Guest guest Posted May 7, 2007 Report Share Posted May 7, 2007 You call yourself a vegetarian? By Yogacharini Kalavathi Devi Gitananada Yoga Society, UK http://gitanandayogasociety.com Do you know how hard it really is to be vegetarian? The obvious answer would be that it can’t be that hard as all you have to do is not eat meat. True. On the face of it it is that simple if you only eat fresh produce then you can’t go wrong but in this day and age we have a huge variety of packaged and baked foods on offer and this is where we can slip up on our choices without even knowing. So you are in town and you pop into the bakers to have a coffee and cake. Sounds ok so far, but would you have thought that a cake could be made from animal fat? By this I don’t mean animal by-products like butter but suet of lard with is animal fat. One in particular that I have had in the past, a Chelsea Bun, I recently found out is made from lard….ugh! But it’s a just cake! I never would have thought it would not have been vegetarian and that unknowingly I was breaking my vegetarian principles. What about the fruit tart that has a clear glaze covering the fruit? Is that gelatine? At least with boxed cakes from the supermarket they will have an ingredients label and these days most labels will say if they are suitable for vegetarians, but this is a relatively new concept. Imagine what would have been consumed unknowingly for all those years before the green stamp of approval appeared. I guess it must have come around when there was a huge commotion a few years ago about cheese and onion flavoured Walkers crisps. They weren’t vegetarian! They were made from cheese made with animal (made from animal guts) rennet but the steak flavoured crisps were vegetarian as they are flavoured with yeast extract! How obsurd. In fact most cheeses are made with animal rennet so you need to check this when you purchase cheeses although more are appearing on the market which are ok. Imagine all those vegetarians who have spent years eating cheese which would have had animal rennet in it. Does this mean that they were never vegetarian? Does it mean that their ignorance is no excuse and that they should be responsible for their actions or can they be excused from this due to a lack of a priori information? How would it affect the yamas and niyamas of a sincere yogi? I have just done a search on the internet to look up animal rennet and found a very useful and yet shocking page on a vegetarian site called ‘stumbling blocks’. This page lists all the products that you would think were safe but actually are not and there are many of them. As I read down the list I was astounded by what was on it. I am including an edited version of the list here but the website link is at the end for the full list. Additives Alcohol Many alcoholic drinks are fined (ie clarified) using animal ingredients, see beer and wine. Spirits are suitable for vegetarians except for some Russian and Eastern European Vodkas which may have used bone charcoal in their production. Watch out for cochineal in Campari. Animal Fat Carcass fat not milk fat. Aspic Savoury jelly derived from meat or fish. Beer All cask conditioned "real" ales will have been fined with isinglass, and some keg, bottled and canned bitters, milds and stouts also. Lagers are generally chill filtered, but some brands may use isinglass on occasion (see also Beer from the Alcohol Info Sheet). Biscuits Quite likely to contain animal fats. Bone Used in bone china and cutlery handles. Bread Most large producers use vegetable based emulsifiers (E471, E472 etc), but local bakers may not. Some bakers may grease the tins with animal fat. Breakfast cereals Often fortified with vitamin D3. Capsules Usually made from gelatine, vegetarian alternatives are coming onto the market. Cheese Likely to have been produced using animal rennet. Chewing gum Often contain glycerine. Wrigleys use a vegetable glycerine. Chips May have been fried in animal fat. Chocolate Watch out for whey and emulsifiers. Cochineal Food colouring - E120, made from crushed insects. Crisps Often use whey as a flavour carrier, ready salted are the only clearly vegetarian flavour, though some beef crisps are flavoured with yeast extract and are therefore suitable. E Numbers European food additives numbering system, not all vegetarian. Edible Fats Can mean animal fats. Eggs Some vegetarians may wish to avoid battery eggs and/or barn eggs. The Vegetarian Society does not award its seedling symbol to any products containing eggs other than free range. Emulsifiers May not be vegetarian. Fast Food Watch out for Bean/Vegetable burgers being cooked with fish/chicken/meat products. Fatty Acids May be of animal or vegetable origin. Gelatin/Gelatine A gelling agent derived from animal ligaments, skins, tendons, bones etc. Alternatives such as Agar Agar, Carrageen and Gelozone exist. Glycerine/Glycerol May be produced from animal fats, synthesised from propylene or from fermentation of sugars. Ice Cream Look out for non dairy fats, E numbers, eggs. Isinglass A fining agent derived from the swim bladders of certain tropical fish, especially the Chinese sturgeon. See Alcohol. Jelly Usually contains gelatine though Alternatives are available. Lactose Produced from milk, sometimes as a by product of the cheese making process. Lanolin Produced from sheep's wool. Used to make vitamin D3. Lecithin Nearly always produced from soya beans, though can be produced from eggs. Margarines May contain animal fats, fish oils, vitamin D3, E numbers, whey, gelatine. Pastry May contain animal fat. Pepsin Enzyme from a pig's stomach, used like rennet. Pet Foods Dogs are omnivorous and can be fed on an exclusively vegetarian diet. (The ashram dogs are proof to this!) Photography All Photographic film uses gelatine. Rennet An enzyme taken from the stomach of a newly killed calf used in the cheese making process. Vegetarian cheese is produced using microbial or fungal enzymes. Silk Harvesting silk used in invariably causes the death of the silk worm. Soap Many soaps are not vegetarian since they use animal fats and/or glycerine. Vegetable oil based soaps are quite widely available. Soft Drinks Some canned Orange drinks use gelatine as a carrier for added Beta Caratine. (This would not appear on the ingredients panel). Soup Watch out for the stock. Spirits (alcoholic that is!) possible problems with fining and filtering. Stearic Acid May be vegetarian or not. Stock May contain animal fat. Suet Usually made from animal fat, vegetable versions are available. Sweets Look out for gelatine in boiled sweets and mints, and cochineal in boiled sweets and Smarties. (some vegetarian sweets are listed by chocolate manufacturers.) Toothpaste Many brands contain glycerine. Vitamins Vitamin D2 is produced by sunlight acting on bacteria, however D3 is derived from lanolin from sheeps' wool therefore only D3 which is guaranteed sourced from wool sheared from live sheep is considered acceptable. Washing powder Soap based powders may contain animal fats. Whey Whey and whey powder are usually by-products of the cheese making process which mainly uses animal rennet. Wine May have been fined using isinglass, dried blood, egg albumen, gelatine, chitin. Vegetarian alternatives include bentonite, kieselguhr, kaolin and silica gel. Non vintage port is fined with gelatine. (see also Alcohol) Worcester Sauce Most brands contain anchovies. Yoghurts Some low fat yoghurts contain gelatine. So now you are as shocked as I am! Can you believe what you have read? You are probably adding up the amount of things you have been guilty for using and eating and are now questioning you own vegetarianism. Yoghurt containing gelatine – ground animal bones n stuff – gross! Infact most children’s sweets