
Is-Vegan – Helps you to find out which food ingredients are vegan - hmontazeri
https://github.com/hmontazeri/is-vegan
======
tjr225
The comments here are depressing. Reminds me of the comments on anything
related to bicycling on reddit- extrapolations from generalized and uninformed
opinions about choices people make about their own lives. Veganism(I am not
vegan) is a personal choice and yet the dissenters here choose to let
stereotypes color their opinions on entire groups?

~~~
barnfire
I'm an atheist who eats a plant based diet but I didn't start out that way. I
noticed that those who choose to eat meat are a lot like Christians in that
they become unhinged when an atheist is in their midst. There's this
reputation of the preachy hippy vegan, but in my experience it is the other
way around.

~~~
cgmg
Do you not see the irony in your comment?

------
toomanybeersies
Doesn't this fall prey to the fact that there isn't a black and what
distinction for exactly what's vegan?

There are people that will argue that honey is suitable for vegans:
[http://veganbros.com/1-reason-honey-vegan/](http://veganbros.com/1-reason-
honey-vegan/)

There are even people that will argue that shellfish are suitable for vegans
to eat:
[http://www.slate.com/articles/life/food/2010/04/consider_the...](http://www.slate.com/articles/life/food/2010/04/consider_the_oyster.html)

~~~
simonsarris
There has to be a word for this kind of... comprehensive incompleteness. Being
so particular about a vegan diet (for ethical reasons) strikes me as very odd
when animal products are in use every day around us by vegans. Do people know
we use every part of the proverbial buffalo? Or do vegans often ponder the
"ingredients" in everyday objects?

Is vaccinating your kids vegan? Are all vegans anti-vax?

Are soaps, cosmetics, detergents, plastics, tires, and lubricants made with
stearic acid and other beef products vegan?

Vegans for ethical reasons seem to only not want to consume a single part of
the animal, but consume the rest, which is a pretty large portion, by weight.

And if you're eating organic food, isn't it more likely that your spinach was
grown in a bath of bone meal, blood meal, fish meal? Do vegans know how we
produce organic fertilizers?

~~~
tom_mellior
> Or do vegans often ponder the "ingredients" in everyday objects?

Yes.

> Is vaccinating your kids vegan? Are all vegans anti-vax?

There is certainly a lunatic anti-vax fringe. But no, not all vegans are like
that, even though many vaccines contain animal derived products. I find this
interesting: [http://rvgn.org/2015/05/09/anti-vax-and-
veganism/](http://rvgn.org/2015/05/09/anti-vax-and-veganism/)

> Are soaps, cosmetics, detergents, plastics, tires, and lubricants made with
> stearic acid and other beef products vegan?

No.

> Vegans for ethical reasons seem to only not want to consume a single part of
> the animal, but consume the rest, which is a pretty large portion, by
> weight.

No vegan I ever interacted with fit this description.

> And if you're eating organic food, isn't it more likely that your spinach
> was grown in a bath of bone meal, blood meal, fish meal?

Possible, but if everyone stopped eating those animals, the prices of these
products would presumably make their use uneconomical, so promoting veganism
would change this.

Though I admit I haven't heard vegans I know ever discuss this particular
point. They are probably not aware of how the plants they eat are fertilized.

~~~
huhtenberg
>> tires... vegan?

> No.

Tires are rather hard to eat in general, so I guess that alone makes them
unsuitable for a vegan diet. But I suspect that's not the real reason. What is
the actual rationale then?

~~~
dashundchen
"Veganism is a way of living that seeks to exclude, as far as possible and
practicable, all forms of exploitation of, and cruelty to, animals for food,
clothing and any other purpose." \- The Vegan Society

Veganism for most is more than just food, it's includes seeking to reduce
animal exploitation and suffering in any aspect of your life.

