vegan

Recipe Sunday – Puffed Quinoa & Nut Bars

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Happy Sunday peeps! Still going strong with my Limpia detox (20th day!) and as I said in my last post, you can do this and still enjoy food. To show how this is possible, I am sharing a delicious sweet recipe that is nicely easy and quick to make and you’ll just love it!

Puffed Quinoa & Nut Bars by ChoosingChia

Puffed Quinoa & Nut Bars by ChoosingChia

Because I am on a more restrictive eating regimen, I cannot eat any flours or sugar making it a bit more difficult to have a nice dessert. But this is really not a problem, because there are many sweets that you can make. These Puffed Quinoa & Nut Bars are one of such recipes and absolutely a must. They are matching all the rules of the detox and it’s really delicious.

The ingredients are:

  • Dates,
  • Peanut Butter;
  • Vanilla Extract;
  • Cinnamon;
  • Salt;
  • Puffed quinoa;
  • Sunflower and Pumpkin Seeds;
  • Chopped Almonds.

Put the first 5 ingredients on a food processor then add the remaining ingredients and pulse until everything is well incorporated but you are still able to see some puffed quinoa, almonds and seeds.

Line an 8×8 inch pan with parchment or wax paper and press the mixture evenly into the pan with your hands. Place in the fridge for 2 hours to set.

Cut into bars and store in an air-tight container in the fridge for up to 2 weeks.

That’s it! Easy peasy.

Let me know what you think!

Love,

TVCL xx

What I Eat In A Day – Limpia Edition

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Everybody is doing it, so I’ll do it too: “What I Eat In A Day”, but not on a regular day. As I am doing La Limpia again (but reduced, therefore instead of 50 days it’s 25), I would like to share what I have been eating these days which is something a bit different from other vegan “WIAIADs”.

As I hinted in this post, La Limpia is a way of detoxifying your body (from head to toe to reproductive system) by taking specific herbs first thing in the morning, then basically is just avoiding processed foods and any type of flour. Needless to say, it is advised to avoid alcohol, tobacco and drugs during this time. Last time I went for the whole 50 days: this time I decided to do it reduced because I wasn’t feeling great for few months at the end of last year and felt I needed to do some kind of detox.

The main rules are:

  • For 50 (or 25) days, you will have an herb first thing in the morning with empty stomach and the herb changes every 10 (or 5 for the reduced Limpia) days starting with Garlic (a whole clove of garlic to be swallowed with some water, like a pill), then Plantain, Dandelion, Horsetail and Mugworth;
  • No processed foods, from pasta&bread to sugar and all the flours (no chickpea omelette :((( nor crispy tofu made with cornstarch). Not even home-made stuff;
  • No deep-fried food.

So, as a vegan, what would one eat?! Is this the situation where one will be able to only eat salad? I can tell you that absolutely no! There is plenty of delicious food to enjoy even with these restrictions. And I am not even telling you that you’ll need hours of meal prep or just enormous quantity of time to prepare these dishes (however, a bit of meal prep is useful), because you can make food that will take just few minutes as well as more elaborate foods.

Generally speaking, as you can eat ALL the veggies and fruit (fresh and dry) and nuts and legumes and all the wholegrains, you already see that there is plenty of choice for foods.

Honestly, I like a bit of meal prep, but don’t get confused as my meal prep is actually very lazy: is the kind of putting beans to soak on a working morning while the kettle is boiling so that I don’t have to think about it until when I come back from work, when I’ll just change the water and put the beans to cook. And you can make an extra batch of rice/millet/quinoa while you get ready in the morning as if you put them in enough water you don’t really have to pay much attention for the next 15/20minutes. However, you can always get the tinned legumes if you are pressed for time.

While the rules don’t contemplate processed foods, you can still make your own patties and burgers as well as your own mayo. Tofu and tempeh are also in the midts.

In terms of sweets, things are just slightly trickier but don’t despair because we are resourceful vegans and we can definitely do this.

A Day Eating For This Regimen

Let’s get to the point: what am I eating during this time?

