[Several multi-question threads, closed]

[ayamisuka]

I'm not really sure where this goes- I hope its in the right spot. I'm a new vegan and I had some questions as to the things I've been eating and where I can find vegan versions of them.


Some of these questions may sound stupid, but I honestly don't know the answers!

1. Pasta and sauce. What are good vegan options?

2. Soda. I have a slight addiction to diet coke, I'm assuming that this is not okay.

3. Pudding mix, the instant kind- made with soymilk, is it okay?

4. what are some things I need to look for on labels to know if something is vegan or not? Is there a master list?

I don't cook, and I know this could be a problem, as I see great vegan recepies posted here- but I go to school and work full time and don't really have preparation time. I'm looking more at going on a shopping trip and stocking up on foods I know are vegan that are easy to prepare and quick.

Any help would be really, really appreciated!

[feline01]

It would help if you updated your profile and let people know where you live since this is an international forum and vegan products differ depending on your location.

[ayamisuka]

I updated. Sorry about that- I also noticed that I put this thread in the wrong place. :(

[MzNatural]

1. Pasta and sauce. What are good vegan options?

This link is a good source for finding what is Vegan ( http://www.peta.org/accidentallyVegan/VeganShoppingQS-Snacks.asp?Category=Snacks). I would still recommend reading the back of the labels since occasionally products do change and the ingredients might no longer be Vegan.



2. Soda. I have a slight addiction to diet coke, I'm assuming that this is not okay.

Sugar substitutes are unhealthy and best to be avoided here is a link ( http://www.bragg.com/healthinfo/aspartameFS.html). If you have a craving for a carbonated drink you could make one with fruit juice or herbal tea mixed with carbonated water



3. Pudding mix, the instant kind- made with soymilk, is it okay?

Check the ingredients to be sure it is vegan.



4. what are some things I need to look for on labels to know if something is vegan or not? Is there a master list?

You will find information about nonvegan ingredients on this thread (http://veganforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=232&highlight=animal+ingredients).

I would try to eliminate as many processed foods from your daily intake and incorporate whole foods in your daily intake, vegetables, fruits, and grains are wonderful. If you have the time it might be a great idea to set one day aside to make a few bulk meals so you can have during the week.


Welcome to the forum! :)

[harpy]

Hi there - To have with your pasta, you may be able to get vegan pesto (made with nuts rather than cheese) and also vegan tomato sauces in jars. Stick some beans (which can be out of a can) in with your pasta too and you will have a nice nourishing meal without the need for cheese. It will be even nicer if you stir in a few fresh veg with the sauce (eg sliced broccoli and carrots) - you don't need to cook them.

If you're stuck, let me know - even though I'm in the UK I have a vegan friend in Miami so I might be able to get you some brand names for sauces etc.

Making your own food from first principles saves label reading and is not much effort once you get into the way of it. I don't really like cooking either but I can usually knock something up in a few minutes.

Good luck

[feline01]

There's some quick and easy vegan meals for busy vegans like hummus sandwiches, nut butters, grilled veggies, salads. Keep unsalted nuts, dried fruit on hand for snacks when busy. I know in FL, you have access to some great, fresh produce. That's the perfect basis for a healthy vegan diet.

[ayamisuka]

Thanks for all your help so far!

Another dumb question....Salt? Vegan or not?

[Tigerlily]

Yup, I believe it is. But salt is something you should cut down on .... but I'm like addicted to it. :(

[eve]

Yes do cut out salt, and while you're at it, as you mention "a slight addiction to diet coke", why not cut out coke completely, and drink water instead? :)

[cedarblue]

yu could always try watering your diet coke down so that it tastse so yukky you cant stand the taste any more and stop drinking it ;)

[Kiva Dancer]

First of all, welcome to the forum. I'm in US, too so I can help a bit.

1. Pasta and sauce. What are good vegan options? Hunt's spaghetti sauce is really good and it's vegan so long as you avoid the meat or cheese flavours. I like the mushroom flavour. It's really good and it goes with every veggie and bean I throw in (cause ya can't have just sauce, you have to dress it up a little). :)

2. Soda. I have a slight addiction to diet coke, I'm assuming that this is not okay. You're assuming right. The health problems associated with colas are waaayy to numerious to list here but suffice it to say that coke is the worst thing to do to yourself. Water is your best bet. Water (or carbonated water) with something else mixed in is your second-best bet.

