Food
Organic - healthy and ecologically-friendly
Who wants to eat food that has been sprayed with chemicals that are specifically designed to kill 'pest' animals? Organic food is pesticide-free and supports sustainable farming practices. Your food will also have more vitamins and minerals, because organic growers must pay more attention to ensuring healthy soil. Look out for the Soil Association logo - which guarantees high organic standards.
Veggie - good for people, animals and the planet
The meat industry is responsible for institutionalised cruelty on a massive scale - and the dairy and egg industries are just as bad. The average meat eater consumes around 5000 animals in his or her lifetime, many of whom will have been reared in dirty, crowded, disease-ridden factory farms. Add on to that around half a tonne of fish, which is almost impossible to quantify in terms of numbers. Think of all the lives YOU will save simply by turning vegetarian! Going veggie couldn't be easier - and it needn't be expensive. As well as being more humane, vegetarianism is healthy, environmentally friendly and a better way to use the world's precious resources. By going veggie you'll be doing so much good - for animals, your health, the planet and for other people, too.
You are what you eat
You may well be more concerned with drinking than eating whilst at university, but upping your intake of healthy veggie food and cutting out animal products will help to improve your performance in more ways than one! Did you know that eating animal products can lead to impotence?
Meat, fish, dairy products and eggs are high in saturated fat and cholesterol, which can cause hardening of the arteries. This in turn slows bloodflow to all organs, not just the heart.
Food for thought
A varied plant-based diet will provide your body with all the nutrients it needs to get you through all that cramming. Add some of these to your daily diet to boost brain power:
- Omega-3 essential fatty acids from plant sources including nuts, a variety of vegetable oils, dark green leafy vegetables and avocadoes. (It is a myth that fish is the only source of Omega-3. It is not. Furthermore, fish fats actually store toxins such as dioxins and mercury from polluted oceans.)
- Vegetables and fruits contain antioxidants and phytochemicals to keep your mind and body sharp. They also contain good amounts of folic acid, a deficiency of which has been linked to Alzheimer’s disease.
- Blueberries - a source of the most potent antioxidants and phytochemicals on the planet, which have been shown to reverse some of the ageing that occurs in the brain.
- Herbs. The ability of herbs to improve mental capacity isn't just folk wisdom; modern clinical studies have found that the "four Gs"--gingko, Panax ginseng (which includes Korean, Chinese and American ginsengs), Siberian ginseng and gotu kola--can enhance concentration, aptitude, alertness and even intelligence by increasing the activity of some of the brain's neurotransmitters.
Think global, buy local
Our food is being transported further than ever before - resulting in vastly increased pollution levels. Ninety-five per cent of the fruit and half of the vegetables in the UK are imported. The amount of food being flown into the UK doubled in the 1990s and is predicted to rise further each year. Buying locally produced fruit and vegetables can drastically decrease your ecological impact. Many organic vegbox schemes are locally-sourced, so these are a great way to make sure your food is as ethical as can be!
Tescopoly.org - set up in reaction to the supermarket takeover of Britain
Processed foods suck!
Processed foods suck - they are expensive, unhealthy and wrapped in about fifteen layers of packaging! It's much better to stick with proper foods: fruit, vegetables, rice, pasta and so on. And you can get these basic ingredients from your local market for next to nothing. If you can't be bothered to make the trip, you could get a vegbox delivered. Being ethical does not stop you being economical. And these cheap and easy recipes are seriously good.
Easy and ethical recipes
Animal Aid's top 10 veggie products
OK, so we have just been ranting about how terrible processed foods but there are some exceptions to the rule. Try out some of our favourite veggie products:
- Realeat veggie mince
- Redwood Foods vegetarian rashers
- Linda McCartney deep country pies
- Taifun veggie weiners
- Cauldron Foods marinated tofu pieces
- Redwood Foods fish style fingers
- Wicken Fen veggie sausages
- Redwood Foods Thai style cakes
- Goodlife Mexican burgers
- Fry's traditional burgers
Dump dairy!
‘What's wrong with milk? No animals had to die for it, did they?’ you ask. The truth is that yes, they did.
You may see some dairy cows out in the fields, but that doesn’t mean that they are happy and free. More and more dairy cows are permanently confined inside huge sheds, and almost all of them spend six months or more inside.