are made from gelatine – its like a nightmare or a horror story – you can imagine an old witch at her cauldron making children’s sweets from animal carcasses making them brightly coloured and in every imaginable shape possible so that the children want more and more. It’s a nightmare come true. My children are vegetarian and every time they go to a party they get given a goody bag of these sweets…and I am the terrible mother who takes the bag off them returning it often with hardly anything left! Keshavan is 5 and is the biggest vegetarian going he even asks meat eaters why they eat dead animals and also checks with people if what he is being given is vegetarian. Hamsa is almost 3 and is starting to grasp the concept of eating and not eating meat. We were in a supermarket the other day and she was looking at a counter with big lumps of different meats so I started telling her what they were – dead piggy, dead cow and dead sheep – she was horrified! The look on her little face was a picture. But although they don’t want to eat dead animals ( I always make sure it is their choice ) they do on occasion struggle with the sweets. If they are given gelatine sweets and I confiscate them (after explaining they have dead animals in them luckily they are both really good and don’t complain) I will then take them to a shop and get them vegetarian sweets to replace them, but there has been the odd occasion when I have not been around and I know they have had the gelatine version – Keshavan has even told me that he likes the sweets with gelatine in…the problem here is that they taste and look so good and have nothing at all in resemblance to an animal that when the will is strong for wanting the sweet bright appealing pleasure, it beats the rational minds knowledge that it is made from dead animals. This reminds me of Amma saying how if its pleasurable then its not good for you – how true! This list is opening up a huge can of worms. I just did a search on the internet to find a list (the url is at the end) of non-vegetarian E numbers and found nearly 60 of them. How could you memorise this list to check off against every purchase you made. It wouldn’t be so bad if they were in numerical order but they are not and there are hundreds of E numbers. You would spend hours in supermarkets having to check so much of what you buy as so many things have additives and E numbers in. I guess you can look for the vegetarian society green stamp to know it would be ok but what about the countries that do not have this system in place? Glycerine! Non – vegetarian and often found in toothpaste and soap! Animal fats in washing powders! Chocolate!!! What’s not vegetarian about chocolate? Probably emulsifiers and lecithin. I am also amazed that photographic film is made with gelatine – I used to do a lot of photography where I developed my own film so was in regular contact with it but I would never have dreamt in was made from animal products. And Bone China – please excuse my ignorance but I would never have thought that the reference to ‘bone’ literally meant that there was bone in it. I just thought it was a finer china that was more delicate and that I preferred to drink my tea from these vessels….in fact I have just checked and my favourite mug is a fine bone china mug….how do I feel about that? A man I know had been a strict vegetarian for about 15 years and his favourite alcoholic drink was guiness…he since found out that there are animal products used in the manufacturing process (isinglass?) …needless to say he felt very cheated. You would not think twice about going to the bakers for a fresh loaf. Bread not being vegetarian – surely not. Biscuits – how many of you have eaten biscuits without reading the label? A fizzy orange drink – just one sip and you may have partaken in gelatine. Lanolin is often in body and face creams – this would mean the animal product would soak straight into your skin. And what about vitamins? I bought some neem capsules the last time I was in India and realised when I got home that the capsules were made of gelatine…luckily this was before I had opened the packet! Today whilst shopping I went to buy an omega 3 rich butter (meant to be very healthy for you) and I put it back on the shelf as it was derived from fish oils…fish in butter…what is the world coming to? I feel furious yet bewildered…its so much to take in and what do you do? How can we know we are vegetarian if that is our choice and yet it can so easily be taken away from us with a little lack of knowledge. Yet the knowledge is vast and there is so much to try and remember. So where does it leave us in the wider scheme of things like our yamas and niyamas? How can we blame our ignorance? We need to have responsibility for ourselves yet this could undermine so much of what we thought we were. We thought we were vegetarian but were we? The only way to be sure of anything and to remain vegetarian would be to go back to Swamiji’s advise – just eat the produce that is grown locally and in season. If we do this then surely we will be safe….? http://www.vegsoc.org/info/stumbling.html http://www.veggieglobal.com/nutrition/non-vegetarian-food-additives.htm ----------------- Thanks Kalavathi for the excellent article that is thought provoking for sure My visit to europe was a real awakening to this same topic Yogacharya Dr.Ananda Balayogi Bhavanani Chairman : Yoganjali Natyalayam and ICYER Hon General Secretary, Pondicherry Yogasana Association 25, 2nd Cross,Iyyanar Nagar, Pondicherry, South India-605 013 Tel: +91-413 - 2622902 / +91-413 -3203314/+91-413 -2241561 Website: www.icyer.com www.geocities.com/yognat2001/ananda Finding fabulous fares is fun.Let FareChase search your favorite travel sites to find flight and hotel bargains. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted May 7, 2007 Report Share Posted May 7, 2007 A further point to point to ponder upon. In the UK, the milk trade is also part of the meat trade. Cows are kept lactating in 2 ways; they are either fed hormones or they are constantly kept pregnant. Female calves go to the milk trade like their mothers and are removed from them as early as possible ; male calves are slaughtered for beef. Anyone who lives in a rural area will probably have heard milk cows calling for their calves when they are taken away; it's an agonisingly painful sound. There's no difference with organic milk. The consequences are the same for the 'excess' baby calves. Finding out about this meant that I had no choice but to give up milk; as a vegetarian of 35 +years I couldn't justify using it, once I'd found out the facts. Best wishes adele - Yogacharya Dr.Ananda Bhavanani ; Maxine Levy ; maitreyi 1 ; geetha anjali ; Vivek arasan ; Vijeya Center ; Lakshmi Dhanaraj ; vimala dhanaraj ; Anu Garg ; samiksha kapoor ; kaviarasans ; krishna_137_veni ; kumaran.g kumaran ; madavan m ; dr Jonn Mumford ; daya nidy ; padma prashanthini ; swati priyadarshini ; meena ramanathan ; Ghayathri Shivakumar ; Thribuvan ; lavakusha tiwari ; Manish Tiwari ; Madanmohan Trakroo ; Kaviraj Udupa ; Kaviraj Udupa ; yennae vaenume ; devender verma ; adelenozedar ; Alexandra_Schöpf ; Gitananda Ashram ; jennifer aube ; louie and dennis austin ; Anastasia Bernardi ; Mark Brown ; Gudrun Buhnemann ; June Chadwick ; Sharla Charnley ; alejandro costantino ; Jiri Cumpelik ; Patrick Nicora @ Cyon ; Ced Damian ; Alan and Cathy Davis ; Jyothi Priya devi ; Maytilli Devi ; Savitri Devi ; Ravi Dykema ; edithschacher ; eira.s ; Eric ; Flavio ; Florence ; Florence ; Bettina Franke ; marief fumeau ; julia garcia ; Cédric Georges ; Aruna Nath Giri ; Bhima Giri ; INVALID_ADDRESS@.SYNTAX-ERROR Cc: Kalavathi Monday, May 07, 2007 4:55 AM You call yourself a vegetarian? You call yourself a vegetarian? By