Well, zetetyc has insisted that I address the nomenclatural issues involved in being vegetarian or otherwise selective about the way one eats animal products.

I'm most likely going to offend someone in the course of writing this entry, so consider yourself forewarned.

The ordinary definition of 'vegetarian' in common use in the US today is someone who doesn't eat products that are the result of animals being killed. I think some people who are less aware of how it's used would just think of it as not eating animal flesh, but for people who are vegetarians and those familiar with the issues, I think it's much more along the lines of the former.

( Pescetarians, vegetarians, and omnivores, oh my! )

Ultimately, I'm certainly not going to go around being the vegetarian definition police. Not only is it annoying and unjustified, but also I seem to remember something about a beam in my own eye...

Ran across an enjoyable post and comments where the comments are brief descriptions of people's favorite vegetarian recipes. Most of them look really tasty but this one caught my eye for a different reason:

Easy, and one of my favorite recipes - Vegetarian Risotto. I use veggie stock, sundried tomatoes, spinach, white beans and parmesan (it's even vegan).
lekkercraft at 3:50PM on 10/29/07

This kind of thing makes me crazy. Any recipe that involves parmesan? Not vegan, unless it's brazil nut parmesan, i.e. nut shavings that look like powdered parmesan and are tasty in a very different way. Often, recipes that involve parmesan are not even technically vegetarian, because most parmesan is made with rennet (calf stomach), which you have to kill the calf to get.

It really is not that hard to remember what makes something not vegan, or not vegetarian, for that matter. If it contains something that came from an animal, it's not vegan. If an animal involved in the process has to be dead for you to use the item, it's not vegetarian. Just think through that, read your labels, and you should be all set.

Gelatin: not vegetarian. (Use agar instead.) Chicken stock: not vegetarian. Fish: not vegetarian. Chicken: definitely not vegetarian. I wouldn't even write it down, except for the number of times that every vegetarian I know has heard, "So, you're vegetarian. But you eat chicken, right?" Is chicken a fruit, vegetable, bean, grain, nut, seed, or fungus? No? Is it still alive when you eat it? No? Okay then.

Eggs: not vegan. Butter: not vegan. Honey: to be avoided if cooking vegan, unless your favorite vegan has told you they eat honey. Cheese: may not be vegan or vegetarian, read the label. Processed foods? Always read the label. Casein? Whey powder? Not vegan; they come from milk.

There are marginal cases that can get a little confusing, basically because contrary to stereotype, not every vegetarian/vegan is an absolutist. For example, some vegetarians eat cheese made with rennet. Some people who call themselves vegetarian also eat fish, though common definitions of vegetarian exclude this possibility. (The debate about nomenclature here is a whole other entry, which I will write if demanded but otherwise would prefer to skip.) Sugar is also a case where you should be aware: some sugar is bleached with bone-char (burnt animal bones), so you can use unbleached or buy a brand of sugar that states clearly that they don't. But many people don't actually worry about this. I certainly would not quiz anyone who told me that something contained sugar about what kind of sugar it was. But some people would. And some beer isn't vegan/vegetarian because it's clarified with isinglass (...ew). But basically, the animal/dead animal proscription is a safe one to follow.

Cooking vegan isn't hard and it is tasty, but it takes a minor amount of forethought, or better, a vegan recipe or cookbook. Don't butter the foil, don't saute the vegetables in butter, don't stir in cream in the last step, and don't garnish with parmesan! And don't lie to the person you're cooking for about what you used. It could make them ill, perhaps seriously so, because many vegetarians and vegans are intolerant of the proteins in the foods they don't eat either because of pre-existing sensitivity or because of lack of exposure. Plus, it's just disrespectful. If you like someone enough to cook for them, you should like them enough to take the extra steps to be careful and to be honest with them about what you made.

The Jamba Juice plot has thickened.

In comments on the previous Consumerist post, someone mentioned that the ingredients listed were those of the "Lower Calorie Dairy Blend". Today, Jamba Juice agrees, saying they don't have any product called "non-dairy mix" that contains milk, and the ingredients of their non-dairy products do not include milk products.

