vegan soup and coffee creamer

Does anyone know any good low calorie vegan soups?  Also, does anyone have any idea on where to get soy coffee creamer and if it is any good?

Silk has soy creamer and it comes in different flavors.  It says vegan on the packaging.  However it depends on how strict a vegan you really are.  There has always been some controversy on if sugar is really vegetarian.  Some vegans just don't see it as healthy and don't eat it.  You have to decide for yourself how you feel about it.  I find the soy creamers kind of expensive compared to buying just a half gallon of Silk.  Silk comes in several varieties - as well as no sugar added.  You can add your own sweeteners then.   

Amy's brand makes a pretty good low calorie vegetable soup.  I believe all of her products are vegetarian but not necessarily vegan so read the labels.  The vegetable soup is vegan though. 

Why isn't sugar veg*n?

I think it mostly depends on your point of view.  Some hardcore vegans won't eat it because is it a refined product.  There are some vegan's out there who won't even consider another person a vegan if they don't follow the whole lifestyle - just eating that way isn't enough.  Not me.  I'm just saying. 

Back to the sugar being a vegetarian issue.  I haven't read the article in a long time so I don't remember exactly what the problem was.  It seems to me there was some filtering issue or some process that sugar went through that involved using animal products.  I'm sure there are people who are much more knowledgeable on this subject than I am.  Things could have changed since I read that article.    

I'm sure it is something that can be cleared up by doing some searching on the internet. 

Why do some people around here spell vegan - veg*n?

Okay.. I found a few articles on this issue.  You can read about them yourself they are easy to find.  Just go to a search engine such as Google and ask a question like "Is sugar vegetarian?".  Several articles will show up.  In a nutshell cane sugar may be filtered through charred animal bone.  It's not necessesarily the case but it can be.  I believe it is only cane sugar that has this issue.   Read the articles and make an informed decision about sugar that way.   

Yeah some companies use bone char (which is charcoal made from animal bones) to filter the white cane sugar in the final purification process :(

It's really annoying how companies slip gross things like that into simple everyday foods that most people wouldn't give a second thought to having animal products in them.

 

 

Amy's makes some vegan canned soups.  Also, progresso lentil soup is vegan (but a lot of other canned lentil soups contain butter) and President's Choice Blue Menu Black Bean Soup is vegan, but again, lots of other bean soups contain butter. 

As for sugar being vegan, the issue is that some white sugars are processed using bone char.  Some white sugar is not processed using bone char though, and many brown/yellow sugars are not, so you should definitely be able to eat sugar as a vegan.  And, Vegan doesn't mean not eating things because they are not healthy, it is strictly whether or not animal products were used in the creation of the food.

Be careful with Progresso!  I once grabbed a can of "Vegetable Classics Lentil Soup" and it's a good thing I looked more closely at the label, because it had bacon in it! :-P

coffee creamer.....watch it.  My grandparents were great users of Rich Mor, a dairy-free substitute for both coffee and whipping cream.  That stuff was loaded with all kinds of chemicals and bad saturated fats like palm and coconut oil.  You'd be better off using soy or rice milk. 

On any kind of special diet you need to read the labels very carefully.  Many non-dairy creamers will state on the label that it contains a milk derivative.  I avoid things like high fructose corn syrup and partially hydrogenated oils as well.  Ingredients that are often included in non-dairy creamers.  Brands like Amy's, Silk and others that you can find at co-ops will state on the label if it's vegan or gluten-free and allergin statements like it contains soy, milk, wheat or nuts.  Not every brand is nice enough to do this, so read every label.  

 

i thought silk used evaporated cane juice, which is vegan...

coffeemate and international delight creamers (powder and liquid) are not vegan, they contain milk derivatives.