215 Things That Are Surprisingly Not Vegan
Photo taken by my very talented friend, Yuri Kiddo
It often happens that when it comes to discussing vegan products, we go right for food. “Is this dessert made with butter or eggs?” “Can vegans eat mayonnaise?” “What’s the deal with honey?” “Do vegans still eat something if there’s only traces of milk solids in something?”
On occasion, however, leather boots, wool clothing, or medicines will come up as alternative topics of animal-product-use chatter, but, for the most part, people recognize that vegan “stuff” usually implies what’s on their plates.
The deeper I dive into learning about what’s going in my body, the more the truth unfolds about what goes into a hell of a lot of other things we use every single day. Spoiler alert: I’m even talking about animal products in items you use in the shower or on your car.
Companies often do a really good job with their marketing teams to disguise their products’ true contents. They do this by using over-complicated jargon on labels (can you even pronounce every ingredient used on a label?), distracting customers with award-winning stickers, organic brands, or keeping any indication of animal-product-use off their tags altogether.
When I learned about the surprising reality of things not inherently vegan, I felt really deceived by common household companies that had my trust for years. My guess is that a lot of other vegans don’t know these things include animal products either.
I feel like I’m swimming upstream a lot of the time as a vegan knowing that so many things we buy and consume are made starting with the death of an innocent animal purely for our benefit and ease of consumption. The worst part is that most of society lives in ignorance about the harm they are inflicting by simply buying what’s on sale or because it’s the only option that is presented to them. I used to be exactly like that without even realizing.
This list is not exhaustive and the items on it do not exclusively get made with animal products. A lot of these items, nonetheless, very often originate from the byproducts of animals raised in captivity solely for our exploitation. Some items, like medicines, are listed twice, but mainly so you can see that they can derive from various animals and several of their body parts.
Brace yourself; there are some shockers here...
THINGS MADE FROM A COW:
Made with cow fat:
1. Chewing gum
2. Candles
3. Detergents
4. Fabric softeners
5. Deodorant
6. Shaving cream
7. Perfume
8. Cosmetics
9. Crayons
10. Paint
11. Oils & lubricants
12. Biodiesel
13. Plastics
14. Waterproofing agents
15. Cement
16. Chalk
17. Explosives
18. Fireworks
19. Matches
20. Fertilizer
21. Antifreeze
22. Insulation
23. Linoleum
24. Rubber
25. Textiles
26. Medicines
Made with cow milk:
27. Adhesives
28. Plastics
29. Cosmetics
30. Medicine
Made with cow skin:
31. Gelatin
32. Flavorings
33. Sheetrock
34. Wallpaper
35. Adhesives
36. Medicines
37. Confectionary
Made with cow hair:
38. Air filters
39. Brushes
40. Felt
41. Insulation
42. Plaster
43. Textiles
Made with cow bones:
44. Refined sugar
45. Charcoal
46. Fertilizer
47. Glass
Made with cow blood:
48. Pasta
49. Imitation eggs
50. Cake mixes
51. Dyes & inks
52. Adhesives
53. Minerals
54. Medicines
55. Laboratory materials
Made with cow brain:
56. Anti-aging cream
57. Medicines
Made with cow hooves/horns:
58. Adhesives
59. Plastics
60. Pet food
61. Photo film
62. Shampoo & conditioner
63. Emery boards
64. Lamination
65. Wallpaper
66. Plywood
Made with the internal organs of a cow:
67. Instrument strings
68. Tennis racquet strings
69. Hormones & enzymes
70. Vitamins & medical materials
THINGS MADE FROM A PIG:
Made with pig ears:
71. Chemical weapons testing items (due to pigs’ similarity to human tissue)
72. Dog snacks
Made with pig snouts:
73. Dog snacks (usually deep fried)
Made with fatty acids from pig bones:
74. Fabric softener
75. Shampoo
76. Candles
77. Paint
78. Soap
79. Corks
80. Photographic film
81. Moisturizers
82. Shoes (bone glue used to improve the texture and quality of some leathers)
83. Toothpaste
Made from pig bones:
84. Yoghurt
85. Marshmallows
Made with pig hair:
86. Paint brushes
87. Bread (protein from pig hair is used to soften dough)
Made from pig bladders:
88. Tambourines
Made from the mucus in pig intestines:
89. Heparin (used to stop the formation of blood clots)
Made from pig pancreases:
90. Insulin (closest to human in chemical structure)
91. Valves for human heart surgery
Made from pig blood (porcine hemoglobin):
92. Cigarettes
Made from pig collagen, which can be converted into gelatin as a gelling agent:
93. Ice cream (gelatin regulates the sugar crystallization and slows down the melting process)
94. Beer (used as a clarifying agent, which reacts with bitter substances and tannins to absorb cloudy elements, leaving clear drinks)
95. Fruit juice (absorbs cloudy elements to give clear drinks)
96. Bullets (bone gelatin is used to transport gunpowder or cordite into the casing)
97. Medicine tablets
98. Paper (bone gelatin is used to improve stiffness and reduce moisture)
99. Face masks (with collagen to help reduce wrinkles and lines)
100. Energy bars (treated collagen is a cheap source of protein for body builders)
101. Cream cheese (gelatin is used to keep it stable)
102. Whipped cream (gelatin gives it texture)
103. Sweets (porcine gelatin is used as a binding and gelling agent to ensure the “right” texture is found in liquorice, wine, gums, chewing gum.
