On the surface, the “how to” part of going veg seems pretty obvious. Order the veggie burger instead of the cheeseburger. Say “neither, thanks,” when the server asks whether you’d like bacon or sausage with your pancakes. You get the picture. But sometimes, meat can be lurking where you least expect it. If you’re also trying to avoid dairy and eggs, your challenge becomes even greater.
Recently there was an uproar when people discovered that Starbucks was using cochineal extract, a red food dye made from crushed-up dried bugs, in its strawberry-flavored Frappuccinos (no worries if that’s your favorite flavor—the coffee chain has since switched to a plant-based dye). And a bunch of years ago, frustrated vegetarians sued McDonald’s for using beef flavoring in their French fries (they’ve since changed the formula, but look out, vegans: in a bizarre twist, they now they use milk-based ingredients to mimic the taste of beef).
So how can you tell when a food contains a stealth animal product? There are a few tricks.
• Food allergy labels: To protect people with serious food allergies, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) requires companies to disclose any ingredients sourced from the eight most common allergens that are included in the product: milk, eggs, fish, shellfish, tree nuts, peanuts, wheat, and soybeans, either by bolding the allergenic item in the ingredients or by stating “contains eggs” or whatever it contains immediately after the ingredients list. Unfortunately, though, you’re still on your own for meat—since few people are allergic to it, companies are not required to disclose when a product contains meat-sourced ingredients.
• Kosher labels: According to the Jewish dietary laws, milk and meat should not be eaten together. Many food manufacturers affix labels to their products to let consumers know if the food is kosher (meaning it meets the Jewish food regulations). They then go a step further to tell consumers if the food is meat, dairy, or pareve, which means that it doesn’t contain any meat or dairy (so someone who keeps kosher can eat that food with either a meat-containing meal like roasted chicken, or a milk-containing one like a grilled cheese sandwich). A pareve food may still contain eggs or honey, so it doesn’t mean a food is vegan. Since kosher labeling is something a company chooses to do—it’s not required by the government in the same way food allergy labeling is—it doesn’t necessarily mean anything if you don’t see the label. Look for the word “pareve” on any kosher symbol to indicate the food contains neither meat nor dairy.
Of course, there are plenty of times when food labels aren’t at your disposal, like at a restaurant or scoop-it-yourself candy store like Dylan’s Candy Bar (a must-see if you’re ever in New York!). And yes, some VegHeads take a “what I don’t know won’t hurt me” approach—and if you do, that’s totally your business. But if you are dedicated to keeping meat or more out of your diet 100 percent of the time, here are a few surprising meat, fish, dairy, and egg sources that you should probably be on the lookout for.
SNEAKY INGREDIENTS: MEAT, FISH, DAIRY
Even vegetable-loaded soups can be made with meat-based stock (or broth) like chicken or beef, or dairy ingredients like heavy cream or cheese. Some chain restaurants make it easy for you by labeling which soups contain meat and dairy. But if the restaurant you’re eating at doesn’t use labels, ask your server which soups on their menu are completely vegetarian.
SNEAKY INGREDIENTS: EGGS, FISH
If you’ve ever eaten Thai food, you probably know what pad thai is—it’s one of the cuisine’s most popular dishes. In case you don’t—it’s a really tasty rice noodle–based dish that traditionally contains shrimp or chicken and vegetables and is garnished with lime juice and crushed peanuts, among other things. While “vegetarian” versions may use tofu in place of the chicken or shrimp, they often still contain stir-fried egg as well as fish sauce, a condiment frequently used in Thai cooking. If you are vegan, order “vegetarian pad thai, no egg or fish sauce please.” Your server will be more than happy to accommodate you.
SNEAKY INGREDIENTS: MEAT, FISH, DAIRY, EGGS
You’d think that salad is the ultimate “safe” food when you’re looking for veg-friendly meals. Well, it is—mostly. Some salad dressings can surprise you with their very unveggie ingredients. For example:
• Caesar: anchovies, eggs
• Ranch: buttermilk, eggs
• Spinach salad dressing: bacon
• Russian: eggs
SNEAKY INGREDIENT: MEAT, DAIRY
As you may remember in my story about how I stopped eating meat, there were years of my life when I thought french fries were a suitable vegetarian meal (do not, I repeat, do not try this at home—I am here for you to learn from my mistakes!). But before 2001, McDonald’s used beef extract as an ingredient to add flavor to their fries. They abandoned this practice years ago after complaints (not to mention lawsuits) from religious and vegetarian organizations. Now, however, the iconic fast-food fries do contain some dairy—so while they’re suitable for lacto-ovo vegetarians, they’re not OK for vegans. Sorry, vegans. And unfortunately, McDonald’s isn’t the only establishment with fishy fries. They’re usually safe, yes—but a trend sweeping the country has a number of chefs frying their taters in duck fat (luckily the use of dairy is pretty unusual). When in doubt, ask. And for those of you who love yourself some fries, here are a few spots you can hit up for VegHead-approved meat-free, dairy-free ones:*
• Five Guys Burgers and Fries
• Carl’s Jr.