Yogacharini Kalavathi Devi Gitananada Yoga Society, UK http://gitanandayogasociety.com Do you know how hard it really is to be vegetarian? The obvious answer would be that it can’t be that hard as all you have to do is not eat meat. True. On the face of it it is that simple if you only eat fresh produce then you can’t go wrong but in this day and age we have a huge variety of packaged and baked foods on offer and this is where we can slip up on our choices without even knowing. So you are in town and you pop into the bakers to have a coffee and cake. Sounds ok so far, but would you have thought that a cake could be made from animal fat? By this I don’t mean animal by-products like butter but suet of lard with is animal fat. One in particular that I have had in the past, a Chelsea Bun, I recently found out is made from lard….ugh! But it’s a just cake! I never would have thought it would not have been vegetarian and that unknowingly I was breaking my vegetarian principles. What about the fruit tart that has a clear glaze covering the fruit? Is that gelatine? At least with boxed cakes from the supermarket they will have an ingredients label and these days most labels will say if they are suitable for vegetarians, but this is a relatively new concept. Imagine what would have been consumed unknowingly for all those years before the green stamp of approval appeared. I guess it must have come around when there was a huge commotion a few years ago about cheese and onion flavoured Walkers crisps. They weren’t vegetarian! They were made from cheese made with animal (made from animal guts) rennet but the steak flavoured crisps were vegetarian as they are flavoured with yeast extract! How obsurd. In fact most cheeses are made with animal rennet so you need to check this when you purchase cheeses although more are appearing on the market which are ok. Imagine all those vegetarians who have spent years eating cheese which would have had animal rennet in it. Does this mean that they were never vegetarian? Does it mean that their ignorance is no excuse and that they should be responsible for their actions or can they be excused from this due to a lack of a priori information? How would it affect the yamas and niyamas of a sincere yogi? I have just done a search on the internet to look up animal rennet and found a very useful and yet shocking page on a vegetarian site called ‘stumbling blocks’. This page lists all the products that you would think were safe but actually are not and there are many of them. As I read down the list I was astounded by what was on it. I am including an edited version of the list here but the website link is at the end for the full list. Additives Alcohol Many alcoholic drinks are fined (ie clarified) using animal ingredients, see beer and wine. Spirits are suitable for vegetarians except for some Russian and Eastern European Vodkas which may have used bone charcoal in their production. Watch out for cochineal in Campari. Animal Fat Carcass fat not milk fat. Aspic Savoury jelly derived from meat or fish. Beer All cask conditioned "real" ales will have been fined with isinglass, and some keg, bottled and canned bitters, milds and stouts also. Lagers are generally chill filtered, but some brands may use isinglass on occasion (see also Beer from the Alcohol Info Sheet). Biscuits Quite likely to contain animal fats. Bone Used in bone china and cutlery handles. Bread Most large producers use vegetable based emulsifiers (E471, E472 etc), but local bakers may not. Some bakers may grease the tins with animal fat. Breakfast cereals Often fortified with vitamin D3. Capsules Usually made from gelatine, vegetarian alternatives are coming onto the market. Cheese Likely to have been produced using animal rennet. Chewing gum Often contain glycerine. Wrigleys use a vegetable glycerine. Chips May have been fried in animal fat. Chocolate Watch out for whey and emulsifiers. Cochineal Food colouring - E120, made from crushed insects. Crisps Often use whey as a flavour carrier, ready salted are the only clearly vegetarian flavour, though some beef crisps are flavoured with yeast extract and are therefore suitable. E Numbers European food additives numbering system, not all vegetarian. Edible Fats Can mean animal fats. Eggs Some vegetarians may wish to avoid battery eggs and/or barn eggs. The Vegetarian Society does not award its seedling symbol to any products containing eggs other than free range. Emulsifiers May not be vegetarian. Fast Food Watch out for Bean/Vegetable burgers being cooked with fish/chicken/meat products. Fatty Acids May be of animal or vegetable origin. Gelatin/Gelatine A gelling agent derived from animal ligaments, skins, tendons, bones etc. Alternatives such as Agar Agar, Carrageen and Gelozone exist. Glycerine/Glycerol May be produced from animal fats, synthesised from propylene or from fermentation of sugars. Ice Cream Look out for non dairy fats, E numbers, eggs. Isinglass A fining agent derived from the swim bladders of certain tropical fish, especially the Chinese sturgeon. See Alcohol. Jelly Usually contains gelatine though Alternatives are available. Lactose Produced from milk, sometimes as a by product of the cheese making process. Lanolin Produced from sheep's wool. Used to make vitamin D3. Lecithin Nearly always produced from soya beans, though can be produced from eggs. Margarines May contain animal fats, fish oils, vitamin D3, E numbers, whey, gelatine. Pastry May contain animal fat. Pepsin Enzyme from a pig's stomach, used like rennet. Pet Foods Dogs are omnivorous and can be fed on an exclusively vegetarian diet. (The ashram dogs are proof to this!) Photography All Photographic film uses gelatine. Rennet An enzyme taken from the stomach of a newly killed calf used in the cheese making process. Vegetarian cheese is produced using microbial or fungal enzymes. Silk Harvesting silk used in invariably causes the death of the silk worm. Soap Many soaps are not vegetarian since they use animal fats and/or glycerine. Vegetable oil based soaps are quite widely available. Soft Drinks Some canned Orange drinks use gelatine as a carrier for added Beta Caratine. (This would not appear on the ingredients panel). Soup Watch out for the stock. Spirits (alcoholic that is!) possible problems with fining and filtering. Stearic Acid May be vegetarian or not. Stock May contain animal fat. Suet Usually made from animal fat, vegetable versions are available. Sweets Look out for gelatine in boiled sweets and mints, and cochineal in boiled sweets and Smarties. (some vegetarian sweets are listed by chocolate manufacturers.) Toothpaste Many brands contain glycerine. Vitamins Vitamin D2 is produced by sunlight acting on bacteria, however D3 is derived from lanolin from sheeps' wool therefore only D3 which is guaranteed sourced from wool sheared from live sheep is considered acceptable. Washing powder Soap based powders may contain animal fats. Whey Whey and whey powder are usually by-products of the cheese making process which mainly uses animal rennet. Wine May have been fined using isinglass, dried blood, egg albumen, gelatine, chitin. Vegetarian alternatives include bentonite, kieselguhr, kaolin and silica gel. Non vintage port is fined with gelatine. (see also Alcohol) Worcester Sauce Most brands contain anchovies. Yoghurts Some low fat yoghurts contain gelatine. So now you are as shocked as I am! Can you believe what you have read? You are probably adding up the amount of things you have been guilty for using and eating and are now questioning you own vegetarianism. Yoghurt containing gelatine – ground animal bones n stuff – gross! Infact most children’s sweets are made from gelatine – its like a nightmare or a horror story – you can imagine an old witch at her