Vegetarian to Vegan

  We had an email from our good friend Jan, who went to visit Hillside Animal Sanctuary (hillside.org.uk) at the weekend with a friend, and, both decided to turn from vegetarian to vegan! Jan is very sensitive to reading about cruelty to animals in  so she was wary about reading distressing material at Hillside and was determined to try and focus as much as possible on the animals. For me, reading the Vegan Society's leaflet on the dairy industry,'Milk Marketing Fraud' was what turned me vegan- I had always loved and cared about animals and thought that by being vegetarian I was doing something good and kind for animals,but when I read that leaflet, I had no answers, no defense against it- becoming vegan immediately was the only  response that my sister and I could reasonably make, so that was what we did, twenty three years ago. For Jan, it was the sight of a very protective mother cow looking after and feeding her calf, and knowing the torment undergone by most cows that did it and she resolved to become vegan. She emailed yesterday evening, just completing her second full day as a vegan, saying how excited she is about her new lifestyle, and asking lots of questions such as whether 'lactose free' means a product is vegan, where to get vegan pasta, and whether bread is 'okay'.

  The good news, for aspiring vegans everywhere, is that basically all dried pasta in the supermarket (but not necessarily noodles!), unless labelled as egg pasta, is likely to be vegan; most bread is vegan, altho', annoyingly, 'lactose free' does not necessarily mean that something is vegan, as it simply means that it is free of milk sugar but it may still contain eggs or even other dairy ingredients such as casein which is a milk protein.
   I am full of admiration for Jan- she has launched herself enthusiastically into her new way of life without even knowing whether she will be able to eat pasta or even bread!