So today I bought homemade vegan cupcakes for me and my boyfriend. Yum, right? Wrong. While they were yummy (I ate two), my boyfriend brought it to my attention that the bakers probably used hydrogenated oils, such as crisco and some vegan butters. Hydrogenated oils are the things that make you fat and clog your arteries. They’re also known as trans fats, you know, those things that stick to your ass and NEVER go away.

Personally, I could give two shits and would have eaten ten of those cupcakes if given the opprtunity. Still, I’ve noticed that a lot of people made the choice to be vegan for moral AND health reasons. It makes sense that my boyfriend avoided the potentially artery clogging cupcakes because he thinks that a healthy diet is part of the benefit of being vegan. Why stop at unhealthy animal products and not go the whole nine-yards by avoiding anything that could shorten your lifespan? My other friend, Dena, all but cringes when I eat pasta because it contains simple carbs that are everything but good for you. Also, you see books like “Skinny Bitch” by Rory Freedman and Kim Barnouin that promote a healthy lifestyle IN ORDER TO promote veganism. The conection between health and veganism is so obvious! So why are there fat, unhealthy, anemic, obese, cancerous, and heart diseased vegans? Same reason there were homemade vegan cupcakes: BAD FOODS TASTES GOOD!

Sure, I tell people that one of the benfits of a vegan diet is that it helps you live longer and avoid diseases, like cancer and heart disease, but I, along with a lot of other vegans, don’t always reap those benefits. I think this is becase most vegans at some point figure out how to replace the eggs and milk in baked goods with crisco, flax seeds, and nut milks. Also, we replace the cheeses with soy cheeses from Red Bamboo. Instead of eathing meats high in fat and flavor we eat Seitan and Soy Protein (both lower in fat than beef or chicken, but still very high in fat) Luckilly we didn’t even have to bat a eyelash at most chips and french fries. That stuff has always been vegan. In other words, people who enjoyed eating crappy foods before they went vegan still enjoy the same oily, sweet, deliciousnous afterwards.

So next time you see somone who has a disease, died young, or is just kind of overweight, don’t jump the gun and assume they’re cheating. Being vegan doesn’t mean giving up the grease, it means gaining new ways to make it taste good. mmmmm cupcakes….