I have to use butters and oils to cook. It’s part of my diet.
They’re a helpful way of getting to that 240g fat mark.
I thought you were saying to skip oils because they offer no health benefits?
Me? No, I use mostly Sesame Oil, Olive Oil and butter (but not at the same time…). Sesame in Chinese/stir fry, olive oil in Italian and Indian. 
1 Like
My bad. Getting confused about who I’m talking with
Fantastic news. Nutella is now a health food 
2 Likes
Not vegan tho
1 Like
Haha!
Nuts, actual nuts, not Nutella. That’s mostly palm oil and sugar, with 13% hazelnuts. 
3 Likes
1 Like
Speaking of nuts, are almonds considered to be vegan? I’ve heard different views.
What about oysters?
Had to look this one up. Apparently, whilst there are many plants that don’t require bees to pollinate them, almonds do. This is where hardcore “veganism” loses me and I resign myself to being just someone who eats a plant-based diet. Bee-exploitation in making honey, or in pollinating plants, which they would be doing anyway in the natural order of things (admittedly, bees make honey for their own sustenance through the winter rather than ours). We wouldn’t be worried about bees if we weren’t killing them all off with pesticides. We wouldn’t be worried about pesticides if we were not farming on an industrial scale, but that’s a rabbit-hole for another day. 
4 Likes
The way it was explained to me was that the almonds were being cultivated in an environment which was unfriendly to bees. So the bees had to be periodically shipped in. Some bees perished in transit, and most of those who survived the journey died in the environment.
I just wondered whether this was internet hogwash, or a genuine concern to vegans.
That would make a lot more sense, although I don’t think it is purely almond production at fault there. Widespread pesticide use across much of agriculture has been destroying biodiversity for a while now. It’s why the likes of Monsanto has been the subject to many a protest.
1 Like
How did people give up cheese?
Been vegetarian since around sept 18.
Also been on a low card diet since Dec (although low carb is temp on hold as I’m in Thailand / Vietnam)
But I’d like to go vegan but I like cheese.
Also I don’t get much time to cook and vegan options in supermarkets seem to be expensive.
Anyone have any vegan slow cooker recipes?
I’m not vegan or vegetarian so I can’t really comment much, but I did read this in The Guardian the other day about vegan cheese.
@simonf why do you want to go vegan? Dairy is more ethically compromised than meat in my view and so if you’re considering veganism as an extension of an ethical decision to be vegetarian, removing cheese from your diet is, essentially, neccessary. That’s not to say vegetarianism isn’t a great step in the right direction, it is, rather it is to say if your motivations are ethical then removing dairy is at least as important as meat, if not more so.
Personally I found that the path from vegetarianism to veganism is difficult because as a vegetarian you can become dependent on cheese and eggs to fill the hole created by removing meat. The fix for me was to address my dependency on cheese by reducing my use of it in cooking, rather than replacing it with vegan cheese, and once I was down to using cheese only a couple of times per week it became very easy to swap it for vegan cheese which is good enough every now and again. Essentially, I had to change my diet from “meat dishes without the meat” to “vegan”.
There are some good vegan cheeses but they’re not comparable to real cheese and so if you love complex cheese (more than you just like to grate some parmesan on to pasta) you will struggle to find replacements. Violife is my favourite brand, they are available in quite a few supermarkets and specialist stores – depending on where you live you may have more options but Holland and Barrett is a good place to look anywhere in the country. The good news is that the rapid growth in the popularity of veganism we’re currently experiencing is encouraging so many new products to be brought to market, you can be confident that you’ll have access to new and improved vegan cheese as time goes on.
Vegan ready meals are quite expensive relative to the low end non-vegan meals but the prices are coming down. The new Marks & Spencer “Plant Kitchen” range is quite affordable (around £3 per meal) and they can be discounted to around £2 near expiry, likewise the Tesco “Wicked” range is in a similar price range. I’d highly recommend the Plant Kitchen range, it is really really good and my go-to for ready meals, I cannot speak highly enough of the lasagne. At the high-end there’s options like allplants but that’s about £10 per meal.
I’m giving vegan and gluten free a go for March. Kind of looking forward to it although it’ll take a lot more planning
5 Likes
Thanks.
I’ve tried some of the wicked range in Tesco and they are really good.
Didn’t know M & S had a plant range so I will go and have a look.
It’s a good idea to cut down on cheese as you are correct I have found myself eating a lot more cheese and eggs since being vegetarian.
I couldn’t consider myself vegan unless I gave up dairy.
Would any vegans consider eggs ok if they were organic and a product of your own chickens?
One thing I have found since becoming veggie and also doing low carb is reading product labels can be an eye opener.
@simonf you’ll find opinions on both sides, that said it would not be true veganism to consume eggs regardless of the source and most vegans would not describe backyard chicken eggs as vegan. The common thread through the reasoning behind individuals veganism is a desire to reduce the harm that comes to animals but the specifics can vary substantially from vegan to vegan: some vegans go as far as believing that all animals deserve the right to autonomy and consent and any use of animals without their consent is wrong, whereas some vegans believe that physical harm at the point of production is the problem their veganism is to solve.
Personally, I subscribe to the more strict view that if an animal cannot consent then it is wrong. The reason my veganism extends beyond physical harm at the point of production is that the way humans interfere with animals is inherently harmful. Chickens are a great example: wild chickens do not produce and abandon unfertilised eggs with any regularity, it is very resource intensive for a chicken to lay an egg and physically demanding, it uses a lot of nutrients that the chicken needs: if a chicken lays an unfertilised egg in the wild it will often eat the egg to regain the wasted nutrients. Humans have specifically bred chickens to produce more and more unfertilised eggs at the expense of the chickens health, and so while you might treat your chicken very well when you interact with it, it’s still producing eggs in a way that is not “normal” and is harmful… and that’s only for your benefit.
That said, if you had to consume eggs then a well treated backyard chicken is certainly better than store bought The goal is, ultimately, to reduce our harm, and we have to do that within our own constraints. If someone cannot live without eggs then certainly I’d say have a backyard chicken, it’s less harmful.
How do you both find holidays? Currently in Vietnam / Thailand and could imagine being vegan quite hard so far.