Vegan FAQ

Frequently Asked Questions: Contents
+ Blog-related FAQ
+ Nutrition FAQ
+ Other FAQ

Blog-related FAQ

Why vegan?
Check out the Why Vegan? page on this site, and the rest of the FAQ below. Also check out the Contact & Comment Policy.

Do you ever eat, wear, or otherwise use eggs, dairy products, flesh, leather, or other miscellaneous animal products? Can you tell me how to use them in a recipe?
No. And also: no. I don’t cook with animal products, I wouldn’t know how to now and I wouldn’t want to – they are completely unnecessary and quite destructive on many levels, eg. animal well-being, human health, environmental health. See further FAQ below, my health-related posts, and my “Why Vegan?” page.

Is honey vegan?
No. It’s also high-GI and unnecessary for good health. Agave nectar is a similar sweetener but it’s made from agave cactii – it’s low-GI (around 90% fructose – fruit sugar), also has anti-bacterial and anti-inflammatory properties, it’s often cheaper, and – unlike honey – it’s soluble in cold drinks. There are many, many animal-free alternatives to honey if you’re jonesing for a sugar kick… sugar, for example, or: dates, fruits, maple syrup, golden syrup, raw sugar, brown sugar, white sugar, palm sugar, molasses, etc. Bee products are just not necessary. There are plenty of great synthetic and plant-based alternatives to beeswax as well. Read more on my Why Vegan? page on this site, and there’s some great info on Vegsource over here.

What is a raw vegan diet?
See my Raw Food page & Raw Vegan FAQ for detailed information.

I tried one of your recipes out and it didn’t work! What went wrong?
Did you follow the recipe instructions? I often write long instructions to be clear. If you skipped something, like sifting the flour, maybe that’s the problem… Did you use the correct ingredients? Double-check what you’ve got. For example, I use potato starch flour. Non-starchy potato flour might not be starchy enough!… What’s the texture of the flour you’re using? The finer ground, the better. If you use a coarsely ground flour, it might not work. Fine is usually best… Check the version number on the recipe – if it’s anything less than 1.0 on bread, it was a test recipe! Try a more recent version… If you have checked everything, and still can’t figure out what went wrong, drop me a comment on the recipe, and I’ll try to help you figure out what’s going on.

The bread isn’t like wheat bread!
Gee, really? That’s because it’s not made of wheat! Gluten stretches, making that fluffy texture in wheat bread. Non-gluten bread doesn’t do that. Gluten-free bread has a heavier texture, more reminiscent of heavier breads. If you want your bread to be a little less heavy, try using some white rice flour in place of brown rice flour – but remember it has less nutritional value. Also try to find a finer ground flour, or try using better quality yeast or vinegar to make things rise – organic products are usually better. The bread recipes I’ve put up are my best approximation of wheat bread. I’ve tried other gluten-free recipes, and found them to all be pretty average at best… I think I’ve improved on them quite a bit! Many commercial gluten-free breads are rubbery, squeaky on the teeth (too much starch!), don’t toast properly, or are VERY heavy and virtually unleaven – mine aren’t like that! I’m quite proud of them.

What about gluten-free bread rolls and specialty breads?
I’m getting to that. Give me a minute… I’ve already posted pizza dough and raw flatbread recipes. You can make pie crusts and calzones with the pizza dough, too.

Where do you get your [insert specialty ingredient here]?
For specialty ingredients, try specialty stores. Health food supermarkets, little local health food shops, Indian supermarkets, Chinese supermarkets, other Asian supermarkets, continental food stores, gourmet food stores, organic food stores, online vegan shops, etc. Ask other vegans who live in your area – they probably know where to get the best stuff. Ask in an online vegan forum – try the Post Punk Kitchen, the Vegan Freak forums, or even a Livejournal community.

What’s so ethical about gluten-free diets?
We eat gluten-free for health reasons. However! Mono-culture – such as grain crops – leads to mass amounts of deforestation to make way for fields of wheat and other crops. Reducing the amount of grain in one’s diet is actually good for the environment. Not eating animals is better: animal industries pollute more than all other industries combined, and far more deforestation occurs to make way for animal grazing than for crops, and many of the crops also go towards feeding those grazing animals… ridiculous, huh?