I am on my 16th day of Limpia, currently having Dandelion in the morning, and I’ve been almost always had porridge made with water. I have it with a spoon of peanut butter and either a chopped apple or banana.

Should I feel peckish mid-morning I’d have fruit, but the porridge it’s really quite enough to get to lunch.

For lunch, it’s usually millet or rice with veggies and/or legumes.

While at dinner it would have been quinoa with tofu or tempeh or any legume. I would also make Gomjajeon (Korean potato and onion pancake), roasted vegetables, Red Lentil Fritters, patties and balls. You can also make your vegan cheese, for example, this Pure Ella Cranberry and Rosemary Cashew Cheese Log or the Mozzarella by Eating By Elaine as well as the Zucchini Pizza Bites by Elaine.

And for dessert, you will ask? Well, you will be surprised to see that there is actually a lot that you can do! These No-Bake Carrot Cake by The Big Man World, these No-Bake Pecan Pie Bars by Eating By Elaine or Homemade Nutella by Eating By Elaine. And why not treat yourself to Pumpkin Pie Truffles by Short Girl Tall Order?

Conclusion

True, La Limpia is a restrictive diet and even more on a vegan diet. But, it is very rewarding because you’ll feel better: it is a small sacrifice to pay and it’s only for like 25 or 50 days. As I am writing, I am actually feeling quite energised: can’t still really get up at the time I would like to, but as soon as I do the day goes on quite smoothly without much need to rest. Is it La Limpia? I honestly don’t know, but I believe it is helping and I have fewer toxins in my body.

So, my suggestion is that it won’t do harm and you could even get something positive out of it.

I’ll try to update you at the end of this, but please let me know if you’ll try to or you want to try it so that I can give you some advice.

Love!

TVCL xx

On Vegan and Plant-based Milk

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Beautiful peeps! I hope you are all doing great and have survived the holiday period (and maybe enjoyed it, too!). I have been lucky enough to have enjoyed this time as I had a few days off from work and oh my, I needed it: the last months of 2021 had been quite demanding at work and hadn’t managed to get a proper balance in my personal life, so getting almost 10 days off had been fabulous. A lot of relaxing and recharging, much needed. It has been also a good time to catch up with some reading and researching and I am going to share with you the fruits of such research!

Today I wanted to expand a bit on what I was writing about in my last post, where I was referring to the Veganuary website suggesting to use certain foods and ingredients as substitutes for their non-vegan counterparts, while they are owned by big multinational corporations such as Coca Cola, Unilever, etc. that are really not vegan nor have animal and environment welfare as part of their principles.

An example, is the Alpro brand. Oooft! I know, it is everywhere, it is convenient and it has a wide variety of non-dairy products. Unfortunately, Alpro is owned by Danone, a massive multinational company with a focus on dairy products (it literally started as a yoghurt producer).

Similarly, the successful oat milk brand, Oatly, has been recently purchased by The Blackstone Group, an investment management group: its CEO, Stephen A. Schwarzman has shares in companies connected to deforestation in the Amazon (you can read a bit more here and here).

Another popular plant-based milk brand that is owned by a parent company to a multinational is Plenish, which has been acquired by Britvic, which “holds the franchises for producing and bottling Pepsi Cola and 7Up in the United Kingdom“.

Other brands that are not independent:

  • Rude Health (PepsiCo.);
  • Provamel (Danone);
  • Soya Soleil (Danone).

These are just few of the most popular brands that are taking over the vegan and dairy-free market of milk substitutes.

You might find this frustrating because these brands are easy to find and fairly cheap, and now you might wonder if there can be alternatives to these plant-based milks, as it seems that as soon as a brand becomes just a bit more available, any of the multinationals want a bite of them! Well, don’t despair! There are plenty of smaller and independent plant-based milk brands that are fairly easy to find and still maintain their ethical essence.

Among these are (and no, I am not sponsored by any of them):

  • Mighty Pea;
  • Plamil;
  • Ecomil;
  • Good Hemp;
  • Isola Bio;
  • Minor Figures (although I am afraid of where they are heading with their big expanse in the U.S. market).

