By Reed Mangels, PhD, RD

Whether it’s for baking or for toast or baked potatoes, you may be wondering which brand of vegan butter to choose. Certainly, you can live quite happily without ever using vegan butter, but if you are a consumer, you can decide to support a company whose product checks your boxes for nutritional quality. As an occasional user of vegan butter, I want a product that is low in saturated fat.

I looked at some widely available vegan butters. Information is from manufacturers’ websites and product packages.

The saturated fat content of the products I surveyed ranged from 2 grams to 8 grams of saturated fat in a 1 Tablespoon serving of vegan butters. The products with the lowest saturated fat are:

• I Can’t Believe It’s Not Vegan – 2 grams of saturated fat per tablespoon
• Earth Balance Whipped Buttery Spread and Olive Oil Buttery Spread – 2.5 grams of saturated fat per tablespoon
• Earth Balance Original Buttery Spread and Soy Free Buttery Spread – 3 grams of saturated fat per tablespoon

All of these products are tub butters. For baking, stick butters with the lowest saturated fat are:

• Earth Balance sticks (Vegan Buttery, Unsalted Buttery, and European Style) – 3.5 grams of saturated fat per tablespoon
• Country Crock Plant Butter Sticks – 5 grams of saturated fat per tablespoon

Earth Balance’s Organic Whipped Buttery Spread is the only product that was both lower in saturated fat and had organic ingredients. Other products that were certified organic include:

• Miyoko’s Creamery Cultured Oat Milk Vegan Butter – 4.5 grams of saturated fat per tablespoon
• Wayfare Foods Dairy Free Butter – 5 grams of saturated fat per tablespoon
• Miyoko’s Creamery Cultured Vegan Butter (salted and unsalted) – 8 grams of saturated fat per tablespoon

The Vegetarian Resource Group has compiled a list of Senior Independent Living, Assisted Living, Nursing Home, and Other Senior Facilities in the USA that will accommodate vegetarians and in some cases vegans. This is a work in progress and if you know of any establishments that should be added to this list, please let us know. Our goal in this project is to persuade senior establishments to offer more vegan options on a regular basis. Sometimes by just asking you put the thought on their radar. We were successful in doing the same thing 20 years ago when we urged college campuses to add vegan options.

You can find the entire list here: https://www.vrg.org/seniors/senior_vegan.php

To support this type of project, please donate here: www.vrg.org/donate

Photo from Mush DC

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):

De la Tierra, 326 Commercial St., San Jose, CA 95112

Try their street tacos, quesadilla, and Italian sodas. Food truck does pop up locations; see website for latest information.

Hart House, 8901 S Sepulveda Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90045

Kevin Hart, a comedian and actor, opened Hart House in the Los Angeles neighborhood of Westchester. Burgers come with American cheese, familiar fixings, and the Hart House Signature Sauce. You can even customize your Crispy Chick’n Sandwich a bit. Some like it hot—if that’s you, maybe kick it up a notch with Hart House Hot Sauce. If you’d like to add some texture, you might consider adding hunny mustard and pickles, topped with Kale Crunch slaw. When you order Crispy Chick’n Nuggets, you can choose from 6 dipping sauces. For Salad days, there’s Caesar and colorful Kale Crunch, dressed in blood orange vinaigrette. Carrots and Brussel sprouts contribute to the crunch factor. Sides include Fries and Tots. They also offer shakes!

Loving Hut, 722 S Grand Ave, Glendora, CA 91740

Start with steamed dumplings or summer rolls, then move on to wonton soup. Also enjoy seared tofu with lemongrass, pad Thai, classic burger, dessert, and more.

Mush DC, 3809 Rhode Island Ave., Brentwood, MD 20722

Mush DC offers an assortment of plant-based sandwiches and salad bowls that reflect Caribbean and South American touches. All of their entrees feature fried mushrooms (or offer mushrooms as an add-in option). All items on the menu are organic and soy-free. Mush DC is located in the miXt Food Hall in the Gateway Arts District along the Prince George’s County Route 1 corridor.