cauldron making children’s sweets from animal carcasses making them brightly coloured and in every imaginable shape possible so that the children want more and more. It’s a nightmare come true. My children are vegetarian and every time they go to a party they get given a goody bag of these sweets…and I am the terrible mother who takes the bag off them returning it often with hardly anything left! Keshavan is 5 and is the biggest vegetarian going he even asks meat eaters why they eat dead animals and also checks with people if what he is being given is vegetarian. Hamsa is almost 3 and is starting to grasp the concept of eating and not eating meat. We were in a supermarket the other day and she was looking at a counter with big lumps of different meats so I started telling her what they were – dead piggy, dead cow and dead sheep – she was horrified! The look on her little face was a picture. But although they don’t want to eat dead animals ( I always make sure it is their choice ) they do on occasion struggle with the sweets. If they are given gelatine sweets and I confiscate them (after explaining they have dead animals in them luckily they are both really good and don’t complain) I will then take them to a shop and get them vegetarian sweets to replace them, but there has been the odd occasion when I have not been around and I know they have had the gelatine version – Keshavan has even told me that he likes the sweets with gelatine in…the problem here is that they taste and look so good and have nothing at all in resemblance to an animal that when the will is strong for wanting the sweet bright appealing pleasure, it beats the rational minds knowledge that it is made from dead animals. This reminds me of Amma saying how if its pleasurable then its not good for you – how true! This list is opening up a huge can of worms. I just did a search on the internet to find a list (the url is at the end) of non-vegetarian E numbers and found nearly 60 of them. How could you memorise this list to check off against every purchase you made. It wouldn’t be so bad if they were in numerical order but they are not and there are hundreds of E numbers. You would spend hours in supermarkets having to check so much of what you buy as so many things have additives and E numbers in. I guess you can look for the vegetarian society green stamp to know it would be ok but what about the countries that do not have this system in place? Glycerine! Non – vegetarian and often found in toothpaste and soap! Animal fats in washing powders! Chocolate!!! What’s not vegetarian about chocolate? Probably emulsifiers and lecithin. I am also amazed that photographic film is made with gelatine – I used to do a lot of photography where I developed my own film so was in regular contact with it but I would never have dreamt in was made from animal products. And Bone China – please excuse my ignorance but I would never have thought that the reference to ‘bone’ literally meant that there was bone in it. I just thought it was a finer china that was more delicate and that I preferred to drink my tea from these vessels….in fact I have just checked and my favourite mug is a fine bone china mug….how do I feel about that? A man I know had been a strict vegetarian for about 15 years and his favourite alcoholic drink was guiness…he since found out that there are animal products used in the manufacturing process (isinglass?) …needless to say he felt very cheated. You would not think twice about going to the bakers for a fresh loaf. Bread not being vegetarian – surely not. Biscuits – how many of you have eaten biscuits without reading the label? A fizzy orange drink – just one sip and you may have partaken in gelatine. Lanolin is often in body and face creams – this would mean the animal product would soak straight into your skin. And what about vitamins? I bought some neem capsules the last time I was in India and realised when I got home that the capsules were made of gelatine…luckily this was before I had opened the packet! Today whilst shopping I went to buy an omega 3 rich butter (meant to be very healthy for you) and I put it back on the shelf as it was derived from fish oils…fish in butter…what is the world coming to? I feel furious yet bewildered…its so much to take in and what do you do? How can we know we are vegetarian if that is our choice and yet it can so easily be taken away from us with a little lack of knowledge. Yet the knowledge is vast and there is so much to try and remember. So where does it leave us in the wider scheme of things like our yamas and niyamas? How can we blame our ignorance? We need to have responsibility for ourselves yet this could undermine so much of what we thought we were. We thought we were vegetarian but were we? The only way to be sure of anything and to remain vegetarian would be to go back to Swamiji’s advise – just eat the produce that is grown locally and in season. If we do this then surely we will be safe….? http://www.vegsoc.org/info/stumbling.html http://www.veggieglobal.com/nutrition/non-vegetarian-food-additives.htm ----------------- Thanks Kalavathi for the excellent article that is thought provoking for sure My visit to europe was a real awakening to this same topic Yogacharya Dr.Ananda Balayogi Bhavanani Chairman : Yoganjali Natyalayam and ICYER Hon General Secretary, Pondicherry Yogasana Association 25, 2nd Cross,Iyyanar Nagar, Pondicherry, South India-605 013 Tel: +91-413 - 2622902 / +91-413 -3203314/+91-413 -2241561 Website: www.icyer.com www.geocities.com/yognat2001/ananda Finding fabulous fares is fun.Let FareChase search your favorite travel sites to find flight and hotel bargains. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted May 7, 2007 Report Share Posted May 7, 2007 Hi All Thats why being a vegan is a safer bet, makes on more conscious and repsonsible for what goes in ones body. Mya"Yogacharya Dr.Ananda Bhavanani" <yognat2001 wrote: You call yourself a vegetarian? By Yogacharini Kalavathi Devi Gitananada Yoga Society, UK http://gitanandayogasociety.com Do you know how hard it really is to be vegetarian? The obvious answer would be that it can’t be that hard as all you have to do is not eat meat. True. On the face of it it is that simple if you only eat fresh produce then you can’t go wrong but in this day and age we have a huge variety of packaged and baked foods on offer and this is where we can slip up on our choices without even knowing. So you are in town and you pop into the bakers to have a coffee and cake. Sounds ok so far, but would you have thought that a cake could be made from animal fat? By this I don’t mean animal by-products like butter but suet of lard with is animal fat. One in particular that I have had in the past, a Chelsea Bun, I recently found out is made from lard….ugh! But it’s a just cake! I never would have thought it would not have been vegetarian and that unknowingly I was breaking my vegetarian principles. What about the fruit tart that has a clear glaze covering the fruit? Is that gelatine? At least with boxed cakes from the supermarket they will have an ingredients label and these days most labels will say if they are suitable for vegetarians, but this is a relatively new concept. Imagine what would have been consumed unknowingly for all those years before the green stamp of approval appeared. I guess it must have come around when there was a huge commotion a few years ago about cheese and onion flavoured Walkers crisps. They weren’t vegetarian! They were made from cheese made with animal (made from animal guts) rennet but the steak flavoured crisps were vegetarian as they are flavoured with yeast extract! How obsurd. In fact most cheeses are made with animal rennet so you need to check this when you purchase