Is {insert food item here} gluten-free?
Please check my Flours/Baking page for more info on grains and flours, or ask on this page.

Is {insert food item here} yeast-free?
I have no idea. I don’t avoid yeast specifically. But I can tell you that people are certainly divided on whether apple cider vinegar contains yeast or not. Some folks even claim it contains gluten… I think, like many things, it depends on how processed the junk inside the bottle is… which is why I use mostly organic ingredients! It’s nice to know what goes in – & on – your food &, consequently, your plate.

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Nutrition FAQ

What’s the deal with B-12 in vegan diets? Where is it?
B-12 is often scarce in over-sanitised western diets and decimated topsoil. It’s important to realise that B-12 is NOT a vegan issue – at least 40% of Americans on a standard diet are B-12 deficient (look it up! There are a wide variety of stats available around the world, many even higher than 40%).

B-12 is produced by bacteria on foods (note: bacteria are not part of the animal kingdom – like plants they are not animals and do not have the capacity to suffer or conscious self-awareness), but there aren’t too many reliable vegan food sources around – but wait! There’s a good reason for this. Herbivorous animals in a “natural” environment ingest plenty of B-12 – many species consume the nutrient in their diet, while ruminants such as cows and sheep have extra stomachs where bacteria produce B-12 internally (provided the animals consume cobalt). Apes consume up to 5% animal products, while gorillas consume up to 1% as insect contamination of their natural diet of leaves and fruit. Our great ape cousins, gorillas and chimps, do not spray their foods with synthetic or organic pesticides, nor do they wash their food or chemically sanitise and filter their water. In the wild great apes get plenty of B-12, but when they are held in captivity they also require B-12 supplements as they consume sanitised human foods, and, like the great apes, humans do not get enough vitamin B-12 from their sanitised plants and water. This doesn’t mean a vegan diet is “unnatural” – it merely demonstrates that humans can transform many aspects of their world, and sometimes the consequences can be damaging to our health and/or the environment. Fortunately humans have also found ways to get B-12 directly from bacteria – the source of all B-12 – and make it available in a convenient, clean, cruelty-free forms through fortified foods and supplements.

If you wash your organic fruit and vegetables, you can easily miss out on B-12. Even if you don’t wash your produce, it may have already been washed or “treated” with organic pesticides that kill B-12-producing bacteria. Non-organic produce often doesn’t have contact with the vitamin at all. B-12 is produced by bacteria in organic soil, decomposing foods (including animal products, ick), and is found in some fermented plant foods – eg. miso and Indonesian tempeh – and some soy and rice yoghurts. In Australia, check out spreadable fortified yeast extracts like Marmite. There is some controversy surrounding whether B-12/B-12 analogues contained in sea vegetables and seaweeds can be absorbed. Some commercially-produced plant milks (soy, rice, almond, etc) and other vegetarian products, such as faux-meats and nutritional yeast, are also fortified with B-12. If you make your own soy/rice/nut milks like I do, you can fortify it yourself by adding crushed B-12 vitamin pills or lozenges. B-12 supplements are usually synthetic and not derived from animal sources – but check with the company to be sure. (Golden Glow and Freeda produce good vegan B-12 supplements.) You can also get shots of B-12 from your doctor or buy fancy, expensive B-12 patches from some pharmacies.

The UK Vegan Society recommends vegans get at least 3 micrograms of B-12 per day from fortified foods or supplements. The vitamin is particularly important for children and during pregnancy. If you recently went vegan, the B-12 already stored and recycled by your body can last anywhere from months up to 20 years, although 3-7 years is most common. A blood test measures the amount of B-12 and B-12 analogues in your bloodstream, rather than the B-12 stored in your cells – you should get a urine test to measure MMA for a more accurate B-12 measure. (A urinary Methylmalonic Acid along with a homocysteine test: elevated levels of MMA and homocysteine levels can indicate B-12 deficiency, while elevated homocysteine levels alone can indicate a folate deficiency.) This is usually only warranted for people with digestive disorders (eg. irritable bowel syndrome or celiac disease!) or amongst elderly folks who have memory problems. Also, it is interesting to note that some reports indicate that B-12 deficiencies are more common among humans that eat animal flesh and lacto-ova vegetarians – perhaps vegans tend to pay more attention to their vitamin intake?

