Animal products and animal exploitation that is not obvious

Okay, so in my quest to become vegan, I need a little help here and someone suggested we make this thread which I think will be very helpful.
So list everything you know of that comes from animals and animal exploitation that you can think of. Such as gelatin, which I had no idea came from animals untill recently. Someone mentioned sugar refining methods. What is that? I guess we all know that dairy is.....but what about stuff that you wouldnt think of? I need all the help I can get. Thanks!

 

i'm glad someone started this!!

the sugar refining thing was something that i heard on here (i think it was from didge) and it had something to do with charred animal bones being used to refine sugar. unrefined sugar is vegan though.

other things i can think of... rennet (hardener in cheese made from cow stomach) and microbial enzyme (another name for rennet).

sorry i can't think of more, i'm hoping to pick up a lot from this thread too!

 

Is rennet in all cheese?

 

This list should help you out a bit.
Sugar is sometimes bleached through animal bones. Not all companies do it. It also depends a bit on the countrie you are in.
If you have any more specific questions, let me know.

 

No. There is such a thing as vegetarian cheese, which is made without rennet.

 

Plastic. Sounds stupid, but if you're into protecting animals, look at it this way: The fumes from burning plastic are extremely toxic and terrible for the environment. Animals can die from the air pollution. Now, it's hard to avoid plastic these days because so many things are made from it, but you should be aware of how much of it you use and throw out and try to use only as much as necassary.

 

There's vegan cheese that you can buy in most grocery stores that doesn't have it in, also soft cheeses most of the time wont have it (ie cream cheese, cottage cheese, i think feta etc.) because it is used as a hardener. Rennet can also be grown in labs, and there's a bunch of cheese companies that do this, and i managed to find a list of them here: http://cheese.joyousliving.com/

Rennet sucks because cheese is (was) my favorite food in the world!

Hope that helps

 

I never liked cheese. Which makes me of course a lucky vegan.
Have you ever tried the "Uncheese Cookbook" by Joanne Stepaniak?

 

wanda: you are SO lucky. when i found out about rennet i actually almost cried! at that point i was eating KD like 3 times a week too, it sucked so bad! even now i have a huge problem with giving up cheese, i read on the list that babybel has vegetable rennet so i'm living off of that right now until i either move out or get the guts to tell my mom that i wanna go vegan (she has no idea and i don't think she'd be too pleased even tho she willingly buys me soy milk and is helping me to bake an egg/milk free birthday cake, i think it's just not quite clicked yet)


I haven't even heard of this cookbook, what kinda things are in it? i might have to give it a go, i'm always looking for new recipes!

 

I know I'm lucky. Never really cared for meat either.
I feel bad for all those vegans struggling to keep going.
I kind of got the vegan thing for free I feel.

"The Uncheese Cookbook" was written by Joanne Stepaniak especially for those vegetarians/vegans who have a hard time giving up cheese. It has recipes for making blocks of all kinds of equivalent cheeses (cool to make!) and for cheese dishes. She recently wrote the "Ultimate Uncheese Cookbook", a small improvement + some extra recipes. I only have one sample recipe from the "Uncheese Cookbook" on my website. You can find it in my recipe section. It's the "Spinach Tomato Pesto". I haven't tried this recipe yet myself.

I became vegetarian when I was 15 and vegan at 20. I didn't know any vegans yet. Only 6 months later I met other vegans at this international vegan festival. Fell in love and now share my life with another vegan.
Wow. I am a lucky vegan! Never realized how lucky I really am.

Good luck with your in-the-closet veganish lifestyle!

 

that recipe looks really great, i'll most definately try this one sometime this week. thanx so much for letting me know about that cookbook too, it will be mine!!!