Rad Radish, 301 Hayes St., San Francisco, CA 94102

Rad Radish is a vegan fast-casual restaurant offering a range of salads, sandwiches, burgers, flatbreads, and grain bowls. Salad mains include a mezze salad with quinoa and smoky bean hummus, a Greek salad with coconut feta, and a probiotic bowl with kimchi and hemp seeds. Popular flatbread and sandwiches include carbonara flatbread with truffled béchamel sauce topped with tempeh bacon as well as the B.L.A.T. with tempeh bacon and mashed avocado. Chia seed pudding and cookies are available for dessert.

Sinless Sweets, 5009 S. Western Ave., Ste. 100, Sioux Falls, SD 57108

Sinless Sweets is a vegan bistro specializing in sweets as well as a few savory items. Cakes such as peanut butter cheesecake, lemon cake, and pumpkin layered cake are available by the slice or entire cakes can be purchased. Cookies on the menu include chocolate chip, monster, and chocolate sandwich cookies. Pop tarts, cinnamon rolls, and edible cookie dough are also available. Savory items on the menu include spaghetti with lentil meatballs and Thai peanut bowls. Savory items are also available as grab-and-go.

Tellus Joe Am, 3108 Windsor Rd., Austin, TX 78703

The early-bird counterpart of Tellus PM, serving coffee, tea, and breakfast items. Enjoy breakfast sandwiches, pastries, and tacos.

Tellus PM, 3108 Windsor Rd., Austin, TX 78703

Occasional live music with an evening Oaxacan-inspired dishes with agave spirits and natural wine. Try guacamole, coffee rubbed cauliflower steak, carrot mole, with cilantro oil fingerlings. Bar is open for walk-ins.

If you are in the San Francisco, California area, please come by The Vegetarian Resource Group booth.

For details about the VegFest, see: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/23rd-annual-world-veg-fest-tickets-432234714667?aff=SFVS

Each issue of Vegan Journal features a wide variety of vegan recipes, vegan product reviews, book reviews, a review of recent scientific literature on veggie diets, vegan cooking tips, and other vegan life-style articles.

In the USA only, subscribe here and you’ll receive the most recent issue: https://www.vrg.org/member/2013sv.php

By Reed Mangels, PhD, RD

Take a walk down the supermarket aisle. Notice which foods say, “Healthy” on their labels. Did you know that products must meet specific standards set by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in order to indicate on the label that a product is “healthy”?

While companies are not required to use the word “healthy,” they are not allowed to use it if a product does not meet FDA’s standards. The standards that are currently in use limit total fat, saturated fat, cholesterol, and sodium but do not prevent a product with a lot of added sugars from being labeled “healthy.” In addition to having less than specified amounts of fat, sodium, saturated fat, and cholesterol, foods labeled “healthy” must also provide at least 10% of the Daily Value (DV) for one or more of the following nutrients: vitamin A, vitamin C, calcium, iron, protein, and fiber.

The standards for use of “healthy” on a food label were developed in 1994 and are being reviewed. There are issues with the current standards. For example, currently, something like a highly sweetened breakfast cereal that has vitamin C added to it could be labeled “healthy.” Avocados, nuts, and seeds cannot be labeled “healthy” because of their total fat content.

What would you like to see as the basis for a “healthy” food? Must it be vegan? Should oils be labeled “healthy” if they are low in saturated fat? Should a food with any amount of added sugar be labeled “healthy”?

You can read a summary of FDA’s proposed criteria for allowing “healthy” on a food label  here.

The entire text of the proposed changes can be found here along with a link allowing you to submit your comments on the use of “healthy” on a food label.

