Can vegetarians and vegans drink alcohol?

Before I go any further, don't forget that alcohol is a highly addictive drug that may not be particularly good for your health. Never drink to excess.  You will know when you have done this because you will more than likely state that you are never going to drink again, feel extremely thirsty the next morning, have a pounding head and feel nauseas. Perhaps drinking alcohol is not such a great idea, but if you still want to know the answer to the question in the title, then please read on. I myself do enjoy a drink or two, so was keen to get some answers.

You will not have to give up alcohol on either a vegetarian or vegan diet, but this is not where the story ends.

Most alcohol is vegan, ignoring the obvious ones that contain cream and other dairy products which does not make them vegan. Some beers and wines are clarified using fish products such as isinglass (isinglass is a substance obtained from the dried swim bladders of fish), others use egg albumen, casein, which is a milk derived product and some even use gelatine (made from boiling animal bones, skin and cartilage) in their processing, which makes them both non vegan and non vegetarian. To the best of my knowledge, vodka, gin, whiskey and rum are vegan.

It is a real minefield, and requires a lot of research on individual products to ensure a vegan friendly experience.  There are websites out there that have a data base of various producers products and state whether or not they are vegan friendly. Whilst I cannot vouch for its accuracy, Barnivore.com looks like a pretty good website for this purpose.

When I was wondering around a bottle shop recently I was going to ask if there was a vegan wine section, which on the face of it seemed like a reasonable request, but then I thought to myself if based on my research several wines are vegan friendly this would completely muck up the shops display and categories. Would they only have a specific wine in the vegan section and not for example in the sauvignon blanc section, or would it be duplicated in both?

The problem is that even within specific wine producers, they may have some wines that are vegan friendly, whilst others are not.  I am sure there are processing reasons for this, but you would have thought that if they were going to the trouble of making some that way that they could use the same process for all of their production.

The issue then becomes how can you differentiate between a vegan wine and a non vegan wine when you are perusing the bottle shop.  Perhaps some winemakers show it on the label, but if you have ever tried reading the small print on a wine label and are not under 25 with 20/20 vision, good luck with that. So even if you know that XYZ wine producers make some wines vegan, you cannot guarantee that they all will be. I can just imagine the reaction you will get if you ask a shop assistant if such and such a wine is vegan, particularly bearing in mind that wine producers are not legally required in most countries to list their ingredients and can include up to 50 different substances in the wine producing process.

Winemakers are however required to state where egg and dairy products have been used as they are allergens, so this at least is one red flag for vegans. I wonder if the eggs are free range or not? Perhaps I wont go down that rabbit hole or we could be here all day discussing the subject of egg production, and whether or not even vegetarians should be eating them. I am sure that a separate post will follow on this subject in due course.

I guess if there is a particular tipple that you are partial to, then the best course of action is to contact the producer and ask them to confirm if their products are vegan friendly, and hope that whoever deals with your enquiry is knowledgeable enough. This will also hopefully serve to reinforce the demand for vegan wines to the producers if they are receiving a steady number of enquiries on the subject.

Transitioning from vegetarian to vegan

After just over a week into my research, I am currently experimenting with a vegan diet. I am not yet declaring complete transition from vegetarian to vegan, not least because I have a lot more to learn and achieve before I can make such a statement.

I am therefore transitioning from vegetarianism to veganism, and whilst I am not ready to call myself vegan yet, I am not sure that I am vegetarian, as I am not eating dairy or eggs, hence the description of transitioning.

1 March 2018

I admit that it is becoming a bit of a cliché amongst those considering the transition to veganism, and I fell into the trap of believing that cheese would be the real issue.  I have always been a great fan, and was not sure, out of completely selfish reasons whether or not I could give it up. Perhaps it is the association, with a nice glass of red after a slap up meal, or maybe there is some truth behind the suggestion that cheese triggers the same part of the brain as hard drugs. Wow! I never realised that there is in fact a hard drug called cheese heroin, totally unrelated to the dairy product - it's amazing what you can come up with following a simple Google word search.