The good thing about these smaller/independent businesses (at least in theory and from what they advertise), is that they use fewer and more genuine ingredients and it is easier to hold them accountable for what they are doing.

I am going to keep a watchful eye on the situation and will keep you updated with any changes.

It’s all for today, my beautiful kittens!

TVCL xx

Veganuary it’s here!

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It’s officially 2022. Today it’s the very first day of a new year and I am very excited to see what it will bring (but I don’t want to jinx anything as we’ve seen how the past 2 years have gone, generally speaking). And with the new year, it comes also Veganuary. Let’s take a look into it.

Veganuary is an initiative by the UK organisation with the same name, that promotes veganism by simply asking whoever want to take part to try a vegan diet during the month of January. I think it is quite a simple and fairly effective initiative and it can surely benefit the vegan cause: they provide facts to raise awareness without being too pushy, in their website you can find recipes to get you started as well as nutrition tips. They are making it very easy for people to potentially go vegan, without excuses of not knowing what to eat, of vegan food, being too difficult to make or that the dishes are not balanced. On the Veganuary website, you’ll find all the relevant information.

The initiative started in 2014 and seems to go quite well. However… I still have to find a person that decided to go vegan because they tried Veganuary. I don’t know, maybe it’s because I live in a small rural town, but it also seems that the places where I can get a vegan takeout or even sit in for a meal, have either closed or significantly reduced the variety of vegan food on offer. Yes, supermarkets are providing some ready meals or quick to make stuff, which is great when you are in a hurry and didn’t manage to cook anything the night before. But they are not for everyday consumption. So I am wondering where are all these vegans? Are they only in the bigger cities? If you know, please share your knowledge.

Now, going back to Veganuary and its effectiveness. I applaud the initiative and the organisation because they are raising awareness not only in the UK but all around the world, and as the old saying goes “The more, the merrier”. But I have to raise a concern (no, I don’t have to-have to in the categorical sense, but that I feel I should. Then why you don’t say that? Because I don’t want to. Now let’s proceed.): some of the ingredients they are suggesting people should use, are from brands owned by multinational companies such as Coca Cola, Pepsi, etc, which we established are not vegan (you can find a list of non-vegan companies, as well as a chart of the multinationals and the brands that they own). I know that many vegans are very excited about this initiative, and again, I am too and I am very supportive. Also, I understand that they are promoting the use of certain foods because they might be cheaper than buying them from smaller, independent companies and it’s also easier than making them yourself: all factors that can help people approach veganism.

Nevertheless, I strongly believe that any money given to these companies is just protracting the suffering of animals: it doesn’t matter that that product is labelled as plant-based and vegan-friendly if it comes from a business that is exploiting animals, its employees and the environment (you can read some more of this here). There are really plenty of small businesses that make vegan food and ingredients, that are true to vegan ethics because they were born as vegan and ethical companies. There are several places where you can find lists of such businesses for vegan food, clothes etc. and if you find yourself stuck in terms of beauty products and snacks, FreedmStreet is the website for you (no, this is not a paid post, it’s just that I have been buying stuff from them for the past 3 years and I am always 100% satisfied, hence why I am suggesting it).

So, go vegan, try it for January, for a few months or for your life, but try to do also some research: there are many resources online that you can consult and this blog wants to make your life easier, plus there is a massive community online and many charities and organisations to whom you can talk about going vegan.

If you need any assistance, please leave a comment or get in touch!

And to conclude, here are some easy recipes to get you started

31 DROOL-WORTHY Healthy Veganuary Recipes
Healthy Broccoli Potato Soup

Love,

TVCL

Happy New Year! (And Taking Stock of the Past 12 Months)

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It’s New Year’s Eve, 2021 is coming to an end. We are still in this “global pandemic” and it doesn’t seem like we’re are really getting out of this situation at least for another while. Paraphrasing something that I’m hearing a lot recently: “A year has passed, but where did it go?”. Because at the same time we are all perceiving that yes, 12 months have surely come and gone, but also it doesn’t feel like it. I believe this whole situation is making us all feel a bit discombobulated.