Additionally, due to pesticide and chemical use in animal industries, reports show the levels of bio-available B-12 in animal foods have dropped significantly, and may continue to do so… all of which means it’s not just us plant-eaters who should be concerned about our B-12 intake.

And what about vitamin D?

Vitamin D is another nutrient that people are often deficient in due to “unnatural” lifestyle habits – ie. not living out there in nature with sunlight and dirt. The human body manufactures vitamin D from sunlight. Many animals do the same, which is why vitamin D3 is also found in animal oils, including lanolin (from sheep wool), pig skin, and fish fat. Vitamin D2 is present in some plants, but is not so easily assimilated by the human body, however sun-soaked mushrooms are an excellent place to get plenty of D2! If you live in subtropical Australia (ie. 5 kilometres from the surface of the sun) it’s very unlikely you’ll be deficient in vitamin D if you venture outside a few times for a few minutes each week. In colder, gloomier climates, you’ll need to get outdoors more often or take a supplement. 15 to 30 minutes of direct sunlight daily is healthy for you. If you live in a hot climate, be sure to get into the shade before you burn, or use a nice vegan sunblock if you’re out in the sun for extended periods. For those folks in cooler climates, vegan products are often fortified with both B-12 and vitamin D – but take care to check it’s not D3-derived, though, or you’ll probably be ingesting sheep grease, pig skin, or fish fat. Yuck!

Are vegan diets healthy? My doctor/friend/family says I’ll get ill and that it’s not safe and/or it’s not natural.
That’s a deeply ingrained habit/cultural bias talking. The fact is that doctors rarely study nutrition during a medical degree for more than a few hours at the most. They concentrate on medicines, drugs, injury treatment, and surgery, and what limited nutrition information they are exposed to is often out-dated. Doctors can be great for treating injuries, they’re sometimes useful for treating infection and disease, and they might even be useful for prescribing drugs should unfortunate circumstances arise, but they’re not necessarily so great for improving health. Holistic health practitioners (such as naturopaths or Chinese herbalists) and qualified nutritionists/dietitians are better qualified to advise on and improve your health, while doctors are best in their specialties: injuries and select illnesses.

Unless your friends and families are qualified dietitians (requires a 4 year bachelor degree and accreditation) who stay up-to-date with the latest nutrition information they’re unlikely to offer any sound advice. Unfortunately most people’s nutritional “advice” comes from industry-funded health studies designed to promote the nutritional benefits of animal products while ignoring the many health problems animal products exacerbate. Companies want positive advertising for their products that contain animals – telling you their food might be unhealthy or pose a health risk is not a selling point! For information on the healthfulness of vegan diets, please check out my health-related posts, this interesting chart about what the human body is designed to digest, my “Why Vegan?” page, and VeganHealth.org. Additionally, some good books to read include The China Study (The Most Comprehensive Study of Nutrition Ever Conducted) by T. Colin Campbell, Diet for a New America by John Robbins, and “diet” books by Dr John McDougall. Brenda Davis and Vesanto Melina have published a lot of great books, too: they are dietiticans who specialise in vegetarian, vegan, and raw food diets, including The Raw Revolution Diet and Becoming Vegan – Google them or look them up in your favourite book shop.

