Why is Veganing so hard!

[PsYcHo]

O.k, so I have not made the full jump to Veganism yet. But I do try to be more thoughtful about my dietary choices just from an ethical standpoint. But little things still seem to get me. I am on the road for work, and my SO and I decided to get a vending machine snack. I chose the Veggie straws, because they sounded tasty and non murderous. After the machine dropped the snacks, I saw on the front of the package they contained "30% less fat than potato chips!" My first thought was "how the f**k do these have fat in the first place? They are VEGGIE straws! Turns out they are flavored with sour cream. WTF!

I am eating them now, because it would be worse to let them go to waste, but soo many foods contain animal products. I'm from the south, and even my treasured biscuits are made with buttermilk. (Letting go of beef and pork was easier than I thought, but my biscuits.... ) I travel all the time, and I have found a few good ethical snacks. (Sahale snacks are nut based with different flavorings, and they are AWESOME!) I'm not a "health nut", but most of the food on the road is either animal based, or swimming in sodium. (I picked up a pack of smoked almonds, and I might as well have been doing shots of soy sauce)

There are healthy options available, such as fresh fruit and occasionally vegetables, but these are not always "fresh". (Cantaloupe should not be carbonated, right?) Anyone have any go to snacks available at gas stations that aren't murder or sodium based?

[EquALLity]

I'm from the south, and even my treasured biscuits are made with buttermilk.

Sorry to hear that, but nothing else from the Bible Belt makes sense, so why would the food?

There are healthy options available, such as fresh fruit and occasionally vegetables, but these are not always "fresh". (Cantaloupe should not be carbonated, right?) Anyone have any go to snacks available at gas stations that aren't murder or sodium based?

Unfortunately, I don't think I've actually entered a gas station more than five times in my life. Perhaps you should try bringing snack foods with you on the road? Like granola cereals, or triscuits?

[brimstoneSalad]

Great question.

While I think she's a little crazy, Bite Sized Vegan addressed the gas station food issue pretty well:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UI8uNCMs2pY

I think she missed the notion of nutrition, though. The trick is often finding good protein at a gas station.

Look for peanut butter, there will usually be bread of some kind or crackers to spread it on. While the gas station peanut butter may be loaded with sugar and other oil, it's likely one of the best options there.
You can also often find little cans of bean dip, which can be eaten with corn chips. Mexican style corn chips will usually have less fat than something like fritos.
Pretzels are an even better option, which will be lower in fat, and you can kind of knock off most of the salt since the majority is on the surface of the pretzels. Also a great thing to dip in peanut butter.

That said, about salt, unless you have H. Pylori and as long as you eat enough potassium, and your blood pressure isn't really high, and you drink enough water, it isn't really a serious issue until you get into really high amounts, like over 7 grams a day. Particularly true if you're only talking about every now and then.
Recommendations about low salt intake for the general public may be overly conservative, particularly for people who are not at risk.

Salt raises your blood pressure, but only while you're eating it: it isn't the kind of progressive build of and deterioration that saturated fat and cholesterol produce. You stop eating so much, and your blood pressure goes back down right away.

More moderate intake is not strongly associated with increased mortality in the general public, which can give some perspective on the issue:



This is just correlation, so be sure to take this with a grain of salt.

[PsYcHo]

This is just correlation, so be sure to take this with a grain of salt.

Thanks for tips guys.

[brimstoneSalad]

I'd also say, don't discount fast food places and grocery stores.

Taco Bell is a Vegan favorite: http://www.peta2.com/lifestyle/vegan-taco-bell/
Their beans provide good quality protein, and it's easy to veganize a lot of their options, and it's available nationwide.

For grocery stores, I know we often associate them with cooking, but they have staples you can prepare on the road (often peanut butter without nasty stuff added, and some really good breads like Arnold's or even Ezekiel in the Freezer section).

You can also grab some low sodium beans, and maybe relatively low sodium fat free refried beans which are great. I've done that with tortillas or chips.
The trick is having a can opener on hand in your car to get access to the best/cheapest/healthiest convenience foods.

In the produce section, there are usually pre-washed mixes of veggies or shredded veggies you can build a burrito with too. Baby carrots are a great go-to food.

