A vegan diet is a diet that excludes all animal products and byproducts. It also avoids any products that have been tried or tested on animals. That’s why not all products you thought are vegan actually are. In this post, I’m going to show you some of the foods to watch out for if following a vegan diet.
- Foods labeled as dairy-free.
Don’t be deceived by the dairy-free stamp as most products may be dairy-free but still contain other animal products. Just make sure it says vegan, but more importantly, go through the ingredients list.
- Dark chocolates.
A lot of dark chocolates are vegan, but some brands put milk or milk powder in their products, so make sure to check through the ingredients list.
- Margarine
Although most margarine is vegan, some brands may contain animal products such as casein and lactose. And don’t forget that ingredients keep changing, so even for your trusted brand, always go over the ingredients list and make sure it has the vegan logo.
- Wine and alcohol
Did you know that most wines and alcohol are actually not vegan? Different processes involved during their production, such as filtration, can include animal products such as fish bladder, bone char, and even egg whites. But don’t freak out. There are still a whole lot of vegan wines out there, and although you can’t really tell from their list of ingredients, you may want to look for an authentic vegan seal and not just a vegan sticker.
- Soups
Many vegetable soups, especially in traditional restaurants throughout Europe use meat stock as a flavoring. So make sure you ask the waiter and make it clear you want a soup without any animal products or stock flavoring.
- Fruit juice
Yes they should be vegan, but some may contain fish oil, crushed insects, animal bones, and sheep’s wool
To make you believe their products are extra healthy, some brands choose to add animal products such as vitamin D, which in some cases are derived from sheep’s wool or omega-3 oils often sourced from fish.
Some brands also use gelatin, which is an animal product for that extra thickness.
- Sugar
Sugar can be derived from either the sugarcane plant or beets, and although they are both vegan, in most cases, the sugar is filtered through bone char (charred bones from cows). This is especially common with most sugar companies in the US, while it’s less common in the UK.
So, with many processed foods containing sugar, though claiming to be vegan, the sugar in that product may not.
- Veggie burgers
You might think it’s just a vegan burger, but that’s not true because a lot of them do have eggs and dairy in them. For example, the veggie patty at the subway has both dairy and eggs.
Upholding your vegan standards is such an essential part of any vegan, but most of the foods that you knew to be vegan could be compromising your beliefs and principles. So make sure you check the respective ingredient’s list to ascertain that the product you’re about to purchase is indeed vegan.
