Vegan cereals? Also, vegan sugar question?!
Also, I know vegans don't consume anything that has white sugar. So when reading a label, if an ingredient is "sugar" does that mean it isn't vegan?
Answers:
Sugar made from cane sugar is often NOT vegan. This is because the filtering process of cane sugar uses charcoal. The charcoal is often made with animal bones (called "bone-char"). Its not an ingredient in sugar. Some vegans will eat it, others won't. The vegans that will eat it realize that processed foods are going to occasionally contain some type of animal-based ingredients. It you want to eat it, the choice is up to you. There are no vegan "police" who are going to give you a ticket if you eat sugar made using bone-char.
If a label ingredient lists "sugar", there is no telling what type of sugar they used to make the product with. It could be cane sugar made with bone-char.
The other option is to not eat processed foods. Make all of your meals at home from scratch. Sugar made from beets is 100% vegan.
Here is a website that lists the ingredients of cheerios. Except for the sugar, they appear to be vegan.
http://www.livestrong.com/article/287501…
Cheerios contain vitamin D3, which was sourced from lanolin as of 2008, and not vegan.
http://vegweb.com/index.php?topic=23837.…
Most cereals contain white sugar, and most will not specify the source of that sugar. However, these days, most sugar on the market is actually processed without bone char. The problem is, not all of it is labeled as such.
Here is a good guide:
http://www.vegansoapbox.com/vegan-sugar/
Many vegans will only use vegan sugar (beet sugar, evaporated cane juice, raw sugar, and sugar that specifically says "vegan" on the package, as well as alternative natural sweeteners like agave, molasses, or fruit) but many others may only bake with vegan sugar, but are a little more relaxed when there is a small amount of sugar already IN something.
Personally, I avoid animal-derived vitamins such as D3, and I only bake with vegan sugar at home, but sometimes if I am out at a restaurant or someone else's home and something is vegan-except-I-don't-know-about-the-smal… I might try a small piece.
If you want good cereals that are truly vegan, try those made by Kashi or Barbara's. Barbara's has an O cereal that is like Cheerios! Or look at the list of major manufacturers' cereals here:
http://www.peta.org/living/vegetarian-li…
or this list:
http://www.bestveganguide.com/vegan-cere…
OR make your own granola! Yum!
Good luck!
Some white sugars are vegan. In fact I have a bag of white powdered sugar and on the back it says it's suitable for vegans and vegetarians. They don't use bone char to bleach all sugars, just a few. Up until WWII it was ALL sugars that were bleached with bone char.
As far as I know, regular Cheerios (not honey) are vegan. I personally have plain Rice Crispies with almond milk in the mornings sometimes.
Vegan
