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Veganism is a lifestyle characterized by not eating or using non-human animal products. An animal product in this context refers to the body parts of an animal, or any substance derived from an animal, such as gelatin, eggs, honey, and dairy products.

Many vegans avoid the use of all animal products, including leather, suede, wool and fur clothing, shoes and accessories; cosmetics and toiletries that contain animal-derived ingredients (beeswax, lanolin, carmine, etc.) or that have been tested on animals; and household cleaners containing ingredients that have been tested on animals. Some people avoid using animals as food, but may nevertheless wear clothes made of materials derived from animals. The latter are called "dietary vegans."

A Time/CNN poll published in Time Magazine on July 7, 2002, found that 4% of American adults consider themselves vegetarians, and 5% of self-described vegetarians consider themselves vegans. This may suggest that 0.2% of American adults are vegans. A 2000 poll suggested closer to 0.9% of the adult American population may be vegan. In the UK, research showed that 0.4%, approximately 250,000 people, were vegan in 2001.

Overview

Veganism is defined by the British Vegan Society as:

philosophy and way of living which seeks to exclude — as far as is possible and practical — all forms of exploitation of, and cruelty to, animals for food, clothing or any other purpose; and by extension, promotes the development and use of animal-free alternatives for the benefit of animals, including humans and the environment. In dietary terms it denotes the practice of dispensing with all products derived wholly or partly from animals.

The word vegan (pronounced vee-gun, sometimes mispronounced vay-gun) was originally derived from vegetarian in 1944 when Elsie Shrigley and Donald Watson, frustrated that the term "vegetarianism" had come to include the eating of dairy products, founded the UK Vegan Society. The word starts and ends with the first three and last two letters of vegetarian, representing that veganism begins with vegetarianism, then takes it to its logical conclusion. Therefore the term vegan was originally coined to differentiate those vegetarians who (primarily for ethical or environmental reasons) seek to eliminate all animal products in all areas of their lives from those who simply avoid eating meat.

Those who are vegans for ethical reasons today generally oppose what they see as the violence and cruelty involved in the (non-vegan) food, clothing and other industries. Animal products such as leather, silk or wool are avoided. Soap must be made of vegetable oil instead of tallow (animal fat). Toothpaste, hair products, and other toiletries used by vegans must not have been tested on animals. (See also Draize test, LD50 and Animal testing.)

The vegan philosophy is connected to the concept of ahimsa, a Sanskrit word central to Jainism, Buddhism and Hinduism, originally taught by Mahavira and Buddha around 500 BCE, and more recently promoted by Mahatma Gandhi. Ahimsa roughly means "non-killing and non-harming." The American Vegan Society website says: "It is not mere passiveness, but a positive method of meeting the dilemmas and decisions of daily life. In the western world, we call it Dynamic Harmlessness."

Ahimsa is also used as a backronym: Abstinence from animal products, Harmlessness with reverence for life, Integrity of thought, word, and deed, Mastery over oneself, Service to humanity, nature and creation, and Advancement of understanding and truth.

Animal products

The term "animal product" in a vegan context refers to a product derived from non-human animals without their consent. Human breast milk is acceptable when used for human babies, but by comparison, when a human being drinks a cow's milk, which is intended for her calves, it is regarded as the consumption of an "animal product."

Animal products include meat, poultry, fish, shellfish, eggs, dairy products, fur, leather, wool, and byproducts such as gelatin, rennet, and whey. The Vegan Society and many vegans include insect products such as silk, honey, and beeswax in their definition.

There is some debate on the finer points of what constitutes an animal product: some vegans avoid cane sugar that has been filtered with bone char, and some will not drink beers and wines clarified with albumen (egg white), animal blood, or isinglass, even though these are not present in the final product. Also, some vegans avoid food cooked in pans if they have been used to cook non-vegan foods.

As well as avoiding animal products, vegans refrain from supporting industries that use animals, such as circuses featuring animals, and zoos. Most vegans also refrain from using toiletries, cosmetics, or other products that are tested on animals.

Other vegan ideals may include sustainable agricultural systems that exclude animal by-products such as blood, fish emulsion, bone, and manures. Some vegans view the adoption of vegan organic horticultural and agricultural methodologies as integral to their ethical stance.

