[Ad Elie]

Helloes.

I'm wondering if it's worth it trying to find how sugar is made. Nothing is written on my sugar bag. It's white, and I assumed it's made of beet but it might as well be cane or both. Might have been whitened on animal charb. But eeeeeh, charb is made of bones, it's clearly a by-product of meat industry that we would not produce if nobody was eating meat and dairies. So what does it change if we eat it ?

I'm feeling a bit incoherent here because I'm carefully avoiding gelatine in my food, though I don't really get why, besides "pig is not a thing I eat" and "when I eat sweets I want them to be sweet for everybody". Should I start again muching on marshmallows ?

And generally, do you systematically avoid animal additives ? And in a restaurant ? And for junk food ?

 

[no whey jose]

Personally, I don't eat anything that I know contains animal ingredients. In cases where I can't be sure of the source of, say, sugar or "natural flavours," I use my best judgement. I know that the largest supplier of sugar in the UK doesn't use bone char, and I know that all gelatin is made from animals. I Google individual products whenever possible. Generally, I do the best that I can within reason.

 

[odizzido]

bitesizedvegan had a decent video on this

Personally I avoid it because I feel bad if I eat it. However I should mention that it's extremely easy for me to avoid because I make all my own food and maple syrup and all sorts of other sweet items are available everywhere.

 

[Ad Elie]

Yep, I watched it just before starting the thread. Living in a beet-growing region, I was very happy to learn beet sugar is vegan
Home made maple syrup, you're a lucky veggie !

 

[xPigeon Swarmx]

All the plant foods we eat are grown in steer manure. That's a byproduct of the meat industry.

Sugar's different because we can avoid it, of course, but it doesn't actually have bone char in it, so, it's technically vegan. That being said, I avoid it most of the time. But, if refined cane sugar is in something I really want, I'll eat it and still be vegan. So will you.

Maybe give that white sugar to Durianrider so he can dump half of it on his cereal and the other half in his water bottle.

 

[runnerveggie]

This is not one of the things I worry about. Bone char is a very cheap animal byproduct, and if it weren't available, sugar producers have other methods of decolorizing the sugar. There negligible impact to animals directly from eating bone char sugar -- this is in contrast to eating meat, dairy or eggs.

 

[Tiger Lilly]

I avoid animal by products as much as possible just because it feels weird to consume them now. I mean, if I find a human hair in my food I'm like "ewww, gross" why not the same for bits of animals?

As far as sugar goes, please be aware it depends on the country you're in. In Australia, we don't use bone char and haven't for decades.

Now, as far as gelatine goes.....When it's in something as obvious as a lolly..... I don't see that as a 'hidden' thing. It's more prominent than rennet or lipase. It's actually someone's bones. You're eating someone's bones with flavouring, possibly coloured with someone's mooshed up body.

So that's why I avoid gelatine.