QuarryGirl has an interesting follow-up post to her investigation of L.A.-area vegan restaurants from last week.
You know, I'm going to L.A. next Friday on business, with a co-worker who became a vegetarian because of my example (not vegan yet, but wait a while!)
I think I'm going to pick one of the restaurants that QurryGirl confirmed is really truly vegan; I'm going to see if any of them actually responded to Quarry Girl's post and commented or emailed her; then I'm going to suggest we go there for lunch. And when we do, I'm going to tell them that's why we're there.
Positive reinforcement, people!!!
This month's Silicon Veggie explores the question: Would you eat the eggs of chickens you raised?
Coincidentally, I just saw a thread on Stephanie Ernst's Animal Rights blog for Change.org, where someone in the comments asked the same question.
The consensus in those comments seemed to be: You can still be kind/ethical if you eat your chicken's eggs. But you're not really a vegan.
What do you think?
If you are a vegan, or even a vegetarian, or even just care about truth in restaurant menus and ingredient lists, you must read QuarryGirl's post: Operation Pancake: Undercover investigation of LA vegan restaurants.
She and some intrepid partners set up a food testing lab, acquired samples from 17 L.A. vegan restaurants (excuse me while I sigh over the concept of having 17 vegan restaurants in your town) and tested those samples for casein, egg and shellfish.
The results are disappointing to say the least. Only 7 restaurants passed with flying colors.
The post goes into great detail about the testing process, the food sample acquisition process, and even how most of these restaurants might, themsleves be victims of their suppliers. Only one restaurant seems to be totally, heinously, dishonest.
It's a must-read, and pretty much confirms my suspicioun that being a 95% vegan is probably the best that most of us can do if we *ever* eat out.
Sign.
But wow.
Very impressive. And subscribing to her blog right now!
Hat tip to Atlanta's Vegan Examiner, Alyse, for pointing me to my latest iPhone application download, VeganXpress, in this post about vegan web sites and apps.
One of the most enjoyable aspects of owning an iPhone is discovering that, true to their marketing campaign, there really is an "app for that".
In addition to just downloading VeganXpress, I also have:
Locavore: Designed to help you find local farmer's markets, and t know what's in season in your region
Whole Foods Recipes: Which does have a special section of vegan recipes
Vegetarian recipes: Because, yeah, I needed one more cookbook I won't use nearly often enough!
CrueltyFree from Leaping Bunny AND BNB (Be nice to Bunnies): Both designed to help you look up personal care and beauty items and see if they're vegan and cruelty-free
I have the cruelty-free apps multiple times already, and I'm looking forward to turning to them all to make the vegan life a little easier!
Did I miss any?
I'm a little late to commenting on this, but I noticed that the San Francisco Chronicle's "Accidental Vegetarian" columnist went vegan for a month and wrote about it.
She speaks glowingly of how great she felt and looked on the diet. And she took full advantage of her cooking skills to get creative in her kitchen (PS-it all sounds yummy) but it sounds like she wasn't the most successful shopper in the world...not in grocery stores nor in restaurants.
And she lives in San Francisco! I can't imagine how she would have fared in a less vegan-friendly part of the country.
I would say two things:
1. It truly IS easy to find many veganized versions of everything...we have Whole Foods, Trader Joes, Mollie Stone's etc. etc. So, no, you might not shop for everything at Whole Foods, but if you're looking for soy yogurt without milk proteins (one of the things she said she couldn't couldn't, find!) then yeah, Whole Foods is your go-to source.
2. I think she got a bit more caught up in the drama of being a vegan and how limiting that can be (please read that as dripping with sarcasm) if her friends really were reluctant to go out with her. I go to every kind of restaurant there is. Yes, sometimes that doesn't work out so well for me. BUt when that Happens, you know what I do? I laugh it off.
And if most of my friends "found it too difficult to think of places we could go together"? I would think of the great places we could all go together. I've taken friends to very vegetarian and vegan-friendly places...sometimes even to (gasp!) vegan restaurants themselves. And you know what? 99% of the time, everyone is happy.