Whilst going slightly cold turkey over the omission of the real cheese product from my diet, I tried listing in my mind the pros and cons of eating cheese, and currently have more items on the cons list than the pros. Not least that it is a lump of saturated fat made from animal milk, possibly some mould and in some cases animal rennet, which I understand to be made from the lining of sheeps stomachs. If I can keep this mentality up, then maybe I have it cracked.

I am currently trying a selection of vegan cheeses, but to date have only had ones made from coconut oil, which are pretty rubbery. There are several boutique vegan cheeses out there and more run of the mill ones coming onto the market and into our supermarkets, so I will certainly be persevering, and I may even dabble in trying to make some myself based on some recipes I have come across.  I will report back if this happens.

What vitamins are vegans missing out on?

So what vitamins do vegans need to be mindful of.  No, I am not a doctor, but I am researching what I hope to be reasonable resources with a view to answering questions such as this.

The only vitamin that I see coming up time and time again as being an issue for anyone living on a purely plant based diet, i.e. vegans is vitamin B12. Apparently if you do not get adequate B12, it can cause anaemia or nervous system damage. It can lead to fatigue, memory loss, and muscle weakness amongst other symptoms.

According to veganhealth.org, most vegans consume enough B12 to avoid anaemia and nervous system damage, but many do not get enough to minimize potential risk of heart disease or pregnancy complications.

They go on to say that to get the full benefit of a vegan diet, vegans should do one of the following:

1. Eat fortified foods two or three times a day to get at least three micrograms (mcg or µg) of B12 a day or
2. Take one B12 supplement daily providing at least 10 micrograms or
3. Take a weekly B12 supplement providing at least 2000 micrograms.

According to the Global Healing Centre website Methylcobalamin is the most bioavailable form, as this form requires little to no conversion and crosses easily through every aspect of B-12’s metabolic pathway. Apparently it is better than the cheaper and common version of B12, Cyanocobalamin. Always read the label, and follow the advice of you medical practitioner etc, etc.

Delicious recipe for vegan omelette

Eggs and cheese are often the last things left when considering going all the way to a vegan diet, so I thought that I would give this a go. This is a great alternative if you want to reduce or remove eggs from your diet.  Here is a link to the website with the recipe https://lovingitvegan.com/vegan-omelette/

Einstein on vegetarianism

Seems to know what he is talking about

So how many animals does the average meat eater consume during life time?You might be surprised.

So the average meat eater apparently consumes 7000 animals during their lifetime.

Its one of those statistics that blows your mind when you see it, and then you look at the small print, and whilst it is still a scary thought, our little fishy friends make up the bulk of it.  It makes me think at this stage that my decision to give up fish based purely on lives lost, or saved depending on which way you look at it, is the right one.

It breaks down to 11 cows, 27 pigs, 2,400 chickens, 80 turkeys, 30 sheep and 4,500 fish, according to the Vegetarian Calculator http://vegetariancalculator.com/ as reported in the USA Today on 11 March 2015.

If you are vegetarian or vegan already you can have calculated the number of animals that have not been killed for you to eat on this website. Not sure how they calculate this, but there are links to the statistical data sources that they use on their website.

They also state that each day, a person who eats a vegan diet saves 1,100 gallons of water, 45 pounds of grain, 30 sq ft of forest, 20 lbs CO2 equivalent, and one animal life. Vegans presumably score better here as there is not the resources required to feed and water cows for dairy and chickens for eggs, for those vegetarians who consume dairy, and or eggs.

 Certainly food for thought and I will certainly be looking into the environmental issues as part of my investigations and decision making process, so watch this space.

Is there a link to cancer and eating meat?

The World Health Organisations (WHO) says that processed meat  causes cancer

This claim seems to have done the rounds, and this is not new, news, but for those who are still sitting on the fence and are looking for a reason to start their transition into vegetarianism/veganism, looking back at an old feed on the BBC website (which I generally tend to trust) there appears to be substance to this story. It was posted back in October 2015, and as far as I am aware it has not been retracted.

Processed meat is meat that has been modified to either extend its shelf life or change the taste and the main methods are smoking, curing, or adding salt or preservatives.

The report from WHO said 50g of processed meat a day - less than two slices of bacon - increased the chance of developing colorectal cancer by 18%.