• Burger King
*It’s impossible to know what really goes on behind the scenes at any restaurant. If you wouldn’t be comfortable eating fries cooked in the same oil as meat, ask your server what their establishment’s policy is.
SNEAKY INGREDIENT: MEAT
It comes as no surprise to hear that cheese is not an animal-product-free food (thanks, Captain Obvious). But there’s another ingredient in many cheeses that may upset even milk-loving vegetarians. Rennet is a collection of enzymes that is typically extracted from the stomachs of calves and used in cheese production. Some manufacturers use enzymes from vegetable sources and refer to them as vegetarian rennet. If you’re icked out by the idea of stomach enzymes, there are a few ways you can make sure the cheese you eat is thoroughly lacto-ovo vegetarian:
• Look for cheeses made with vegetable or vegetarian rennet.
• Buy cheeses made with microbial rennet, a fungus or bacteria (yummy!) that can play the same role as rennet enzymes in cheese production.
SNEAKY INGREDIENT: DAIRY
Confused yet? You should be. A number of “nondairy” cheeses and other products on the market like coffee creamer actually contain a dairy-derived ingredient called casein. A protein found in cow’s milk, casein helps give some cheeses the texture and meltability that you expect cheese to have. Some soy- or almond-based cheeses use a touch of casein in their formulations for just that reason—nondairy cheese can kind of stink without it. (I mean, what’s cheese without the capacity to melt?) Some vegans are OK with that little bit of casein in their cheese, others are not—only you can make the right decision for yourself. To make life a bit easier, if casein-containing cheeses are not for you, there are some newer completely vegan cheeses on the market. They tend not to be tops in terms of nutrition (few nondairy cheeses are)—but if you are vegan and really need a cheese fix, you may want to give these brands a try:
• Daiya (www.daiyafoods.com)
• Galaxy Nutritional Foods (www.galaxyfoods.com)
• Vegan Gourmet (www.followyourheart.com)
SNEAKY INGREDIENT: FISH
One of the main ingredients that gives Worcestershire sauce its savory taste is anchovies. You can, however, find completely vegan versions of the sauce: Annie’s Homegrown is one brand that tastes great and is available widely.
SNEAKY INGREDIENT: MEAT
So rice itself is meat-free, no doubt about that. But it’s not uncommon for restaurants to cook rice in chicken broth in order to give it flavor. This is a particularly common practice in Spanish and Mexican restaurants—I was crushed a few years ago when I realized that my favorite taco joint in Boston cooked their rice in chicken broth, and my regular veggie burrito order wasn’t so veggie at all (they’ve since started offering vegetarian rice as an option—go Anna’s Taqueria!). In most cases, there’s no way to know what’s in your rice unless you ask. I’ve done some of the work for you. Here are a few national chains where you can fill your rice bowl with confidence:
• Chipotle Mexican Grill
• Moe’s Southwest
• Baja Fresh
SNEAKY INGREDIENT: MEAT
Loaded with protein and other nutrients that you need to look out for when you give up meat, beans are a superstar vegetarian food. Fry them up in lard, however, and few would think of them as vegetarian anymore—and this is why it’s important to keep in mind that at many restaurants, refried beans is code for, ahem, “cooked in lard.” If you don’t want pig on your plate, be sure to inquire about the ingredients used in any refried bean-containing dish. And other beans may have meat in them as well—for instance, the pinto beans at Chipotle Mexican Grill are cooked with a bit of bacon (their black beans, however, are completely veg-friendly). Baked beans are also typically made with ham or bacon, unless they’re labeled “vegetarian.”
What the Heck Is… Lard?
Lard is a fancy way of saying “pig fat.” It can be used as a fat for cooking (like oil or butter) or to flavor various foods.
SNEAKY INGREDIENT: MEAT, DAIRY
Chicken in barbecue potato chips? And meat? You may be wondering why. There are some things in life I simply cannot explain. Barbecue sauce does not typically contain meat or dairy. But these barbecue-flavored potato chips do. Buyer beware (for the record, regular Lay’s barbecue chips and other barbecue-flavored chips I’ve looked at are perfectly veg-friendly).
