New Vegetarian here with a question

Hey everyone, well I've done a lot of research on this subject but can't seem to find the answers I'm looking for. 5 days ago, I decided to stop eating meat. I've been pretty cautious about foods I eat (reading ingredients and what not), but after buying foods today that I thought were animal free, I find out some ingredients in them mean animals were used to make the product. How can you avoid this and how can you tell what ingredient means animals might have been used in the process? I have to trust my parents in buying most of the food for right now and I can't ask them to read the ingredients in everything, once I can buy food on my own again I'm not sure what things to look for. I bought some beef free burritos and yogurt to find out they contain animals in them (like in the cheese or gelatin). Basically my question is how are you able to tell what ingredients may contain animals when it doesn’t clearly state it on the product? I apologize if I sound naive, but I don't personally know any vegetarians so I thought maybe some of you could help me. I know it's a process but I already feel turned off by eating things made with animals in them so I'm not sure how I'll deal with small steps and still eating things not free of animal parts. Would I have to start shopping only at organic food stores? It won't be a problem but as for now it may be since I have to rely on my parents to do the shopping which frankly, sucks! Well, advice/help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!

Hey that's ok!  no matter what you decide to do, you have to start somewhere, right?

From what you posted, it sounds like you're interested more in a vegan lifestyle than the more ambiguous term vegetarian.

Vegan = uses no products that contain or were processed by any animal tissues or byproducts of any kind - eats beans, legumes, grains, vegetables, fruits, nuts and vegetable oils

Pescatarian = eats beans, legumes, grains, vegetables, fruits, nuts, vegetable oils AND FISH (and possibly butter, eggs and milk products, including cheese)

Ovo-lacto vegetarian = eats beans, legumes, grains, vegetables, fruits, nuts, vegetable oils AND butter, eggs, and milk products including cheese)

Raw food vegetarian = eats mainly vegetables and fruits, some grains or legumes if fermented, but nothing ever heated above 115 degrees (to preserve the enzymes in the food)

Take a look at this thread and see if there are some helpful tips in there for you.

:)

Hiya :)

One very easy way to make sure that there is no animal products is to only buy whole foods.  Avoid pre-packaged food and make things on your own.  I don't advocate a raw foods diet though I do very much agree that you should eat tons of raw veggies and fruits along with your cooked veggies.

I'm going to quibble with nomoreexcuses though :D  Vegans (and everyone for that matter) should avoid vegetable oils.  They add an amazing amount of calories for very little nutrition value.  Just as you wouldn't want to have refined sugars or flour, you don't want vegetable oils though all 3 of those are vegan. 

 

Original Post by mikelane:

I'm going to quibble with nomoreexcuses though :D  Vegans (and everyone for that matter) should avoid vegetable oils.  They add an amazing amount of calories for very little nutrition value.  Just as you wouldn't want to have refined sugars or flour, you don't want vegetable oils though all 3 of those are vegan.

I agree with you. I don't understand why anyone advocates the use of oil, unless it's absolutely necessary for something to cook properly.

A lot of stuff like that will say 'vegetarian' or 'vegan' on them; that's usually what I trust. I'm pretty much a vegan and I eat Whole Soy and Co. yogurt which is completely vegan.

Original Post by dm84:

Original Post by mikelane:

I'm going to quibble with nomoreexcuses though :D  Vegans (and everyone for that matter) should avoid vegetable oils.  They add an amazing amount of calories for very little nutrition value.  Just as you wouldn't want to have refined sugars or flour, you don't want vegetable oils though all 3 of those are vegan.

I agree with you. I don't understand why anyone advocates the use of oil, unless it's absolutely necessary for something to cook properly.

From what I've read a diet high in plant foods benefits from the occasional use of extra virgin olive oil.  That being said, I have limited calories to have during the day and I don't waste them on oil :D.  I do use extra virgin olive oil spray occasionally when cooking.

