Thoughts on Veganism
Today is Ash Wednesday, and no matter how much I try to remind myself, I still get confused when I see black stuff on people's faces.
I am going vegan for Lent.
Many vegans desire other people to be vegan as well, mostly from an ethical standpoint of animal rights and environmentalism. I want to point out a few strategies that don't work.
Number one: don't try to encourage non-vegans to eat fake cheese. Fake cheese doesn't cut it (though Tofutti is a decent cream cheese substitute). Fake cheese is kinda gross.
What I mostly want to focus on, however, are the many foodstuffs popular with vegans yet have names that appeal to no one.
Nutritional yeast Rich in B vitamins and adds a savory flavor to most anything you sprinkle it on (like popcorn or...pretty much everything) and makes a mean fake cheese sauce. "Nutritional" sounds like "bland" and "yeast" sounds like "yeast infection" to me. I think we should call it tasty flakes. Or, if you're British, tasty flakeys.
Liquid Aminos Basically pure soy sauce without additives, made by the Braggs company, who claim to have invented health food stores. The name sounds like a human excretory product. Maybe call it Alt-Sauce. Or just Braggs Soy Sauce: why did they decide to make it sound gross?
Textured vegetable protein Bits of soy protein that make a good substitute for ground beef in tacos or chili. The utterance of "textured" makes me think of sticking my hand in a pile of something gross. I don't necessarily want my food to be "textured." I propose Pro-Bits.
Earth Balance Many margarines contain ingredients of animal origin. But not Earth Balance. It's not such a bad name, though it's a bit too hippie for my tastes. How about happy butter?
Kombucha Why would you drink that? There is no salvation for this one.
I'm sure I'll think of more horrible-sounding vegan things before the day of Jesus' resurrection.
But for true: I love vegetables and attempting to be healthy, so I'm digging this.
I am going vegan for Lent.
Many vegans desire other people to be vegan as well, mostly from an ethical standpoint of animal rights and environmentalism. I want to point out a few strategies that don't work.
Number one: don't try to encourage non-vegans to eat fake cheese. Fake cheese doesn't cut it (though Tofutti is a decent cream cheese substitute). Fake cheese is kinda gross.
What I mostly want to focus on, however, are the many foodstuffs popular with vegans yet have names that appeal to no one.
Nutritional yeast Rich in B vitamins and adds a savory flavor to most anything you sprinkle it on (like popcorn or...pretty much everything) and makes a mean fake cheese sauce. "Nutritional" sounds like "bland" and "yeast" sounds like "yeast infection" to me. I think we should call it tasty flakes. Or, if you're British, tasty flakeys.
Liquid Aminos Basically pure soy sauce without additives, made by the Braggs company, who claim to have invented health food stores. The name sounds like a human excretory product. Maybe call it Alt-Sauce. Or just Braggs Soy Sauce: why did they decide to make it sound gross?
Textured vegetable protein Bits of soy protein that make a good substitute for ground beef in tacos or chili. The utterance of "textured" makes me think of sticking my hand in a pile of something gross. I don't necessarily want my food to be "textured." I propose Pro-Bits.
Earth Balance Many margarines contain ingredients of animal origin. But not Earth Balance. It's not such a bad name, though it's a bit too hippie for my tastes. How about happy butter?
Kombucha Why would you drink that? There is no salvation for this one.
I'm sure I'll think of more horrible-sounding vegan things before the day of Jesus' resurrection.
But for true: I love vegetables and attempting to be healthy, so I'm digging this.