So here we are, and we keep on going, trying our best to survive these crazy times, trying to maintain a sort of mental sanity, trying to find some bits of normality during a period that normal is not. And the year coming to an end is usually a source of melancholy because we’re coming to the very final part of these 12 months, and the end always brings up many feelings and emotions like sadness and anxiety, because of the thing that we’re leaving behind and the things that we wanted to do but we haven’t managed. It can quite distressing and it is not surprising that (coupled with the darkness of these months) many people get the “January blues” (you can read on my experience with Seasonal Affective Disorder, and while for me it works in reverse, the symptoms are the same and you might find useful my way of dealing with it).

But we’re usually forgetting that an end means a new beginning. The New Year brings another set of feelings and emotions because there is the hope of a new start with all the new opportunities and chances that that can bring. I am not one to say that if you had a shitty year, go ahead and make 50 “New Year Resolutions” that you’ll probably won’t manage to cope with and you’ll get overwhelmed and frustrated and your new year will result in just a big disappointment.

On Resolutions

In order to enjoy the new possibilities that the New Year can bring us and so that we can make the most of what we also can build for ourselves, we should build a sustainable lifestyle, without stressing over the resolutions and the “New Year-New Me” fads. Obviously, if you like creating resolutions and you believe that what you are resolving to do in the next 12 months is doable, by all means, go for it. But if you are going to create 50 resolutions that are all undoable, not achievable, then you’re just paving the path to failure and frustration which will affect your mental and physical health. What I am suggesting is that of those 50 resolutions, at least 30 are achievable with some effort and willpower, but without extreme requirements of energy and time; 15 will require a fairly moderate effort and for 5 you will have to use maximum levels of time and energy. This is probably an extreme example but is to give you an idea. And the levels of time, energy and effort are based on you and only you: comparing yourself to others can be constructive to give you ideas and see what others are doing, but we all have different sets of skills and experiences and as a quote that is around since 2004 circa

Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.

(maybe Albert Einstein, maybe not)

Therefore, my advice is:

  • if you like the idea of resolutions, go for it, but keep it sustainable;
  • if you would like this approach but are scared that things might get frustrating, look at them as goals, think of what you really would like to do, break it down into smaller bits and make these smaller bits your goals;
  • if you don’t like the idea of resolutions, but still would like some kind of structure to the New Year, then think of what you are aspiring to and what could be your intentions to get to such aspirations.

Now, lessons from 2021 for TVCL:

  1. Look after your mental health, find what makes you feel good and dedicate some time for that at least once a week or at intervals that work for you. But make time for it!
  2. Look after your physical health: eat well and sometimes give in to (not too) unhealthy foods, do a detox when you feel like you should, but don’t overdo it – measure is all! Also exercise: find a good balance – 10 minutes per day of anything is better than nothing.
  3. Find time for reading – read anything, from classic books to comics, but read. If you are stuck, you can try a little challenge like this one to get you started.
  4. Find some time for nature, as it has many benefits and once you start going for some walks in nearby parks and woods and lakes, you’ll find that a breath in the fresh air will reset your mindset (Nietsche said this as well!).
  5. Clean and tidy up where you live: not only it will be clean and tidy, but the whole process is almost cathartic and when you finish you really will feel better (talking as an ex-almost-hoarder, the de-cluttering process makes me feel much freer).
  6. Family and friends are important, so dedicate them time: if you are an introvert you might find that social interactions can take some energyfrom you, but when you come back home from that meeting or you finish that videocall you’ll feel more serene.
  7. Social events (ceremonies, nights out, etc) are a good way to interact with people and expand your “social circle”, but as of now I can’t take them more than maybe once every few months because of all the mental preparation to get to the actual event (like mental prep to get dressed, meet people, etc).

Yes, I’d say this is what I am taking from 2021, from a year with a global pandemic still going strong, where people still want to get married and go out and have some kind of normality.