People who eat a vegan diet but ignore animal product consumption in leather,
wool, cosmetics are not considered vegan by most vegans, it's usually referred
to as "plant-based diet".

~~~
masklinn
> People who eat a vegan diet but ignore animal product consumption in
> leather, wool, cosmetics are not considered vegan by most vegans, it's
> usually referred to as "plant-based diet".

Variations of vegetarian? Vegetarianism seems to be solely about diet, whereas
veganism is abstaining from animal products in general.

~~~
beobab
Honest question: What are a vegan's views on pets and work animals, such as a
horse who pulls a cart to the vegetable market.

~~~
delecti
From what I've seen, pets are not ideal, but also a low priority.

Work animals are usually limited to less industrialized situations, so they're
not usually a concern for the same people. I've never known anybody who used a
work animal, with the exception of riding horses if you count that.

------
cupofjoakim
This is kind of cool. The really good thing is the idea of a blacklist though,
but perhaps having a system to tag ingredients would be better - it could
potentially help food allergics and stuff as well if we could tag "gluten" or
"lacto-ovo" or whatever. Vegans are a small group compared to vegans and
people who restrict their diet due to illness.

~~~
masklinn
> The really good thing is the idea of a blacklist though

It's not though, because untagged items are assumed to be suitable. This
becomes an issue for people with health-related diets e.g. if you have serious
food allergies you want to be very very sure your foodstuff does not contain
the allergen. So a tag/categories system should have "suitability tags"
(whitelist) in much the same way restaurants will have marks for vegan or
jain/ahimsa or halal items, not for the opposite.

~~~
marricks
It’s is it vegan, not is it allergen okay. I think blacklist is a good tool
for that job.

~~~
masklinn
I'm replying to a comment which specifically mentions gluten. Gluten is an
allergen, and hype aside there are people for whom gluten is an actual health
risk.

------
vog
General question: Wouldn't it make more sense to have a whitelist instead of
(or at least in addition to) a blacklist?

Moreover, I'd love to see this information maintained somewhere in
Wikipedia/Wikidata.

~~~
Noos
It would have the unintended effect of showing people just how restrictive and
bland a vegan lifestyle is, turning them off from it.

~~~
KozmoNau7
Restrictive? It has to be, by definition.

Bland? Only if you define your meals primarily by the meat they contain, which
is still very ingrained in the western approach to food.

So a lot of people think of vegetarian food as "leaving something out" or
"taking something away", and imagine a steak dinner where you've simply
removed the steak. That is obviously a bad approach.

Focus on what you can make instead.

Disclaimer: I like cooking and eating all kinds of tasty food, and I don't
mind at all if it's vegetarian or vegan.

------
arghwhat
Are carnivorous plants vegan?

~~~
bitwize
No. For example, figs aren't vegan because the fig tree is fertilized by a
wasp, which dies as part of the process.

~~~
joelrunyon
But does not eating figs, mean that that would stop the wasp from fertilizing
it?

~~~
arghwhat
Yes, but eating the butcher would also stop butchering, so I'm not sure I want
to plant that idea in the head of vegans...

------
styfle
I'll have to give this a package try.

My wife can't eat dairy so we often have to find an item on the menu marked as
Vegan to guarantee it doesn't contain any dairy.

Otherwise, it's nearly impossible to get a server to answer the question,
"Does this item contain dairy or is it cooked in dairy? Butter, cream, milk,
etc."

A common answer we get is, "I don't know if its dairy-free but it's gluten-
free."

------
callumlocke
It says "true" for any ingredient it doesn't have in its list (I tried lamb,
goats milk, and sausage – all are reported to be vegan).

It would make more sense to just release the JSON list of known non-vegan
ingredients. People can use Array#filter and Array#some themselves.

EDIT: it says these are all vegan too: steak, bacon, ham, pheasant, venison,
cheddar, mozzarella, ghee, lactic acid, sour cream.

~~~
masklinn
> t says "true" for any ingredient it doesn't have in its list (I tried lamb,
> goats milk, and sausage – all are reported to be vegan).

