Cake    noun

Oxford Dictionary definition:  Mixture of flour, butter, eggs, sugar etc baked in oven.

Our definition:  There is absolutely no need of eggs and butter when making a cake.  There are so many delicious vegan, and even raw vegan, cake recipes – some very sophisticated and complicated and some, my favourites, needing nothing more than flour, sugar, vegetable oil and water.  And I do not exaggerate when I say that they taste better than any cake I tasted in my pre-vegan days.  But you don’t need to take my word for it, look at oatielover’s chocolate cake and Lisa’s vanilla layer cake or any of the thousands of vegan cake recipes out there – there’s something for everyone.  All this typing’s making me peckish, please excuse me a moment while I grab one of the blueberry muffins I made earlier 😉

Carmine    adjective

Oxford Dictionary definition:  of vivid crimson colour

Carmine    noun    

Oxford Dictionary definition:  1.  This colour  2.  Pigment from cochineal

Our definition:  Carmine, also called crimson lake, cochineal, natural red 4, C.I. 75470, or E120, is a pigment of a bright-red colour obtained from the aluminium salt of carminic acid (an acid produced by some scale insects as a deterrent to predators).  The pigment, produced from the dried, powdered bodies of insects such as the cochineal, the Armenian cochineal and the Polish cochineal, is used in the manufacture of artificial flowers, paints, crimson ink, rouge, and other cosmetics, and is routinely added to food products such as yogurt and certain brands of juice, the most notable ones being those of the ruby-red variety.

Casein    noun

Oxford Dictionary definition:  Main protein in milk and cheese.

Our definition:  Casein is the name for a family of related phosphoproteins. These proteins are commonly found in mammalian milk, making up 80% of the proteins in cows’ milk and between 20% and 45% of the proteins in human breast milk.  As well as being a major component of cheese, casein is used in the manufacture of paint, glue, plastics,  condoms and even some items labelled non-dairy.  Casein-derived compounds are also used in tooth-remineralization products.

The protein composition within cows’ milk – particularly the beta-casein A1 molecule – is radically different than that found within human breast milk.  Casein is a disulfide-bonded protein, exceedingly hard to digest for mammals with only one stomach.  For quite some time the link between juvenile onset diabetes (type 1) and cow’s milk consumption has been noted in the scientific literature.  In genetically susceptible individuals the consumption of cows’ milk may trigger an autoimmune destruction of the beta cells in the pancreas which produce insulin. The consumption of a food designed for another species (and even for that species only during early development as a calf), will usually have some unintended, adverse effects; and if there are risks, is it worth consuming that food when other readily available and nutritious alternatives exist, such as hemp milk, flax milk and coconut milk, to name but a few options on the market?

Cashmere    noun

Oxford Dictionary definition:  Fine, soft wool, esp of Kashmir goat.

Our definition:  Yarn and fabric made from the hair of cashmere goats which are either combed or sheared for it.  Demand for cheap cashmere has led to larger and larger herds of cashmere goats who graze grasslands into deserts which, in turn, leaves them underfed, weak, even starving.  PETA warn that many Asiatic cashmere goats live in atrocious conditions on factory farms whilst those left to wander free are having disastrous effects on the environment due to their large numbers. The Alashan Plateau which extends from the Tibetan Plateau northward into Mongolia’s Gobi Desert was home to 2.4 million Gobi goats in the 90s and now accommodates 26 million. What should be grassland areas are turning to dust and desert at the rate of 400 square miles a year, disrupting the ecosystem and causing severe dust pollution.

Chamois    noun

Oxford Dictionary definition:  1.  Small mountain antelope  2.  (pronounced ‘shammy’) piece of soft leather from sheep, goats etc

Our definition:  1.  The chamois is a mid-sized goat-antelope native to mountains in Europe. The females and their young live in herds of up to 100 individuals; adult males tend to live solitarily for most of the year.  Pregnancies usually result in the birth of a single kid in May or early June – on rare occasions, twins may be born.  If a mother is killed, other females in the herd may try to raise the kid.  They eat various types of vegetation, including highland grasses and herbs during the summer and conifers, barks and needles from trees in winter. They can run at 50 kilometres per hour (31 mph) and can jump 2 m (6.6 ft) vertically into the air or over a distance of 6 m (20 ft).

2.  Chamois Leather (known as “shammy”) is the soft leather made from the skin of lambs, sheep or chamois.

Cheese    noun

Oxford Dictionary definition:  1. Food made from milk curds.

Our definition:  To make cheese, cows’ (or sheep’s or goats’ for eg) milk is pasteurised and then bacteria is added to sour and thicken it.  Then, in order to form curds, they add rennet, the active ingredient of which is the enzyme chymosin.  Vegetarian cheeses are manufactured using rennet from either fungal/bacterial sources or genetically modified micro-organisms, however, the traditional source of rennet is the stomach of slaughtered newly-born calves. Chymosin is extracted from slaughtered calves by washing and drying the stomach lining, which is cut into small pieces and macerated in a solution of boric acid/brine for 4-5 days. Three of the major sources of protease for coagulating milk are from animal sources, veal calves, adult cows and pigs, the other three are from fungi.

Many, if not most, vegetarians in their attempts to transition to veganism have found cheese to be the hardest thing to give up.  This is not surprising since it contains casomorphins, which have an opioid effect on the brain, making it very addictive.  Thankfully, once you have weaned yourself off it you soon find you no longer have the cravings.  And it doesn’t take long.