3. Pudding mix, the instant kind- made with soymilk, is it okay? I'm not sure about this one but I think pudding mixes have whey or gelatin in them. I hardly buy the stuff so maybe someone else can answer that for you.

[ayamisuka]

Thanks so much!

I found something that I like a lot-

flour tortillas (I was assured by my cousin that they are vegan), old el paso fat-free re-fried beans and salsa, accompanied by a salad. It's really good. I also shopped for vegan snacks - so far so good!

The only thing I would say is that people that don't know yet that I'm vegan are still getting me things that I'm not eating now- my boss brought me doughnuts and coffee with cream in it today...I just sneakily poured out the coffee and didn't eat the doughnuts. Tomorrow I'm going to tell him- I just didn't want him to feel like he wasted money on me today.

Thanks again for all your help!

[Wildflower]

I'm not really sure where this goes- I hope its in the right spot. I'm a new vegan and I had some questions as to the things I've been eating and where I can find vegan versions of them.


Some of these questions may sound stupid, but I honestly don't know the answers!

1. Pasta and sauce. What are good vegan options?

2. Soda. I have a slight addiction to diet coke, I'm assuming that this is not okay.

3. Pudding mix, the instant kind- made with soymilk, is it okay?

4. what are some things I need to look for on labels to know if something is vegan or not? Is there a master list?

I don't cook, and I know this could be a problem, as I see great vegan recepies posted here- but I go to school and work full time and don't really have preparation time. I'm looking more at going on a shopping trip and stocking up on foods I know are vegan that are easy to prepare and quick.

Any help would be really, really appreciated!

1) For pasta sauce, most marinaras I have seen in the US are vegan, but read the labels. I have had people make me pasta and marinara and use weird tinned brands that had meat in them. (hunt's maybe?)

I like Barilla. I usually buy Garlic and Mushroom or Green and Black Olive. Spagetti sauce can be loaded with sugar, and if you are cooking for one it may be easier to just throw a chopped tomato, prechopped garlic (in jars in the produce section), and a splash of wine or water on top of pasta and microwaving it. Add olive oil if desired. Truly less time then heating sauce and better tasting and better for you.

2) I don't consider Diet Coke to be vegan. In the US most sugar is refined with bone char and I have read (mainly on another veggie board ;) ) of people avoiding this and using artifical sweetners instead. Artifical sweetners may not contain fragments of bone char, but they are TESTED ON ANIMALS.

Drink juice, soymilk, or water. here is a good one - glass of ice, wash a lime with soap and water and cut a wedge off - squeeze into the ice and drop the rhine in. Add 1/2 glass of fortified orange juice, top with seltzer water and a few frozen cherries. lime and orange are great together - who knew!

3) I am not sure what brand of pudding you are using. I know Jello brand doesn't acutally contain gelatin, but I would guess it would have whey or powdered milk. you will have to read the labels.

4) you can buy books that are practically encyclopedias of animal products. I find it easier just to buy products with a few ingredients. Everyone (hopefully) knows that if something contains nothing but strawberries it is vegan. Easier to work this way. Visit your local HFS.

There are lots of easy to prepare meals that are vegan and even frozen dinners. check out www.AmysKitchen.com All products are vegetarian - made without eggs/fish/poultry/meat. Some products have dairy or honey, but they mark the vegan ones as vegan.

[snoopcat]

Hi guys, thanks for helping me out with my questions last time. I was wondering about a few more things:

1) Is diet soda vegan? I know that technically its bad for you, but I love it.
2) What is the deal with sugar? Its not vegan in some instances? If its not, then how come foods like frosted flakes are vegan?
3) Is soy actually bad for you? I don't want to overconsume something if its a potential health risk, but I really love tofu and soy milk.
4) This one is kind of ridiculous, but is it possible that plant estrogens could make your boobs get bigger? I swear my boobs seem bigger since I started eating soy products. overshare I know, but I'm serious! :p

Thanks!

[John]

1) I doubt it. You never know with secret ingedients.

2) Sometimes they use animal bones to refine sugar. Try to use organic sugar or tubinado sugar.

3) There is a chemical in soy, present in small amounts, which is toxic.
The thing is, many, if not most vegetables have some type of toxic chemical in them. It's just the way things are. However, when they isolate soy bean protein to make certain products, the concentration of the toxic chemical could go up, depending on the process. We have talked about it somewhere on this forum

4) I doubt it. Although I imagine that there might be some type of hormonal change (balance perhaps) that occurs when we stop consuming cow milk and chicken periods.