I hope perhaps the accidental vegetarian will try it again, without placing more limits on herself than really need to be there.
La Vida Locavore has a brief, interesting post about trying to satisfy her craving for a vegan cookie.
The problem is vegan does not always equal organic or non-GMO or local or any number of other things that are excellent goals for any of us to try to achieve with our diet.
This comes up even more often with apparel than it does for food. Pleather vs. leather when it comes to the environment, mostly.
Just as we all have a hierarchy of needs, I suppose we have a hierarchy of ethics that we build.
For me, it's vegan first. Then if it can achieve a myriad of other goals involving the environment, fair trade, corporate social responsibility etc., I'm happy too!
What is your hierarchy of ethics?
Wow, I count myself lucky that even though I've never had a doctor who was actually vegetarian or vegan, they've all been totally respectful...and reasonable well-informed about nutrition.
Not poor soychick, who tells her story of the doctor from hell in this post. So, her doctor did what mine recently did...ran more tests that she had run before, because i mentioned I was vegan. Yup, they gotta test out that iron and B vitamins etc. etc., just to make sure they can rub your face in it if your results come back deficient.
And, as you may know, mine did come back deficient in one area: Vitamin D. Now, my doctor made sure to tell me that half her patients have that, not just veg*n ones. So, I didn't come away with a single lecture.
Poor soychick's doctor finishes telling her that everything looks normal...and then tells her she should eat a steak. For reals.
You have to read the whole story, sounds totally infuriating. You can bet I'd get a new doctor. Pronto.
has that happened to you?
You may have noticed I've been trying to up my Vitamin D levels. It's actually tougher than you would think, if you're a working person (OK, a workaholic person) to get 10 minutes of sun in the middle of the day.
My favorite vegan dietician has a lengthy, info-packed article on bone health at VeganHealth.org, focused primarily on Vitamin D and calcium.
My conclusions: I don't think my desire to improve my Vitamin D levels through sunlight alone, no supplements required, seems realistic, especially during the winter months (November-March).
Bummer.
There's a new veggie restaurant in town, and I gave it a brief review in this month's Silicon Veggie column.
Bottom line: nom nom nom
Now, it's still in the Asian, faux-meat vein, but more Vietnamese-inspired than Chinese-inspired.
It's got a big menu and is waaay reasonably priced.
Try the rice pudding with the funky name: Pulut Hitaum. You'll have to read the article to learn more :)
Currently I'm on board a flight to NYC. This blog post comes to you courtesy of Virgin America's wi-fi enabled plane. Woo hoo!
Now, NYC can be a vegan's paradise...but I'm not predicting that will be the kind of trip it is.
My days are completely packed with client meetings...which means one of two things will happen:
1. I'll be grabbing lots of bagels and lattes at Starbucks to get by.
2. I'll be fed by clients who either don't know I'm vegan or don't get it, even if they've been told.
My only hope is for dinners. And I'm trying to line up at least a couple at places I love and will have plenty of choices at. I'm thinking if I can hit Candle 79 and Blossom I will be pretty stoked.
Anyway, blogging has been light preparing for this trip, and may be light all week because of this trip, but if I eat any fabulous food, I'll be sure to take pictures and post them here.
Recent Comments
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hatun said:
Should I be worried about getting enough protein on a vegetarian/vegan diet and what non-meat products can I eat to... read more
on iPhone apps for the Vegan -
Jeni Treehugger said:
You get Vitamin D from sunlight and has nothing to do with dietary choices at all.Poor soychick - it's quite... read more
on Poor soychick and the horrible doctor! -
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Elisa said:
Wow, I hope that doctor of yours is pretty young? She sounds awesome!And yes, the antithesis of soychick's crappy doctor! read more
on Poor soychick and the horrible doctor!
Of course I'm not a nutritionist or doctor, so I can tell you that generally getting enough protein is very... read more
on iPhone apps for the Vegan