cheeses although more are appearing on the market which are ok. Imagine all those vegetarians who have spent years eating cheese which would have had animal rennet in it. Does this mean that they were never vegetarian? Does it mean that their ignorance is no excuse and that they should be responsible for their actions or can they be excused from this due to a lack of a priori information? How would it affect the yamas and niyamas of a sincere yogi? I have just done a search on the internet to look up animal rennet and found a very useful and yet shocking page on a vegetarian site called ‘stumbling blocks’. This page lists all the products that you would think were safe but actually are not and there are many of them. As I read down the list I was astounded by what was on it. I am including an edited version of the list here but the website link is at the end for the full list. Additives Alcohol Many alcoholic drinks are fined (ie clarified) using animal ingredients, see beer and wine. Spirits are suitable for vegetarians except for some Russian and Eastern European Vodkas which may have used bone charcoal in their production. Watch out for cochineal in Campari. Animal Fat Carcass fat not milk fat. Aspic Savoury jelly derived from meat or fish. Beer All cask conditioned "real" ales will have been fined with isinglass, and some keg, bottled and canned bitters, milds and stouts also. Lagers are generally chill filtered, but some brands may use isinglass on occasion (see also Beer from the Alcohol Info Sheet). Biscuits Quite likely to contain animal fats. Bone Used in bone china and cutlery handles. Bread Most large producers use vegetable based emulsifiers (E471, E472 etc), but local bakers may not. Some bakers may grease the tins with animal fat. Breakfast cereals Often fortified with vitamin D3. Capsules Usually made from gelatine, vegetarian alternatives are coming onto the market. Cheese Likely to have been produced using animal rennet. Chewing gum Often contain glycerine. Wrigleys use a vegetable glycerine. Chips May have been fried in animal fat. Chocolate Watch out for whey and emulsifiers. Cochineal Food colouring - E120, made from crushed insects. Crisps Often use whey as a flavour carrier, ready salted are the only clearly vegetarian flavour, though some beef crisps are flavoured with yeast extract and are therefore suitable. E Numbers European food additives numbering system, not all vegetarian. Edible Fats Can mean animal fats. Eggs Some vegetarians may wish to avoid battery eggs and/or barn eggs. The Vegetarian Society does not award its seedling symbol to any products containing eggs other than free range. Emulsifiers May not be vegetarian. Fast Food Watch out for Bean/Vegetable burgers being cooked with fish/chicken/meat products. Fatty Acids May be of animal or vegetable origin. Gelatin/Gelatine A gelling agent derived from animal ligaments, skins, tendons, bones etc. Alternatives such as Agar Agar, Carrageen and Gelozone exist. Glycerine/Glycerol May be produced from animal fats, synthesised from propylene or from fermentation of sugars. Ice Cream Look out for non dairy fats, E numbers, eggs. Isinglass A fining agent derived from the swim bladders of certain tropical fish, especially the Chinese sturgeon. See Alcohol. Jelly Usually contains gelatine though Alternatives are available. Lactose Produced from milk, sometimes as a by product of the cheese making process. Lanolin Produced from sheep's wool. Used to make vitamin D3. Lecithin Nearly always produced from soya beans, though can be produced from eggs. Margarines May contain animal fats, fish oils, vitamin D3, E numbers, whey, gelatine. Pastry May contain animal fat. Pepsin Enzyme from a pig's stomach, used like rennet. Pet Foods Dogs are omnivorous and can be fed on an exclusively vegetarian diet. (The ashram dogs are proof to this!) Photography All Photographic film uses gelatine. Rennet An enzyme taken from the stomach of a newly killed calf used in the cheese making process. Vegetarian cheese is produced using microbial or fungal enzymes. Silk Harvesting silk used in invariably causes the death of the silk worm. Soap Many soaps are not vegetarian since they use animal fats and/or glycerine. Vegetable oil based soaps are quite widely available. Soft Drinks Some canned Orange drinks use gelatine as a carrier for added Beta Caratine. (This would not appear on the ingredients panel). Soup Watch out for the stock. Spirits (alcoholic that is!) possible problems with fining and filtering. Stearic Acid May be vegetarian or not. Stock May contain animal fat. Suet Usually made from animal fat, vegetable versions are available. Sweets Look out for gelatine in boiled sweets and mints, and cochineal in boiled sweets and Smarties. (some vegetarian sweets are listed by chocolate manufacturers.) Toothpaste Many brands contain glycerine. Vitamins Vitamin D2 is produced by sunlight acting on bacteria, however D3 is derived from lanolin from sheeps' wool therefore only D3 which is guaranteed sourced from wool sheared from live sheep is considered acceptable. Washing powder Soap based powders may contain animal fats. Whey Whey and whey powder are usually by-products of the cheese making process which mainly uses animal rennet. Wine May have been fined using isinglass, dried blood, egg albumen, gelatine, chitin. Vegetarian alternatives include bentonite, kieselguhr, kaolin and silica gel. Non vintage port is fined with gelatine. (see also Alcohol) Worcester Sauce Most brands contain anchovies. Yoghurts Some low fat yoghurts contain gelatine. So now you are as shocked as I am! Can you believe what you have read? You are probably adding up the amount of things you have been guilty for using and eating and are now questioning you own vegetarianism. Yoghurt containing gelatine – ground animal bones n stuff – gross! Infact most children’s sweets are made from gelatine – its like a nightmare or a horror story – you can imagine an old witch at her cauldron making children’s sweets from animal carcasses making them brightly coloured and in every imaginable shape possible so that the children want more and more. It’s a nightmare come true. My children are vegetarian and every time they go to a party they get given a goody bag of these sweets…and I am the terrible mother who takes the bag off them returning it often with hardly anything left! Keshavan is 5 and is the biggest vegetarian going he even asks meat eaters why they eat dead animals and also checks with people if what he is being given is vegetarian. Hamsa is almost 3 and is starting to grasp the concept of eating and not eating meat. We were in a supermarket the other day and she was looking at a counter with big lumps of different meats so I started telling her what they were – dead piggy, dead cow and dead sheep – she was horrified! The look on her little face was a picture. But although they don’t want to eat dead animals ( I always make sure it is their choice ) they do on occasion struggle with the sweets. If they are given gelatine sweets and I confiscate them (after explaining they have dead animals in them luckily they are both really good and don’t complain) I will then take them to a shop and get them vegetarian sweets to replace them, but there has been the odd occasion when I have not been around and I know they have had the gelatine version – Keshavan has even told me that he likes the sweets with gelatine in…the problem here is that they taste and look so good and have nothing at all in resemblance to an animal that when the will is strong for wanting the sweet bright appealing pleasure, it beats the rational minds knowledge that it is made from dead animals. This reminds me of Amma saying how if its pleasurable then its not good for you – how