[Kiva Dancer]

Hi guys, thanks for helping me out with my questions last time. I was wondering about a few more things:

1) Is diet soda vegan? I know that technically its bad for you, but I love it.Give up the diet soda. The stuff is soooooo unhealthy on so many levels that veganness is almost a moot point, here. You don't want that stuff in your body so get rid of it now.

2) What is the deal with sugar? Its not vegan in some instances? If its not, then how come foods like frosted flakes are vegan? Sugar is filtered with bone char. Some consider this vegan because the bones do not end up in the final product while others consider it not vegan because of what the sugar is filtered with. As John said, if this is an issue for you, there are sugars you can buy that are not bone-char filtered.

3) Is soy actually bad for you? I don't want to overconsume something if its a potential health risk, but I really love tofu and soy milk. I believe soy is not bad for you, however, overconsumption of any food is not terribly healthy. Even water, consumed in overly large quantities is not good for the body. I would no more base my diet around soy than I would base my diet around excessive amounts of water.

4) This one is kind of ridiculous, but is it possible that plant estrogens could make your boobs get bigger? I swear my boobs seem bigger since I started eating soy products. overshare I know, but I'm serious! Did you also have this reaction when you were eating cabbage or beans? They also have plant estrogens. Soy does not make breast size increase anymore than cabbage does and if cabbage made a bra size bigger, I would have ingested TONNES by now. :D

[Tigerlily]

I agree with everyone here says.

Diet pop is bad, but I'm like you, I'm like addicted to it. You could try to mix carbonated water with juice for a fizzy drink, but I never found it that amazing. Meh.

[FR]

Hi guys, thanks for helping me out with my questions last time. I was wondering about a few more things:

1) Is diet soda vegan? I know that technically its bad for you, but I love it.
2) What is the deal with sugar? Its not vegan in some instances? If its not, then how come foods like frosted flakes are vegan?
3) Is soy actually bad for you? I don't want to overconsume something if its a potential health risk, but I really love tofu and soy milk.
4) This one is kind of ridiculous, but is it possible that plant estrogens could make your boobs get bigger? I swear my boobs seem bigger since I started eating soy products. overshare I know, but I'm serious! :p

Thanks!

Soy is not bad for you, unless you have an allergy to it.

Some sugar is processed through bone char. The bone char is removed from the final product.

From what I have learned, plant estrogens have no effect on the human body.

As far as diet soda, most are probably vegan. I'd read over the ingredients and look up anything that you question before consuming it.

I never knew Frosted Flakes were vegan. I always thought they contained gelatin and vitamin d3.

ETA ... I see Kiva beat me to answering some of these questions.

[FR]

Actually, I am at work and we do have Frosted Flakes here. There isn't any gelatin in them but they are fortified with vitamin d and iron. Kellogg's may source the iron and vitamin d from an animal source.

[snoopcat]

Thanks guys...I looked it up online and I'm almost certain frosted flakes are vegan.

[Tigerlily]

I love frosted flakes!

[spo]

From what I have learned, plant estrogens have no effect on the human body.
Sorry guys -- but plant estrogens do have effects on the body. The largest effect comes from soy, which has the highest concentrations of plant estrogens. There are many products sold, both prescription and over the counter, to treat menopause that contain pharmacologically active doses of plant estrogens. Some are considered "safer" than the chemically produced estrogens. Obviously, for us vegans, the chemically produced kind is horrendous-made from mares' urine in typically exploitive and cruel ways. My husband, who is an Endocrinologist, will only prescribe the soy-based estrogens.
It is possible to see a slight increase in breast size from eating a lot of soy; but that would have to be A LOT!!! I had a patient, who complained of breast tenderness and size increase (she was already huge!) and it turned out she was consuming a lot of soy products. This does not always present problems, but I do agree with Kiva Dancer, that nothing should be eaten to excess.
spo

[John]

The UK version of Frosted Flakes Is supposedly vegan but I wouldn't trust the vitamin D which is in the American version (and absent in the UK version).

[snoopcat]

haha...that is amazing about the soy products. If I only had known sooner I could have added more to the daily "i must increase my bust" chanting. :D

[foxytina_69]

kiva dancer, why is diet soda so bad for you? (im just wondering what exactly it does to you thats so bad, so i can stay away from it!)