Nasya from North Carolina said: I, as a 16-year-old girl who utilized vegetarianism to meet some of her established goals in life, consider teaching and educating others on the true identity of vegetarianism one of my passions. The vegetarian lifestyle has helped me significantly in so many ways, and I consider it my duty to help others in the way that this lifestyle has helped me. See her My Vegetarian Journey video at https://www.vrg.org/veg_videos.php#nasynbellard

See other videos here: https://www.vrg.org/veg_videos.php

The deadline for The Vegetarian Resource Group’s next video contest is July 15, 2023. See: https://www.vrg.org/videoscholarship.php

By Reed Mangels, PhD, RD

One of my favorite meals is homemade vegan pizza.  I’ve found a good crust recipe that combines whole-wheat and all-purpose flour to make a flavorful but light crust. I use a baking stone for a crispier crust. Toppings are often seasonal vegetables – asparagus and sugar snap peas in spring, roasted summer squash and eggplant in summer, broccoli and cauliflower in fall, and shredded root vegetables in winter. For years, I’ve made pizza with no cheese and a sprinkle of nutritional yeast. Occasionally I make a vegan cheese sauce or a cashew-based cheese that I can dollop on top. Once in a while, I buy vegan cheese shreds to top a pizza.

While I don’t use vegan cheese shreds often enough for their nutritional content to make much of a difference in my own health, I’d like to support companies whose products are on the healthier end of the spectrum. For me, that would mean looking for products that are lower in saturated fat and sodium.  I’m not that concerned about protein on my pizza since I usually add a cup or two of beans to the vegetables that top the pizza. It’s good that I’m not relying on vegan cheese shreds for protein. I did not find any that had more than a gram of protein in a quarter cup (about an ounce).

I looked at commercially available vegan Mozzarella cheese shreds. Information is from manufacturers’ websites and product packages.

Most commercial products are relatively high in saturated fat because many are based on coconut oil or palm oil. Saturated fat ranges from 0.5 grams to 6 grams of saturated fat in a 1-ounce serving of cheese shreds. The products with the lowest saturated fat are:

• Go Veggie Plant-Based Mozzarella Shreds – 0 grams of saturated fat
• Treeline Dairy-Free Mozzarella Shreds – 1 gram of saturated fat
• Daiya Cutting Board Mozzarella Style Shreds – 3 grams of saturated fat

The sodium content of commercial cheese shreds ranges from 190 milligrams to 310 milligrams in a 1-ounce serving. The products with the lowest sodium are:

• Treeline Dairy-Free Mozzarella Shreds – 190 milligrams of sodium
• Violife Just Like Mozzarella Shreds – 190 milligrams of sodium
• So Delicious Mozzarella-style Shreds – 200 milligrams of sodium

Taste is also a factor and, for pizza, meltability increases my appreciation of a product. I’ll still use commercial vegan cheese shreds only occasionally, but I look forward to experimenting with the products I’ve identified as lower in saturated fat and/or sodium.

To read more about vegan cheese see:

Vegan Cheese

The Vegetarian Resource Group’s Guide to Vegan Cheese (2017)

Cheese-Less Sauces

By Julia Comino, VRG Intern

From the veggie dog eating contest to petting Toby a pygmy goat at the Peaceful Fields Sanctuary booth, Richmond’s 2022 VegFest hosted an array of fun vegan activities.     

I arrived at Byrd Park in the late morning of September 17th, 2022, just in time to watch as the other vendors began pitching their tents, organizing their products across tabletops for display, and the various sanctuaries setting up comfortable areas for their animals to rest throughout the day’s events. I made my way through the park which was filled with excited energy, taking in the array of booths featuring vegan foods, books, clothing, and more. Finally, after finding The Vegetarian Resource Group’s designated spot, I met Elsa Spencer PhD, a long-time VRG volunteer and the person responsible for running The VRG booth at VegFest for over a decade.

Elsa and I fell into an easy, lively conversation as we unpacked box after box of VRG literature and books from her car. She told me about her years of experience running The VRG’s booth at VegFest and her long-time friendships with the VRG’s staff. Together, Elsa and I made quick work of setting up our table display hosting an array of VRG cookbooks, informational pamphlets, stickers, coloring books, and Vegan Journals. As we finished setting up our booth, many of the other vendors came up to Elsa excitedly saying hello and offering their help with pitching our tent or giving directions to areas of the festival.