SNEAKY INGREDIENT: MEAT
So it’s not meat exactly, but much of the cane sugar in this country (about half of the sugar manufactured) is processed to its pure white color using bone char, or ground-up charred cow bones. If you want to keep animal products out of your treats, here are some bone-free sweeteners you can try instead:
• Vegan cane sugar, which uses an animal-free way to decolorize sugar
• Organic sugar, which is processed without bone char
• Beet sugar, which is processed differently than cane sugar; bone char is never used
• Try a different sweetener: turbinado, demerara, or muscovado sugars, evaporated cane juice, maple syrup, agave, molasses, honey (if you’re not vegan)
SNEAKY INGREDIENT: MEAT
In addition to the sugar issue, many types of candy also contain gelatin—a derivative of cow skin, cartilage, and bones. Sweets in particular to look out for: marshmallows, gummy bears, sour peaches and other gummy candies, many jelly beans (Jelly Belly beans are not made with gelatin, though they are coated with a mixture that contains nonvegan beeswax), Altoids, Starburst, Junior Mints. Here are some vegan-approved candies, according to PETA:
• Dum-Dum Lollipops
• Airheads
• Sour Patch Kids
• SweeTarts
• Dots
• Mike and Ikes
• Runts
• Twizzlers
SNEAKY INGREDIENT: DAIRY
It’s obvious that milk chocolate has, well, milk in it. But if you’re on a dairy-free diet, you shouldn’t take it for granted that other types of chocolate are automatically milkless. Many, particularly the more popular brands you’ll find in most grocery stores, contain dairy-derived ingredients. If you’re looking to stay away from milk, look for chocolate that contains nothing but cocoa butter, cocoa, lecithin, vanilla, and sugar.
SNEAKY INGREDIENT: FISH
You learned in Chapter 4 that the best source of super brain- and heart-healthy omega-3 fatty acids is fish. If you don’t eat fish, you’re limited to getting your omega-3s from other sources:
• The less potent plant-based omega-3s
• Supplements
• Fortified foods
If you’re avoiding fish in all forms, however, you need to be selective about which supplements and fortified foods you include in your day. Just like omega-3 supplements (which you read about in “Supplemental Evidence” on page 58), the omega-3s added to foods can come from either plant- or fish-based sources. If you’re avoiding ocean animals, carefully read labels to make sure the food you’re buying doesn’t contain any “fishy” ingredients like sardine or anchovy oil. Flaxseed oil, soybean oil, and algal oil are all vegetarian sources of omega-3s.
SNEAKY INGREDIENT: FISH, MEAT
If you choose to take a vitamin supplement, you already know to be on alert for fish ingredients (they’re now found in some multivitamins as well as omega-3 supplements). But like candy, many vitamin supplements also contain animal-derived gelatin. Look for pills that don’t contain gelatin or fish oils; you can also look for ones that are specifically labeled “vegetarian.”
Non-Veg Produce? This S**t is Bananas. B-A-N-A-N-A-S.
It doesn’t get more plant-based than fruits and vegetables, right? I mean, if you’re eating whole foods like apples, spinach, and tomatoes, you rightfully wouldn’t think to consider the possibility of them containing animal ingredients—they each only have one ingredient, of course. Apples are made of apple. Spinach…you get the picture. Unless, that is, the people who grew those foods are playing tricks on us.
At a recent chemistry conference, scientists from China showed off a spray designed to lengthen the shelf life of bananas. It doesn’t sound so bad—who likes mushy, brown bananas anyway? But it turns out that one of the ingredients in the spray was chitosan, which comes from shrimp and crab shells. Not only would this be a major turnoff to many VegHeads, it’s also potentially dangerous for people with seafood allergies. Luckily, this spray isn’t being used as this book went to press, and scientists say they’re looking for another ingredient to replace the chitosan. Even so, the story is a good reminder that it’s getting harder and harder to know what’s truly in the food we buy. If you want to stay in control of what you’re eating, I recommend taking the following steps:
1. Read, read, read. Follow websites, Twitter feeds, and more for organizations and people that will help you stay on top of stories like this one.
2. Get to know where your food comes from. That might mean shopping at farmers’ markets or buying products from smaller companies with values that match up with your own.
3. Consider organic. The more stringent regulations on organically grown produce mean that there’s less of a chance your food has something sneaky going on.