Is It Vegan?

I’ve been vegan for over twelve years, and until recently, I honestly never really knew what “malt” was. I heard it was vegan, and that was enough for me! But … Read more

You may have experienced this yourself: You’re checking whether a certain cereal is vegan. It looks good until you get to the end of the ingredient list and you see: … Read more

One of the surprising examples you might hear of a non-vegan product is latex condoms. But it can be difficult to find more information on this. What about latex gloves, … Read more

Chemical names in our food can be unsettling—especially as vegans. When I saw “sorbitan monostearate” listed as an ingredient recently and then struggled to find good information on it… I … Read more

Sugar can be a perplexing subject for new vegans because a lot of white cane sugar gets processed using animal bone char. There’s a whole big vegan debate about refined … Read more

The other day, I saw the ingredient “croscarmellose sodium” listed on the package for some multivitamins. Besides that one ingredient, all the other ingredients seemed very simple and straight-forward… So … Read more

For vegans and those with lactose/dairy issues, any ingredient including “lacto” in the name tends to raise concerns. But as we’ve seen with other ingredients (like lactic acid), it doesn’t … Read more

To combat the idea that vegans are small and weak, many of us like to cite the fact that elephants, gorillas, and other big animals eat vegan diets, too. But … Read more

I remember when I first went vegan, I went to the grocery store and read the ingredients on all the bread. I remember being stumped by this ingredient: Sodium stearoyl … Read more

I recently saw “potassium sorbate” listed in the ingredients for some apple cider I was drinking. Turns out, it’s a common food preservative. But since I’m a nerdy vegan who … Read more

Would it be worrisome for you to discover that one of your food ingredients is also an ingredient in antifreeze? Well, that’s the case with propylene glycol—and it does concern … Read more

As a vegan, it’s easy to become suspicious of pretty much any ingredient you don’t recognize. So when you see “ascorbic acid,” you may not realize that it’s actually just … Read more

Lately, I’ve been looking up a bunch of food preservatives to see if they’re vegan. Sodium benzoate is an interesting one. By the end of my research, I was reading … Read more

I remember when I first went vegan 14 years ago, it was a little overwhelming to see all the chemical names in ingredient lists. I had no idea what something … Read more

When I was a kid, I’d always see this warning on diet soda cans: “PHENYLKETONURICS: CONTAINS PHENYLALANINE.” It seemed scary, but I had no clue what it meant. As an … Read more

Pepto-Bismol is a bit of a mysterious substance. It’s pink, yet it turns some people’s tongue black. And from a vegan perspective, it may be suspicious due to its milky … Read more

If you’re a vegan like me who is constantly reading ingredients lists, you have probably seen “thiamine mononitrate” at least once. It’s added to many foods today as a source … Read more

Sodium caseinate is one of the most frustrating ingredients for strict vegans and those allergic to milk. Imagine you buy some “non-dairy” creamer. Then later, you check the ingredients closer, … Read more

On the surface, it may sound like trolling to ask if mushrooms are vegan. But when you actually dig into the issue, you find some really bizarre stuff. Even as … Read more

Malic acid… for years, I had no idea what this ingredient was. I’d see it on packages and just wonder. I always assumed it was harmless—and it turns out I … Read more