Vegetarianism

[Supernick]

If you want to be a proper vegetarian and have to avoid all products like gelatine etc, are there any surprises you should be on the look out for? e.g  -are there any food out there that you might eat because you think it doesn't contain animal products but really contains animal based ingredients. Also is it possible to avoid animal products in non-food based items? For example will my car or house contain any hidden nastiness that you wouldn't necesarily think about if you weren't in the know?

[Loosehead]

Well your car contains plastic which is made from Oil which the decomposed bodies of ancient animals. Looks like you're walking!

[jenky]

Most of the veggies I know get caught out by gelatin in sweets and stuff like that. Don't think there is much else... apart from the beef in beer of course so that has to go.

[Gabrielle001]

i'm a vegetarian n u would be surprised how many things contain animal fats/animals.. make sure u look out for the V sign, at first it annoying,, but after a while u dont notice u doing it...

most cheese crisps are not vegetarian so just make sure u find the V..

[Susan123]

Cheese usually contains rennet - which is obtained from the stomach of cows. uuurrrgh.

[stoo_pid]

You might find this link useful:
http://www.vegsoc.org/info/stumbling.html

[Hippy]

Shoot me down in flames, but as a personal approach to being Veggie, the ethos is to not promote the exploitation or killing of animals. I think the use of long dead creatures now converted to oil etc. is fine as my actions now cannot affect their welfare. Same does not apply to the newly dead meat things as by consuming dead animal matter now perpetuates the trade and exploitation into the future.

Milk is intended for little cows. Lactose reacts with the human gut causing water imbalance and is increasingly hard for the human digestive system as one ages. This is the so called "lactose intolerance". Other dairy products are well known to promote the over-production of phlegm. Soya milk is a nice and is nourishing alternative. Rearing cattle to be massive milk producing biofactories is exploitative.

Rennet (made from the fourth stomach of newly born then slaughtered calves) is used to make cheese from milk so there's another problem with the dairy stuff.

You might want to think about eggs. Those birds are reared, usually in appalling conditions, to do nothing but make eggs. Is that fair? However, you might consider the Free Range hens to have a happier time and it's ok to steal their unfertilised eggs.

A veggie diet provides all the nutrients your body needs and vegetarians are often more healthy than meat-eaters. A vegetarian diet is healthy because it is low in fats, especially saturated. Veggies eat more fibre and complex carbohydrates, protective minerals and vitamins, and free radicals thus promoting health and long life.

Have a look at the Vegetarian Society Website here . 

[netibiza]

Watch out for worcestershire sauce it contains anchovies.

[woofgang]

actually if you accept its okay to use the milk, there are loads of cheeses produced withour rennet now

[woofgang]

some glues are made from boiled animals, I believe that bone china has real bone in it too

[woofgang]

wines are sometimes fined (cleared) by using rennet type stuff, as is beer

[woofgang]

are cars still crash tested on dead pigs?

[Hippy]

Beer & Wine are claered commercially using isinglass, a product of fish swim bladders. This has been outlawed in some EC countries, so check it out. I think German Lager is Veggie friendly.

[snapdharlich]

That's the page you want...hic

 

http://www.vegsoc.org/awards/2003/winenoms.html

[snapdharlich]

Sorry, just realised the page above has vanished - Sorry

[lady_p_gold]

As previously said, there are loads of things and it is quite difficult to avoid.  A lot of people forget about tablets, i.e. the casing which is made from gelatine, although some alternatives are now coming onto the market.  Jelly, wine gums all those sort of things are bound to have gelatine.  Even wine etc. .. you can only really rely on the V sign (so to speak!)  Also things like soap etc. and even make up - I am sure some of us might not like to think what we are smearing over our lips !

[Supernick]

Cheers for all the info - not for me really but a colleague at work. I couldn't give up the bacon sandwiches, roast dinners, the occassional Big Mac, cheese...err..all of it really.

[puzzled54]

Marshmallows, Turkish delight, fruit pastilles. Also check yogurt labels for gelatine, some manufacturers sneak it in as a cheap way to thicken it.

[beerbelly]

correct me if im wrong ....but didnt the human species evolve through being carnivorous ....?
some veggie friends of mine have kids who have never tasted meat before .. so who loses out ...?
im not totally anti-veggie , but why force it on other people

[Chapel]

mmm...rennet...mmm!

 

Watch what you're wearing - the docs have to go, as does your leather trousers. Oh, and the ermine coat.

[tictacshaker]

Avoid bedding containing duck and goose down. Check toothpaste properly. I recommend kingfisher or toms of maine.