Vegan Challenges and Victories!

Today is Day 6 of my vegan count up. And I’m going to be completely honest, this has not been easy! You will not believe what products have eggs and milk in them:

1.    Candy – My brother came over on Memorial Day and brought a bunch of dark chocolate. Typically dark chocolate doesn’t have milk right? It’s not called “milk chocolate”! On the ingredients list, it said “cocoa butter (milk etc.)”. Ah! I love chocolate so much! Nevertheless, I said no to the chocolate. That was an amazing feat.

2.       Alternative Meat Products – I was in the store looking for vegetarian sausage patties and burgers and guess what? They contain egg and milk ingredients! So, if you’re wondering why I made broccoli burgers.. it’s because I have yet to find store bought vegan burgers

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3.       Breads – Common pastry bought breads have an egg white glaze. Quick breads and processed breads that you find in grocery stores might contain casein, nonfat milk powder.

4.       Honey – For some reason, I associate honey as coming from a plant. But it’s original source is from bees… animals! Also, I have trouble accepting that insects feel pain. Plus… you kill insects when you harvest plants. I don’t know. This is probably going to be the toughest for me to change in my diet. Instead, I have bought agave nectar.

On the other hand, these are vegan!

1.       Oreos and Murray Butter Cookies

2.       Ghiradelli Hot chocolate

3.       Haribo Sour S'Ghetti Gummy Candy

4.       Pillsbury Pizza Dough

Note: Just because these are vegan does not mean that they are healthy! Haha. You could be vegan by eating a piece of white bread for every meal but that’s not what it means to be vegan.

As I’ve learned, being vegan is about adopting a lifestyle change. It’s about loving animals and not hurting them for means of food or clothing. It’s also about saving the environment. Becoming a vegan or vegetarian is the easiest and quickest way to lower your carbon footprint and reduce pollution. That's because meat production requires overwhelming amounts of water, land, and energy, compared to plant foods. Lastly, it’s about eating whole foods and not refined ones because that is ultimately healthier. So, the fact that oreos have a crème filling but don’t actually contain milk ingredients freaks me out! Another example of not eating refined foods is staying away from white sugar, which has been bleached, and instead using natural cane sugar or maple syrup.