Friday, November 20, 2009

Purging your Kitchen of bad vices

Cleaning out your kitchen is a great and very important starting point. You don't want to crave any of your "bad habits" or "old junk food vices" in the beginning of your Vegan life style change.  There's going to be many difficult times all on their own, don't add to them if you can help it!  Set your self up for success in your first 3 months.  I say 3 months because that is your first goal to strive for after your first 30 days.  If you can be healthy & successful for 3 months....you got it for life and your mindset is in the right place for success!

When you purge your cabinets and get rid of the things you don't "want" to eat anymore, try to recycle and maybe give to your neighbor, it will make you feel better than just throwing it away and "wasting" food.

Best place to start is your "munchie" cabinet and fridge.  Look at the ingredients in everything, if it contains any dairy or milk products it's no good!  First big No No is "hydrogenated oils".  Hydrogenated oils basically are oils in which the essential fatty acids have been converted to a different form chemically and has been proven to cause very negative health effects.  Hydrogenated oils are made by forcing hydrogen gas into oil at high pressure.  Both animal and vegetable fats can be and are hydrogenated!  In general the more solid the oil is the more hydrogenated it is.  The best examples of this is "Crisco and Margarine.  When Hydrogenated oils are made, there's healthy fats being converted into a new type of fatty acid, known as a Trans fat.  Trans fats are not good at all for our health or bodies!!

When your reading labels look for Cholesterol.  If the products have even 1% of Cholesterol in them it's not vegan.  Cholesterol is not found in any plant-based product, therefore it comes from some sort of animal-derived ingredient.

Always check the allergy list at the end of the ingredients.  It will say " This product contains; milk, egg, soy and wheat".  Basically if anything non-vegan is listed put it back on the shelf or throw it away if purging your home cabinets.

Look for animal-derived ingredients such as; Vitamin D3, vitamin D2, (Vitamin D is usually made from "Lanolin", which is a waxy fat extracted from sheep wool), Casein (milk protein which finds its way into soy cheese), Whey, Honey and anything with Lactose (thought most other LAC ingredients are fine).

Try to avoid "Natural coloring", in this case your better off choosing "Artificial coloring.  This may sound strange but natural coloring usually comes from insect products.

Basically look for products with the fewest ingredients in them!  It's most likely less processed and and easier to read!!

One more thing, commonly confused ingredients that are Vegan:  Calcium compounds, caramel color, cocoa butter, cooking charcoal, enriched flour, enzymes (other than rennin), Heinz ketchup, lecithin, molasses, paraffin, red # 40 and of course ALL SPICES!

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