Processed meat includes bacon, sausages, hot dogs, salami, corned beef, beef jerky and ham as well as canned meat and meat-based sauces.

Meanwhile, it said red meats were "probably carcinogenic" but there was limited evidence. 

The WHO has come to the conclusion on the advice of its International Agency for Research on Cancer, which assesses the best available scientific evidence.

It placed processed meat in the same category as plutonium, but also alcohol as they are known to cause cancer.

If you are still reading this post, then the chances are that you are already well on the way to at least being a vegetarian, or already are, and I doubt that anything here has changed your mind to the contrary. I certainly will not be eating meat in a hurry, then again, I haven't for over 30 years so this is a pretty safe statement to make.

So what are the main differences between vegetarian and vegan?

The Vegan Society defines. Veganism as a way of living which seeks to exclude, as far as possible and practicable, all forms of exploitation of, and cruelty to, animals for food, clothing or any other purpose.

The Vegetarian Society defines a Vegetarian as someone who lives on a diet of grains, pulses, legumes, nuts, seeds, vegetables, fruits, fungi, algae, yeast and/or some other non-animal based foods (e.g. salt) with, or without, dairy products, honey and/or eggs.

I remember my initial frustration of constantly being asked, so what do vegetarians eat? My standard response was Italian, Indian, Chinese, Thai and any other cuisine that you can think of, which works pretty well.

I am only on my second post and have learnt a bit from the Vegan Society about honey production and why vegans do not eat honey and also that vegans choose not to visit zoos and aquariums. 

The honey bee, the genus of bee used in commercial honey production, will visit up to 1500 flowers in order to collect enough nectar to fill its 'honey stomach ' a second separate stomach in which enzymes begin to break down the nectar into honey. After returning to the hive, this is regurgitated and chewed by 'house bees' to complete the honey making process.  Sounds pretty gross, but I guess that it is the fact that honey is being produced for the bees and not for humans that drives the decision  by vegans to avoid honey.  Some may argue that bees make more than enough honey for their own needs. However one must take into account that there will  be periods of time when the bees honey production reduces for example when the weather is bad, and they must then turn to their stores built up when conditions were better.

What would seem to be a significant difference between vegans and vegetarians, is that veganism is far more a lifestyle choice than being based primarily on diet.  I sense at this early stage of my investigations, that vegans perception on a lot of aspects of vegetarianism, such as egg and dairy consumption, is as abhorrent to vegans as meat consumption by omnivores is to most vegetarians. Whilst there will be some vegetarians who will not use leather products for example I am sure a lot do, and most are still pretty relaxed about dairy and egg consumption.

I am not belittling vegetarians, after all I classify myself as one, but veganism is a whole different ball game, and pushes ethics to the limit.

Introduction

                                                                                                         

My name is Grant Miller and I gave up eating meat over 30 years ago.


The initial reason was because I was concerned about the safety and methods of meat production.  I was watching a documentary about mechanically recovered meat (MRM).  MRM is meat residue which is left on the carcass after all the prime cuts have been removed.  It is pressure-blasted off the bones by machinery and forms a reddish slurry which resembles mince. I thought – that doesn’t seem right.

I continued to eat fish for a while longer as well as dairy and eggs.  Fish was next to drop off my dining list. I continued as a lacto ovo vegetarian (dairy and eggs)

Eating out was a bit of challenge back then. I remember being given a bowl of soup, which I understood to be vegetarian, only to find bits of chicken floating on the top.  The solution suggested by the waitress was to pick the bits of chicken out!

How things have changed, and the barrier of eating out is no longer a valid reason not to go vegetarian or vegan, plus you always get your food first on aeroplanes.

I must confess I started eating fish from time to time again, not least because I thought that it was good for me, based on mixed messages in the health and nutrition world.  It is apparently good for the brain, but then there is the heavy metals issue, which may lead to dementia. It seemed easier just to stop eating it.

Since February (2018) I am now following a plant based diet, no dairy and no eggs.  It is a minefield, and whist there is a huge amount of information out there, when it comes to nutrition, it is never straightforward . I am hoping that you will join me on this journey and that together we can become enlightened by caring about what we put into our bodies.