[PsYcHo]

Taco Bell is a Vegan favorite: http://www.peta2.com/lifestyle/vegan-taco-bell/
Their beans provide good quality protein, and it's easy to veganize a lot of their options, and it's available nationwide.

Ooh, that sounds good! I love beans, maybe one day they will think about throwing hummus in the mix too. (The kinds you can travel with aren't as good as fresh, but they aren't terrible.)

In the produce section, there are usually pre-washed mixes of veggies or shredded veggies you can build a burrito with too. Baby carrots are a great go-to food.

My work vehicle is pretty large, so I can't stop at all places. Mostly truck-stops and the like. So getting fresh is limited, to say the least. I do get them when I can. I have always loved nuts as a snack, and bean dip, so protein isn't too much of an issue, but I still crave something more substantial. (I use fish) I know fish isn't ideal, but it is not as environmentally harmful as other meat sources, I have been meaning to research a little more on different fish species, because I used to be an avid aquarist. (Person who has a functional environment set up for keeping fish and other underwater creatures healthy and happy .My tanks combined held over 500 gallons of water, and had a separate "hospital" tank for injuries/sickness. (Those like me abhor people who just throw some fish in a tiny tank and think that they just die in a month or two. The two last fish I bought lasted over five years, and only died because of my career change and leaving them in the care of someone not qualified to care for them properly. ) ) Certain species of fish are actually highly intelligent for their brain mass (Cichlids especially. They can recognize people, and react to different stimuli in a thought out way.) I stick to mainly salmon, but also tuna. Since I have stopped eating land animals, even seafood I did not like (bi-valves) have become more appealing. Even shrimp, which I only ate occasionally, now are mouth-watering, but I do not eat them due to modern day slavery to produce a lot of them. (If you haven't looked into shrimp farming practices, only do so when you are ready to be really sad...) I know mercury is a health concern, but my dietary habits are only minimally based on health aspects, more on moral ones. (Which is weird I care about animals more than a lot of humans, but they are innocent.....)

I no longer crave foods I used to love, (bacon just makes me sad), but I do still crave meat. Any recommendations on which species are the least sentient?

[brimstoneSalad]

My work vehicle is pretty large, so I can't stop at all places. Mostly truck-stops and the like. So getting fresh is limited, to say the least. I do get them when I can.

Do you have a cooler?

Any recommendations on which species are the least sentient?

One of the major issues is unsustainable fishing and bycatch, and this is a particularly big issue with tuna or any ocean fish.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tuna#Association_with_dolphins

According to Consumers Union, the resulting lack of accountability means claims of tuna that is "dolphin safe" should be given little credence.

Fishery practices have changed to be dolphin friendly, which has caused greater bycatch including sharks, turtles and other oceanic fish. Fishermen no longer follow dolphins, but concentrate their fisheries around floating objects such as fish aggregation devices, also known as FADs, which attract large populations of other organisms. Measures taken thus far to satisfy the public demand to protect dolphins can be potentially damaging to other species as well.

Most ocean fish are going to have a similar problem. Today, ocean fishing is wasteful and not a very sustainable practice.
Farmed fish are unfortunately not likely to be better, since fish farms feed those fish fish from the ocean.

Your best bet is sticking to U.S. or Canadian caught river fish, or U.S. and Canadian farmed herbivorous species like tilapia that have been fed vegetarian feed (since you have experience with fish, you could even breed your own tilapia).

The trouble with river fish is that they are in limited supply, so buying more drives the cost up and limits their availability to others who may eat ocean fish instead (or even pick up something else worse).
There the benefit with farmed tilapia is that supply is scalable: you can always build more fisheries and increase the supply.

http://www.neaq.org/conservation_and_research/projects/fisheries_bycatch_aquaculture/sustainable_fisheries/celebrate_seafood/ocean-friendly_seafood/species/tilapia.php

They are widely considered an ocean friendly option: at least, when they aren't fed fish (which isn't always the case).
Make sure to read this, though:

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/02/science/earth/02tilapia.html
Even with the best case in fishery, there are problems.

In terms of sentience, smaller is usually better.

Though regardless of size, rope grown oysters are both the least sentient (probably not sentient at all, since they are not motile and don't have a real brain or exhibit any intelligent behavior that I've heard of), and the most environmentally sustainable harvest (without any meaningful level of bycatch).
If you like oysters, that's the best option.