Food

In terms of food, for tonight I ordered a Chinese takeout (a little tradition of mine), salt&pepper tofu and rice vermicelli with mixed vegetables. In addition, I made lentils as that’s my family tradition (one big onion and 3 carrots sauteed, then add 1 1/2 cups dried green lentils and 3 cups of water. Cook until the lentils have absorbed all the water).

I hope you all have a fantastic New Year!

Wish you all the best, and as always, go vegan!

Veganism and the Environment

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Beautiful peeps! I hope you are all doing well. I have been having a very busy time these past weeks, as I was hinting in my last post and it is getting a bit busier with the approaching of Christmas (I will really need a break soon and hopefully I’ll manage to get some more writing!). This month saw COP26 happening in Glasgow and this brought a lot of extra attention to the environmental cause with much more discussion around the pros of a plant-based diet.

COP26 and The Environment

For those who don’t know, COP stands for “Conference Of the Parties” and it is the United Nations Climate Change Conference where heads of state meet to discuss the best ways to tackle climate change.

The good thing is that at least Climate Change is being acknowledged. The changes happening to our Earth are visible, from fast-melting glaciers to floods in many places (i.e. Belgium, Canada, etc.) and frequent monsoons and other calamities. While in the Middle East the temperatures are reaching record-highs.

However, despite the scientific knowledge that adopting a more plant-based diet would help with tackling climate change and the numerous peaceful protests calling for more attention to these issues, the whole conference didn’t end with concrete efforts to make serious changes to the countries’ environmental policies.

I won’t repeat myself because you can find much info here and here, but it is known that intensive farming is heavily contributing to dangerous gas emissions. Linked to this, multinational companies are also a relevant pollution factor especially in the “less developed countries”. We see that the “Big Brands” are doing greenwashing marketing to appear as if they are concerned with what is happening, but they are not changing their ways, exploiting people, animals and resources. Look what they are doing here. In addition to this, such big brands are spoiling the tax system to their advantage.

I would also like to point out that there seems to be a lot of confusion on the political front* with critiques that many multinationals are led by left-wing and “woke” people: they are not. If they are leading a multinational, they have very little genuine left-wing thought as the main interest is making money, not recognising human and animal rights, nor lobbying to implement environmentally friendly policies.

What You Can Do

All this seems pretty grimy, doesn’t it? And you might find yourself quite hopeless.

But don’t despair! There are solutions to this.

For example, following the thought of “Think Global, Act Local”. Think about what happens around the world, look outside your comfort place. And see how the other experiences can help you improve your community. Also, think about how your choices can have a global impact: look at where your pans are made or if your latest piece of clothing is coming from places known to exploit women.

If possible, get your groceries from co-ops or community-run enterprises and buy from shops that stock local businesses.

Avoid getting exotic animals, either from shops or from private: exotic animals are supposed to live in places where they are not considered “exotic”. And obviously don’t buy any pets! The shelters are overflowing with unwanted cats, dogs, rabbits, horses etc and the majority will have a policy of euthanising those animals who haven’t been adopted after a number of weeks.

To Conclude

Even if you don’t believe in climate change, you should acknowledge that some changes are happening to our Earth and there might be a chance that they are worsened by mankind, then why not do something, bring a little bit of change to your everyday life, that could help alleviate such alterations?

*Please note that I am not here to discuss politics as it is becoming increasingly messed up, nor do I prefer left or right wing as neither is accomplishing much (consider reading this article). I am a vegan, a feminist, an environmentalist and an activist for animal and human rights, and I am talking as such: I do the research on these issues and I am telling you the outcome but the process too, so that you are not happy with my findings you can do your own research and come to your conclusions.

Gunda – A Delicate, Yet Powerful Film

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As my usual, I am coming late to the partay: I just found out these days that there is a new movie by film director Viktor Kossakovsky and the executive producer is (our beloved) Joaquin Phoenix: it is called Gunda, it has been presented at various Film Festivals around the globe and it was released on the 4th of June in the UK (16th April in the U.S.A.). Although, it was already presented at the Berlin International Film Festival in February 2020.

