VegaNO. Products that go vegan but are not

Neither vegan nor healthy: Products that go vegan but are not

Is veganism a new fad to which Marketing has joined? Does a product being vegan automatically make it healthy ?

Processed, preservatives and dyes … Do not count?

If, despite not being vegan or vegetarian, you are already one of those who are fooled by the commonly known green V in your usual products because you think they are healthier than the ones you always buy, you have to know that maybe, you’re wrong.

So aren’t they vegan?

• From hummus,  vegetable drinks such as soy milk, oatmeal, rice or coconut, to tofu, quinoa or legume   burgers, to  cheese or margarines without milk, and mushroom, tomato, eggplant or pepper patés.
• All these apparently health-friendly products hide processes that are anything but healthy under the vegan label , since they carry the same problems as any other industrial product because they contain palm oil, saturated fats, excess salt or sugars.
• So beware , that they do not have components of animal origin does not imply that they are wonderful for your body, much less for your diet.

Do we have to be alarmed and read the labels well?

Yes, yes and yes. All that glitters is not gold, nor is everything that has a seal specifying it as vegan. Do not be fooled, behind all apparently healthy packaging, a lot of harmful components are hidden for you .

As I have already commented on some occasion, something similar happens with products “without added sugar”, which basically means that they do not contain more sugar than they already contain, but this does not mean that they are free of sugars .

Some examples of “vegan” products that you can find and the ingredients they contain are, for example, sausages. Some of them only contain sunflower oil, starch and water.

Sounds super appetizing and nutritious, right? Or desserts that include vegetable cream, which is nothing more than water, hydrogenated vegetable fat and sugar. Come on, a real delicacy.

Vegan industrial cakes are just as bad as non-vegan industrial cakes.

Sometimes even more, since the egg is replaced by starch and other fats. This does not mean that vegan products are less healthy than the rest, no. This means that they are exactly as bad as other unhealthy products.

Vegan dairy does not exist

Let’s see cheese is cheese and chicken is chicken. Naming a product with the name “cheese” implies that it carries milk, the rest is nonsense. What most of these cheese simulator products contain is nothing more than palm or coconut oil and flavorings .

If you have decided to quit dairy, great! But do not try to get rid of the bug by buying or consuming this type of product since it does not have any protein value (unless they contain soy).

The same occurs with cream or margarine . In the case of margarine, most replace hydrogenated fats of animal origin with refined coconut or palm oil, which are also highly inadvisable for health and exactly the same thing happens in vegetable pates, which also have high doses of salt.

So if you suffer from cholesterol problems and have embraced these new customs, you should make sure to read the packaging of the products you buy well.

In the case of cream, its main base is also usually the mainstream palm oil, and in the case of industrial pastries for vegans, in addition to having palm oil, there are trans fats and sugar.

You probably have seen some chicken recipe without chicken. What replaces this food in a vegan or vegetarian diet would be yuba (soy strips), tofu or seitan.

The most achieved is undoubtedly the yuba because it achieves a texture very similar to that of chicken after cooking, but what I really ask myself is: why do brands insist on trying to imitate meat products like chicken or dairy to include in diets that exclude food of animal origin? Is it because of the protein?

Except for the case of soy, we have already seen that no, that the majority of “substitutes” for both dairy and meat carry starch, oil and water. Vegans and vegetarians don’t want to eat meat or dairy. Dear brands, do not insist on inducing your fashions.

summarizing

• Make no mistake: brands are using cheaper ingredients (hydrogenated vegetable fat is cheaper than animal fat) to launch products on the market under the vegan label and charge them all much more expensive.
• I’m not saying this is always always like this. But I have to admit that in a very high percentage of the time it is. You just have to shop around your supermarket after reading this post and check the back of the packaging of the products of the vegetarian and vegan section.
• The reasons for being vegan are many and they are not a fad, it is a true and logical fact. Eating animal meat is not only bad for health, but also for the environment , but if you decide to be a vegetarian or vegan, you should really do it.
• It is not that you should avoid going to the supermarket, but you bet on the natural, for values ​​of animal respect and zero environmental impact, supporting local and proximity commerce must be part of your DNA.