Vegetarians Rock! ;-)

If I’ve learned one thing over the past three weeks it’s that I will likely never, ever be vegan.  At the end of the day, I think that is mostly because of CHEESE. I’ve tried several different varieties of vegan cheese, and they’ve ranged from okay-ish to bleh.

I love being a vegetarian. I’ve been doing it for 16 years, so I would hope so! I feel better about myself knowing I conscientiously choose what I’m ingesting. No animal has to die for me to eat. I don’t think it’s a diet for everybody, but it works for me.  But I do get complacent in my vegetarianism, and I don’t always seek out all of the information.  Like the fact that cheese isn’t always vegetarian, which makes me really, really sad. Cheese is made by coagulating milk by adding rennet. The traditional source of rennet is the stomach of slaughtered newly-born calves. Parmesan cheese is apparently always non-vegetarian, because regulations for its production state that it must include the following ingredients: cow’s milk, salt, and calf rennet.  (http://www.vegsoc.org/page.aspx?pid=495)

At the end of the day, you do the best you can. My diet isn’t perfect, but I’ve gotten more familiar with which ingredients I need to watch out for. Trying out veganism definitely helped strengthen that resolve to be more aware of this.

In general, my modus operandi is if it seems reasonable that something doesn’t contain meat or meat by-products, I will eat it. Quiznos’ Broccoli Cheese Soup was one of my favorite soups, but most soups are made with chicken, beef, or fish stock. To be fair to myself, I knew I needed to find additional information. The employees said it was vegetarian when I asked, but they don’t always have the complete picture.  I looked into it myself to be sure, and it looks like I don’t have to give up Quizno’s if I have a broccoli cheese soup craving!

McDonald’s fries, on the other hand, are a different story. McDonald’s was sued in 2001 after telling customers that its fries were vegetarian. However, the “natural flavor” in their fries contained beef extract.  They settled for $10 million and changed their recipe. However, the company has stated in recent years, “With regard to our French fries, any customer in the U.S. who contacts McDonald's USA to ask if they contain beef flavoring is told "yes." For flavor enhancement, in the U.S., McDonald's French fry suppliers use a very small amount of beef flavor as a natural flavoring during the pan-frying process at the potato processing plant.” So, alas, McDonald’s fries are STILL not vegetarian. (http://animalrights.about.com/b/2011/10/26/mcdonalds-french-fries-still-not-vegetarian.htm).