displaced.vegan

when I first went vegetarian years ago I was bummed to learn that my quick-fix horrid baked good of choice (Hostess desserts) were not even vegetarian.? I easily found beef listed in the ingredients of practically everything they made.? Even when I would cease to be a vegetarian I still stayed away from Hostess.? That was when I came to fully appreciate the belt expanding selection of Little Debbie desserts.

There is a rumor going around that McKee Foods, who owns Little Debbie was founded by Seventh Day Adventists, who as you may know are vegetarian.? Okay, it’s more than a rumor.? It’s actually true.? Whether or not this has any bearing on what ingredients they choose to use in their wonderfully unhealthy snacks is unknown.? But it seems like more than just a coincidence.

Shortly (and I mean “hours”) before I became vegan I stumbled across a display in Medford, Oregon’s Food-4-Less that had my much loved/loathed “fruit pies.”? I’ve never seen Little Debbie pies before, and I can never turn away a chocolate pudding fruit pie so I grabbed one, feeling somewhat guilty to be indulging in this one last pie.? In the car ride home as I was greedily gobbling my chocolate pie down, I started to look at the ingredient list out of curiosity.? I scanned the list several times and found no overt BEEF references, which made me happy.? But of course, the ingredient list is full of absurd and difficult to pronounce items which I would later (30 minutes ago) google.? Yes, I still have the box.

Here is the verdict:
Little Debbie’s pies are Vegan.

Aren’t you appalled?

These pies are HORRIBLE for you.? Don’t think that they are in any way health food items.? And although the ingredient list shows mono- and diglycerides, McKee foods does not use animal derived ingredients for this.

I’m sitting here horrified that I ate 1/4 of my caloric intake on a whim. And I’m even more disturbed that I am wondering when I can next go to Food-4-Less and pick up another one.