While I was sitting in the mandap during my wedding a couple of weeks ago now, I was a bit concerned about all of the Indian sweets I was consuming. It seemed that every two minutes another mithai was being prodded in my direction, and the thought of all the ghee, the sugar, the gor (molasses) etc that I must have inhaled was a bit frightening. It wasn’t until last week when I read these articles in India-West (Link 1 and Link 2), I realized that as a vegetarian, I should have been concerned with something else. According to the story,
Varak, that gossamer-thin silver sheet that covers Indian mitthai, is made by placing thin metal strips of silver between the steaming intestines of a slaughtered animal or its hide and hammered into a thin foil. A substantial number of cattle, sheep and goat are killed specifically for the industry, according to animal rights activist Maneka Gandhi.
I used to think it was real silver that was just wittled down, perhaps by a machine? Apparently, there is no such thing as machine-made varak, so chances are, if you are vegetarian and you eat mithai or anything else with that silver gossamer on it, you are unwittingly eating an animal by-product. It pains me to think that many unknowing vegetarians, who perhaps think Indian sweets are vegetarian-friendly, have been consuming an animal by-product all these years. What’s worse is followers of the Jain religion, a religion that holds the notion of ahimsa or nonviolence in high regard, and the strictest of whom will wear a face-mask so as to not kill any living thing by breathing, have been using varak to decorate their “religious idols and the tirthankaras in their temples.”
I was enraged following the McDonalds controversey a few years back in which it was found that McDonalds was wrongfully telling customers their french fries were vegetarian, when in reality, the fries were frozen with a beef tallow additive, and the news in this article doesn’t make me much happier. While we all know that gelatin is found in marshmallows and gummy bears, I was surprised to see that certain cereals like Kellogg’s Frosted Mini-Wheats, actually contain gelatin, as does a now-former favorite of mine Lucky Charms. With the increasing popularity of vegetarianism, one would think a vegetarian friendly substitute for gelatin would have been created by now.
And while certain members of the food industry allege that it is impossible to synthesize gelatin, like John Magnifico, the technical service manager of Kraft Foods Atlantic Gelatin, others suggest the prohibitive cost of these substitutes make them unpopular choices for food manufacturers. Unbeknownst to me was that the substance agar-agar, which is derived from seaweed, is an existing alternative to gelatin, but is not regularly used vice gelatin because it costs about four times what gelatin costs. As a vegetarian consumer, I would pay the extra amount for gelatin-free favorites, as many consumers do to have the option of buying organic.
Sure, if you are dining out, part of the vegetarian’s risk is that some kind of meat might end up in your food. But knowing before hand what items are safe to eat, and what items aren’t is a big help. One of the stories I often heard was that Pizza Hut used a cheese which had beef in it. This could have been true, since rennet (an ingredient in many cheeses) can be derived from either animal sources or from fungal or bacterial sources. The usual source of rennet, according to the India-West story “is the fourth stomach of slaughtered, newborn calves.” Fortunately, “95 percent of the cheeses currently made in the U.S. is made with non-animal based rennet,” including the cheese used by Pizza Hut, Domino’s, Round Table, and Little Caesar’s.
I wonder now, like I wondered when the McDonald’s controversy erupted why the FDA does not require companies to label vegetarian foods as such. Just like Kosher items are required to have the K in a circle, it would do companies well to have a green leaf, or a big V in a circle for items deemed to be suitable for vegetarians. Perhaps this is something companies should do anyway, as a courtesy to its vegetarian clientele.
And the blood !!! I mean my god …. all the blood coming out of them …. really horrible
Unfortunately we tend to be selective about which species get our compassion and which don’t. Yes, dogs and cats should have our compassion, as should chicken, pigs, cows, lobsters, fish, seals…
Most of us live in situations where we do not have to eat these creatures to live. Yes, being vegetarian does reduce your options/’pleasures’ but at least you are participating in needless cruelty a little less.
Ideally, we would extend that compassion to ALL other sentient beings e.g. spiders etc, but this is where you do have to make choices not just “for pleasure/ease” but to protect yourself. It really is a question of degree on where you decide to draw the line. E.g. I know some people who will not kill even black widow spiders near their house — I do not go that far, as (a)it could be dangerous for me of my family (unlike the chicken, pigs etc) and (b) if you do not get rid of one, it will breed and you might eventually have to kill many more (unlike chicken etc which we FORCE to multiply so we can torture and kill them). Also, the pigs, chicken etc lead terrible lives and then are put to terrible deaths. The spider, hopefully, had an okay life and I try to kill as quickly and hopefully as painlesslesly as I can.
Wow, what a real eye-opener !! Some how I always had a funny feeling towards ‘Varak’, and I’m glad that being a diabetic and allergic to gluten some how I retained my vegetarianism…:o)
Blessings in disguise !!
