veganize this.

“do you have the recipe for that one?”

i rarely post a photo of some vegan dish without the recipe. 99% of the time, the picture will have a click-through link to it.

“what’s the difference between a vegetarian and a vegan?”

a vegan consumes no animal products (generally, this includes avoiding consumption though eating flesh and other “food” products, as well as by other means; e.g., wearing leather or wool, using cosmetics with animal products in them, etc.) 

a vegetarian doesn’t eat and any meat or fish, but generally eats eggs and/or dairy products. to be specific, a vegetarian who eats eggs is an ovo-vegetarian, a vegetarian who consumes dairy products is a lacto-vegetarian, and one who eats both is a lacto-ovo-vegetarian (probably the most common type of vegetarian). a “vegetarian” who eats fish, in my opinion, isn’t really a vegetarian, but a pescetarian, although some people refer to that diet as pesco-vegetarian. same for poultry, but it’s called pollotarian or pollo-vegetarian. then there’s the “flexitarian,” which is someone who aspires to be a vegetarian or similar, but “cheats” on occasion.

“humans are carnivores. we’re meant to eat meat. what say you?”

when people say humans are carnivores, it really annoys me, because we’re not. we’re omnivores. period. further, if you compare the teeth of humans to carnivores and herbivores, they resemble the herbivores’ much more closely. humans don’t have night vision, sharp claws, or other natural advantages common to carnivores. we also have appendixes, which have become smaller and nonfunctional over time due to the choice to consume more meat, but nonetheless demonstrates that we were designed to eat the type and volume of roughage more common to an herbivorous diet. the intelligence to design weapons and tools of bondage and imprisonment has allowed humans to develop a range of diet options, and gluttony has led some societies to develop a greater meat consumption rate, but under no definition does this mean humans are carnivores.

“celebrity x isn’t vegan anymore. why did you post them and say they were vegan?”

i try to do research on the people i post and identify as vegans, but you can generally assume that i don’t know them and can’t personally verify their veganism as of the time of the post. if you want me to personally call each famous person and verify their current veganism, then you should expect a very short list of famous vegans on this blog. for me, the inspirational value of identifying a well-known figure who has been vegan at all outweighs the risk that they are no longer vegan. having said that, it’s always disappointing for me to learn that anyone who has been vegan has chosen to revert to consuming animal products, especially if they’re vocal about the reversion.

“where can i find good vegan shoes, accessories and clothing?”

for vegan shoes and accessories:

for starters, you can find pretty nice vegan shoes in places like target. you just need to check that they’re constructed of all man-made materials. (of course, it’s always good to support companies that have taken a moral stand and are creating and selling only vegan products.

if you’re looking to buy from those types of companies, i’d generally recommend pangea/the vegan store  (http://www.veganstore.com) and alternative outfitters (http://www.alternativeoutfitters.com) for accessories and shoes. i’ll mention cosmo’s vegan shoppe here, too, because even though they don’t have a ton of clothing/accessories, it is an amazing store that i frequently buy staples from (http://www.cosmosveganshoppe.com).

for men, there’s ragazzi vegan (http://www.ragazzivegan.com), or bourgeois boheme, if you’re in the uk (http://www.bboheme.com/),

if you’re a girl with some money to spend, olsenHaus is amazing(https://www.olsenhaus.com/index.php), as is charmone (http://charmoneshoes.com/). 

i am also a big fan of etsy. if you go to the main page and search “vegan,” what pops up is always amazing. i’ve bought vegan shoes, wallets, jewelry, clothing, candy, bath products, and makeup there, and i’ve never been disappointed. :)

for vegan clothing:

etsy, as i said before, is great (http://www.etsy.com—search “all items” for “vegan.”) herbivore clothing has great message t-shirts, as well as books and such (http://www.herbivoreclothing.com). it’s kind of like urban outfitters for vegans. (urban has some vegan shoes and message t-shirts, too, by the way). ecolissa has some nice women’s clothing (http://www.ecolissa.com), and reco is a new company that makes good jeans and t-shirts for both men and women, but their selection is still fairly limited and they’re kind of expensive (http://store.recojeans.com/). 

the good news is that for clothing, you can also just shop carefully at regular stores, too. I read the label on clothing in the store to make sure it doesn’t contain animal products. the things to look for are: leather (including suede), fur, any wool (angora, cashmere, mohair, and lambswool), down, and silk. if the clothing you’re looking at doesn’t include any of these, you can be pretty confident that they are vegan. note, however, that if you’re looking for jeans, ask about the tag, if they have one. i know that gap jeans usually have a leather tag, whereas levi’s jeans do not. this is one of those little things that isn’t always mentioned on the tag.

