Your best friend, who follows a vegan diet, is visiting you, and you don’t know what being vegan even means?
All key points
- A vegan diet avoids foods of animal origin and their products.
- A vegan diet is not the same as a wholesome plant-based diet.
- A vegan lifestyle avoids every product and practice that causes animal suffering (leather, fur, wool, products tested on animals like medicine, cosmetic products etc.)
- Hidden non-vegan things include keratin, carmine (E120), some alcoholic beverages and candy.
- If you care for your health, climate, environment, ethics, social justice, fair economy or just like the idea, consider going vegan.
Let’s make it short and sweet.
A vegan person’s diet is characterised by avoiding foods of animal origin and their products.
Therefore, vegan foods include mainly
- fruits (apples, bananas, peaches, strawberries…)
- vegetables (all veggies like tomatoes, bell peppers, cucumber…)
- starch products (such as potatoes, sweet potatoes…)
- grain, corn, cereals
- legumes (beans, peas, chickpeas, lentils…)
- nuts (hazelnuts, walnuts, chestnuts…)
- oilseeds (sunflower seeds, peanuts…)
- (eventually highly processed products such as biscuits, chips or soy sausages, vegan cheese…)
A vegan diet is not the same as a wholesome plant-based diet.
Non-vegan foods are foods of animal origin and, therefore, not included in a vegan diet:
- meat
- chicken
- fish
- seafood
- milk
- milk products such as cheese, cream, etc.
- eggs
- honey
- gelatin
In a strict sense, products are not vegan if made using animal products.
- juices clarified with gelatin
- plant-based yoghurts whose lactic acid cultures are grown on cow’s milk
I am probably 98% vegan since I will, e. g. drink an apple juice offered by someone without confirming if it is vegan or not because people don’t know.
But I won’t eat cake, even if I am offered one, since it is pretty evident that most cakes contain at least one non-vegan product like eggs, milk, or butter.
Beyond diet, a vegan lifestyle avoids every product and practice that causes animal suffering under the assumption that animals and humans are similar in terms of pain perception. This lifestyle includes avoiding products such as:
- leather
- fur
- wool
- products tested on animals (e.g. medicines or cosmetics)
I use medication tested on animals if I cannot avoid it since most medicine is tested on animals before being administered to humans. Still, I do my best to try and find natural alternatives before using medication.
Hidden non-vegan things
It is not that easy sometimes, especially in the cosmetics world. For instance, if not otherwise declared, keratin treatment for your hair is made out of animal horns, hair, and hooves. If you don’t know, you don’t know.
The same goes for e. g. carmine, the bright red colour in cosmetics, alcoholic beverages, or candy, also known as E120. Carmine is extracted from scale insects’ shells, which irritates me anyway.
And these are just two examples. The list is way longer. I am just not aware of them all.
And why?
Here are seven reasons to live a vegan lifestyle
- Health
- Climate
- Environment
- Social Justice
- Ethics
- Fair Economy
- Trend
I follow a vegan lifestyle primarily for its ethics, but other reasons are also important. Protecting animals was always a matter of my heart; that included doing the obvious and not eating them.
So what do I prepare for a vegan friend?
If you want to surprise your plant-based friend, I recommend two youtube channels for recipes.
If you are a good cook or want to become one, have a look at avantgardevegan’s channel.
Otherwise, I would suggest Pick Up Limes for budget-friendly and straightforward recipes.
I hope this brought a little insight into what veganism is and what people’s primary motives are.
Sources.