Vegan cuisine

Many dishes containing animal products can be adapted by substituting vegan ingredients. Soy milk can be used to replace traditional milk in most recipes, as can a variety of nut and grain "milks"; eggs can usually be replaced by the appropriate egg replacers (one popular version is made from potato starch). Artificial "meat" products, such as imitation sausages, ground beef, burgers, and chicken nuggets are available in many supermarkets, although many are only vegetarian. Some Asian cuisines contain many dishes that are naturally vegan.

Vegans have several foods that they tend to eat in larger quantities than non-vegans. Among these are the soy products tofu and tempeh, and the wheat product seitan. Many vegans express concern about reliance on soy products, and prefer to experiment with a range of foods and cuisines.

There are several diets similar to veganism, though there are significant differences, including fruitarianism, raw food diet, macrobiotic diet and Natural Hygiene. There are also numerous religious groups that regularly or occasionally practice a similar diet, including some sects of Buddhism, Hinduism, and Jainism, as well as some Christian sects such as the Eastern Orthodox church and the Seventh-day Adventist Church.

More recently, many young people who subscribe to the anarcho-punk or straight edge punk movements have embraced veganism, and the corresponding beliefs of the animal rights movement. Straight Edge is a philosophy in which one does not partake in the drinking of alcohol, casual sex, or recreational drugs, and was born out of anger at the cultural excesses of the 1980s. Straight Veg, a term equivalent to vegan, arose as a response to the increasingly popular Straight Edge. Another recent variation of veganism is the "freegan" diet (practitioners sometimes called "opportunivores"), which essentially allows its practitioners to violate the tenets of veganism when a food item is free or of a post-consumer nature (example: discarded food).

An interesting sub-set of veganism, raw veganism, advocates the consumption only of raw foods and the elimination of processed foods from the diet. A study of raw vegans found them to be slender and healthy, but noted that they had reduced essential bone mass and lower bone mineral density. The researchers said these results are "strongly associated with increased fracture risk", but noted that the raw vegans they studied had no other biological markers to indicate higher levels of osteoporosis, and that their bone turnover rates were normal. For a list of vegan recipes complementary to this article see the Wikibooks cookbook section, Vegan cuisine.

Motivation

Animal suffering

Vegans cite a desire to reduce animal suffering as their primary motivation. Utilitarian philosophers, such as Jeremy Bentham, and especially Peter Singer, argue that the suffering of all sentient animals should be taken into consideration when making ethical decisions; thus, by abstaining from consuming products from animals exploited for food, veganism is the application of this system of ethics.

Though Singer's ethical theory recognizes the suffering of sentient animals, it does not rely on the concept of rights. However, philosophers such as Tom Regan and Gary L. Francione believe that, because sentient animals are capable of valuing their lives, they have the inherent right to possess their own flesh, and that, therefore, it is unethical to treat them as property, or as a commodity.

Those who avoid animal food products — for example, due to allergies or high cholesterol, or to protest against factory farming — but who otherwise use products containing animal derivatives, may describe themselves as "dietary vegans".

Vegan author Joanne Stepaniak argues that this term is inappropriate, because veganism is by definition about avoiding all animal abuses, not just food-related ones. For this reason, she says, a term such as "total vegetarian," or "strict vegetarian," would be more appropriate for those who avoid eating meat and dairy products, but continue to buy leather shoes.

Health and environment

People do not often go vegan solely for health reasons, because dietary concerns provide no incentive to avoid animal products such as leather or fur. However, the health benefits of a diet low in animal products — such as zero LDL cholesterol and artificial growth hormones intake, and the avoidance of the antibiotics routinely fed to factory-farmed animals — provide a secondary motivation for many vegans.

Many people believe that a diet consisting exclusively of fruit, vegetables, nuts, and legumes has health benefits (see nutrition), and that there are additional benefits from excluding dairy, egg and animal-derived products.

The American Dietetic Association and Dietitians of Canada publicly state that "well-planned vegan and other types of vegetarian diets are appropriate for all stages of the life cycle, including during pregnancy, lactation, infancy, childhood, and adolescence. Vegetarian diets offer a number of nutritional benefits, including lower levels of saturated fat, cholesterol, and animal protein as well as higher levels of carbohydrates, fiber, magnesium, potassium, folate, and antioxidants such as vitamins C and E and phytochemicals. Vegetarians have been reported to have lower body mass indices than nonvegetarians, as well as lower rates of death from ischemic heart disease; vegetarians also show lower blood cholesterol levels; lower blood pressure; and lower rates of hypertension, type 2 diabetes, and prostate and colon cancer."

