So everyone. Since being Veggie, have you ever bought something you never knew had an animal product in it and ate it...?

I have a few times so far and I felt a little horrible. My most recent accident was pineapple and coconut fruit juice....It had milk in it! How stupid anyway!

So confess and make me feel better. . . I guess this thread would apply mainly to Vegans because we avoid ALL animal products so its a lot easier to complain about consuming milk or eggs, etc....But I guess Vegatarians can have something they have consumed like, I don't know....fish sauce or something(?)

Yeah, I recently had ordered a vegetarian item at a restaurant...and spit it out as soon as I recognized the texture of meat. They have meat and vegetarian of the same item, they must have gotten mine mixed up...not going there again.

*puts hand up*

I'm guilty of this too - in fact I have to be the worse vegan EVER!!

Still relatively new to veganism and still finding my feet I never realised just how many things that contain animal products!!
In Spain it's even worse believe me.
It's eye opening definitely.

Now I don't presume anything and read ALL labels no matter what.

But yeah - milk in fruit juice is just crazy!!

Yeah, I thinks ok when your a new Vegan.
Its a bit normal and sometimes you can forget to check certain things and lables. But it you learn from it, thats the good thing...now i check the lables of my juice too. just a quick glance...some might have insect blood colouring [en.wikipedia.org]
and might not even be suitable for Vegetarians...I had activia yoghuts when I was sort of Vegetarian or getting into it. What a surprise, it said "Not suitable for Vegetarians" because it had cochineal in it.
O|



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/01/2008 12:58PM by darky_.

I try to make sure im really careful, but the other day...

The whole school basically know's im vegetarian, and i went into the school kitchens cos everyone was saying there's food there. Nothing for me of course but someone pointed me in the direction of a few different types of dips, so i went to the dips and had a bit of a munch. Asked what they were and the one on the left was a bacon and cheese dip. now im vegetarian so cheese doesn't bother me but when i found out it was meat i immediately felt sick. I tried to throw it up but it wouldnt work. I felt a bit sick for the rest of the day.

I can't elieve i didnt taste the meat. I once stuck my finger in a soup and immediately tasted chicken booster, my sense of taste for meat is that strong, but i didnt taste the bacon.

I still feel bad about it

I accidently ate cheese AND milk yesterday.
Doritos Tex Mex crisps are NOT vegan.
After I finished the bag I was like "Oooh they were so nice and cheesy - I really enjoyed them." Then I thought "hmmmm...a bit too cheesy...I'll look at the ingredients"
Well - you can imagine my horror to discover there is powdered cheese AND powdered milk in them there crisps.
In this day and age of artificial flavourings who the heck actually uses proper flavourings in their crisps?

Doritos - that's who!

Hello all!

Yeah, I've had a few "friends" try to trick me into eating something with meat or cheese in it, absolutely awful!

Monika

This has happened to me a few times. About a year into being a vegetarian I bought some perogies that I thought were veg from a take-out place. I gobbled them up quickly because I was so hungry and then noticed that there were a few tiny little bacon crumbs at the bottom of the bowl - then I realized that they'd probably been cooked in bacon grease and I felt pretty sick after that! Since being a vegan it's happened a bit more because there are more things to avoid, but I'm pretty careful with labels so it usually only happens if I've missed something when scanning the ingredients. I bought cereal (granola) recently that had milk in it. I've also bought juice (crazy!!!) with milk in it, so you're not alone there Darky. In my case it was a juice with banana in it, so I didn't think anything of the appearance. In your case it was probably a similar situation with coconut in it.

The way I see it though, we can only do the best we can. If it's an accident, there's no reason to beat yourself up over it. It's not like you intentionally went out to drink milk. It's pretty hard to avoid animal ingredients 100% of the time, but as long as your intention is to avoid them and you do everything you can to do so, I think that's good enough to forgive yourself for the occasional slip-up. Of course, I've developed this attitude from being a vegetarian for over ten years and vegan for over four. When I first went vegan I was much harder on myself, but over time I've accepted that it's your effort and intent to be compassionate that truly counts.

If I accidentally buy something I will sometimes eat it anyway because I feel worse throwing away the animal parts than eating them. If the animal had to die or be abused to make the product the least I can do is put it to some use by getting some vitamins out of it. Better than it being a total waste in my opinion, but I don't like doing it.

jamber79, why can't you send the product back??...
The worse thing u can do is think theres something good in it.

I kind of agree with jamber tbh, especially if it can't be returned. I'd feel so much worse just throwing it away. Luckily, my partner is an omni so he will usually use up whatever it is I've accidentally bought.

That's a topic of personal conflict for me. I have several items I purchased long ago that are from animal products: 2 leather couches, purses, belts, shoes - :0(

I think it would be more of a tragedy/sin not to use and enjoy/honor the being it came from than "get rid of it". I am not in a financial position to replace these items anyway. Then again the glue and other supplies (animal origin) to make any new and seemingly vegan purchases may be worse than just keeping the dang couches.

The couches kill me - in what reality did I ever think this was ok? I don't remember what I was thinking - this was about 7 years ago. I'm embarrassed to say that I was vegetarian at the time and absolutely knew better. I feel like an asshole and so ashamed.

Although, I cannot be so accommodating with food. The emotional and visceral reaction is pretty intense when it comes to flesh or finding out the food has been tainted. If no one is willing to take it, out it goes.

Although not necessarily related, I am actively trying to green up the house. What's worse: (asking for thoughts)
1. use up the cleaning products
2. donate them to an institution that will use them anyway (schools, etc)
3. take them to a haz mat center?

Dammit - GUM!

Looking for chemical free, toxin free, gum like products - open to suggestions (please). Yes, brushing one's teeth or eating parsley is fabulous, but the ease of chewing on a wad of gum is hard to pass on occasion.

last week i bought a organic multigrain bread and when i saw the level to check it said that it had powder milk and eggs and i was like i was in a hurry that day thats why i didn't check before i bought that