The photo on the Consumerist post shows that the page in the Jamba Juice ingredients book contains both "Non-Dairy Dairy" and "Other Ingredients", and that "Lower-Calorie Dairy Base" is listed under "Other ingredients", not under "Non-dairy Dairy".

I also updated my earlier post with some info I found about labeling, indicating that the real problems here are two separate issues:

1) Jamba Juice has not been clear, polite, and informative all along.
2) The FDA appears to require that some products containing milk or milk derivatives be labeled "non-dairy" because they're not really milk.

2) is really the big issue here, but requires much more than writing to Jamba Juice, which appears to be unnecessary at this point since they are moving toward releasing full ingredient lists later this year.

Dear Jamba Juice,

MILK IS DAIRY, WET OR DRY. SUCK IT.

Update: The IVU's definition list shows that "nondairy" has a use meaning "Does not have enough percentage of milkfat to be called dairy. May actually contain milk or milk derivatives."

Daveola's no-milk page says:

2006/02/20: Evidently the dairy inspectors require that milk-similar items without milk (but with casein!) are labelled
as non-dairy to avoid confusing the consumer! They're worried about the consumer who is hoping to get milk product and doesn't - and those of us with allergies are screwed.

Food Allergy Gourmet says the same:

Non-dairy creamers, non-dairy ice cream and other so-called non-dairy products can contain dairy, and still legally be labeled “non-dairy.” According to the FDA’s regulations, only a product containing actual milk in specific forms can be labeled dairy. The FDA does not allow milk derivatives or milk by-products to be called dairy. So if a product has a milk derivative or byproduct, it can be called non-dairy. Lactose is a great example. Many of the so-called non-dairy products contain lactose, which is a derivative from milk.

This suggests (though doesn't confirm) that the legal definition of "non-dairy" includes milk products, although I find it beyond odd that pure dry milk as an ingredient can still result in a "non-dairy" product. There's a larger issue here beyond Jamba Juice, who can mainly be faulted for being incredibly rude and stupid and resisting revealing the ingredients in the first place. This is a milk-lobby pet issue, which means that lots of concerted effort will be required to change it.

Who's in?

I came across the article "Judge allows private testing for mad cow" in the Mercury News today.

Creekstone Farms Premium Beef, a meatpacker based in Arkansas City, Kan., wants to test all of its cows for the disease, which can be fatal to humans who eat tainted beef. Larger meat companies feared that move because if Creekstone tested its meat and advertised it as safe, they could be forced to do the expensive test, too.

The Agriculture Department currently regulates the test and administers it to less than 1 percent of slaughtered cows. The department threatened Creekstone with prosecution if it tested all its animals.

The USDA threatened a company with legal action because the company wanted to make sure none of their cows had a fatal disease that's transmissible to people.

Really, they actually did. They threatened a company with prosecution for taking action to check the health of their animals and thereby protect the health of the American people.

Because, why? Because they're concerned that there might be false positives, and this might lead to alarm, and this might lead to -- GASP -- less beef consumption. Which is all the USDA is really concerned about. Not so much about health. Just about keeping levels of beef consumption up. And making companies happy that don't want to bother with thorough testing.

(The false positives thing does make a certain amount of sense of itself. Tests have both type I and type II errors, so usually they're only administered to a population at risk, or to a certain percentage of a population, chosen randomly, to reduce the chances of large numbers of false positives. But this doesn't have to be the case; there are other ways of dealing with the error stats.)

I usually consider myself to eat well, but I rarely sit down to a full plate of three somethings for dinner. Today is an exception -- I have sauteed fennel and ginger, roasted potatoes, and the last of the chickpea broccoli casserole with melted cheese on top. Tasty and satisfying, and entirely consisting of actual food.

Today's lunch was the last of the curried split pea soup, charred brussel sprouts in mustard-chive sauce, roasted potatoes, 3/4 pear and one kiwi. I'm amazed that I can buy kiwi at my farmer's market. The potatoes are multicolored and the bright yellow-green of the mustard/brussel combo was attractive, so if I have the same thing tomorrow I'll try to take a picture.

