Vegan diet choice questions.?!
instead of cheese?
instead of yogurt?
instead of fruit snacks?
and
instead of ketchup?
also what else do vegans eat?
and is it hard to become vegan?
please let me know. thanks. :]
Answers: yes. well basically I have a few questions about what vegans eat...
instead of cheese?
instead of yogurt?
instead of fruit snacks?
and
instead of ketchup?
also what else do vegans eat?
and is it hard to become vegan?
please let me know. thanks. :]
Cheese - well, there's vegan cheese substitutes available made from nuts or soy, and you can also find recipes online to make your own vegan tofu-based ricotta. Read ingredient labels, some "soy" cheese contains casein or whey or other dairy ingredients.
Yogurt - there are 100% soy yogurts. Read ingredient labels, some still use dairy components.
Fruit snacks - yuck, these aren't fruit at all, either way. They're either corn syrup or fruit concentrate (an euphemism for "sugar", according to the USDA). There are snacks like FruitaBu or something like that, which are organic and vegan-friendly. Unless it's made with white sugar, gelatin or fortified with non-vegetarian sourced vitamins, these can be vegan.
Ketchup - well, most ketchup has corn syrup in it nowadays rather than white sugar (which is 50/50 regarding whether it is vegan or not). Just read ingredients lists, SOME natural or organic ketchup uses cane juice or other sweetener and are vegan.
I find that being vegan suits my life and it's been fairly easy for me, but it isn't for those that are lazy or don't like to read or study up... I would suggest taking out some books about being vegan from the library and purchasing a good vegan cookbook or two.
I eat just about everything - in fact, a shorter list would be - what DON'T I eat? Dairy, eggs, meat, honey, white sugar... I eat just about everything else, I just read ingredients lists to make sure that they don't have those ingredients in them.
That means that I eat vegan cookies, vegan cake and pie, soy ice cream, baked potatoes, chili, Indian food, pad Thai, chinese bean curd stir fry, potato chips, sweet potatoes, casseroles, pasta and sauce, meatless meat balls, vegan veggie loafs (like a meat loaf but minus the meat), mashed potatoes, dark chocolate, hummus, bread, pitas, sandwiches, eggless egg salad (using tofu - look up a vegan recipe for it), scrambled tofu (in place of scrambled eggs - look up a vegan recipe for this as well).
I eat a wide and varied diet, I have found a way to adapt pretty much every recipe I had before going vegan so that it fit into my vegan diet.
just find things with soy
There are soy and rice based substitutes for dairy cheese and diary yogurt, but it's not really necessary to eat something "instead of" those foods. I use soy yogurt in recipes, but I rarely bother to eat something "instead of" cheese. Rather, I just don't eat cheese (even the best soy substitutes aren't that good, in my opinion.)
I'm not sure what fruit snacks you're referring to. Fruit is vegan. Are you talking about something with gelatin? In that case, you'd just look for a brand without gelatin. You can get vegan fruit "leather" which is basically just dehydrated fruit.
I can't vouch for all ketchup, but the one in my fridge is tomatoes, vinegar, sugar and spices. I personally don't eat ketchup but if I did, I'd have no issue with the bottle in my fridge...
Vegans eat fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, legumes, grains, herbs, spices and everything made from them. If you don't know what a vegan eats it might very well be hard to become one. Perhaps you should pick up a couple of good books to get you started. I recommend "Becoming Vegan" by Brenda Davis and Vesanto Melina for nutritional information, and "Vegan with a Vengeance" by Isa Chandra Moskowitz for fabulous recipes.