I just finished watching it and it is quite the vegan movie: it is heartbreakingly true and honest. It is delicate because it depicts the lives of farm animals in a fairly free environment; it is powerful because the film manages to show the animals in a fairly free environment and how they would behave if they were left alive. The black and white technique and absence of music make it possible to get a full immersion in the lives of these farm animals. But I don’t want to say too much in case you want to watch it.

From the official website, we read that

“Where his prior film, the acclaimed epic AQUARELA, was a reminder of the fragility of human tenure on earth, in GUNDA, master filmmaker Viktor Kossakovsky reminds us that we share our planet with billions of other animals. Through encounters with a mother sow (the eponymous Gunda), two ingenious cows, and a scene-stealing, one-legged chicken, Kossakovsky movingly recalibrates our moral universe, reminding us of the inherent value of life and the mystery of all animal consciousness, including our own.”

Gunda

And this is the trailer

Joaquin Phoenix and Victor Kossakovsky have partnered to make this film. Kossakovsky is vegan, and we know that Phoenix is a vegan and activist: with this, we can say that he shows how to use media to talk about the importance of going vegan. Read the interview with the two artists in the Los Angeles Times.

As we are already aware of how vocal is Joaquin about going vegan, I’ll share here the interview of Victor Kossakovsky for the New York Film Festival

Victor Kossakovsky on Gunda, Respecting Nature, and Filmmaking Ethics | NYFF58

Kossakovsky explains how Gunda is not vegan propaganda:

“filmmaking is a weapon a could make… I could make easily a monster of her and I can make angel. for example when she decided to kill her kid because she was not able…she knew he was weak that this kid was weak, she knew that this kid would not make it and as far as she didn’t have enough…how do you call it…nipples, right? she didn’t have enough milk so she suppose she knew she must make this decision. and if I were to make propaganda movie, “vegan propaganda” movie, I would cut it out, right, this episode, I will not show it because obvs it is controversial episode, right? Like, if you want to make people laugh here they probably will not show this, right? But I say I don’t do propaganda, I don’t do propaganda, this is… I’m not who I am to decide to… to judge her, I’m not there to judge.”

He also talks about human rights:

“We have been inventing horrible things [referring to nuclear weapons, torture, machine guns], we are like this. We are still not underst…we are still thinking, fighting about, we are still questioning like rights of people with god, we… what is this? we are still talking about it, we still not came to conclusion, we still talking about rights of women, rights of people with different sexual orientation. We still not decide at least we are not teaching a human.”

On the consciousness of killing animals:

“We will not make next step until we understand that to kill animal and to mistreat animal is the same as mistreat human and kill human, the same: it’s act of killing, nothing else. We allow ourselves to torture, to mistreat and to kill, we allow ourselves to do this. Doesn’t matter if it’s animal or human, we have to accept, we are able to do this, if we are able to do this then why are we surprised that there is still war, why are we surprised that they still fight in streets, why are we surprised. We… we know we are killing them, we know we are torturing them, we know we mistreat them and we do see and we play games that “we don’t know”: we eat every morning and we know it was just killed. we are killing three trillion fishes every year, we are killing one billion pigs every year, we are killing half-billion cows every year, billions, I’m talking. we are killing 50 billions chickens every year.”

On the criticisms of veganism because of religion or scientific reasons, he

“has bad news for both. If you believe in god, first of all, is written don’t kill and if you believe in god, you believe you have soul: in Gunda, you see she does have soul. But if you don’t believe in god, I also have bad news for you, because if you believe in evolution then evelution will not stop in human, then it will appear more cleaver creature more cleaver than human and might happen it will be more aggressive, might happen it will use our babies for Christmas parties to eat. just be careful. Let’s wake up, let’s respect nature.”

Kossakovsky also took the chance to point out the inequalities in the distribution of resources:

“Just let’s talk. and what we do: one billion people at the moment don’t have water, one billion people have no access to water at the same time we have one billion cows, which each of them needs 10 times more than human just to feed and to make produce for human. cows need more water than humans, we have one billion cows, but we have no water fr one billion people. And we have spent 10 times more water to produce meat.”

