Vegetarians ( and Vegans ) Thread!!! - Page 64

Not exactly :

Hi folks,

I have a long history of being an on and off again lacto-ovo vegetarian with occasional fish because we live on the coast.  I started this, because I am Jewish and keep a kosher home and it was tough to find kosher meat at times where we live.  I have been having some health issues lately and got off of dairy, caffeine and eggs over the past couple of weeks and doing a strictly vegan diet, which I really enjoy.

Tomorrow my husband and I are taking a raw food workshop with a local woman I know.  I am a bit nervous about this.  What -- no beans and rice, no quinoa, no roasted veggies . . . eek!  Anyway, I am looking forward to finding out more about this and seeing if we can make it through the rest of the summer going raw.  Most of the raw "recipes" which simulate cooked foods need dehydrators, juicers and food processors.  I don't have any of these items, so will see what I can accomplish with a mandolin slicer, and a blender. LOL  I do have an 15 year old dehydrator that I just dragged out of the cellar and cleaned up.  We shall see how well it works.

For those who are concerned about hidden meat, fish and dairy ingredients in processed food, I recommend you look for kosher symbols on food packaging.  You will be surprised how many products are actually kosher.  Look for items that have a kosher symbol and the word Pareve next to the symbol.  This means that they do not contain any meat or dairy ingredients. Here is a website that happens to have a good representation of different kosher symbols on food (although imported foods and various small local organizations have their own symbols -- so there are probably a hundred of them), just scroll down on this web page and you'll see an example of the most common ones.    web.mit.edu/burton2/studybreak.html

I'll post back and let you all know how the raw foods class goes.  I only read back about 6 pages on this thread, but hope to go back and read more as time permits.   Thanks for being here.  Paula

Glad to have you on board  I bet you'll enjoy the raw classes!

I double checked and pareve foods can contain eggs and fish. Just for those who are avoiding those. Kosher marshmallows for example contain fish gelatin (yum) .

On chabad.org:

"Fish is pareve. This means that as far as the kosher laws of meat and milk are concerned, it is a neutral zone. It is neither a meat dish nor a milk dish and can be eaten with either."

Thanks Featherz for clarifying about the pareve kosher ingredients.  I always check ingredient lists anyway, so avoid items that I do not want to eat.

My DH and I went to an awesome raw foods class today and learned so much.  It was amazing all the different foods we prepared and shared.  The teacher was amazing.  We decided to give it a go for the rest of the summer.  :) P

Quote:

Originally Posted by Crittercrazed 

Hey everybody! I'm a vegetarian (was vegan) and I found out a few tips about what to eat/what not to eat. Beware of gelatin. I once heard it contains animal parts (one may be cow hide) and I haven't been eating it. I did some research on it, and plenty of websites back it up. Just figured you would want to know that because I was steamed when I found out.(Haha. 'Steamed'; veggies) Sorry. Lame joke. But anyways, it's in a lot of stuff to: certains types of jell-o (most), gummy bears/worms/sharks/exc, (pretty much anything gummy (even some vitamins; on mine it was the third ingredient down the list)

 

Keep up the good work guys! Resisting meat and other animal products is hard and can be tempting. I know from experiance. 

Yes, Gelatin is made from animal hide and hooves and so is a no no for veggies like us.  It's also in most yogurts and marshmallows, FYI.  Another one you may not know of is in a lot of cheeses called "rennet."  It is made from the linings of baby cow's stomachs.  Any cheese that has "enzymes" on the ingredient labels can contain cow rennet.  There are also microbial and vegetable rennets but you have to check with the manufacturer to be sure what they use.  Kraft uses cow rennet in their cheeses.  If you have access to Tillamook, all of their cheeses are fine except their white cheddar.  Or you could avoid cheese all together :)  I was sad to learn no more goldfish crackers though! (cheeze its are still ok)

Quote:

Originally Posted by angel8035 

 

Yes, Gelatin is made from animal hide and hooves and so is a no no for veggies like us.  It's also in most yogurts and marshmallows, FYI.  Another one you may not know of is in a lot of cheeses called "rennet."  It is made from the linings of baby cow's stomachs.  Any cheese that has "enzymes" on the ingredient labels can contain cow rennet.  There are also microbial and vegetable rennets but you have to check with the manufacturer to be sure what they use.  Kraft uses cow rennet in their cheeses.  If you have access to Tillamook, all of their cheeses are fine except their white cheddar.  Or you could avoid cheese all together :)  I was sad to learn no more goldfish crackers though! (cheeze its are still ok)

Oh, thank you so much. Ugh! I'm about to pull all of my hair out! Why does being vegetarian have to be so difficult sometimes? I mean it's rewarding, but I might as well be vegan. (Haha. Back to step 1) I really appreciate your info though, angel. I consume Organic Valley milk and I can't figure out what kind of enzymes they use. 

Thanks,

crittercrazed

Quote:

Originally Posted by Crittercrazed 

Oh, thank you so much. Ugh! I'm about to pull all of my hair out! Why does being vegetarian have to be so difficult sometimes? I mean it's rewarding, but I might as well be vegan. (Haha. Back to step 1) I really appreciate your info though, angel. I consume Organic Valley milk and I can't figure out what kind of enzymes they use. 

Thanks,

crittercrazed

I've actually been thinking the same thing lately 

After finding out about all of the things in bread/cheese/etc., I have been working my way towards becoming vegan.  It's not easy but it's really hard to recognize all of the ingredients with their hidden names!  Being a vegan just seems easier.

FYI, the enzymes are just in the cheese. Rennet is used to make the milk curdle.  It isn't in milk.

If you want to blow your mind, look up L-Cysteine.

Keep up the good work though!  Being a vegetarian is extremely rewarding in my book.