I really enjoyed the Michael Pollan article linked above. The way he thinks about food and his analysis of the way we think about food are both very insightful and always give me new perspectives. His remark about "flexitarians" made me realize that I really don't think about vegetarianism anymore as being a diet that involves the absence of meat. I hardly think about meat at all, but about the variety of foods that I eat and enjoy, what I want to cook next, and new foods that I've learned about. (I've been drooling over recipe ideas from Vegan Yum Yum lately. It's more than worthy of the name!)

I was quoted on BoingBoing yesterday!

Xeni wrote an excellent, attention-grabbing post about factory farm waste (warning: don't visit while eating), and mentioned her recent experiments with going vegan. A comment she posted suggested that vegetarianism/veganism is not the best way to "opt out" of the factory farm. I wrote to Xeni to respectfully disagree and express my support of vegetarianism/veganism, and she very kindly published my comments! They're down after some of the supplementary material.

This might be the most famous I ever get. :-)

A while back I wrote about becoming vegan by default. I've also been keeping a food diary recently because I've been experiencing candy cravings and felt that I was always needing to eat snacks and was eating an awful lot of food. Mr. Bento helped a lot with having food on hand, but I was still snacking a lot outside it. I wasn't worried (my weight is fine) just curious, and wondering what I could do better.

Finally, the other day I put two and two together: it turns out that "by default" might not be such a good way to become vegan, even if you're already vegetarian and flexible. The thing is, the majority of the high-calorie foods that most vegetarians eat are cheese, milk, and eggs. When I cut those out, I'm pretty sure my overall calorie count went down, although I still eat things made with a lot of oil (though not extremely oily things, which usually I don't like as a matter of taste). Soymilk is lower in fat and calories than whole or 2% milk, and I haven't really substituted cheese or eggs with equivalents. I eat a lot of the veg.*an staples: vegetables, fruit, grains, legumes.

With the lower-calorie starting material, I've had to eat more, and I'm guessing the candy-craving is due to periodic calorie crashes that provoke the desire for high-fat, high-sugar stuff for lots of calories and immediate energy. I don't know why they're only occasional; I guess my needs just vary from day to day.

I'm also at least as active as I've been since I became a vegetarian, maybe more so. Although I was quite active in Edinburgh, I wasn't going on a lot of hikes or riding my bike, both of which I've been doing a lot of lately. So that would also up the calorie demands.

The high-calorie foods that vegans often eat include nuts, seeds, nut butters, coconut milk, avocados, bananas, vegan mayonnaise (...I wonder if I'd like it any better than regular?), hummus, baba ganoush, potatoes, and grains. (It's funny to think that while much of America is shunning bread, I could be eating more of it. Not that I need help eating more bread. Mmm, bread.) This nice summary of raw food concepts includes the suggestion of plenty of sweet fruit as well. And, of course, there are desserts.

And pizza. I feel much better after eating half a small Applewood "Pesto" pizza.

I think I'm approaching the state of becoming vegan "by default" that I described in How Beans and Quinoa Got a Life:

If all the things I eat and enjoy on a daily basis are rich and varied enough to satisfy me, and they're all vegan, then I become vegan "by default"...

I've pretty much switched from milk to soymilk, and the idea of just drinking milk is rather bizarre to me now. Ditto eggs. Not as bizarre or unpleasant as the idea of eating meat, but definitely bizarre. (People sometimes act as if their eating meat must gross me out, but it doesn't. They eat what they eat. The idea of someone else eating meat is only marginally more unpleasant than the idea of someone else eating mushrooms -- bleh, but not EW. But the idea of ME eating meat is yucky, as in, "Why in heaven's name would I eat that? Yuck." Which is how I feel about mushrooms, except for the additional environmental and health reasons.)

I still don't have any aversion to consuming milk or eggs as long as I can't see them -- I wouldn't eat a quiche, but I'd eat a cake. I wouldn't cook with butter, but I'd eat a croissant. Given the option, I'd make a cake (or muffins, or whatever) with no milk or eggs. I wouldn't add eggs to a potato salad; I'd substitute tofu. And I don't think I'd eat a potato salad that contained eggs unless I had no other options. I might still drink a milk-based coffee drink, but the more I think about it the more I think I'd strongly prefer soymilk. If I ate out, or at a friend's house, I wouldn't think to ask about the dairy and egg contents of the food (as I do about the meat content, mostly with soups which may contain invisible chicken broth), but at home I make mashed potatoes and creamed soups with soymilk or coconut milk. I'm definitely still lazy about veggie products with milk or egg additives. (And gelatin, for that matter. And sugar, which can be made with bone char and thus not even really be vegetarian. And beer, some of which involves...fish bladders, I think it is. But I don't much like beer anyway.)