Here's something I found just by doing a quick google search on "benefits of olive oil"

http://www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au/BHCV2/bhca rticles.nsf/pages/Olive_oil?OpenDocument

Thanks for present and future responses guys =)

you’ve helped me a lot!

Welcome to vegetarianism!  I know it seems tricky at first, but after a while you forget how you ever included meat in your diet to begin with.

Here's a really handy list.  It comes from PETA, so you can take that with as many grains of salt as you'd like, but it's very thorough and helpful.  It's a list of all the ingredients you'll see on labels that come from animal products.
http://www.animalsavingsclub.com/resources_in gredients_list.asp

Some of these ingredients, like animal rennet in cheese, are really hard to avoid, especially if you're not the one doing the shopping.  I'd advise you to choose your battles (like chicken/beef stock, lard, and gelatin: all easy to spot and avoid) and save the details for when you're stocking your own kitchen.  You should be able to find veg alternatives for almost everything, but there are some items only available from specialty stores.  For instance, I still cannot find vegetarian marshmallows.  Oh, well.

If you have any other questions, I'm here to help!  I love welcoming new vegetarians to the fold. :-)

This is for mikelane...I agree that vegetable oils are fatty, but some are highly beneficial (flax oil, avocado fat, olive oil).  I don't think excluding fat from a diet entirely is wise at all.

Original Post by jenhere:

This is for mikelane...I agree that vegetable oils are fatty, but some are highly beneficial (flax oil, avocado fat, olive oil).  I don't think excluding fat from a diet entirely is wise at all.

 jenhere, I think you have misunderstood what mikelane was saying.  He was saying that we should stick to whole foods rather than processed ones, and not that we should entirely exclude fat from the diet.  In other words, we should get our fats from whole foods, in natures original package, such as raw nuts, seeds, and avocado, and not from their extracted oils.  When oils are separated out or extracted from these foods, much nutritional value is lost, and the oil becomes more easily prone to rancidity.  

Flax seed oil is a prime example of how bad things can happen as a result of processing, as protective fibers called lignans are lost, and these lignans have been shown to have a protective efffect against prostate cancer (and possibly breast cancer(?)).  Some studies have claimed that the consumption of flax seed oil actually increases the risk of prostate cancer, due to the consumption of an excessive quantity of ALA (alpha-linolenic acid), in an environment devoid of the protective lignans.  So, while whole ground flax seed may protect against cancer, the opposite case has been made for the processed extracted oil.  As a result of such studies, some of the flax oil manufacturers have actually started adding the lignans back into their oil.  It is  common that nutritional value gets lost during food processing, and then those selected nutrients which are known to be of particular importance are added back in.  Such products are called 'fortified'.  I believe that if we stick with whole natural foods, our nutrition will be safer and more complete than if we rely upon fortification of processed foods.  Foods in nature contain a balance of nutrients that work together in ways we cannot always know or predict.  

 

i have a question for vegetarians/vegans/etc :). how many of you dont eat animal products for moral reasons (think eating animals is wrong/wasteful) and how many don't eat animal products for health reasons?

i personally eat mostly vegetarian (occasionly fish but VERY rarely) because i feel that eating animals is extremely unnecessary. I feel its both wasteful and not as healthy (not to mention simply unappetizing).

why do you guys eat the way you do?

Original Post by traeynne:

i have a question for vegetarians/vegans/etc :). how many of you dont eat animal products for moral reasons (think eating animals is wrong/wasteful) and how many don't eat animal products for health reasons?

i personally eat mostly vegetarian (occasionly fish but VERY rarely) because i feel that eating animals is extremely unnecessary. I feel its both wasteful and not as healthy (not to mention simply unappetizing).

why do you guys eat the way you do?

 I don't eat animal products because of health reasons.

I'm a recent convert and my reasons are a little bit of both. I hate the idea of animals being tortured for my enjoyment plus I think it's a much healthier way of life.

i dont eat meat for moral reasons- the healthy benefits are just an added bonus :)