Cows do not just churn out milk incessantly, they produce it only after having a baby. To keep up the supply, they are forced into a never-ending circle of being made pregnant, giving birth, and then having the baby taken from them at just a few days old, so that the milk meant for the calf can be bottled up for humans. Some of the female calves replace worn-out cows in the dairy herd; others are reared for cheap meat or sent overseas to continental veal farms; but many male calves are shot soon after birth because they have no commercial value.
Did you know that consuming dairy products can exacerbate acne, phlegm, wind and bad breath? And these conditions are hardly likely to impress. Conditions that are hardly going to impress all those attractive fellow students you'll be meeting! Dairy products have also been linked to other serious health problems, including the intestinal disorders Crohn's disease and IBS, Parkinson's disease, allergies, asthma and colon, prostate, ovarian and breast cancers.
Going dairy-free doesn’t mean giving up midnight cereal sessions, though, and if you enjoy a glass of milk, cheese sarnies or devouring a tub of ice cream, fear not, you can still enjoy dairy-free versions of them all.
Dairy-free milks can be found in health food shops and supermarkets, where own brand versions are much cheaper than you might expect!
Animal Aid's top 10 dairy-free products
- Alpro chocolate soya milk shake
- Redwood Foods Cheezly melting mozzarella
- Pure margarine (soya, sunflower or organic)
- Swedish Glace ice-cream (all flavours but especially Mocha)
- Tofutti garlic and herb cream cheese
- Plamil garlic-flavoured egg-free mayonnaise
- Alpro yoghurts (so many flavours)
- Soyatoo squirty cream
- Organica Swiss chocolate rice milk couverture bar
- Holland & Barret vitamin-enriched soya milk
There are around 30 million egg-laying hens in the UK. Most are crammed inside battery cages where they are barely able to move or stretch their wings. These cages are so cruel that they will be banned in 2012 but will be replaced by slightly bigger, ‘enriched’ cages, which is hardly an improvement at all. ‘Free-range’ does not mean ‘cruelty-free’. Thousands of free-range birds may be packed inside huge sheds with limited access to the outside world. If and when they do get out, their weakened systems make them exceptionally prone to illness and the cold. Mortality rates can be even higher in free-range birds than those who are kept in sheds or barns.
Each year, millions of day-old male chicks are killed, because they do not lay eggs and as such are considered useless. This is true of battery, barn, free range and organic birds. Do the birds a favour. Go egg-free.
Eating out
Fast Food
We aren't big fans of fast food restaurants, such as KFC, McDonald's and Burger King because of the millions of animals they kill, the environmental damage they do (all that packaging for starters), and the fact that a lot of their food is poor quality and bad for you. But if all that doesn't put you off and you still feel the need for a fast food fix, most chains have veggie options such as burgers, salads, fries and onion rings.
McSpotlight - digging the dirt on the infamous multinational.
Indian, Thai and Chinese
These restaurants usually have a good selection of vegetarian/vegan dishes on their menus. Combine tasty Indian side dishes such as Saag Aloo (spinach and potato) and dahl (lentils), or ask for a vegetable version of your favourite curry. Try beancurd (tofu) dishes, vegetable curries and egg-free noodles at your local Chinese and Thai restaurants. (Ask them to leave out fish sauce at Thai restaurants as this is sometimes overlooked.)
Italian
It's dead easy to eat Italian veggie food - pizza with delicious, juicy toppings such as sliced mushrooms, sweetcorn, spinach and artichokes... and get adventurous with pineapple, jalapeno peppers and sundried tomatoes. If you fancy pasta, choose from basic tomato sauce, or spice it up with chilli and garlic, and add fresh vegetables such as broccoli and mushrooms. Pizza Express restaurants will happily swap mozzarella for an alternative topping, and will oblige if you take in melting soya cheese to use instead of mozzarella.
Chippies & Kebab shops
If the munchies strike after a big night out, get your chops round a delicious pitta stuffed with falafel (chickpea balls), salad and humous. At your local chippie, forget the cod and have a veggie samosa, pie or roll with mushy peas, baked beans and a great big portion of chips.
Eating out in your town
There is an excellent range of guidebooks to veggie eating out, covering the whole of Britain or individual selected cities, available from Vegetarianguides.com