“what are some of your favorite vegan cookbooks and cooking blogs?”

as for cookbooks, i like pretty much anything by isa chandra moskowitz (especially veganomicon and appetite for reduction), i also like veganopolis, the conscious cook, and great chefs cook vegan. if money’s an issue, i highly recommend peta’s vegan college cookbook and vegan with a vengeance (both also by isa chandra).

as for cooking blogs, although there are a lot of good ones out there, the ones i go to most often include: vegan dad (http://vegandad.blogspot.com/), the post punk kitchen (http://www.theppk.com/), vegan yum yum (http://veganyumyum.com/), and bittersweet blog (http://bittersweetblog.wordpress.com/). i also really like chef chloe’s blog (http://chefchloe.com/vegan-recipes.html). 

you really can’t go wrong with anything that these blogs post. i’ve tried many recipes from each of them, and have never been disappointed.

“how do you get enough protein?”

  it’s actually pretty easy to get enough protein on a vegan diet. in fact, people in the west, and especially in the u.s., generally get too much of it. so a good vegan diet should not be a threat to your healthy protein intake. where you do need to be more careful is with some specific nutrients that are harder to get on a vegan diet. the biggest of these is vitamin b12, which you can get in a vegan supplement. it’s also good to take vitamin d and omega 3. these you can get in a supplement or in your diet, so i recommend you do a little homework regarding where to fond these critical nutrients. if you’re looking for supplements, vega is a vegan supplement line, and you can find them many places (including amazon). remember also not to get dehydrated, because your body will likely be processing more grains than it’s used to, and will need more water to up its efficiency. finally, you shouldn’t gain weight on a vegan diet unless you’re only eating junk food.

“what’s the best vegan cheese?”

if you’re in the u.s., the best shredded fake cheese (in my opinion) is daiya. it tastes good (especially the mozzarella flavor) and melts great on pizza and sandwiches. i hear sheeze is great, too (if you’re in the u.k). be careful to read the ingredients of any “cheese alternative,” though, because a lot of them aren’t vegan. tofutti makes a pretty good cream cheese replacement, and you can shake nutritional yeast on a lot of things to make them taste cheesy.  

“is tattoo ink vegan?”

not usually. with traditional inks, it depends on the color/pigment of the tattoo. non-vegan inks use a variety of pigments, and ingredients aren’t always listed (because they’re considered proprietary, or company secrets). for example, traditional black ink, known as “bone black,” contains pigment derived from animal bones burned down to charcoal. many other colors contain animal-derived pigments, too.

if you’re a committed vegan and you want to get a tattoo, though, the good news is that you can find tattoo artists who offer vegan ink options. (also, look for a vegan after-care product.)

more information can be found here: http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/263163/tattooed_vegan_101_you_may_be_vegan_pg2.html?cat=7. also check out this website for some great vegan tattoo pictures, as well as a list of some tattoo shops that are known to do vegan tattoos: http://www.vegantattoos.com/.

“how can i figure out if something has animal ingredients?”

there are a number of websites that list animal ingredients, so that’s a good place to start. Here are a few good ones:

http://www.peta.org/living/vegetarian-living/animal-ingredient-guide.aspx

http://www.veganpeace.com/ingredients/ingredients.htm

http://www.hedweb.com/campaig/ingred.htm

http://www.veganwolf.com/animal_ingredients.htm

if you’re looking to become an expert, i recommend the animal ingredient “bible,” animal ingredients a-z:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/1873176597

finally, there are probably a number of phone apps out there, too, but i regularly rely on “animal-free,” which has a cow with the red “no” circle/line on it.