Share this handy poster with family and friends. You can also print it out and post it on your refrigerator. See: https://www.vrg.org/nutshell/VeganDietsinaNutshellPoster.pdf
By Nadely Requena, VRG Intern
During my first-year as an undergraduate at the University of Texas at Austin, my sole-focus was on finding my place and becoming accustomed to “adult” life. I was coming from Houston, Texas where I had previously attended a boarding school, already gaining a sense of independence and control of my eating choices. At that beginning of the school year, I had been vegetarian for over three years and the end goal had always been to become fully vegan.
As I lived in the university dorms my first-year, I often switched between a vegetarian and vegan diet, just depending on the foods that were present in the dining halls each day. However, if you are completely vegan, it is totally possible to survive in the dining halls.
Here, you will find a full week’s worth of meals that I had during my first-year at UT. My diet was mostly vegan and the ingredients that were not could easily be removed and are specified in this meal plan. If you have certain dietary restrictions, the dining hall is also willing to make meals that accommodate your needs.
The menu constantly changed every single day, so I was always having to get creative and combine things to make a full meal. If you are someone with an alternative diet, I encourage you to experiment with foods and to also be realistic with your diet while seeing the options your school offers. Food can always be combined and there’s always going to be a way to make it more delicious, as long as you’re willing to try.
I ate breakfast and lunch in the dining hall, plus a snack after a workout or during some late night studying. After I moved out of the dorms, I became fully vegan, now being more familiar with all sorts of ingredients. I won’t be living in the dorms next semester, but needless to say, dorm life provides incoming students with a support group, introduction to life as an adult, and most importantly, a place where you can experiment with food endlessly.
Note from the editor: Often food services serve fortified plant milks, which you may want to add to your meals.
The contents of this posting, our website, and our other publications, including Vegetarian Journal, are not intended to provide personal medical advice. Medical advice should be obtained from a qualified health professional. We often depend on product and ingredient information from company statements. It is impossible to be 100% sure about a statement, info can change, people have different views, and mistakes can be made. Please use your best judgment about whether a product is suitable for you. To be sure, do further research or confirmation on your own.
By Reed Mangels, PhD, RD
At the end of June 2022, California Governor Gavin Newsom signed a $308 billion state budget for 2022-2023. This budget features a first for any state in the United States – funding for plant-based school meals in public elementary and secondary schools.
According to the Enacted Budget Summary, the budget includes a one-time $100 million allocation “to support local educational agency procurement practices for plant-based or restricted diet meals, to procure California-grown or California-produced, sustainably grown, whole or minimally processed foods including for use in plant-based or restricted diet meals, or to prepare meals fresh onsite.”
The state budget also includes a one-time $600 million apportionment for upgrades to school kitchens and equipment and food service employee training and compensation that will allow the use of more “fresh, minimally processed California-grown foods.”
To read more about vegan and vegetarian meals in schools see:
Getting Vegan Foods into Elementary Schools
Adding Vegetarian Options into School Lunch Programs
Working for Vegetarian Food in Your High School Cafeteria
Photo from Belse Restaurant Bar & Brewery (@belsenyc)
The Vegetarian Resource Group maintains an online Guide to Vegan/Vegetarian Restaurants in the USA and Canada. Here are some recent vegan restaurant additions. The entire guide can be found here: http://www.vrg.org/restaurant/index.php
To support the updating of this online restaurant guide, please donate at: www.vrg.org/donate
Here are some new additions to VRG’s guide (Note: Due to the COVID-19 pandemic many are doing take-out and/or delivery now):
Belse, 265 Bowery, New York, NY 10002
Belse’s high-end, culture-agnostic approach leads to options ranging from the beet carpaccio with almond ricotta to a selection of pizzas and flatbreads including mushroom pesto to the Aubergine filet, an eggplant steak in a mushroom au jus. The brunch menu offers a mix of savory items as well as breakfast dishes such as banana pancakes or lemon poppy seed waffles with a maple rum syrup. In line with Belse’s tagline (“The best vegan food tastes even better when you drink responsibly”), the full-service bar and on-site brewery offer a range of beverages to pair with your meal. This includes the 4 signature wines from the Belse winery in Healdsburg, California, and the freshly made brews from the only 3-vessel German brewhouse in Manhattan. Brunch cocktails include the Upside-Down Cake made with vanilla vodka and lemon and pineapple juices and the Black & White Espresso Martini. If you are not already blown away by the thoughtfulness and creativity of Belse, consider this: the restaurant’s logo (hands holding the earth wrapped in a lotus flower) was designed by Shepard Fairey, the street artist who created the “Hope” portrait of Barack Obama.
