Yucky Ingredients

I have been absent for a little while and I apologize for that.

I haven't felt very inspired and I haven't made anything of note (so sorry no new recipe to share).

With Halloween just around the corner there will be a vast amount of treats available to children and PETA put out a list (not all inclusive) of some mainstream treats that are vegan...so I thought I would share them with you:

Airheads taffy

• Brach's Cinnamon Hard Candy
• Brach's Hi-C Fruit Slices
• Brach's Hi-C Orange Slices
• Brach's Root Beer Barrels
• Brach's Star Brites
• Chocolove Dark Chocolate bar
• Chocolove Cherries and Almonds Dark Chocolate Bar
• Chocolove Crystallized Ginger Dark Chocolate Bar
• Chocolove Orange Peel Dark Chocolate Bar
• Chocolove Raspberry Dark Chocolate bar

Chick-o-Sticks

Cry Babies

Dots

Dum-Dums

Fireballs

Hubba Bubba bubblegum

Jolly Ranchers (lollipops and hard candy)

Jujubees

Jujyfruits

Laffy Taffy (some varieties)

Lemonheads

Mambas

Mary Janes (regular and peanut butter kisses)

Mike and Ike

Panda Licorice

Runts

Smarties (U.S. Brand)

Sour Patch Kids

Super Bubble

Swedish Fish

Sweet Tarts

Twizzlers

Zotz

Something else contained in the newsletter was a list of ingredients that are commonly found in foods.

As a new vegan I need to familiarize myself with these, but once I read where the ingredients come from I was completely disgusted...see for yourself (PETA was nice enough to provide some alternatives to the animal versions):

Casein—Whey’s cousin, casein is made from curdled milk. Yuck! Alternatives: soy protein, soy milk, and other vegetable milks.

Gelatin—Rhymes with "skeleton." Coincidence? I think not. Gelatin is a protein made by boiling cows’ and pigs’ skin, tendons, ligaments, and bones. Jell-O? Heck, no! Alternatives: carrageen (carrageenan, Irish moss), seaweeds (algin, agar-agar, kelp—used in jellies, plastics, medicine), pectin from fruits, dextrins, locust bean gum, cotton gum, silica gel.

Honey—Sure, honey tastes sweet, but you’ll get a bad taste in your mouth when you learn how it’s "harvested."

From a former beekeeper: "[T]ypically, beekeepers are gloved and netted to avoid stings (nearly every bee who stings will die due to her entrails being pulled from her body attached to her stinger.) Then the hives are opened as quickly as possible and the bees are ‘smoked.’ Smoke from a smoldering fire carried in a ‘smoker’ is pumped into the hive and the bees are ‘calmed.’ In spite of this, the combs are pulled quickly and many bees are crushed in the process. When a bee is hurt, she releases a chemical message that alerts and activates the hive members who proceed to attack the intruder—giving their lives in the process."

Alternatives: in foods—maple syrup, date sugar, syrups made from grains such as barley malt, turbinado sugar, molasses; in cosmetics—vegetable colors and oils.

Lard—Lard is such a gross word, it almost makes you wonder why they just don’t call it what it is: "Fat from hog abdomens." Alternatives: pure vegetable fats or oils.

Pepsin—If the thought of eating lard turns your stomach, stay away from pepsin, a clotting agent from pigs’ stomachs, used in some cheeses and vitamins. Alternatives: microbial coagulating agents, bacteria culture, lemon juice, or vegetable rennet.

Rennet—Certain words just make you cringe, like coagulate, congeal, clot—which is what rennet, an enzyme taken from baby calves’ stomachs, is used for in cheese production. Alternatives: microbial coagulating agents, bacteria culture, lemon juice, or vegetable rennet.

Stearic Acid—It may sound less gross than "lard," but stearic acid, which often rears its ugly head in chocolate and vitamins, comes from a fatty substance taken from slaughtered pigs’ stomachs—or from cows, sheep, or dogs and cats euthanized in animal shelters. Alternatives: Stearic acid can be found in many vegetable fats, coconut.

Cetyl Palmitate—Check your head if you’re using margarine that contains cetyl palmitate, the fancy term for the waxy oil derived from sperm whales’ heads or from dolphins. Alternatives: synthetic spermaceti, jojoba oil, and other vegetable emollients.

Urea—Urea comes from urine and other "bodily fluids." It’s used to "brown" baked goods, like pretzels. Alternatives: synthetics

I am pretty sure urea made me the most ill but pepsin is right up there for me as well.

What I really wonder though is who sat around and thought "Urine that is bound to make baked goods have a pleasing brown color." I guess what I need to research is how the ingredients even came to be acceptable options.

Hopefully I haven't ruined your day with this, but I just felt I wanted to share.