Why Does Everything Have Milk In It?
So we are coming to the end of day 2 of the whole vegan thing (why does it already feel like an eternity), and so far so good.
The big shop happened on Sunday, and I can't decide if it was easy or difficult. I went to the biggest supermarket in East Kilbride in hope for making the task of shopping for all-vegan things a bit easier. I had spent the last week looking at recipes and shopping lists that would suit a vegan diet, and honestly the majority of them include the same 3 things: vegetables, beans and carbs. So it would seem easy enough.
But then you get into the fruit & veg bit of Sainsbury's and are faced with rows and rows of food that you might need and you don't really know what else your going to eat for 3 weeks so you pick up the 3 butternut squashes anyway. With no intention of what your going to do with them, but they'll do, because what else are you going to eat for 3 weeks!?
Sadly, the fresh aisle was the easiest of my journey. After throwing every fruit, vegetable, leaf, root and whatever else in to the trolley it became a mission of reading labels. With most of the vegan essentials crossed off the list (again, mainly the vegetables) I thought I'd venture a bit more and explore the rest of my options. The "Free From" range had a lot more stuff than I expected, so I could buy some normal things like cheese, chocolate, biscuits (obviously at this point having no idea if they even taste half decent), but I thought I'd give some of them a go so I'm not living off grapes.
(It should be mentioned that the shame of looking at the "Free-From" Range was reinforced by disgusted looks from other shoppers - mostly middle aged couples with a look of "god-damn millennials-and-their-gluten-free-lifestyles - obviously, I would rather have some Cathedral City but I can't.)
Apart from the clearly marked "Free From" stuff it took an annoying amount of effort to check the labels of other products. Doing some research beforehand made things a bit easier, but it gets ridiculous: it seems that hiding at the bottom of every ingredient list Milk Powder just has to make an appearance. Normal things you wouldn't expect, like white sugar, which is processed using animal bone char, it just seems unnecessary. But Quorn got me the most. Most Quorn products have some egg or milk in them, so there went my last hope of some kind of meat-like product.
The big shop happened on Sunday, and I can't decide if it was easy or difficult. I went to the biggest supermarket in East Kilbride in hope for making the task of shopping for all-vegan things a bit easier. I had spent the last week looking at recipes and shopping lists that would suit a vegan diet, and honestly the majority of them include the same 3 things: vegetables, beans and carbs. So it would seem easy enough.
But then you get into the fruit & veg bit of Sainsbury's and are faced with rows and rows of food that you might need and you don't really know what else your going to eat for 3 weeks so you pick up the 3 butternut squashes anyway. With no intention of what your going to do with them, but they'll do, because what else are you going to eat for 3 weeks!?
Sadly, the fresh aisle was the easiest of my journey. After throwing every fruit, vegetable, leaf, root and whatever else in to the trolley it became a mission of reading labels. With most of the vegan essentials crossed off the list (again, mainly the vegetables) I thought I'd venture a bit more and explore the rest of my options. The "Free From" range had a lot more stuff than I expected, so I could buy some normal things like cheese, chocolate, biscuits (obviously at this point having no idea if they even taste half decent), but I thought I'd give some of them a go so I'm not living off grapes.
(It should be mentioned that the shame of looking at the "Free-From" Range was reinforced by disgusted looks from other shoppers - mostly middle aged couples with a look of "god-damn millennials-and-their-gluten-free-lifestyles - obviously, I would rather have some Cathedral City but I can't.)
Apart from the clearly marked "Free From" stuff it took an annoying amount of effort to check the labels of other products. Doing some research beforehand made things a bit easier, but it gets ridiculous: it seems that hiding at the bottom of every ingredient list Milk Powder just has to make an appearance. Normal things you wouldn't expect, like white sugar, which is processed using animal bone char, it just seems unnecessary. But Quorn got me the most. Most Quorn products have some egg or milk in them, so there went my last hope of some kind of meat-like product.
Anyway, I made it to the end, armed with beans, nuts, fruit, basically what I thought was most of the shop but as I lay it out on the conveyor belt, questioned what I was even going to do with it all. Which will be revealed in my next blog!
Food for thought (and most annoying discovery of the week): Pepsi is vegan, but diet Pepsi is not, but diet Coke is. I don't know why either.
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