As with vegetarians, vegans are sometimes motivated by the high environmental costs of producing animal products. Often cited are the pollution of local environments by animal waste, as well as the resources used to care for livestock. A commonly cited (and contested) statistic is that it takes 14 times more land area to support a meat eater than a vegetarian. This is due in part to the fact that caring for livestock requires resources to produce many inedible products (e.g., bone, gristle, skin). In fact, only about 10% of the energy used in livestock is available for human consumption:

"...nly a fraction of the energy at one trophic level can be passed on to the next. This fraction varies from a high of about 35 percent for the most efficient ... to below 0.1 percent...Given the inefficiency of the energy transfer from one trophic level to the next, it might seem that the earth could support more humans if we all stopped being omnivorous, and lived on a wholly vegetable diet instead of the combined animal and vegetable diet..."

The result is that producing food through livestock is much less efficient than typical harvesting of fruits and vegetables, which, in the latter case, typically use most or all of the product for human consumption.

Modern veganism in context

Veganism as a secular movement is a modern idea. The principles behind it, however, can be found in older ethical doctrines of the East, such as Hinduism, Buddhism or Jainism. (See Ahimsa.)

Much stricter forms of diet have been followed for thousands of years by adherents of Jainism, and a strictly bounded diet is an integral part of their religious doctrine, which promotes non-suffering. Jain monks usually eat only fruits and beans so that they can avoid indirect killing of plants. They abstain from eating root plants, such as garlic, onion and potatoes, because it requires the death of the plant. Stricter Jains also abstain from walking on grass. There are even those who wear masks over their mouths and noses to avoid any possibility of breathing in tiny insects.

Vegan nutrition

See main article: Vegan nutrition

For many people, a properly planned vegan diet presents no significant nutritional problems, though supplementation is highly recommended. There are several nutrients vegans should pay attention to. These include Vitamin B12, iron and iodine: deficiencies in these are more likely following a vegan diet, and deficiencies of these potentially have serious consequences, including anemia, pernicious anemia, cretinism and hyperthyroidism. Interestingly, B12 deficiency can be a problem for others, too; aging, for example, can lead to an inability to absorb B12 from food, and supplementation is recommended for those over fifty-five years of age.

Some nutritionists have expressed concerns about the potential dangers in the vegan diet. This is especially true for young children where the failure to achieve adequate nutrition can lead to permanent developmental deficits. In widely reported comments, Professor Lindsey Allen of the U.S. Agricultural Research Service declared: "There's absolutely no question that it's unethical for parents to bring up their children as strict vegans." She later added "unless those who practiced vegan diets were well-informed about how to add back missing nutrients through supplements or fortified foods," which she claims the original reporter inappropriately dropped. In very severe cases, parents practising what they described as forms of veganism have been charged with child abuse for not providing adequate nutrition.

Dr. Per-Olaf Astrand of the Swedish Karolinska Institute conducted an informal study of diet and endurance using nine highly trained athletes, changing their diet every three days. At the end of every diet change, each athlete would pedal a bicycle until exhaustion. Those with a high protein and high fat meat (carnivore) diet averaged 57 minutes. Those that consumed a mixed (omnivore) diet, lower in meat, fat and protein averaged 1 hour and 54 minutes: twice the endurance of the meat and fat eaters. The vegetarian, high carbohydrate diet athletes lasted 2 hours and 47 minutes, triple the endurance of the high-protein group. (Source: Astrand, Per-Olaf, Nutrition Today 3:no2, 9-11, 1968)

Protein

The role of protein in the vegan diet has been the source of some dissent and misunderstanding. While all vegetable foods contain protein, few vegetable proteins contain a complete set of the essential amino acids needed by the human body, and are deficient in one or more amino acids. It has been claimed that, since vegans do not consume "complete" animal-derived proteins such as egg, milk, meat and fish, they must perform this kind of protein combining on a daily basis to avoid suffering from protein deficiency. However, full supplementation is remedied easily enough by maintaining a sufficient variety of foods in one's diet.