The only full-on milk products that I haven't switched over yet are cheese, cottage cheese, and yogurt. But I eat a lot less cheese than I used to -- I buy it only occasionally. I'm still lazy about rennet, though, which is definitely a vegetarian no-no. I eat Tofutti BTCC instead of cream cheese, and I'm mostly off ice cream. FroBa (our nickname for frozen bananas pureed with soymilk and fruit) is better than any soy "ice cream" I've had, and the idea of real ice cream is, like the idea of milk, a little bizarre now.

It's kind of interesting to observe this progression in my diet, since I started out making these gestures toward veganism like changing to soymilk and not eating plain eggs, even though I didn't especially want to in a dietary taste sense, and it eventually evolved, as with meat, to where my tastes follow the actions. That's one reason I think going vegetarian, or veggie-friendly, is much more practical than most people think. Maintain a diet that satisfies you, and it can be made up of almost anything. So why not make it up of mainly plant products?

This is not "the truth about the E. coli outbreak". I can't find any sources to corroborate the claim about deer, for one thing. If it's true it's a fact that somewhat confounds the issue, because we can't be sure where the deer get the E. coli. But I would guess probably from the cows, which means that once again, focusing on the deer would distract from the real issue.

Fortunately, a few perceptive writers are on the same track that I'm on, including Nina Planck at the NYT, and a clear explanation from the (obviously hippie!) Mother Earth Living.

The stuff about the contaminated spinach has been all over the news lately, especially here since most of it is grown in the Salinas Valley nearby ("America's Salad Bowl"). Most of the coverage I've seen can be summed up thus: no one knows where the problem is coming from specifically, we need to find out and then we need better regulations on the packaging and sale of spinach to fix it. For now, O WOE IS US, This Is A Disaster.

But here's the thing that I don't feel like anyone is talking about: the microbe in question is E. coli strain O157:H7. This microbe only lives in the guts of cattle that live on feedlots. That's most of the cattle that we eat in the US -- they live in dense, filthy primitive cities, eating corn that they're not evolved to eat. So naturally, they grow bugs we haven't evolved to be resistant to. If you're not a vegetarian, these are the cattle you eat. (If you're a lacto-ovo, these are the cattle whose milk products you consume.) Wherever in the process of growing and harvesting the spinach the bacteria are entering, that's where it's coming from: the stomach of a cow being fed things it's not meant to eat, and kept in conditions that allow the spread of filth. The problem is not the spinach. The problem is the cows.

We (and I include myself since I still eat cheese, cottage cheese, and yogurt from such cows) are allowing this ridiculous situation. A healthy, salutary leafy vegetable has become lethal because we like animal products, we like a lot of them, and we like them cheap. We're allowing this to happen because we give corn farmers millions of dollars in subsidies so that they can grow corn that no one needs, and feed it to animals instead of the grass they're supposed to eat.

Acording to a podcast of Science Friday with Michael Pollan as a guest (the author of The Omnivore's Dilemma, an absolutely brilliant work about our food and our food systems that everyone should read), the microbe can be eliminated from cattle's systems by putting them on grass feed for 5 days before slaughter. The solution to the problem of the lethal microbe E coli O157:H7 is to graze cattle on grass.

So instead of lots of hand-wringing and largely wasted time spent analyzing the spinach farms' water source and sources of their fertilizer and other inputs, their workers' hygiene and technique, and the packaging plants' processes, let's actually tackle the real source of this problem. Let's stop paying farmers to grow corn for ruminant (grass-eating) animals. Let's move cattle out of the feedlot and back to the range. Let's not demand that our meat and milk be cheap and plentiful, but instead buy it sparingly and prize it for quality and sustainability.

I'm going to work on that for myself -- moving my consumption of animal products to sustainable sources (organic is not good enough to solve this problem -- in most cases, organic cows eat organic corn on organic feedlots).