Chelsea Cashew Creamery, 719 Broadway, Dunedin, FL 34698
Chelsea Cashew Creamery is a mother & son business in the Tampa Bay area that makes all its ice cream in-house with natural ingredients and no stabilizers or additives. The menu includes flavors such Chelsea’s choice, chocolate walnut, coconut, Dutch chocolate, masala chai, mint chip, pistachio, mocha, and many more amazing flavors.
Folke, 2585 W. Broadway, Vancouver, BC V6K 2E9 Canada
Kitsilano-based restaurant with ever-changing menu based around vegetables from local farms and alcohol from local breweries and wineries. Order a few small plates to share, or a 6-course tasting menu. Offerings include expertly selected, paired and prepared vegetable dishes such as beets with rose, hazelnut and rhubarb; dumplings with mushroom xo, gai lan, and ponzu; or a dessert consisting of rhubarb, fennel and chamomile. Guests can sit at tables amidst the classy indoor décor, at a bar overlooking the open kitchen, or on the covered patio outdoors. Chefs often interact with guests to speak about the dishes and the local farms the ingredients came from, and guests can also come to the daily “patio hang” at 3-5pm with beer, wine, and snacks. Menu prices include gratuity in an effort to pay the front-of-house staff a fair wage.
House of Mexica, 3600 Warren Way #107, Reno, NV 89509
Showcasing the roots of the Mexica (Meh-Shee-Ca) tribe, House of Mexica will undoubtedly catch your attention if not through their authentic Mexican cuisine, then through their bold, eye-catching bright purple logo. This vegan restaurant gives you complete mobility of your experience from their loads of soy and gluten-free options, 5 different “meat” options (Asada, Al Pastor, Chick’n, Nohpalli (prickly pear cactus), Hibiscus), and loads of house toppings to customize your dish. They have dedicated a section of the menu entirely to Mexican classics such as Tacos, Sopes, Tortas, Burritos, and Chimichangas. Additionally, their 12 different Chick’n Sandwiches, Burgers, and Bowls make it impossible for you to not find something you love. Another popular section are their fries as you can choose between the Mexican, Buffalo, Asada, Animal Kingdom, or Mac ‘n’ cheese options. Lastly, they have a selection of “smoothie gods” as you can choose between their water, solar, fire, or earth smoothies, or Mexican classics like Horchata and Jamaica.
Laughing V, 184 Duane St., New York, NY 10013
Tiny spot in Tribeca, a few blocks from the World Trade Center. Partnered with the Laughing Man Café next door, part-owned by actor Hugh Jackman. Serves both drinks (including coffee — or check out the caffeine-free pink “matcha” with powdered dragon fruit) and sandwiches and baked goods, as well as a small collection of vegan market items (cashew cheese, vegan pudding mix etc.). The food is mostly made from scratch out of unprocessed ingredients (including the bread for the sandwiches): try the Philly Cheesesteak, featuring seitan handmade from lentils and Italian herbs. Seating available at the benches and small park right outside.
Nomoo, 7507 Melrose Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90046
Nomoo serves soy-free, non-GMO burgers, shakes, Everything Vegan BBQ facon, hot chick’n, fried oyster, Beyond patty, fried onion strings, and more. Nomoo has both indoor and outdoor seating, as well as soothing music and a prime location for people-watching.
Rock n Roots, 469 Willis Ave., Williston Park, NY 11596
Enjoy a granola cup, sushi rolls, wraps and salads, panini sandwiches, burgers, and desserts.