Hence the title specifically noting it uses a _black_ list.

~~~
callumlocke
The HN post says uses the word blacklist, but the library itself works like
this:

    
    
        isVegan.isVeganIngredient('ham'); // true

~~~
hmontazeri
ham is a product. pork would be the ingredient which is on the list...

~~~
contravariant
According to the website they're linking to, ham can also be an ingredient.

Although technically I couldn't find a reference to 'HAM', but rather 'HAM
(CURED WITH HONEY, SALT, SUGAR, WATER, DEXTROSE, LACTIC ACID STARTER CULTURE,
SODIUM ASCORBATE, SODIUM NITRITE)' [0]

[0]:[https://ndb.nal.usda.gov/ndb/foods/show/82389](https://ndb.nal.usda.gov/ndb/foods/show/82389)

------
bitwize
Much like anti-malware, you'd be better served by using a whitelist.

------
tedchs
In their last example, I'd argue "MECHANICALLY SEPARATED CHICKEN" should be in
the list with BEEF and WHEY. :)

~~~
fluxsauce
I saw that too, ended up making an issue for it because it spoke to the
underlying problem of using exact matching. [https://github.com/hmontazeri/is-
vegan/issues/9](https://github.com/hmontazeri/is-vegan/issues/9)

------
doggydogs94
I am sorry, but most vegans I know always want to talk about ... being vegan.
Kind of like socializing with a vocal religious convert.

------
Faaak
Serious question: are scallops/oysters vegan ? They have no central nervous
system, but are living beings.

~~~
joaojeronimo
A lettuce is a living being

~~~
masklinn
Indeed, and carrot juice is murder.

------
tmaly
I find this list very helpful for non-vegans with food allergies. Thank you

------
dblacc
Wondering how hard it would be to build something that takes a picture of
ingredients on a food label for text recognition, which feeds into this... or
something like this

~~~
ozim
You don't do that, just use barcode
[https://world.openfoodfacts.org/](https://world.openfoodfacts.org/) they also
have app in play store with scanner function. It is no brainer to build with
existing barcode libraries.

~~~
dblacc
oh sweet

------
jlebrech
I'd like and AI that can recognise fruit and veg as you prepare them and
weight them and calculates total calories.

a raw fruit and veg white list would be better.

~~~
publicfig
There are quite a few scales out here that can measure this exact thing. I
know a big point is the AI recognizing it, but as people tend to cook with
similar ingredients anyway, it shouldn't be too hard to adapt it as part of a
process

Here's just a few examples that I've done no research on and am receiving no
compensation from:

[https://www.amazon.com/Greater-Goods-Nourish-Portions-
Nutrit...](https://www.amazon.com/Greater-Goods-Nourish-Portions-
Nutritional/dp/B00O5U4NDQ/)

[https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00Q3IBXUO/](https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00Q3IBXUO/)

[https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0013IDHTO/](https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0013IDHTO/)

------
joelrunyon
We built this same function for the paleo world -
[http://paleo.io](http://paleo.io)

------
adams866
20 loc, great job man. Keep on sharing, impressive (for vegans)

------
adultSwim
The comments in this thread show:

Trollin' ain't easy

------
nukeop
Is mutton vegan? Apparently the answer is yes.

~~~
WillReplyfFood
Is a sheep anything more then a biologically processed heap of vegies?

~~~
arghwhat
So like chicken, it is merely a higher-order vegetable?

~~~
masklinn
So that makes carnivores third—order vegetables?

~~~
WillReplyfFood
If you get a gnu-hoof onto your head, while hunting, you can actually fall
down the veggie ladder- so from third order vegetable, you can return to
beeing a vegetable alltogether.

------
dschulz
Would it be acceptable for vegans to eat animals that died accidentally or
without human intervention? There’s some valuable proteins in that squashed
skunk ma’am

~~~
yesenadam
Speaking personally (vegan here), that's a good question. Well, vegans tend to
be people who think for themselves; there's not one thing vegans think on that
or any subject.