The most current measuring system for the "completeness" of a protein's amino acid content is called PDCAAS. A value of 1.0 is deemed complete, with 0 being completely deficient. To illustrate how certain vegetable foods complement one another, consider grain protein and bean protein. Grain protein has a PDCAAS of about 0.4 to 0.5, limited by lysine. On the other hand, it contains more than enough methionine. White bean protein (and that of many other pulses) has a PDCAAS of 0.6 to 0.7, limited by methionine, and contains more than enough lysine. When both are eaten in roughly equal quantities in a diet, the PDCAAS of the combined constituent is 1.0, because each constituent's protein is complemented by the other.

Vegans also note the following with regard to protein intake:

• When a variety of plant foods is consumed, the PDCAAS of the total diet approaches 1, even if no conscious protein combining is performed.
• Research has shown that the body maintains amino acid pools that only need to be repleted once every few days. This means that the relevant PDCAAS is not that of any single meal, but that of two or three days' worth of food. Considering the law of large numbers, this PDCAAS will be much closer to 1, if a variety of plant proteins is consumed.
• Human protein requirements are much lower than once assumed. A suboptimal PDCAAS is thus easily overcome if more than minimum protein is consumed. Peanuts, soy and other legumes, the alga spirulina and certain grains are some of the richest sources of plant protein.
• Popular meat and milk-replacement products contain soy, which is a "complete" protein as well. Soy is also very rich in protein. Soy milk without added sugar contains almost twice as much protein per calorie as cow's milk, and about five times as much as human milk.

Iodine

Residents of the UK will find themselves iodine-deficient if they rely primarily on local produce, since in the UK iodine is usually obtained via dairy products rather than iodized salt that is more common elsewhere. The Vegan Society says, "Iodine is typically undesirably low (about 50 micrograms/day compared to a recommended level of about 150 micrograms per day) in UK vegan diets unless supplements, iodine rich seaweeds or foods containing such seaweeds (e.g. Vecon) are consumed. The low iodine levels in many plant foods reflects the low iodine levels in the UK soil, due in part to the recent ice-age." This demonstrates that location may also be a factor in what deficiencies may be present in any given diet.

Vitamin B12

Vitamin B12, a bacterial product, cannot be reliably found in plant products, and so vegans are recommended to make sure they eat foods with B12 added (such as fortified yeast extract and margarines or many boxed cereals), certain brands of nutritional yeast, or take supplements (a good multivitamin ought to include B12 in sufficient quantities).

Iron

Iron is said by the Vegan Society to be present in many typically vegan foodstuffs, including grains, nuts and green leaves. However, the iron in these sources is in a less easily absorbed, non-heme form. Nevertheless, the Society quotes research to show that iron deficiency is no more prevalent in vegans than in the general population. This research did not account for the fact that many vegans take nutritional supplements that are not found in food alone, whereas other research that excludes this subset of people does indeed show a marked iron deficiency among a majority of those studied. It is important to note that iron deficiency is one of the most common nutritional deficiencies in the general population, and many nutritionists and dieticians recommend a daily multivitamin because of this.

Calcium

Calcium may also be a concern if the vegan is not eating a variety of foods, especially leafy green vegetables, fortified products, almonds, soy products, and dried fruits.

DHA

One nutrient that is sometimes overlooked when analyzing the vegan diet is docosahexaenoic acid (DHA). DHA can be synthesized from alpha linolenic fatty acids; for non-vegetarians, a good source for this omega-3 fatty acid is seafood and eggs. This healthy fat can be found in soy, walnuts, flaxseed, pumpkin seeds, and canola oil, and many vegans include these specific foods in their diets. This fatty acid is very important for brain function, eye function, and for the cellular transport of valuable nutrients.

Omega-3 fatty acids must be taken into consideration for any diet, and special consideration taken for younger children and the elderly because growing and aging brains need more of these nutritious fats. There are sources of omega-3 fatty acids available to the vegan: flaxseed oil (sometimes called edible linseed in the UK) and hemp oil- which have far higher levels of omega-3s than fish oils - nuts (especially walnuts), and green leafy veggies provide omega-3s and ALA, and algae can provide DHA (algal supplements are widely available).