Seaside Eatery, 98275 Overseas Hwy., Key Largo, FL 33037
Seaside Eatery is a food truck eatery with outdoor seating. Serving the freshest ingredients to bring you delicious hand-crafted dishes such as the Stack ‘o Cakes, Avocado Toast, Lyndsay’s Bahn Mi, Roasted Vedge, Falafel, Chickpea salad, Hummus, and other dishes. They also offer Boba teas.
Sookie’s Veggie Burgers, 502 State St., Madison, WI 53703
Besides burgers, other items on the menu include spinach chicken pesto sandwich, chicken sandwich, black bean chipotle burger, and fries. They also have desserts produced locally.
The Vegetarian Resource Group is a vegan activist non-profit organization that does outreach all-year-long. For example, VRG has been participating in numerous virtual events by providing speakers on a wide variety of vegan topics. We also send literature free of charge to other groups/individuals doing educational activities in schools, hospitals, camps, restaurants, libraries, offices, etc. Our ability to continue doing this depends on people like you! Your donations allow us to promote the vegan message whenever we’re called upon for assistance. Please consider becoming a monthly, quarterly, or single-time donor to The Vegetarian Resource Group.
Thanks so much for your support. You can make a donation online here: www.vrg.org/donate
By Ruby Sturm, VRG Intern
I’ve been trying to learn how to buy cheap clothes as a vegan. Overall, clearance racks, thrift stores, and yard sales are probably the way to go.
Although I haven’t run across many specifically vegan clothing brands, in the better stores the clothing and shoes are labeled with what’s in them. So you’ll at least have an inkling if a piece is free from animal products. A detailed label is really helpful because animal products can sometimes be hidden in plain sight. I once bought a pair of fuzzy knitted winter gloves. It turned out that the fluffy material hidden inside of the gloves was rabbit fur. Another time my mom bought me a pair of canvas shoes online. The product description read “cotton.” What it didn’t say was that the inserts inside the shoes were 100% genuine leather! There will always be some mistakes, but the more I learn about different brands, the better I get at making sure that what I’m wearing is good for the earth!
If the label doesn’t list what a product is made of, the best thing you can do is Google it. When shopping online, you might notice that product descriptions aren’t great. But you can go to the brand’s website for a more detailed description. Looking up the brand only takes a minute. Of course it’s also important to think about the different labels products can have—cruelty-free, sustainable, and vegan. Cruelty-free means that a product isn’t tested on animals. Sustainable means that the product has a better environmental impact. And vegan means that it contains no materials derived from animals. When buying clothing, it’s best to consider all of these labels. A vegan faux leather coat could still be made entirely from plastic, cruelty-free soap could contain honey and goat’s milk, and a pair of sustainable shoes could still be made from leather.
How could a faux-leather coat be made from plastic well… Faux leather is a trendy vegan product that no one can seem to make up their mind about. Is it good, is it bad, is it cheap?
Vegan leather companies have different processes for developing this leather-free leather. There are two main types. The first is made of polyurethane, or PU, a plastic-based leather that is cheap and easy to mass produce. My family has a PU faux leather couch that started peeling a year after we bought it. The second type of vegan leather is plant-based. Plant-based leather is usually made from smooth leathery plants such as cactus, banana leaves, or even fruit skins. One sad thing is that I’ve found few plant-based leathers are fully “plant-based.”
Overall, how people shop ethically really depends on their budget, the time they’re willing to invest, and their style. It’s not just about your taste in clothes, but also whether you prefer the ‘thrill of the hunt’ at yard sales and thrift stores, or a more organized approach to shopping, like searching through the catalog of an online store.
For new clothes, one way to save money is at the clearance rack. Avoid stores that have clothing made from cheap synthetic materials that will fall apart fairly quickly but won’t biodegrade. Instead, go to the clearance rack at stores that carry some ethical brands. When I started researching, I thought I’d find some budget vegan brands if I looked hard enough. After all, I really can’t afford to pay $45 for a t-shirt or $300 for a backpack. I know that fast fashion is bad, but cost is a factor for most of us.