I was once in the position of having a couple of sausages on my plate at a
wedding, that I knew would be thrown out if I didn't eat them, and I was
hungry, so I ate them. The person I was with couldn't believe it, as it seemed
to go against my professed veganism. But as eating them didn't add to animal
suffering, and they'd otherwise be wasted, it wasn't a conflict for me. I
don't think I'd eat them now, as I haven't eaten meat for uh 25+ years. (And
never once missed it, surprisingly)

So, sure, I think for vegans generally, animal suffering is the issue, and if
somehow that wasn't a factor, the issue is then something like yours would be
if you were hungry and came across a person that died accidentally. (See the
movie _Alive_ 1993 or read the book)

disclosure: Both my gf and I have shirts saying _EATING PEOPLE IS WRONG_ ,
featuring the Goya painting of Cronus eating one of his sons.

~~~
Fnoord
> disclosure: Both my gf and I have shirts saying EATING PEOPLE IS WRONG,
> featuring the Goya painting of Cronus eating one of his sons.

Hmm, what if the human being died from roadkill? _Runs_

~~~
yesenadam
Hehehe well.. I guess that's the point of _Alive_. It's sometimes the thing to
do. Depends how hungry you are. If the alternative's dying, most people would.

For some societies, e.g. Eskimo, being vegetarian would be impossible, while
in ours, eating meat or animal products is totally unnecessary for almost
everyone. And does a lot of harm to the environment.

~~~
Fnoord
> Depends how hungry you are. If the alternative's dying, most people would.

Yeah, survival movies like Cast Away, Into The Wild, and 127 Hours (I just saw
the latter) underline that people do weird things to survive including diet-
wise. But I also saw the voluntary coin of the story in the beautiful
documentary Happy People: A Year in the Taiga. An animal lives in freedom and
relative peace, until it gets hunted and killed. That's different from ~45
days of prison life a chicken here gets. Can't compare that 1:1 and judge the
former as non-vegan. Its as close to vegan as it gets due to being natural.

~~~
yesenadam
Sure. <Intrepidly goes off-topic> .. _Into The Wild_ was just the guy being a
spoiled ignorant delusional dick, I thought, really not impressive. _Jungle_
was far better. You almost persuaded me the guy in _127 Hours_ ate his arm off
the first time I read that haha. (Um he didn't, did he?!) Am writing this in
case you didn't see _Dersu Uzala_ (the Kurosawa version), one of my very
favourite movies. The world before cities was a different world, like you say.
<Totally off topic> Incidentally, it's my theory that Yoda is taken from
Dersu. (As _Star Wars_ is a remake of _Hidden Fortress_ )

------
SmellyGeekBoy
I'm always interested to see that almonds are acceptable to vegans. Perhaps
people should look into commercial beekeeping and how most farmed almonds are
pollinated. I'd say that a colony of bees is much more intelligent than a
typical cow or chicken.

I'm not vegan btw, so perhaps I'm not entitled to an opinion on this - that
said, I do keep bees.

~~~
cies
Vegan here.

While I'd argue that stopping to consume meat/dairy/eggs has more impact on
animal lives and the planet than stopping almonds because bee are used in
pollination, I'm still interested in how these bees a exploited/harmed.

You seem to know more than me on this topic, could you please elaborate?

~~~
dogma1138
Unless you grow your own vegetables and produce your own fertilizer you are
eating plants that grow on bone and blood.

This holds true especially if you are buying organic produce which does not
use non-organic fertilizers.

~~~
cies
I was talking about bees harm.

~~~
chrisseaton
I think bee keepers amputate the wings of queen bees, for example.

~~~
cies
Please read the thread. Bee harm in producing almond, we're talking about.
Yes, it's a bit of a fringe discussion. :) But that's quite common in
veganism.

