say they're free of animal ingredients, and don't test on animals. Brands like Kiss My Face are good for that.

Answer 6

READ THE LABEL.

Answer 7

It is a very difficult question. You really have to start learning about every product. Let us go on a little tour.

1. Is sugar vegan? Most of cane sugar is filtered with bone charcoal.. To be sure, eat beet sugar. The labels don't say it, but 'granulated sugar' is beet sugar.

2. Is maple syrup vegan? Animal fat is used as a defoamer in processing maple syrup.. Can you tell by label.. no .. You have to do more research

3. Are wines vegan? They use potassium caseinate ( dairy by product), Isinglass (a fish by product)...

4. Are imitation cheese vegan? Most likely not, they still use casein

5. Everyone known to watch out for Gelatin derived from connective tissue bones skin.

6. Do you know that most of the lipstick red color called natural really is dried Mexican beetles

It is tough, but you will learn in short time. First give up the eggs that part is easy. Giving up dairy product will pose some problems.. Read labels,, any thing with whey or casein is dairy byproduct.

Good Luck

Answer 8

If it hard at first to know, you will have to brings lists with you while you shop of things to avoid.. but as you go it will get easier you will make mistakes don't worry you will know next time what to avoid

Answer 9

There are many vegetarian sub-group in SEMI-VEGETARIAN main group. The stricter vegetarians are also called as VEGAN in modern term.

Semi-vegetarianism is fashinable, and TRANSITION stage to become a stricter vegetarians.

The word "vegetarian" is a generic blanket term used to describe anybody who does not eat meat, poultry, fish, or seafood. This encompasses vegans and also the various vegetarian sub-groups. Vegetarians are generally those people who have chosen a diet with far less restrictions than those chosen by a vegan.

The differences between the various vegetarian sub-groups may appear to be small, but they are very important to the members who belong to each groups. In many cases the distinctions are important dietary or ethical decisions taken by the individual.

Here are the various vegetarian sub-groups:

SEMI-VEGETARIAN

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Semi-vegetarians are people who have chosen to live a lifestyle which is not strictly vegetarian. A semi-vegetarian may be a person who only eats meat occasionally, or perhaps doesn’t eat meat, but eats poultry and fish.

1) Ovo-Lacto-Vegetarian

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Ovo-lacto vegetarians are vegetarians who do not eat meat, poultry, fish, and seafood, but do eat eggs and milk. This is by far the largest group of vegetarians.

2) Ovo-Vegetarian

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Ovo-vegetarians are people who would be classed as vegans if they did not eat eggs.

3) Lacto-Vegetarian

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Lacto-vegetarians are people who would be classed as vegans if they did not consume milk.

VEGAN

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This is by far the strictest vegetarian sub-group or category.

A vegan is a person who has chosen not to consume any animal products or byproducts. Some will even so far as not consuming honey and yeast, and others will not wear any clothing made from animal products. Veganism is a diet and lifestyle that seeks to exclude the use of animals for food, clothing, or any other purpose. Vegans endeavor not to use or consume animal products of any kind. The most common reasons for becoming a vegan are ethical commitment or moral convictions concerning animal rights, the environment, human health, and spiritual or religious concerns. Of particular concern are the practices involved in factory farming and animal testing, and the intensive use of land and other resources required for animal farming.

Answer 10

You have to learn what the ingredients are (check a-z animal ingredients) then read the labels to check that it doesn't have those ingredients. Restaurants are definitely more difficult than super market shopping, because they do not disclose ingredients unless you ask. Some companies who specialise in making vegan food products will put "vegan" or "suitable for vegans" on the food packaging.

Answer 11

I have just recently made the transition from lacto-ovo to full blown vegan. The first thing I am going to tell you is don't beat yourself up if you accidentally do ingest food containing animal product because there are animal-by products in certain foods that you would have never expected.

The best thing to do is look at the ingredients on the labels of the food that you commonly consume and compare them to the link that I have provided in the sources section. This list shows all of the different ingredients derived form animals and the list is approximately 16 pages long. It even has ingredients that might be derived from animal product. With salad dressings, stay away from ranch and cesear dressing(milk,fish). For other things, look at the second link that i have posted. Those items listed have already been researched.

Answer 12

The best way is to stay away from processed foods. Most of them have some animal byproducts in them.