And given the horrible cruelty of the dairy industry – which is at least as bad as the meat industry – there is plenty of incentive to give it up: No calf = no milk (or cheese), so cows are kept almost constantly pregnant throughout their curtailed lives, with each birth followed by an agonising separation of mother and calf. The ‘lucky’ female offspring get to follow in their mothers’ footsteps: their reproductive systems exploited without respite from the moment they reach sexual maturity.  The young male calves are either shot at birth or shipped to Europe to be incarcerated in veal crates which induce anaemia in the name of producing pale flesh for human consumption.

Cochineal    noun

Oxford Dictionary definition:  1.  Scarlet dye  2.  Insects whose dried bodies yield this.

Our definition:  The cochineal is a red scale insect native to tropical and subtropical South America and Mexico which lives on cacti, feeding on plant moisture and nutrients.

To produce dye from cochineals, the insects are collected when they are around 90 days old. Harvesting the insects is labour-intensive, as they must be individually knocked, brushed, or picked from the cacti and placed into bags.  Carminic acid is extracted from the female cochineal insects and is treated to produce carmine, which can yield shades of red such as crimson and scarlet.  The insects are immersed in hot water or exposed to sunlight, steam, or the heat of an oven.  It takes about 80,000 to 100,000 insects to make one kilogram of cochineal dye.  Because many synthetic red dyes have been found to be carcinogenic, the cochineal dye has become commercially valuable again, although most consumers are unaware that the phrases “cochineal extract”, “carmine”, “crimson lake”, “natural red 4”, “C.I. 75470”, “E120”, or even “natural colouring” refer to a dye derived from an insect.  These days it is used as fabric dye, cosmetics colouring (especially red lipstick) and natural food colouring.

Cockle    noun

Oxford Dictionary definition:  1.  Edible bivalve shellfish

Our definition:  Various species of cockles live in sandy, sheltered beaches throughout the world. The distinctive rounded shells of cockles are bilaterally symmetrical, and are heart-shaped when viewed from the end. Numerous radial evenly-spaced ribs occur in most but not all. Cockle shells are able to close completely (i.e., they do not have a “gape” at any point around their edges).  They live buried in sediment whereas scallops live on the sea floor attached by a byssus (group of strong filaments secreted by the cockle) or are free-living.  The mantle has three apertures (inhalant, exhalant, and pedal) for siphoning water and for the foot to protrude. Cockles typically burrow using the foot, and feed by filtering plankton from the surrounding water. Cockles are capable of “jumping” by bending and straightening the foot.

Cockles are boiled alive by humans who want to eat them.

Cod liver oil    noun

Oxford Dictionary definition:  Medicinal oil, rich in vitamins.

Our definition:  As its name suggest, cod liver oil is oil squeezed from the liver of a fish.  People take it to get their omega-3 fatty acids with some vitamins A and D thrown in.  But why put yourself, and the fish, through that when you can easily get everything you need from plant sources?  Concentrated sources of beta carotene, which converts to vitamin A in your body, is found in carrots, squash, pumpkin, sweet potato, dark green leafy vegetables, red peppers, tomatoes, and yellow fruits such as apricots, mango and peaches.  And the best source of vitamin D is summer sun, with vegan supplements in the winter if needed, although if you get enough in the summer your body can store it for use in the winter.   As for omega-3,  Viva! Health says: “You’re quite right to want to ditch fish oils, as our Fishing For Facts campaign shows. The stuff which seems to do the lubricating job is omega-3 fats. They also have anti-inflammatory properties, can help protect the heart, boost brain development and aid the retina and other organs, including the skin.

The argument often used against plant sources of omega-3 (ALA) is that it isn’t easily absorbed by the body whereas fish omega-3 oils are (DHA and EPA). In fact, the body is adequately equipped to convert ALA into both DHA and EPA – in other words, you can happily obtain your omega 3 from linseeds (flax), rapeseed oil, green leafy vegetables and walnuts.

In oil form, all you need is about a tablespoon of flaxseed oil a day. This oil must be keep cold and away from light or the oil will degenerate. It can be used for salad dressings and poured over vegetables but isn’t suitable for cooking, which destroys the fats. A handful of mixed, unsalted nuts and seeds each day, such as walnuts, linseeds, brazils, almonds, hazelnuts, sunflower and sesame seeds, can also do the trick.”

Crab    noun

Oxford Dictionary definition:  1.  Shellfish with 10 legs  2.  This as food

Our definition:  1.  Crabs are sentient beings who live in all the world’s oceans, in fresh water, and on land, are generally covered with a thick exoskeleton and have a single pair of claws.  They attract a mate through chemical (pheromones), visual, acoustic or vibratory means. Pheromones are used by most fully aquatic crabs, while terrestrial and semi-terrestrial crabs often use visual signals, such as fiddler crab males waving their large claw to attract females. Crabs are mostly active animals with complex behaviour patterns.  They can communicate by drumming or waving their pincers.  Males will fight to win females or to defend territory.  Fiddler Crabs dig burrows in sand or mud, which they use for resting, hiding, mating and to defend against intruders. Crabs are omnivores, feeding primarily on algae, and taking any other food, including molluscs, worms, other crustaceans, fungi, bacteria and detritus, depending on their availability and the crab species.

2.  Crabs are boiled alive by humans who want to eat them.

Crackling    noun

Oxford Dictionary definition:  Crisp skin of roast pork

Our definition:  The roasted skin of a piglet‘s leg, belly, side and back, bottom or shoulder.