Guide to Vegan Halloween 2009

Halloween is my very favorite holiday ever, and I'm so glad it is only 2 days away. This year I'm going to be Betty Boop and Grenade is going to be a pirate. :)

But Halloween also brings up an important aspect of the holiday.....candy. Being vegan, candy is somewhat limited but there are plenty of choices left!

Including:

• Airheads taffy
• Atkins peanut butter bars
• Blow Pops
• Brach’s Cinnamon Hard Candy
• Charms lollipops
• Chick-o-Sticks
• Cracker Jack
• Cry Babies
• Dem Bones
• Dots
• Dum-Dums
• Fireballs
• Goldenberg's Peanut Chews
• Hubba Bubba bubblegum
• Jolly Ranchers (lollipops and hard candy)
• Jujubees
• Jujyfruits
• Lemonheads
• Mambas
• Mary Janes (regular and peanut butter kisses)
• Now and Later
• Pez
• Ring Pop lollipops
• Smarties (U.S. Brand)
• Sour Patch Kids
• Super Bubble
• Swedish Fish
• Sweet Tarts
• Tropical Source mini chocolate bags
• Twizzlers
• Zotz

And plenty of party snack choices including:

• Bean dip (make sure it’s lard-free)
• Cracker Jack
• Fritos
• Lance’s Toasty Crackers
• Lay's Stax
• Lay's WOW! potato chips
• Microwave popcorn (minus the real butter flavor)
• Munchos
• Peanuts, sunflower seeds, almonds, cashews, and Pistachios
• Pretzels
• Salsa
• Skittles’ Mints
• Tostitos
• Trail mix
• Triscuits
• Wheat Thins

If you're wondering why vegans are limited to these items here's why:

Casein—Whey’s cousin, casein is made from curdled milk. Yuck!

Gelatin—Rhymes with "skeleton." Coincidence? I think not. Gelatin is a protein made by boiling cows’ and pigs’ skin, tendons, ligaments, and bones. Jell-O? Heck, no!

Honey—Sure, honey tastes sweet, but you’ll get a bad taste in your mouth when you learn how it’s "harvested."

From a former beekeeper: "[T]ypically, beekeepers are gloved and netted to avoid stings (nearly every bee who stings will die due to her entrails being pulled from her body attached to her stinger.) Then the hives are opened as quickly as possible and the bees are ‘smoked.’ Smoke from a smoldering fire carried in a ‘smoker’ is pumped into the hive and the bees are ‘calmed.’ In spite of this, the combs are pulled quickly and many bees are crushed in the process. When a bee is hurt, she releases a chemical message that alerts and activates the hive members who proceed to attack the intruder—giving their lives in the process."

Lard—Lard is such a gross word, it almost makes you wonder why they just don’t call it what it is: "Fat from hog abdomens."

Pepsin—If the thought of eating lard turns your stomach, stay away from pepsin, a clotting agent from pigs’ stomachs, used in some cheeses and vitamins.

Rennet—Certain words just make you cringe, like coagulate, congeal, clot—which is what rennet, an enzyme taken from baby calves’ stomachs, is used for in cheese production.

Stearic Acid—It may sound less gross than "lard," but stearic acid, which often rears its ugly head in chocolate and vitamins, comes from a fatty substance taken from slaughtered pigs’ stomachs—or from cows, sheep, or dogs and cats euthanized in animal shelters. Still want to chew on that piece of Fido?

Cetyl Palmitate—Check your head if you’re using margarine that contains cetyl palmitate, the fancy term for the waxy oil derived from sperm whales’ heads or from dolphins. "I can’t believe it’s not " oh, wait. It is" Whale head wax"?

Urea—Urea comes from urine and other "bodily fluids." It’s used to "brown" baked goods, like pretzels. Um, yeah. And the oven is for ??

Oh, and remember to stay away from anything made by Nestle and Mars due to their non vegan practices!

Have a happy and safe Halloween!!!

(all info obtained from Peta)