What about kids? Growing bodies need a lot of nutrients!
Vegan diets have plentiful nutrients – if not more – than omnivorous diets. With a little bit of re-education, a vegan diet is safe and VERY healthy for children. Child-rearing books by the renowned Dr Benjamin Spock now recommend a vegan diet from infancy. Also check out Raising Vegetarian Children by Joanne Stepaniak and Vesanto Melina, Raising Vegan Children in a Non-Vegan World by Erin Pavlina (wife of renowned motivational blogger Steve Pavlina), and the magazine/website VegFamily. A vegan diet is also suitable for pregnancy. My all-time favourite book on vegan pregnancy & pregnancy nutrition is Skinny Bitch: Bun In The Oven, & for raw vegan nutrition & recipe ideas: Evie’s Kitchen by Shazzie.

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Other FAQ

How do I contact you?
Please use the Contact page. Also check out the Contact & Comment Policy on the same page.

I have a gluten-free product or health product or service I think you might be interested in. Can I advertise through your blog, or will you mention it to your readers?
Is it vegan? If the answer is yes, please submit your initial query and a brief overview of your product/service via the Contact page. Please do not repeat requests if I do not respond. Note that I rarely recommend specific products or services in my blog, unless I find them invaluable myself.

I’m curious… What do you feed your cats?
Can of worms, meet opener… to coin a non-vegan phrase! First of all, they’re not “my cats.” I adopted Mao and Fuji, but I don’t own them. Owning another human is called slavery. Owning an animal of another species? Not cool for the same sorts of reasons – potential for exploitation being at the top of the list. This is why vegans use the term “companion animals” instead of “pets” – to differentiate between “ownership” and “adoption” or “guardianship.” But, as anyone with cats already knows, you sure as hell can’t own a feline… Most “pet-owners” will agree with this guardianship idea – companion animals are not property or commodities to be bought, sold, and slaughtered – they are family members! And if companion animals are not property or commodities, then why other animals?.. and then we discover why so many people become vegans! With some research into animal rights, you quickly discover that discrimination and bigotry against other species is analogous to discrimination against other races, genders, and creeds in many ways. (The books Eternal Treblinka: Our Treatment of Animals and the Holocaust by Charles Patterson and Making A Killing: The Political Economy of Animal Rights by Bob Torres discuss these issues in more depth.)

So, back to the point: what do Mao and Fuji eat? Short answer: Veganpet. Long answer: read Obligate Carnivore: Cats, Dogs, and What it Really Means to be Vegan by Jed Gillen. It is well and truly possible for cats to be happy, healthy, shiny, overly energetic (Fuji), and overly fluffy (Mao, a Chinchilla) on a vegan diet. Veganpet is made from all human-grade, mostly-organic ingredients, which can’t be said of any other “pet food” I’ve ever encountered. And, as a bonus, it’s gluten-free! It’s not the only vegetarian/vegan cat/dog food on the market, but it’s certainly one of the best. I hear the European brand “Ami” is quite good, too. There is also quite a lot of edible, unspoiled animal flesh products to be found in supermarket dumpsters, if you don’t mind participating in freeganism. So that’s at least two options right there that avoid supporting animal exploitation industries in order to care for your animal friends. Being largely omnivorous, most dogs can actually survive quite well on a diet of lentils, beans, and vegetables alone (as the longest lived dog in the world could attest to at 29 years of age), but cats are a little more carnivorous and require a more specialised food. Filtered water is also important for vegan cats to avoid mineral build-up and the dreaded “urinary crystal” problem common to 5% of male cats (whether they’re vegan or not) – stress can also trigger urinary crystal issues. Additionally, cats in particular require taurine in their food, which is added in synthetic form in all pet foods, not just vegan pet food. (It’s also part of the energy boosters in Red Bull, but don’t let yourself or your cat drink that shit!) Only unprocessed, unheated, untreated animal flesh contains any natural taurine. Luckily the synthetic taurine is just as easily absorbed. If you want to know more, read Obligate Carnivore – it’s very informative!

Why hasn’t my comment shown up?
Either it is in the approval line and I haven’t been at my computer in a while, or it has been eaten by the spam filter because you gave a bogus email address or link. It could also be the spam filter made a mistake, so try again with different details! The other reason the comment might not show up is that I deleted it because it was incoherent, rude, or irrelevant. For more info please check out the Contact & Comment Policy.

More coming soon!