i saw what the people do to animals to get furr and make food! i think its so.. wrong i never realized how bad it was till i actually saw! so thats y i wana be a vegan ! i wanna be a part of peta and all that jazz! wat things do i have to give up completley to become animal friendly!!! not just towards food but 4 a whole new life style. i need every detail of wat i can and cant eat ...and wat i can and cant wear and wat kinda products i can use that are animal friendly!! give me as much info as possible ..plz!! thank u
.2009-04-19T19:10:11Z
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First off, stay away from PETA. They have one website, Caring Consumer, that is nice for finding cruelty free brands, but that is all. Other than that, stay far, far away.
Food: Vegans don't eat anything that comes from an animal. The obvious things include dairy, eggs, and honey. There are, however, many other "hidden" ingredients. Get used to reading the ingredients on everything you eat. If you don't know what something is, look it up. Many things can be found simply in a dictionary, use a search engine for the others.
Pick up a few vegan cookbooks, don't be scared to try new foods, and you'll be sure to find plenty of things you like. :)
Clothing: Vegans don't use clothes (furniture, accessories, etc.) that are derived from animals. This includes fur, leather, wool, angora, cashmere, felt, down, and silk.
There is faux fur and leather (also known as pleather), although I don't like it as it still promotes the wearing of these things, as well as the production of faux fur/leather is terrible for the environment. I know there is faux wool for knitting, I'm not sure whether or not there are actually clothes made out of it.
Other Products: As I said before, http://www.caringconsumer.com/ is a good website for this. You'll want to look for things that are both vegan in the ingredients, and not animal tested. You'll also need to decide how picky you want to be; for example, Tom's of Maine (toothpaste & deodorant) is vegan and not animal tested, but they are owned by Colgate, which does animal test. The brand Jason, on the other hand, is truly vegan and not animal tested.
You will probably have some non-vegan clothing and products such as shampoo. Don't throw them out, that's pointless and wasteful. In the case of products, use up the rest of them and simply do not buy any more. In the case of clothing, continue using it or give it away, and do not buy any more.
You have to give up all animals products, not just meat, dairy and eggs but wool, leather, silk, all products that are tested on animals and all foods that have numbers on the back such as 471, 166, etc because a lot of these numbers mean 'slaughterhouse product' also many people don't realise that wines, beers and other alcohols have animal products in them. Also you have to figure out yourself whether or not you want to eat honey, personally i don't, but my partner (also Vegan) does, but only the stuff he collects himself so he knows the bees were not forced into making it or harmed.
there are so many good websites that can help you find out precisely what brands you can and cannot use;
Im not vegan but i am a vegetarian but i know what its like!
First step- Do your research! The last thing you want to do is become unhealthy and anemic. You need to look up what a good diet is for you. Also, since this is a very big step you should really ask your doctor. Your doc knows you the best and he knows what your body is like so he will plan a diet that is best for you!
Second- Know your foods! Being vegan doesnt mean eating only salads and wheat. Morning Star is a very good brand! It is found in the frozen food section. It is a meat sub situte. Im actually eating veggie chicken nuggets right now. I can't even tell you how good it tastes. My non veggie friend saw me eating Morning Star ribs and i told her to try a little piece and she ate the whole thing! Its so good and so easy to make. 1min30 seconds in the microwave for nice hot chicken nuggets! Most grocierie stores (almost all!- Jewel, sunset, dominicks etc) will have a meatless section. Some good vegan/veggie brands are Quorn, Morning Star, Amy's. Just try out new stuff. Also, you will probrobly still want to eat milk and egg subsitutes. Those are easy! Drink silk soy milk (i drink it, it tastes just like real milk. and comes in dif flavors!) and vegan eggs. vegan eggs are really easy to find. and they arent muc h more expensive either... Just check out your nearest grocer and see what vegan foods they have. it will say right on the label. its really not that hard!
Third- Its easy! http://www.peta.org/accidentallyVegan/ That is a cool site because it shows so many foods that are actually vegan!!! Poptarts, Coco pebbles, Cake Mix. etc. Everything on that page is vegan and im pretty sure some of those foods you love to eat!
Fourth- Products! Mainly- no leather, no fur. Non-leather shoes are very very very very hard to find. You will find yourself finding so cute shoes and then find out theyre leather. i dont use leather or fur. I found these cute coach shoes but they had leather. i was so disappointed. Converse, Rocketdogs, Fake Birkenstocks, Fake Uggs are good shoes to buy. Its not nesicarily that theyre hard to find, its just that you will always find something you want and it will be made of leather. Most athletic tennis shoes are leather, most boots are, most purses are. Vera Bradley isnt leather. its all cotton and its cute. www.verabradley.com EXTRA- Some vegans believe it is fine to use wool, some dont. Wool does not involve any killing of the sheep. It involves sheering. It is up to you weather you want to use wool or not. I personally hate wool, but if i was vegan i wouldnt have a problem with using it. its just like a sheep haircut!
Fifth- Nutrition! It is very very easy to become unhealthy as a vegan but if you do it right you will be fine. Stick to eating the right foods as i told you. Eat your soy, eat your beans, your peanut butter, your soy milk, your vegan eggs (or cage free eggs. which is kind to the chickens. no cages) and your other foods as subsittes. Get a multivitamin. Protein and iron especially since you wont be eating meat. Calcium-you should be okay on with the soy milk. But just ask your doctor because he will help you put together a diet that is right for you!!
also (dont take this the wrong way, im not forcing you!) you could be vegetarian and eat cage free eggs and milk that lets the cows run free in the field. and just not buy animal products. Milkling a cow doesnt harm a cow as long as its not on a machine (milking in an open field is good!) and a chicken laying an egg doesnt harm the chicken as long as it isnt in a cage (buy cage free!). ITs just something to think about.
Talk to your doc and your fam . and good luck! I spent a lot of time writing this because i always love to help out a vegan. Hope i helped!
If you want to now what you can wear u probably already know no leather or fur u will need to make sure that all your clothes are 100% of a fabric and don't use downy fabric softener because i hear that they use animal fat u cant use leather, suede, wool, silk, fur, angora, cashmere, mohair i dont know if there is anything else and i hope it helped
Going vegan and getting into animal rights is awesome, but remember there are a lot of different groups that have different ideas. Check out the following animal rights groups(google search) for Compassion Over Killing, Animal Defense League, In Defense of Animals. Here's a nice little guide to going vegan: http://www.vivausa.org/veganbasics/ and http://www.tryveg.com/