This film is really worth watching, so let me know if you have done it already or are you planning to.

Make the connection, go vegan.

Love!

Petition – No Vegan Trademark to the Vegan KitKat

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Hi everybody! This is just a quick post in between posts: there is this petition asking the Vegan Society to withdraw the vegan trademark from Nestlé’s vegan KitKat.

Just perfect timing with what I was saying in my last post: Nestlé doesn’t have anything vegan about it so their products shouldn’t be approved by the Vegan Society, no vegan trademark should be conceded to them. It is true they are pledging to “minimize animal testing for conventional foods” (meaning that they are still testing on animals for non-conventional foods), their working practices are far from respectful of the employees and the environment.

The guys at Global Vegan explain everything in detail. Have a read, sign and share!

Will speak soon, and as always

Go vegan!

Vegan vs Plant-based

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In this post, I am going to explain a bit more in-depth the difference between “Vegan” and “Plant-based”. Probably you think that these terms are synonyms but they are not: here I am telling you why, hopefully making your life a bit easier in identifying what is vegan and what is plant-based. I know it seems like I am repeating myself and it might be, but, you know, repetita iuvant (which translates literally to ‘repetition does good’).

Let’s give some sense to these words:

Vegan = Someone who doesn’t consume any product derived from animals, in all aspects of their lives from food to clothing, to make-up and beauty etc.: no animal products whatsoever. It is not only a diet but also a lifestyle and a philosophy. The idea behind it is that there is no need to exploit animals in order for us to live. But it doesn’t stop here: the abuse that a vegan doesn’t encourage for the animals applies to also people and the environment because, usually the industries like fish, meat, dairy are not famous for having good ethical practices. Just an example, the meat industry is a barbaric business that destroys the environment, creating pollution (from greenhouse gases to water pollution – for further reading click here and here) which affects the people.

Plant-based = A diet where a person eats food that is not derived from animals. It is a diet, it can be considered at a similar level of omnivore diet, vegetarian diet, Dukan diet, etc.

We have already seen – here and here – that there are certain brands (like Coca-Cola, Unilever, Procter & Gamble, etc.) holding an almost complete monopoly of the food industry, with their name products but also through the owning of parent companies. And we have ascertained that they are not vegan for the animals nor the environment or the people. For example, there is a new version of KitKat being advertised as vegan. But they are owned by Nestle which is definitely not vegan. So, they should actually be advertised as plant-based.

There are also many clothing brands that are advertising themselves, or some of their products, as vegan as they don’t use materials derived from animals. But, again, while these products don’t contain they come from brands that are not actually vegan and uses wool, leather, feathers etc in their other products. Examples are provided by the clothes and shoes produced by brands like Adidas and Nike: while some of their products might be made without the use of animal products, they both have issues on matter of ethical treatment of employees, animals and the environment (you can find information on Adidas and Nike here and here).

Similarly, on the matter of make-up and beauty products, we enter that universe controlled by L’Oreal, Yves Rocher, Maybelline, Pantene etc, all professing to make vegan products while testing on animals (making such products not cruelty-free: which is another thing to look out when buying vegan beauty products and there are lists of brands that are vegan and cruelty-free that you can find, for example, on the CrueltyFreeKitty and EthicalElephant websites).

Ethics

So we are getting to the main point, which is the ethics of the company producing vegan or plant-based products.

I know that now the vegans eating Oreos and washing their hair with some L’Oreal stuff are already fairly pissed at me. But I am only stating the facts: these products are not vegan because these big companies are not vegan, exploiting animals and workers and deforesting the Earth. True, their products might be slightly more affordable, but there is a price behind that and I don’t want to sound cheesy, but that price is ethics. Every time you buy some Heinz beans or mayonnaise or whatever, you are financing a system that is exploiting the exploitable. This is not a criticism, only something that should be taken into consideration. Especially if we want the end to animal suffering, better working conditions and a cleaner world: whenever you can, shop locally, look if there are food cooperatives that get their fruit&veg from the local farms, look up for those smaller online shops that are selling trusted vegan products. In the beginning, it will be difficult, but we are in 2021 and there really are so many options.

