How Vegan is Vegan Enough?

In the new wave of vegan interest and activism, there is a lot of..."Enthusiasm." By this, I mean people talking your ear off about the meat and dairy industry and organic cruelty-free socks. And that's if you're a nonvegan.

For those who have already made the switch to non-animal goods, there is a different kind of abuse. People lovingly refer to them as the Vegan Police.

There seems to be some sort of unspoken guideline about how a "real" vegan eats and lives their lives, and if you don't follow this exactly, the Vegan Police will find you, and they will kill you.

Just kidding. I hope.

But, there has been a fair share of debate about what a vegan diet includes, and a lot of good and bad blog posts about it, so I thought I would add in my two cents.

To me, being vegan is about saving animal lives, and doing whatever I can to not cause them pain and suffering. I don't eat animal flesh or products. I use things that are not tested on animals. I do this for the good of the animals, myself, and the environment (because of the effect that the animal product factories have on resources, etc.) Then, I also avoid obvious animal-based additives, which include:

Gelatin, Carmine, Stearic Acid, Lactose, Casein, Honey, Whey Protein, Milkfat, Tallow, Confectioner's glaze, Shellac.

Strict vegans also avoid some other major ingredient additives, and I've listed them below and articulated my opinion on avoiding or consuming them:

SUGAR: When you look at many brands of non-organic sugar, it is white and shining. That color, vastly different from its natural brownish hue, is due to processing that takes place. This filtering process is most often done through bone char, although other methods exist. Some vegans have entirely cut out processed sugar from their diet, unless the company can tell them which sugar supplier they use, and if that sugar has been processed without bone char.

MY VIEW: I draw attention to the vegan motto again, as I did last week. "As far as possible and practicable." It's just not practicable for a person to track down the source of their sugar for every single product, and it makes veganism look hard and intricate to others, turning them off to the lifestyle. To me, bone char processing is a product of a larger evil: what companies need to do with the remains of the animals they've killed. If we eliminate the excess of animal bodies that need to be dealt with, then there will be no economic reason to process with bone char.

ENRICHED FLOUR: Another processed food regular is enriched flour, which is exactly what it sounds like: regular flour or rice that has been enriched with vitamins and minerals. Those are usually Thiamin Mononitrate, Iron, Niacin, Riboflavin, and Folic Acid. Sometimes these vitamins and minerals can be sourced from animals, and sometimes they can be from plants (most times).

MY VIEW: Vegans who avoid all enriched flour are running into the same problem as above: not only are they eliminating an abundance of food that would otherwise be vegan, but they are serving as a negative example of what veganism should be. As a vegan, I want my diet to seem natural and easy-going, not paranoid and obsessive.

Now, some not-as-obvious ingredients are things like Glycerin or glycerol, Mono- and Diglycerides, :-cysteine, lactase, lipase.

For these, because they are not nearly as common and usually very clearly vegan or not, I think it's worth a quick Google of the product in question, to see if the brand has already released a statement, or if it's possible to ask. I used to think that it would be too hard to find out of mono- and diglycerides were vegan derived, but with a quick email to Sara Lee, I got a call just an hour or so later and she immediately had the answer for me!

Finally, there is an entire REALM of ingredients that are "questionable" if not entirely off-limits to some vegans, and those are micro-ingredients.

Here's a little tidbit I found on those on the PETA website:

"The goal of sticking to a vegetarian or vegan diet is to help animals and reduce suffering; this is done by choosing a bean burrito or a veggie burger over chicken flesh, or choosing tofu scramble over eggs, not by refusing to eat an otherwise vegan food because it has 0.001 grams of monoglycerides that may possibly be animal-derived."

And I think it pairs perfectly with what this blogger had to say:

We worry about micro-ingredients like e-numbers, and we lose sight of the bigger picture. We focus on these things for the sake of “guarding the line”, to protect ourselves and our movement against the great big scary nightmare of “sliding back” and watering down veganism. But that great big scary nightmare is a fiction, and is nothing that should concern us right now. If we ever get people to avoid meat, dairy and eggs (and we will), I’m sure we’ll also be able to outphase e-numbers, honey, and other bits of animal product from our food system.

My attitude towards microingredients is a combination of the two opinions stated above: The focus of veganism is to eliminate the need for animal-sourced microingredients by making the meat and dairy industry obsolete. It does no good to worry about an ingredient whose source you can't trace down. However, this doesn't mean you shouldn't do your research, and if there's an ingredient where the issue is more black and white, do a quick internet search!

At the end of the day, do what you're comfortable with, without being lazy. Don't ingest something that's obviously not vegan and just say, "Well I didn't think I needed to look it up/read the ingredients." Do the work, but don't sweat over every minute detail. Remember that this is a lifestyle with a focus on love and compassion, not over-analyzation and anxiety.

For a list of ingredients and their suppliers/veg status, I always use this link!

And here's a discussion on microingredients on a forum!