Criticism

Veganism requires a level of attention to the details of consumption which many non-vegans view as impractical, particularly in the area of food preparation. Many dishes prepared in western culture involve at least one non-vegan element — dairy, in particular, is pervasive. And while most people are accustomed to the idea of vegetarianism, it is much more difficult for vegans to simply "eat around" the non-vegan elements in a meal. Some non-vegans may resent the extra effort of accommodating the vegan diet. Certain vegan substitutions for non-vegan ingredients (such as soy milk for cow's milk) only superficially resemble their animal- or meat-based analogues. Cooking, as a chemical process, relies on properties (such as the fat content of milk) that plant- and animal-based ingredients do not always share, and so in some recipes calling for animal products, the vegan substitutions may not work well.

The lifestyle choices can be somewhat inconvenient as well. Avoiding clothing and shoes containing wool or leather, most brands of latex condoms (as latex is often produced with the milk protein casein), hygienic products such as soap, to name a few, requires serious research. Online retailers have emerged, selling vegan alternatives to such products, though there is usually a substantial increase in price from the mainstream offerings.

While much of the literature and media used to promote veganism cites the conditions of modern factory farms, some critics of the diet note that organic and more humane animal-derived foods are widely available. Milk and beef from smaller farms, for instance, come from generally healthier and better cared-for cows. That brings the debate back to whether it is ethical for humans to make use of animals at all, which it is usually the underlying factor in a vegan's lifestyle choice.

To that extent, a common criticism involves the carnivorous behavior of non-human animals throughout nature — if so many animals eat other species, why should humans refrain? One common response to this argument cites less desirable behavior in the animal kingdom — such as rape and cannibalism — which human societies generally rule out.

See also

• Animal rights, Animal Liberation Front, Animal testing, Vivisection
• People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals
• Peter Singer
• Society of Ethical and Religious Vegetarians
• Radicalism
• Environmentalism, Ethical consumerism
• Freeganism
• Fruitarianism
• Imitation meat, In vitro meat
• List of vegans
• Living foods diet, Macrobiotic_diet
• Natural Hygiene
• Nonviolence
• Vegan organic horticulture and agriculture, Veganic gardening
• World Vegan Day, Wiktionary:Vegan
• Vegan menu items
• Vegetarianism

References

• Stephen Walsh Plant Based Nutrition and Health, The Vegan Society 2003, ISBN 0-907337-26-0 (paperback), ISBN 0-907337-27-9 (hardback).
• Gill Langley Vegan Nutrition: a survey of research, The Vegan Society 1988, ISBN 0-907337-15-5
• Brenda Davis, RD, & Vesanto Melina, RD. Becoming Vegan: The Complete Guide to Adopting a Healthy Plant-Based Diet. Tennessee: Book Publishing Company, 2000.
• Prof. V. Smil, Rationalizing Animal Food Production, in Feeding the World: A Challenge for the 21st Century, MIT Press, London, 2000. This provides evidence for the amount of grain required to raise livestock.
• C. de Haan, H. Steinfeld & H. Blackburn, Livestock and the Environment: Finding a Balance FAO, USAID, World Bank, 1998. Provides evidence of environmental damage caused by animal farming, mainly factory farming.
• Frances Moore Lappe. Diet for a Small Planet. Ballantine Books, 1985.
• Frances Moore Lappe, & Anna Lappe. Hope's Edge: The Next Diet for a Small Planet. Jeremy P. Tarcher Publishing, 2003.
• Meet Your Meat a PETA-produced slaughterhouse tour narrated by Alec Baldwin
• William T. Keeton & James L. and Carol Gould. Biological Science, 5th Ed., Publishers: W. W. Norton & Company, New York and London., ISBN 0-393-96223-7 (hardback)

Further reading

• American Vegan Society
• Christian Vegetarian Association
• Movement for Compassionate Living (The Vegan Way)
• People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals
• Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine
• Society of Ethical and Religious Vegetarians
• Vegan Society (UK)
• Farm Sanctuary
• Compassion Over Killing
• Earth Save - Promoting a Plant Based Diet
• An Animal-Friendly Life Applying vegan ethics to living
• Essays by Joanne Stepaniak
• Meat Filter A vegan blog
• Vegan.com Erik Marcus's website
• Vegan Action
• Huge searchable database of vegan recipes
• German Vegan website
• Vegan101
• The Vegan Society (UK) webpages on nutrition
• Free online talks on vegan nutrition
• Beyond Vegetarianism

• Nutrition
• Cuisine
• Diets
• Vegetarianism
• Veganism
• Animal liberation movement