Pragmatic Vegan

PETA is at it again. It recently emerged that both Hampton Creek and Impossible Foods had tests done on rats to ensure the safety of new food ingredients. As PETA reports it , these tests were completely optional, and they can’t wrap their minds around why they'd have to be done in the first place. They go into grisly detail as to how these rats are typically treated, and common practices for disposing of them after the tests are concluded. Obviously, this is a problem, and no one who supports the end of animal suffering wants these tests taking place. Not Technically a Legal Requirement As it turns out, PETA was not sharing the whole story . It’s true that Hampton Creek and Impossible Foods were not legally required to test their new ingredients on animals. However, these tests appear to at least be an unofficial tacit requirement in order to attain Generally Recognized As Safe (GRAS) approval from the FDA. In other words, while it’s not technically a legal requ

There will always be those who believe any diet that requires supplementation is inadequate. The truth is, vegans aren't the only ones I see taking multivitamins, and they're definitely not the driving consumers of the supplement market – that would be hard to achieve, being such a small fraction of the population. No matter your diet, very few supplements are essential for your health and wellbeing, but they can be very convenient. It's no easy task to plan out your meals to meet your RDA for every micronutrient under the sun; it's something that most people simply don't do. Even so, there are a few key nutrients to consider for optimal health on a vegan diet, or any diet for that matter. The best place to start is considering what you normally eat in a day. If you don't plan your meals, or your meals tend to be vastly different from one day to the next, this can be hard to do. The easiest strategy is to first make sure you're eating several servin