true! This list is opening up a huge can of worms. I just did a search on the internet to find a list (the url is at the end) of non-vegetarian E numbers and found nearly 60 of them. How could you memorise this list to check off against every purchase you made. It wouldn’t be so bad if they were in numerical order but they are not and there are hundreds of E numbers. You would spend hours in supermarkets having to check so much of what you buy as so many things have additives and E numbers in. I guess you can look for the vegetarian society green stamp to know it would be ok but what about the countries that do not have this system in place? Glycerine! Non – vegetarian and often found in toothpaste and soap! Animal fats in washing powders! Chocolate!!! What’s not vegetarian about chocolate? Probably emulsifiers and lecithin. I am also amazed that photographic film is made with gelatine – I used to do a lot of photography where I developed my own film so was in regular contact with it but I would never have dreamt in was made from animal products. And Bone China – please excuse my ignorance but I would never have thought that the reference to ‘bone’ literally meant that there was bone in it. I just thought it was a finer china that was more delicate and that I preferred to drink my tea from these vessels….in fact I have just checked and my favourite mug is a fine bone china mug….how do I feel about that? A man I know had been a strict vegetarian for about 15 years and his favourite alcoholic drink was guiness…he since found out that there are animal products used in the manufacturing process (isinglass?) …needless to say he felt very cheated. You would not think twice about going to the bakers for a fresh loaf. Bread not being vegetarian – surely not. Biscuits – how many of you have eaten biscuits without reading the label? A fizzy orange drink – just one sip and you may have partaken in gelatine. Lanolin is often in body and face creams – this would mean the animal product would soak straight into your skin. And what about vitamins? I bought some neem capsules the last time I was in India and realised when I got home that the capsules were made of gelatine…luckily this was before I had opened the packet! Today whilst shopping I went to buy an omega 3 rich butter (meant to be very healthy for you) and I put it back on the shelf as it was derived from fish oils…fish in butter…what is the world coming to? I feel furious yet bewildered…its so much to take in and what do you do? How can we know we are vegetarian if that is our choice and yet it can so easily be taken away from us with a little lack of knowledge. Yet the knowledge is vast and there is so much to try and remember. So where does it leave us in the wider scheme of things like our yamas and niyamas? How can we blame our ignorance? We need to have responsibility for ourselves yet this could undermine so much of what we thought we were. We thought we were vegetarian but were we? The only way to be sure of anything and to remain vegetarian would be to go back to Swamiji’s advise – just eat the produce that is grown locally and in season. If we do this then surely we will be safe….? http://www.vegsoc.org/info/stumbling.html http://www.veggieglobal.com/nutrition/non-vegetarian-food-additives.htm ----------------- Thanks Kalavathi for the excellent article that is thought provoking for sure My visit to europe was a real awakening to this same topic Yogacharya Dr.Ananda Balayogi Bhavanani Chairman : Yoganjali Natyalayam and ICYER Hon General Secretary, Pondicherry Yogasana Association 25, 2nd Cross,Iyyanar Nagar, Pondicherry, South India-605 013 Tel: +91-413 - 2622902 / +91-413 -3203314/+91-413 -2241561 Website: www.icyer.com www.geocities.com/yognat2001/ananda Finding fabulous fares is fun.Let FareChase search your favorite travel sites to find flight and hotel bargains. Ahhh...imagining that irresistible "new car" smell? Check out new cars at Autos. 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Guest guest Posted May 7, 2007 Report Share Posted May 7, 2007 Dear Kalavathi, Namaste. Excellent! What a minefield. Best Sangeet"Yogacharya Dr.Ananda Bhavanani" <yognat2001 wrote: You call yourself a vegetarian? By Yogacharini Kalavathi Devi Gitananada Yoga Society, UK http://gitanandayogasociety.com Do you know how hard it really is to be vegetarian? The obvious answer would be that it can’t be that hard as all you have to do is not eat meat. True. On the face of it it is that simple if you only eat fresh produce then you can’t go wrong but in this day and age we have a huge variety of packaged and baked foods on offer and this is where we can slip up on our choices without even knowing. So you are in town and you pop into the bakers to have a coffee and cake. Sounds ok so far, but would you have thought that a cake could be made from animal fat? By this I don’t mean animal by-products like butter but suet of lard with is animal fat. One in particular that I have had in the past, a Chelsea Bun, I recently found out is made from lard….ugh! But it’s a just cake! I never would have thought it would not have been vegetarian and that unknowingly I was breaking my vegetarian principles. What about the fruit tart that has a clear glaze covering the fruit? Is that gelatine? At least with boxed cakes from the supermarket they will have an ingredients label and these days most labels will say if they are suitable for vegetarians, but this is a relatively new concept. Imagine what would have been consumed unknowingly for all those years before the green stamp of approval appeared. I guess it must have come around when there was a huge commotion a few years ago about cheese and onion flavoured Walkers crisps. They weren’t vegetarian! They were made from cheese made with animal (made from animal guts) rennet but the steak flavoured crisps were vegetarian as they are flavoured with yeast extract! How obsurd. In fact most cheeses are made with animal rennet so you need to check this when you purchase cheeses although more are appearing on the market which are ok. Imagine all those vegetarians who have spent years eating cheese which would have had animal rennet in it. Does this mean that they were never vegetarian? Does it mean that their ignorance is no excuse and that they should be responsible for their actions or can they be excused from this due to a lack of a priori information? How would it affect the yamas and niyamas of a sincere yogi? I have just done a search on the internet to look up animal rennet and found a very useful and yet shocking page on a vegetarian site called ‘stumbling blocks’. This page lists all the products that you would think were safe but actually are not and there are many of them. As I read down the list I was astounded by what was on it. I am including an edited version of the list here but the website link is at the end for the full list. Additives Alcohol Many alcoholic drinks are fined (ie clarified) using animal ingredients, see beer and wine. Spirits are suitable for vegetarians except for some Russian and Eastern European Vodkas which may have used bone charcoal in their production. Watch out for cochineal in Campari. Animal Fat Carcass fat not milk fat. Aspic Savoury jelly derived from meat or fish. Beer All cask conditioned "real" ales will have been fined with isinglass, and some keg, bottled and canned bitters, milds and stouts also. Lagers are generally chill filtered, but some brands may use isinglass on occasion (see also Beer from the Alcohol Info Sheet). Biscuits Quite likely to contain animal fats. Bone Used in bone china and cutlery handles. Bread Most large producers use vegetable based emulsifiers (E471, E472 etc), but local bakers may not. Some bakers may grease the tins with