If you love some of the expensive vegan clothing brands but don’t have the money, you can also buy them used. Time can be a good substitute for money—sure, they’ve been worn before, but that just doubles your positive impact on the environment! You may prefer hitting the bins at a chaotic Goodwill, a more organized thrift store like Savers, or asking for your grandma’s cool hand-me-downs. Sometimes it’s hard to find things you like that are your size. But you can buy used clothing online, too, at websites like Mercari, Ebay, Thredup, Poshmark, and TheRealReal. (TheRealReal is pretty expensive but hey they have a clearance section!)
Another reason to buy second hand is … just look at all the cool stuff you can get! Thanks to thrift stores and yard sales I have button ups from now ‘till 60 years ago. Some of the neatest clothing pieces I’ve gotten don’t even have tags and I’m pretty sure they were handmade.
This was a cool dress I got from a thrift store that I’m pretty sure was hand-sewn.
And if you accidentally purchase something second-hand that contains animal products, at least you bought it used so the manufacturer didn’t profit from the sale. When people become vegan, many cycle leather and fur clothing out of their wardrobes.
I remember when I would tell people I bought my clothes at a thrift store and they would look at me weird, but now everyone seems to like them… perhaps since clothing has gone up in price. They say time is money. And if you don’t want to break your wallet you still have to invest something. So maybe just invest your time instead!
The contents of this posting, our website and our other publications, including Vegetarian Journal and Vegan Journal, are not intended to provide personal medical advice. Medical advice should be obtained from a qualified health professional. We often depend on product and ingredient information from company statements. It is impossible to be 100% sure about a statement, info can change, people have different views, and mistakes can be made. Please use your best judgment about whether a product is suitable for you. To be sure, do further research or confirmation on your own.
You may also be interested:
https://www.vrg.org/nutshell/leather.php
https://www.vrg.org/blog/2016/12/09/whats-the-deal-with-vegan-leather/
Labeling regulations:
https://www.vrg.org/journal/vj2022issue2/2022_issue2_unleather.php
Have you ever wondered if an ingredient listed on a food label is vegan or not? The Vegetarian Resource Group has an online guide to food ingredients that lets you now whether a specific food ingredient is vegan, vegetarian, non-vegetarian, typically vegan, typically vegetarian, may be non-vegetarian, or typically non-vegetarian.
You can search through this guide here: https://www.vrg.org/ingredients/index.php
To support this type of difficult research, please consider making a donation to The Vegetarian Resource Group: vrg.org/donate
By Reed Mangels, PhD, RD
It’s simple, right? We all think we know which foods are good for us and which foods are less likely to be health promoting. But when medications enter the mix, it may get more complicated. Some foods that many of us think of as healthy, can interfere with the actions of some medicines, making the medicine less effective or even dangerous.
For example, there are long lists of medications that grapefruit or grapefruit juice can interact with. These include some drugs to lower cholesterol (some statins), some drugs used to treat high blood pressure, some anti-anxiety drugs, some corticosteroids, and some antihistamines. Seville oranges (often used to make orange marmalade), pomelos, tangelos, pomegranates, and pomegranate juice are sometimes identified as having effects similar to those of grapefruit and grapefruit juice (1).
People taking some types of anticoagulants (medicines to reduce the risk of blood clots) are warned to eat a consistent amount of green leafy vegetables and other food sources of vitamin K rather than eating a lot of kale, say, one day and no green vegetables the next (2).
A type of antidepressant called an MAO inhibitor can have dangerous interaction with foods high in tyramine or histamine. These include aged cheeses, pickled or fermented food (sauerkraut, pickles, kimchi), fermented soy sauce, tempeh, and yeast extract.
Your health care provider or pharmacist can help you determine if you need to avoid or limit certain foods because of medications that you are using.
In addition to foods, other products including dietary supplements, herbs, non-prescription medications, and other prescriptions medications all have the potential to interfere with a prescribed medication. It’s a lot to keep straight.
Johns Hopkins Medicine website (3) has these sensible recommendations:
References
The contents of this posting, our website, and our other publications, including Vegetarian Journal and Vegan Journal, are not intended to provide personal medical advice. Medical advice should be obtained from a qualified health professional. We often depend on product and ingredient information from company statements. It is impossible to be 100% sure about a statement, info can change, people have different views, and mistakes can be made. Please use your best judgment about whether a product is suitable for you. To be sure, do further research or confirmation on your own.