Made from pig waste:
104. Fuel to produce electricity
THINGS MADE FROM A CHICKEN:
Made from chicken feathers:
105. Plastic (feathers are often heated, mixed with other materials and molded into plastic)
106. Powder makeup (feather fiber is ground into a powdery talc making the keratin useful in beauty products)
107. Diapers (used as an absorptive layer)
108. Pork rind imitations
109. Dishes
110. Furniture
111. Clothing
112. Circuit boards
113. Wall insulation
114. Filters
115. Planting pots
116. Hurricane-proof roofing
117. Shoe soles
118. Lightweight auto dashboards and glove compartments for fuel efficiency
119. Mattresses
120. Jewelry
121. Animal feed and fertizilation
122. Bio-diesel
123. Pillows
124. Upholstery padding
125. Paper
Made from or with chicken eggs:
126. Therapeutic vaccines
127. Production of antibodies and pharmacological proteins
128. Marshmallows
THINGS MADE FROM A SHEEP:
Made from sheep wool:
129. Clothing (shirts, socks, jackets, sweaters, rugs, blankets, and much more)
130. Yarn for knitting
131. Tennis ball covers
132. Oil absorbent in oil spills
Made from sheep bones, hooves, and horns:
133. Gelatin
134. Tape
135. Brushes
136. Pet food ingredients
Made from sheep skin:
137. Leather (used in car upholstery, clothing and shoes)
Made from sheep organs & fat:
138. Tennis rackets (strings)
139. Candles
140. Soap
141. Skincare products (lanolin – an emollient found in sheep’s wool)
142. Fabric softener
THINGS MADE FROM A HORSE:
Made from horse hair:
143. Ropes
144. Jewelry
145. Woven fabric
146. Linen & bedding
147. String instrument bows
148. Navajo pottery
149. Woven vases & baskets
150. Purses (Angelina Jolie once bought a $5000 horse hair purse from Akris – yuck!)
151. Hats
Made from horse bones:
152. Sugar (there’s a reason why it’s as white as bone – natural charcoal aka bone char made from horses and cows is used as a filter to bleach it)
153. Jell-O
154. Marshmallows
Made from horse fat:
155. Fabric softener
Made from horse skin/hyde:
156. Leather
Made from horse hooves:
157. Glue
158. Jello/jelly
Made from horse blood:
159. Tetanus vaccines
160. Therapy drugs (such as Premarin)
THINGS MADE FROM A RABBIT:
Made from rabbit hair/fur:
161. Clothing items
162. Yarn
163. Toys
Made from rabbit skin:
164. Fertilizer
165. Glue
166. Leather
Made from rabbit heart:
167. Sauces & gravy
Made from rabbits feet:
168. Keychains
169. Good luck charms
Made from rabbit guts:
170. Chicken feed
Made from rabbit bones:
171. Chicken feed
172. Fake archeological sites for kids
173. Jewelry
Made from rabbit heads:
174. Feed for buzzards and birds of prey
175. Skulls may be used for fake archeological sites for kids
THINGS MADE FROM FISH & OTHER SEA LIFE:
Made from fish:
176. Oils used for healthcare products
177. Isinglass (ground-up sturgeon or cod bladders that clarify beverages)
178. Lipstick & nail polish (the shimmer often comes from herring scales)
179. Fishmeal & livestock feed (for farmed fish, pigs, chicken, and fur animals)
180. Oil lamps
181. Fertilizer
182. Pet food
Made from mollusks:
183. Dye
Made from whales:
184. Bone used for jewelry, ornaments, corsets, umbrellas
185. Guts used for perfumes
186. Sperm oil used for leather making, candles, soaps, cosmetics
187. Whale oil used for processed margarine & shortenings
188. Tendons used for tennis racquet strings
Made from sharks & rays:
189. Shark fin soup & other "delicacies"
190. Skin used for leather wallets, purses, shoes, furniture, and other leather products
191. Shark teeth, jaws, skin used for souvenirs and jewelry
192. Energy drinks
193. Pet supplements
194. Vitamins
195. Lotions
196. Dog chew toys
197. Lipsticks & lip balms
198. Deodorants
199. Sunscreen
200. Medicinal creams
201. Vaccines
202. Face cream & other cosmetics
THINGS MADE FROM BEES:
Made from honey:
203. Sweetener
204. Hand lotions
205. Soaps
206. Natural cough suppressant
207. Forms of energy
208. Some carbohydrates
Made from beeswax:
209. Candles
210. Lipstick
211. Lotions
212. Shoe polish
213. Crayons
214. Chewing gum
215. Floor wax
Does this list freak you out as much as it freaks me out? After doing some investigating, I’m blown away by the amount of every-day things we use that include animal skin, organs, hair, guts, blood, and hooves. Some of the ones that really strike a chord with me are chewing gum, cosmetics, fabric softener, photographic film, toothpaste, and crayons!
As I was researching products created from sea life, I was appalled by the facts about the creatures that die in the name of fishing. Turtles, whales, dolphins, seals, penguins, etc. are often caught in the nets of fishers "just" trying to bring people their sushi. Our everyday practices and consumptions seem to come with a cruel back-story hidden from our awareness.
Now I feel like I need to do a complete product detox and figure out which products I can use that don’t derive from an animal. I’ll be sure to write a post about not only cruelty free products (because they’re not always free of animal products, gahh!), but also vegan-friendly products, as I learn about them.
Hopefully this journey of cruelty-free-living that I’ve embarked on is helping you consider or do the same. The less we contribute to animal cruelty, the more compassionately we can live and exist in this world.
Please leave your comments below about how this article made you feel or anything I may have missed on the list. I hope this list encourages you to be a more conscious consumer as I strive to be, too. I will continue to share anything I learn about being a better eco-warrior, health advocate, and voice for the voiceless (the animals).