animal fat. Breakfast cereals Often fortified with vitamin D3. Capsules Usually made from gelatine, vegetarian alternatives are coming onto the market. Cheese Likely to have been produced using animal rennet. Chewing gum Often contain glycerine. Wrigleys use a vegetable glycerine. Chips May have been fried in animal fat. Chocolate Watch out for whey and emulsifiers. Cochineal Food colouring - E120, made from crushed insects. Crisps Often use whey as a flavour carrier, ready salted are the only clearly vegetarian flavour, though some beef crisps are flavoured with yeast extract and are therefore suitable. E Numbers European food additives numbering system, not all vegetarian. Edible Fats Can mean animal fats. Eggs Some vegetarians may wish to avoid battery eggs and/or barn eggs. The Vegetarian Society does not award its seedling symbol to any products containing eggs other than free range. Emulsifiers May not be vegetarian. Fast Food Watch out for Bean/Vegetable burgers being cooked with fish/chicken/meat products. Fatty Acids May be of animal or vegetable origin. Gelatin/Gelatine A gelling agent derived from animal ligaments, skins, tendons, bones etc. Alternatives such as Agar Agar, Carrageen and Gelozone exist. Glycerine/Glycerol May be produced from animal fats, synthesised from propylene or from fermentation of sugars. Ice Cream Look out for non dairy fats, E numbers, eggs. Isinglass A fining agent derived from the swim bladders of certain tropical fish, especially the Chinese sturgeon. See Alcohol. Jelly Usually contains gelatine though Alternatives are available. Lactose Produced from milk, sometimes as a by product of the cheese making process. Lanolin Produced from sheep's wool. Used to make vitamin D3. Lecithin Nearly always produced from soya beans, though can be produced from eggs. Margarines May contain animal fats, fish oils, vitamin D3, E numbers, whey, gelatine. Pastry May contain animal fat. Pepsin Enzyme from a pig's stomach, used like rennet. Pet Foods Dogs are omnivorous and can be fed on an exclusively vegetarian diet. (The ashram dogs are proof to this!) Photography All Photographic film uses gelatine. Rennet An enzyme taken from the stomach of a newly killed calf used in the cheese making process. Vegetarian cheese is produced using microbial or fungal enzymes. Silk Harvesting silk used in invariably causes the death of the silk worm. Soap Many soaps are not vegetarian since they use animal fats and/or glycerine. Vegetable oil based soaps are quite widely available. Soft Drinks Some canned Orange drinks use gelatine as a carrier for added Beta Caratine. (This would not appear on the ingredients panel). Soup Watch out for the stock. Spirits (alcoholic that is!) possible problems with fining and filtering. Stearic Acid May be vegetarian or not. Stock May contain animal fat. Suet Usually made from animal fat, vegetable versions are available. Sweets Look out for gelatine in boiled sweets and mints, and cochineal in boiled sweets and Smarties. (some vegetarian sweets are listed by chocolate manufacturers.) Toothpaste Many brands contain glycerine. Vitamins Vitamin D2 is produced by sunlight acting on bacteria, however D3 is derived from lanolin from sheeps' wool therefore only D3 which is guaranteed sourced from wool sheared from live sheep is considered acceptable. Washing powder Soap based powders may contain animal fats. Whey Whey and whey powder are usually by-products of the cheese making process which mainly uses animal rennet. Wine May have been fined using isinglass, dried blood, egg albumen, gelatine, chitin. Vegetarian alternatives include bentonite, kieselguhr, kaolin and silica gel. Non vintage port is fined with gelatine. (see also Alcohol) Worcester Sauce Most brands contain anchovies. Yoghurts Some low fat yoghurts contain gelatine. So now you are as shocked as I am! Can you believe what you have read? You are probably adding up the amount of things you have been guilty for using and eating and are now questioning you own vegetarianism. Yoghurt containing gelatine – ground animal bones n stuff – gross! Infact most children’s sweets are made from gelatine – its like a nightmare or a horror story – you can imagine an old witch at her cauldron making children’s sweets from animal carcasses making them brightly coloured and in every imaginable shape possible so that the children want more and more. It’s a nightmare come true. My children are vegetarian and every time they go to a party they get given a goody bag of these sweets…and I am the terrible mother who takes the bag off them returning it often with hardly anything left! Keshavan is 5 and is the biggest vegetarian going he even asks meat eaters why they eat dead animals and also checks with people if what he is being given is vegetarian. Hamsa is almost 3 and is starting to grasp the concept of eating and not eating meat. We were in a supermarket the other day and she was looking at a counter with big lumps of different meats so I started telling her what they were – dead piggy, dead cow and dead sheep – she was horrified! The look on her little face was a picture. But although they don’t want to eat dead animals ( I always make sure it is their choice ) they do on occasion struggle with the sweets. If they are given gelatine sweets and I confiscate them (after explaining they have dead animals in them luckily they are both really good and don’t complain) I will then take them to a shop and get them vegetarian sweets to replace them, but there has been the odd occasion when I have not been around and I know they have had the gelatine version – Keshavan has even told me that he likes the sweets with gelatine in…the problem here is that they taste and look so good and have nothing at all in resemblance to an animal that when the will is strong for wanting the sweet bright appealing pleasure, it beats the rational minds knowledge that it is made from dead animals. This reminds me of Amma saying how if its pleasurable then its not good for you – how true! This list is opening up a huge can of worms. I just did a search on the internet to find a list (the url is at the end) of non-vegetarian E numbers and found nearly 60 of them. How could you memorise this list to check off against every purchase you made. It wouldn’t be so bad if they were in numerical order but they are not and there are hundreds of E numbers. You would spend hours in supermarkets having to check so much of what you buy as so many things have additives and E numbers in. I guess you can look for the vegetarian society green stamp to know it would be ok but what about the countries that do not have this system in place? Glycerine! Non – vegetarian and often found in toothpaste and soap! Animal fats in washing powders! Chocolate!!! What’s not vegetarian about chocolate? Probably emulsifiers and lecithin. I am also amazed that photographic film is made with gelatine – I used to do a lot of photography where I developed my own film so was in regular contact with it but I would never have dreamt in was made from animal products. And Bone China – please excuse my ignorance but I would never have thought that the reference to ‘bone’ literally meant that there was bone in it. I just thought it was a finer china that was more delicate and that I preferred to drink my tea from these vessels….in fact I have just checked and my favourite mug is a fine bone china mug….how do I feel about that? A man I know had been a strict vegetarian for about 15 years and his favourite alcoholic drink was guiness…he since found out that there are animal products used in the manufacturing process (isinglass?) …needless to say he felt very cheated. You would not think twice about going to the bakers for a fresh loaf. Bread not being vegetarian – surely not. Biscuits – how many of you have eaten biscuits without reading the label? A fizzy orange drink – just one sip and you may have partaken in gelatine. Lanolin is often in body and face creams – this would mean the animal product would soak straight into your skin. And what about vitamins? I bought some neem capsules the last time I was in India and realised when I got home that the capsules were made of gelatine…luckily this was before I had opened the packet! Today whilst shopping I went to buy an omega 3 rich butter (meant to be very healthy for you) and I put it back on the shelf as it was derived from fish oils…fish in butter…what is the world coming to? I feel furious yet bewildered…its so much to take in and what do you do? How can we know we are vegetarian if that is our choice and yet it can so easily be taken away from us with a little lack of knowledge. Yet the knowledge is vast and there is so much to try and remember. So where does it leave us in the wider scheme of things like our yamas and niyamas? How can we blame our ignorance? We need to have responsibility for ourselves yet this could undermine so much of what we thought we were. We thought we were vegetarian but were we? The only way to be sure of anything and to remain vegetarian would be to go back to Swamiji’s advise – just eat the produce that is grown locally and in season. If we do this then surely we will be safe….? http://www.vegsoc.org/info/stumbling.html http://www.veggieglobal.com/nutrition/non-vegetarian-food-additives.htm ----------------- Thanks Kalavathi for the excellent article that is thought provoking for sure My visit to europe was a real awakening to this same topic Yogacharya Dr.Ananda Balayogi Bhavanani Chairman : Yoganjali Natyalayam and ICYER Hon General Secretary, Pondicherry Yogasana Association 25, 2nd Cross,Iyyanar Nagar, Pondicherry, South India-605 013 Tel: +91-413 - 2622902 / +91-413 -3203314/+91-413 -2241561 Website: www.icyer.com www.geocities.com/yognat2001/ananda Finding fabulous fares is fun.Let FareChase search your favorite travel sites to find flight and hotel bargains. Mail is the world's favourite email. Don't settle for less, sign up for your free account today. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted May 10, 2007 Report Share Posted May 10, 2007 Namaste Ananda, Some Interesting Info, is Appearing, in this Debate. There is a an Article at; a) http;//www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18574603/?GT1=9951, Regarding a "Vegan" Couple, which May Not Be Apprioate, For Our Debate. b) The Question I Get Most, from My Female Students, is How Will I get My "Calcium" , for My Bones, If i do Not Have "Dairy", Products. c) One of My Students, has A "Thyroid" Problem, and is on "Triclyercine", to Lower "Thyroxine" Level, I asked Her if She was "Lactose" or "Milk Intolerant", Her GP, said This was Not Apprioate, And "Tests", were not Required. Having said That, Her Specialist, Told her, if You have, "Soy Products", These Stop You "Assimulating" Calcium. So with b) and c), I am Out of My Depth, Medically and not Sure, if Any of this would "Add" to "Debate". Appreciate Your Comments, if Not Suitable for "Rishiculture" Debate. Yours in Yoga, Muralidharan "Yogacharya Dr.Ananda Bhavanani" <yognat2001 wrote: You call yourself a vegetarian? By Yogacharini Kalavathi Devi Gitananada Yoga Society, UK http://gitanandayogasociety.com Do you know how hard it really is to be vegetarian? The obvious answer would be that it can’t be that hard as all you have to do is not eat meat. True. On the face of it it is that simple if you only eat fresh produce then you can’t go wrong but in this day and age we have a huge variety of packaged and baked foods on offer and this is where we can slip up on our choices without even knowing. So you are in town and you pop into the bakers to have a coffee and cake. Sounds ok so far, but would you have thought that a cake could be made from animal fat? By this I don’t mean animal by-products like butter but suet of lard with is animal fat. One in particular that I have had in the past, a Chelsea Bun, I recently found out is made from lard….ugh! But it’s a just cake! I never would have thought it would not have been vegetarian and that unknowingly I was breaking my vegetarian principles. What about the fruit tart that has a clear glaze covering the fruit? Is that gelatine? At least with boxed cakes from the supermarket they will have an ingredients label and these days most labels will say if they are suitable for vegetarians, but this is a relatively new concept. Imagine what would have been consumed unknowingly for all those years before the green stamp of approval appeared. I guess it must have come around when there was a huge commotion a few years ago about cheese and onion flavoured Walkers crisps. They weren’t vegetarian! They were made from cheese made with animal (made from animal guts) rennet but the steak flavoured crisps were vegetarian as they are flavoured with yeast extract! How obsurd. In fact most cheeses are made with animal rennet so you need to check this when you purchase cheeses although more are appearing on the market which are ok. Imagine all those vegetarians who have spent years eating cheese which would have had animal rennet in it. Does this mean that they were never vegetarian? Does it mean that their ignorance is no excuse and that they should be responsible for their actions or can they be excused from this due to a lack of a priori information? How would it affect the yamas and niyamas of a sincere yogi? I have just done a search on the internet to look up animal rennet and found a very useful and yet shocking page on a vegetarian site called ‘stumbling blocks’. This page lists all the products that you would think were safe but actually are not and there are many of them. As I read down the list I was astounded by what was on it. I am including an edited version of the list here but the website link is at the end for the full list. Additives Alcohol Many alcoholic drinks are fined (ie clarified) using animal ingredients, see beer and wine. Spirits are suitable for vegetarians except for some Russian and Eastern European Vodkas which may have used bone charcoal in their production. Watch out for cochineal in Campari. Animal Fat Carcass fat not milk fat. Aspic Savoury jelly derived from meat or fish. Beer All cask conditioned "real" ales will have been fined with isinglass, and some keg, bottled and canned bitters, milds and stouts also. Lagers are generally chill filtered, but some brands may use isinglass on occasion (see also Beer from the Alcohol Info Sheet). Biscuits Quite likely to contain animal fats. Bone Used in bone china and cutlery handles. Bread Most large producers use vegetable based emulsifiers (E471, E472 etc), but local bakers may not. Some bakers may grease the tins with animal fat. Breakfast cereals Often fortified with vitamin D3. Capsules Usually made from gelatine, vegetarian alternatives are coming onto the market. Cheese Likely to have been produced using animal rennet. Chewing gum Often contain glycerine. Wrigleys use a vegetable glycerine. Chips May have been fried in animal fat. Chocolate Watch out for whey and emulsifiers. Cochineal Food colouring - E120, made from crushed insects. Crisps Often use whey as a flavour carrier, ready salted are the only clearly vegetarian flavour, though some beef crisps are flavoured with yeast extract and are therefore suitable. E Numbers European food additives numbering system, not all vegetarian. Edible Fats Can mean animal fats. Eggs Some vegetarians may wish to avoid battery eggs and/or barn eggs Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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