However, it was not only vendors that recognizes The VRG. As festival goers began to trickle into the park, many stopped by The VRG table expressing excitement to see our booth there again this year or asking us to say hello to Charles Stahler, Debra Wasserman, and other long-time VRG staff. Soon, our booth was bustling with people looking through cookbooks, flipping through Vegan Journals, and signing up for memberships with The VRG. I was consistently going from talking to visitors to restocking the books or magazines that festival-goers purchased.

I spoke to scores of people who visited our booth throughout the day, and I was pleasantly surprised that many of the people who had questions or were interested in hearing about my experience being vegan were those who were not vegan themselves. One conversation that stuck out to me was with a man who was attending the festival with his vegan daughter. He told me how he didn’t think he could give up eating chicken or fish, but that he felt bad when he did eat meat. He asked me if I had struggled with giving up certain foods to be vegan. I explained to him that I didn’t feel like I was missing out because I was vegan as there were so many amazing vegan recipes. I told him about the array of dishes that were surprisingly already vegan and plant-based meats that I have found as a great supplement to animal-based foods. He shared that he had actually enjoyed the plant-based meats he had tried. While it did not seem like he was ready to switch to a vegan diet after our conversation, he did pick up a few Vegan Journals and pamphlets, telling me that he wanted to try to reduce his consumption of meat.

After a few hours of running the booth, I went to explore VegFest for myself. I pursued the rows of booths, stopping at the AhimsaVibe booth to look through their beautiful array of crystals and jewelry. Next, I visited with the adorable animals that peaceful Fields Sanctuary had at their booth. After giving Toby, their pygmy goat, quite a lot of petting, I moved on to check out what food the festival had to offer. From home-brewed kombucha to Southern Spud’s loaded baked potatoes to jack fruit jerky, there was something to suit anyone’s taste! First, I visited Deluca’s Gelato and ordered a scoop of vegan chocolate gelato. Despite the day being temperately cool, the rich gelato made a refreshing treat. I ate my gelato as I joined a crowd of festival-goers watching a man riding a unicycle juggling flame throwers. The impressive spectacle drew roaring applause, and after I finished my gelato, I went to buy a plate of fresh vegetable summer rolls from the Thai Top Ten booth. I ended up sitting on the grass in front of a stage enjoying a dance performed by a local dance crew.

After my lunch break, I joined Elsa back at the booth. As the day went on, I met more and more people who excitedly asked about vegan recipes and bought our cookbooks. The I Love Animals and Broccoli Coloring Book was a favorite of the children who visited our booth! As the day drew to a close, I helped Elsa with customers before bidding her goodbye to make my drive back.

The VegFest was an event unlike any I had been to before. With all the vendors offering vegan wares and foods, I did not have to worry about ingredients at all. No matter if someone was vegan or non-vegan, the VegFest offered plenty of options and entertainment for everyone!

For information about VRG internships, see https://www.vrg.org/student/index.php

To support Vegetarian Resource Group outreach, join at https://www.vrg.org/member/2013sv.php

Or donate at www.vrg.org/donate

In addition to the myriad of meat and dairy alternatives that have been around for thousands of years (like tofu, tempeh, beans, etc.) and newly processed alternatives such as Beyond Burgers, there is now increasing development of alternatives based on animal cell DNA, with the technology having many variations. But how should these new products be labeled?

To get a glimpse of people’s thoughts about labeling, we commissioned a poll to find out the number of vegan and vegetarian adults in the U.S and the number that ate vegetarian and vegan meals.

We then asked additional questions about labeling the new cell cultured alternatives as vegan, vegetarian, animal free, and plant-based.

To see rest of article, go to: https://www.vrg.org/nutshell/CulturedMeatYouGov2022.pdf