I’m curious – what are people’s thoughts on what Marvin Harris had to say in “Cows, Pigs, Wars, Witches”? I mean, why do YOU choose to not eat beef? “India’s Sacred Cow” – MHarris
For those of you who are not Shakaharis, but would like to have your meat “animal cruelty free”, you have an option!
In addition to halal, kosher, and various other animal slaughter rituals that have been devised by people/God, there is another community that practices some Tender Loving Care when it comes to meat: The Miller Amish Country Poultry where chickens are “Amish grown, in the old traditional Amish Way”.
According to the pamphlet, Amish farmers are “peace loving folks who are extremely community minded and express love and concern for each other, so it’s natural that they also treat their chickens with tender care… Amish farms have no electricity. Evening lights are provided with kerosene lanterns or gas lamps“. Here is the way the Amish Growers deal with their chickens:
For further information, call 1-800-532-4186
Razib the atheist
The survey of food habits in India is here
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Wow, my guess of 70% (non-veg) hits the mark.. Another myth that the people in the south are vegetarians goes for a toss..
I was really hurt by reading some of the comments which tried to make fun of vegiterians, I am not going to produce here any facts but being a Jain, I follow it to whatever extent I can, and also try to infulence people around me to follow if they wish to, I can’t write much though, but would like the people here to do some more research as to what is really the benfits of being a vegiterian, try reading Jain books and articles and it will open your eyes, atleast do some some google, so as to find the practices that Jain follow for vegiterianism, in Jainisim, we should not even wear any stuff made out of leather including belts, burse, bag, etc,a as this is made up of animals, try to read how our Mahrasaab live their life after taking deeksha and then you will know why they live such a life and where do we stand
this was a sad but great post
thanks
Appearantly even Indian ghee isn’t vegetarian anymore.
“Just like Kosher items are required to have the K in a circle, it would do companies well to have a green leaf, or a big V in a circle for items deemed to be suitable for vegetarians. Perhaps this is something companies should do anyway, as a courtesy to its vegetarian clientele.”
Kosher items are not required to have a circled K. Some companies voluntarily have their products certified as Kosher, by a private certifying company, that inspects the manufacturing facility and the process, and whose reputation is trusted. Much like the way, in information technology, a certificate authority company such as Verisign, is trusted to declare another company’s encryption method to be Legit. One company that does this is the Orthodox Union. Acc to what I understand, they charge quite a bit for this service. I seem to recall seeing the Vegan Society having somewhat recently begun to offer a similar service, but a more recent search of their web sites turns up nothing.
The OU is reputed to do a good job, and reputed to be trustworthy.
I believe it would be good to have a private company to do this, for vegan and vegetarian products, similar to the way the Orthodox Union does it for Kosher products. And distinguish between purely vegetable products, and those which may also contain dairy, or eggs. However rather than being trained only in vegan concepts, it would seem to me that such a company should have vegan or vegetarian chemists and chemical engineers, as distinguishing between animal, vegetable, and mineral materials, contained in very complex commercial products, can requre quite a lot of knowledge.
Small organizations like the Earthly Origin of Commerical Materials Educational Org are attempting to accumulate and dessminate quality, reliable information, in regard to complex commercial materials, both food materials, and non-food, but have only done so to a small degree. This is my personal baby that I would like to see blossom.
Gelatin and agar do not have identical properties. They both gel, but they are not related chemically. The conditions at which they gel, and ungel, are different. As to temperature, and presence of other substances. Gelatin is a protein, an amino-acid polymer. Agar is a hemi-cellulose, a saccharide polymer. Saccharides are the units out of which sugars, starches, hemicellulose, and cellulose, is made – in order of chain length. The longer the chain, the harder it is to digest. Cellulose is generally considered to be “non-soluble fiber.” Gelatin is highly digestible. It is readily broken down into constitutent amino acids and these can be reassembled into human proteins, or used to make nucleic acids. Thus is is a source of protein. Agar is not. It contains little or no protein. Hemicellulose is only slightly digestible. It is very difficult for our digetive systems to break it down into components that are small enough to be reused. With the help of gastro-intestinal microorganisms, we can digest it to a slight extent. Most of it passes through unchanged. However since it holds on to water, it is a good stool softener. A moderate amount is good. Too much will cause dire-rear. It is somewhat synonymous with the term “soluble fiber.” It is similar to pectin. Flax seeds contain hemicellulose. It is present in moderate amounts in many food, but agar is mostly all hemicellulose. As is pectin, caragheenan, locust bean gum (which is described by several different “gum” names). “Cellulose gum” often refers to similar subtances, obtained from plant matter, the origin of which I am not sure, but which is suspect is cotton fiber or wood fiber.