Being Vegetarian and the Issues with Wine and Alcohol Products!

My articles have presented information from the history of vegetarianism, the type of vegans all the way to scientific studies proving that going vegetarian will not only improve your health but can raise your IQ. As you find yourself learning more and more about how products are manufactured, you're undoubtedly making a lot of changes that you never thought to make!

If you take vegetarianism to the level that you don't want to consume anything that's been in contact with animal products, you're going to stop using things like normal white sugar, which is bleached by filtering it through charred animal bones, and many soy cheeses that use casein, a milk protein, for texture. This article is not meant to scare you into consuming only products that are pure vegetarian but to make you understand that you need to be very pro-active in learning how your food is processed and manufactured. One of my most important articles was "The Perils of What You Are Eating - Go Vegetarian!" in which I explained the many "hidden" items/words in labeling that are used actually are covers for the product being processed by or containing animal products that are harmful to you.

To continue that thought, did you know "wine" can be refined using a number of different methods. Some wineries use refining methods involving casein, isinglass (fish bladders) or egg whites. Worse, some wineries use gelatin acquired by boiling down animal bones and connective tissues, in their refining process. Gelatin is suspected to be a carrier of the prions that can cause Mad Cow disease!

There are methods of refining wine that don't require animal products. Some types of wine don't need refining at all. Some use centrifuges or filtering through silica. As far as the quality of the finished wine is concerned, it doesn't matter what filtering method is used - vegan wine is every bit as good as wine made using animal products.

The problem with finding "vegan wine is in verifying how the wine was made. Some wines - particularly those from the big corporate wine companies - get wine from many different sources and then blend them in a factory. Smaller wineries are a better bet, because you can call them directly or check out their website to find out about their manufacturing process - your wine merchant is more likely to know how a smaller winery makes its wine, too.

Some supermarket chains are good at identifying organic and vegan wines, but if you want to be absolutely sure that you're drinking vegan, you should investigate the different wineries yourself. You can obtain a lot of information by going online and doing research.

Also, vegetarians should think about what goes into their beer, too. Animal products aren't used in the production of U.S. beers, so they're safe for vegans to drink. Belgian and German breweries are actually forbidden by law from using anything other than water, grain (barley or wheat), hops and yeast, so they're vegan. But many British beers are clarified using isinglass, and may use gelatin or casein. So think twice before you hoist that pint of Guinness - the company says that none of the "fish guts" are retained in the final product, but its’ part of the manufacturing process.

Mindful drinking, as with eating, takes some research and effort. It's worth making the effort to find out what's in your wine or beer. Let's make a toast to our health!

Here’s a quote from Henry Ford who, by the way, was a vegetarian:

"Thinking is the hardest work there is, which is probably the reason why so few engage in it."

Healthy Permanent Weight Loss The Vegetarian Lifestyle Way
Permanent Weight Loss For Fat Or Obese People - Eat Vegan For Effective Healthy Weight Control