There's no perfect solution to this problem in our current system. But to me, the current media flurry is not even looking at the right problem, and they're sure never going to get much of a solution out of that.

I was eating lunch in the company luchroom today and one of my coworkers came in and said "You always have the best-smelling lunches!" The person who was with him said "And veggie too" and so he asked me was I a vegetarian, and I said yes. He asked if I was vegan, and I said no, just veggie. (We then had a moment of clarification on the definition of vegetarian, but I don't want to get into that side rant.) He said "I could never do that," in a good-for-you-but-I-can't-understand-it kind of way, and unfortunately left before I could say that I used to feel that way too.

"I couldn't do it" is something that veggies hear a lot, and if I get a chance to say that I used to think so too, the person saying it never seems very pleased to hear that! I think people use it as an excuse. They believe that being vegetarian is "good", but they think it's okay that they don't do it, because they just like meat too much. And I was once one of these people, so this is by no means a judgmental take on it. I only just realized what the psychology is, and it's based on a misconception the depth of whose falsehood has only recently become clear to me.

Omnivores, in most cases, are suffering from a failure of imagination. They're imagining their current diet with the meat removed, or replaced by tofu (which many people have never had cooked in a good way). They're thinking of a lot of plain, boring vegetables and salad, white starches, and boring cheese. Or they're thinking of hippie food stereotypes -- endless granola and sprouts. Or endless beans and rice. Heads up: this is not how vegetarians have to eat (although maybe some of them do). Even if you've seen a lot of vegetarian stuff and you think you're pretty familiar, there'll be gaps in your understanding.

I will freely admit that when I started my experiment with eliminating my meat consumption, I was probably thinking about one of these things. I was totally skeptical. Although I've never liked lamb, plain steak, or plain pork very much, I loved ground beef and beef in pieces (stir-fry, beef stew), chicken in all forms off the bone, turkey, ham, bacon (if lean), pastrami, pepperoni, etc. I didn't have any idea how I was going to go without those things. Luckily for me, I conceived what turned out to be a great idea: do it in stages, and learn as I went along. I didn't want to become one of those vegetarians who only eats cheese and junk food -- even in the infancy of the impulse, I actually did want to eat more vegetables, more variety.

Honestly, I think this is probably the best way to change a diet in any direction, unless you're under time pressure (eg you had a heart attack). I stopped eating red meat and pork first, followed later by poultry, and even later by fish, so I've only been a pure vegetarian for six months or so (though I never ate much fish anyway) even though I've not eaten beef in about four years. Even within that, I stopped some things faster than others. I ate lunch meat for longer than any other kind of meat, and tuna longer than any other type of fish. I stopped eating things in my own cooking long before giving them up when going out to eat -- for example, I've not cooked a fish or chicken of my own accord since 2002 or so, but I ate both in restaurants until 2004 or later. I've basically been learning vegetarian cooking since 2003, when I started cooking for myself in Scotland. And that's the key.

Not necessarily cooking, although I think that's hugely helpful and makes an enormous difference, but eating new things. I cooked or made one or more new recipes a week for all of the 2003-2004 school year. After that I recycled a few, but kept exploring. I continued my hunt for good cookbooks. I gradually experimented with veggie equivalents for things like lunch sandwiches. In the course of this, I also tried a lot of ingredients I wasn't terribly familiar with because I had disliked them as a child or one of my parents did, or my parents thought I did, or just didn't use them. Chickpeas, eggplant, lentils, split peas, leeks, fennel, barley, oats (which I never had other than in cookies or instant oatmeal until recently), rutabaga, turnip, parsnip...I don't remember them all, but I discovered lots of new foods. I learned to substitute things I like for things I don't, like zucchini for mushrooms. I learned the importance of herbs and spices. This has continued recently with my introduction to quinoa (a Peruvian grain, via Michael), udon noodles (Japanese, ditto), black lentils (via vegetarian haggis), and wheat berries (popular in Italy, via tha Barefoot Contessa (transitively via metacub, who introduced me to Ina's show)). I discovered that I love tofu, which is certainly an advantage for a vegetarian, though not required. I discovered that I don't like butter beans, pinto beans, or white beans, so my bean dislike still exists, it's just less wide and less extreme. :-) I've generally tried not to depend on things that are like meat but vegetarian, eg veggie burgers. I find them limiting to the kind of creativity that I've found to be essential in the transition away from meat. But I do like Quorn and sometimes use it in stir-fry. And veggie burgers (or plain beans and rice!) are fine for a quick standby.

