Veggie....not a vegan...and I feel awful

I have been a veg for a while now(and will be the rest of my life).....but I am not vegan. I wont drink milk or eat eggs....but I do eat cheese and chocholate and butter, etc. I feel like such a hypocrite! Mind you, nothing I eat is organic....I am too broke for that. So by doing this I am advocating the people who raise cows and hook them up to machines and.........CRUELTY! Not that being strictly veggie isnt doing a world of good for myself and animals, but I would like to do more.....for some reason I do feel like I am undermining my veggie lifestyle by still consuming animal products.
I really would like to be vegan, but I sort of dont even know where to start. I dont have a list of all the foods I should be avoiding.....such as, gelatin, which I honestly didnt even know came from animals untill this year. I feel lost in my quest to become vegan. So I need a little advice on it.....I have no idea what foods to avoid (besides the obvious). Any advice or knowledge would be very much apprechiated! Thanks

 

Well ur conscience is telling u what you should be doing. So just listen to it

There are plenty of sites on the internet you can get info from. i only just found out about gelatin recently too. That's a bad one, even vegetarians should stay away from it. In fact, all people should stay away from it! Honey, milk and eggs are easily replaceable items to a diet. I'm not missing them at all, just like i dont miss meat at all!! Also you may want to reconsider the products u buy for other purposes, not just to eat (ie. leather, animal tested products etc). Good luck to ya anyways!

http://www.veganoutreach.com/
http://www.notmilk.com/

 

I totally understand; being in the same position.

Check out, how it all vegan; totally fab cookbook with useful hints, lists and such.

TTFN
Sage

 

I know where you're coming from. I have the same problem. I am Jewish and drink kosher milk and the kosher laws decrease the cruelty by a huge percent, but still... I feel bad because I don't like the idea of exploiting animals when I have other options available, but I live in a family where being vegan is hard. I know I will become one when I move out, but that'll be a long time.

 

i completely hear you. i've been working on becoming vegan for a few months, i just started gradually cutting things out and its getting a bit easier.


i know exactly what you mean about products that you didn't know weren't vegan too. i had no idea about rennet in cheese until i came to this message board, and i had no idea about sugar refining methods until a few weeks ago either, i guess its all a lot of stuff you pick up as you go along tho. maybe that could be a new thread, "things you never knew were animal-fied"... if i had anything to contribute to it i'd start it too ... i'm a bit daft!

good luck with the vegan-ness!

 

Good idea about making that thred! I think I will if you havent already
Sugar refining methods? What about it? That is news to me!
Well, thanks everyone for the replys and I am going to check out those websites you posted ImaPeach. Thanks. I am good about not wearing leather or using animal tested products. But now that ya mention it, I think I could be a little better at. So thanks cause I really needed the extra encouragment and reminders!

 

I had those same feelings, that ovo-lacto veggie was hypotricital, so I made the vegan plunge. I really love being vegan. Anyway, it is very easy to replace all your animal products with alternatives. There are many websites that sell vegan goods, as well as health food stores. Get yourself some soy or rice milk, some vegan cheese, and egg replacer. Those are really the basics, but you may also want some vegan mayo - makes great tofo "egg" salad and potato salad. It is also very important to start taking vitamin B12, unless you go out of your way to eat foods rich in B12. Thats pretty much it. It is easier than you think!

 

I've been a vegetarian for about 10 years... I couldn't possibly think about being vegan! Although, I'm not a big fan of eggs (I never was). But I could never ever give up stuff like cheese and chocolate! I've tried the vegan kind, not a big fan. Although if I'm baking, I love using vanilla soy milk instead of regular milk for cakes and muffins... that's sooooo delicious!