The Vegetarian Resource Group is celebrating its 40th Anniversary this coming fall and this year we have changed the name of our quarterly magazine to Vegan Journal. You’ll find the same type of articles and recipe pieces in an updated format. Enjoy in-depth original research, product and book reviews, scientific updates on veggie nutrition, delicious vegan recipes with gorgeous photos, plus so much more. Both long-term vegans and those new to a vegan life-style will enjoy this magazine.
To subscribe in the USA, see: https://www.vrg.org/member/2013sv.php
By Jeanne Yacoubou, MS
The Vegetarian Resource Group first learned of Every Company (formerly Clara Foods) in March 2021 in an article on its “animal-free” pepsin.
At that time, we were curious to find out more about the source of Every’s pepsin. Since this digestive enzyme, common in many nutritional supplements, is typically derived from hogs on a commercial basis, pepsin is considered an animal-derived ingredient.
So how could pepsin be “animal-free”?
Every Company “animal-free” products
On their website viewed in January 2022, Every Company lists three “animal-free” products they make by precision fermentation.
According to the website, these products are suitable for a wide range of foods and beverages.
For egg white protein and egg white replacer, these include:
Pepsin, in particular, was noted as a possible food processing aid as well as an ingredient in nutritional supplements.
According to the Food and Drug Administration, processing aids do not have to be listed on food and beverage labels.
At the time of writing this article, Every Company was in partnership to sell a vegan protein smoothie in California and New York as well as online.
In the description for this product, there was an asterisk after the word “vegan” which lead to this disclaimer:
“Contains egg allergens. This is not an animal product and is not created from chickens.”
Here was the complete ingredient statement for this product:
Apple Juice, Water, Pineapple, Banana, Spinach, Avocado Pulp (Avocado, Citric Acid), Lemon Juice, Egg White Protein (Non-Animal Source)
Every Company manufacturing process
On their website, Every Company states that it “…decouples proteins from the animals that make them using fermentation.”
To do this, they use a DNA sequence library. After copying the genetic code for a specific animal protein, they insert it into yeast. Every uses chicken and porcine DNA sequences for their products.
Then the yeast are grown on a medium containing sugar. Through fermentation, the yeast produce the animal protein according to the genetic instructions previously inserted.
Every Company FAQ page
On the website FAQ page, Every Company writes:
Note: Because our egg proteins are nature-equivalent to chicken-made eggs, they are considered egg allergens. People with an egg allergy should not consume our proteins.
Q: Why do you call your proteins animal-free?
A: Every Company conducted extensive consumer research to identify the clearest way to describe our proteins and the fact that no animal or animal cell is involved in our process or product. Our research indicated that animal-free is the clearest, most understandable way to describe animal protein made without using a single animal.
Note to reader: There are varied opinions on the labeling of these types of products, which will continue to evolve. Here is a YouGov national U.S. adult poll concerning how meat and dairy alternatives based on DNA originally from animals should be labeled: https://www.vrg.org/nutshell/CulturedMeatYouGov2022.pdf
What do readers think? Which terms would you suggest be used or not used?
The contents of this posting, our website and our other publications, including Vegetarian and Vegan Journal, are not intended to provide personal medical advice. Medical advice should be obtained from a qualified health professional. We often depend on product and ingredient information from company statements. It is impossible to be 100% sure about a statement, info can change, people have different views, and mistakes can be made. Please use your best judgment about whether a product is suitable for you. To be sure, do further research or confirmation on your own.
Join The VRG with $35 via our subscription form, and receive the Vegan Journal for two years and a copy of Simply Vegan!
The Vegetarian Resource Group (VRG) is a non-profit organization dedicated to educating the public on veganism and the interrelated issues of health, nutrition, ecology, ethics, and world hunger. We have been helping health professionals, food services, businesses, educators, students, vegans, and vegetarians since 1982. In addition to publishing the Vegan Journal, VRG produces and sells a number of books.
Sign up for our newsletter to receive recipes, ingredient information, reviews of new products, announcements of new books, free samples of products, and other VRG materials.