Recently I've been applying this same method to attempting to become vegan. As before, I started out skeptical. I'm still checking out brands of soymilk; it's not my favorite. Rice milk is ok but not great for you. Tofutti "Better Than Cream Cheese" isn't, but it's definitely a fine substitute. But as before, the main key has been and is to explore new foods and new recipes, or adapt recipes that transfer easily. If all the things I eat and enjoy on a daily basis are rich and varied enough to satisfy me, and they're all vegan, then I become vegan "by default", though it can only happen through an application of effort in finding each individual new dish and ingredient. And only gradually. If I had to become vegan tomorrow, I'd succumb to the same failure of imagination that troubles most omnivores who think they "could never do that": I'd imagine my current diet with no eggs and milk, and fail at conceiving a true fully vegan diet (despite having eaten about 15% of my meals over the last few months with a vegan, and many of my own recipes being vegan anyway).

So, if you think it's a good idea to be vegetarian, or eat less meat, but you "could never do that" because [fill in your reason here], consider giving it a try. A small, gradual, experimental try. Buy a new cookbook, try a veggie sandwich at your lunch place, or buy a vegetable you've never cooked before and look up a recipe on the internet. (Use a food blog or good food site like the BBC, Food Network, or vegetarian magazines, if you can; general databases are of wildly varying quality.) Try adapting a favorite meat recipe -- I make a great veggie chili, and I just got a good recipe for lentil tacos down. In fact, why don't I list that one in case any of you are feeling adventurous today...

Lentil Tacos

1/2 c each black (beluga) lentils and brown lentils
1 bell pepper (or 1/2 ea red and green, for color), chopped small
1 medium onion, chopped small
Oil for sauteing
Mexican spice mix to taste (~ 2 tbsp I think)
Water for cooking (2 c)
Taco topping material: chopped tomatoes, shredded cheddar, minced scallions, shredded lettuce or chopped cilantro, sour cream, whatever you like
Taco shells (or chips or tortillas (lard-free) if you prefer)

Cook lentils in 1 c water each, until tender, approx 40 minutes (black may take longer, but mine didn't). The black will be firmer and hold their shape more. Don't try to cook them to be the same as the brown. Drain the brown, drain and reserve the cooking liquid from the black.
During last cooking phase, chop the veg. Heat the oil over med heat (a few tablespoons...I don't so much measure stuff usually :) ) and add the onions. Saute 30 sec, add some spice mix, continue sauteing until beginning to become translucent. Add the peppers, saute until looking lightly cooked. Add the lentils and more spice mix, and a little of the reserved cooking water. Cook for 5-10 min, adding more cooking water as needed, and spice as desired. When the brown lentils are a pasty base for the mixture, you're done. Serve garnished with toppings.

This recipe is mostly vegan; to keep it all on the up and up, use soy sour cream (no cheddar, or use soy cheese, but I hear it's not good, so I'd recommend avoiding it unless you're hardcore) and make sure the spice mix and the shells or tortillas are vegan. Yes, some spice mixes aren't vegan, nor are many tortillas -- they can contain milk protein.

Addendum: In the comments, enshanam points out this lovely post by Barbara of Tigers and Strawberries. Some food for thought for those of you chowing down on grocery-store meat...

I really like going to restaurants that are entirely vegetarian, or where I can at least be confident there's a good selection for me. San Francisco and the Bay Area are great for that, but even here it's good to be informed before you go. The other day, looking for the phone number and address of Club Waziema, a good Ethiopian place with yummy veggie stuff, I found a comprehensive, informative, and up-to-date list of such restaurants.

One of the restaurants on the list is Cafe Gratitude, which is vegan raw food. I was kind of skeptical when Michael first mentioned that place a while ago, but we went there yesterday and it's great. I recommend it to anyone with a moderate sense of adventure, regardless of your normal eating habits. It's very creative, with what are very obviously ingredients of the highest quality. The staff were very friendly and also efficient.