This has been since I started transitioning to my vegan lifestyle: it has been hard, but I hacked the best ways to get real vegan food. When I moved to the UK I had to start all over: while I was looking for jobs (but also while I was waiting tables or worked in a bar) I couldn’t afford to get to the farmers’ market, but I was still avoiding these big companies by going to the supermarket late in the evening to get food at very reduced prices, buying clothes at the charity shops (going to TK Maxx for a treat, but obviously being extra careful to all the label products). Only now that I am in a good job I can finally sit and look for alternatives to the supermarkets & Co. So it is possible, it takes time and some patience, but it is doable.

“White Veganism”

However, this point raises the issue of “white veganism”, one of the criticisms made to vegans/plant-based people: in short, this critique says that those that can afford to be vegan are mostly white people from the northern hemisphere and that veganism is linked to colonisation, making it difficult for BIPOC and people in the southern hemisphere to be vegan because either vegan products exploit immigrants and those living south of the Equator or because the prices of vegan products are inaccessible to BIPOCs.

I think it has already been made clear that if one is vegan (see above) they will have a care not only for the well-being of the animals but also of the environment which means people too. Here, I can quite agree with the critique of white veganism as a diet is a consequence of colonialism: the big multi-national companies that are deforesting the Amazon forest and exploit indigenous people to plant palm oil and to build intensive farms are indeed the fruit of colonisation (also if I were you, I would read this article). But these companies are not vegan. They have some products that are plant-based, but not vegan. So I would like to redirect the critique of white veganism to actually a “white plant-based movement”. The same movement that sponsors the consumption of Impossible Foods (see why Impossible Foods Ltc is not vegan), Beyond Meat and all those meat-alternative companies that advertise making ultra-processed plant-based food at such high prices, making it really Impossible for people on low income to buy them. A vegan can live with pasta, rice, legumes, fruit and vegetables and have a balanced, healthy and affordable diet. And you can make a lot of meat-alternatives by yourself (casually dropping some recipes for tofu and seitan to make at home)!

It should also be argued that those talking about white veganism never mention that the meat industry takes away a big chunk of subsidies and that actually a redistribution of resources would help in having good fruit&veg at cheaper prices while also being organic.

To Summarise

Behind veganism there is an idea that no sentient being, nor the environment, should be exploited: it is with this optic that we look at the practices of big companies and discern what is vegan and what is not. While what vegans eat is a plant-based diet, it is much more than this. Also, no one is perfect and we are all trying our best.

If you have any thoughts on this let me know in the comments down below.

See you for the next post!

Further readings:

Environmental Impact of Meat Consumption – University of British Columbia

Is eating meat bad for the environment? Future Learn

Why do we need alternative sources of protein? – Future Learn

JBS Meat Processor USA – Shop Ethical

10 Major Companies Responsible for Deforestation – Earth.org

UK farmers prepare for overhaul to farm subsidies after Brexit – Financial Times

Good On You

Recipe Sunday – Vegan Gnocchi Bake

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I know, I am coming a bit late today for this weekly appointment, but I wnated to share with you this beautiful recipe, perfect comfort food for every time of the year. It is deliciously vegan and you won’t regret making it.

Vegan Gnocchi Bake – LazyCatKitchen

In another post I included this recipe as a suggestion for a Valentine’s Day menu.

The reason I am dedicating a whole post to this recipe is because is the perfect comfort food: it is easy to make and tastes divinely, while also maintaining a certain healthiness as you can use your homemade gnocchi (so that you knwo what the ingredients are).

This Vegan Gnocchi Bake is nutricious, with shallots, mushrooms and broccoli. At the same time it’s also very tasty because of the gnocchi themselves, the flavoursome bechamel sauce and the vegan cheese.

It requires no effort, while returning an amazing result.

I made it now three times and never disappoints: try it to believe it!

Enjoy!