Vegan Journal Senior Editor Hannah Kaminsky shares her thoughts on embracing imperfection, especially when cooking. Read her Note from the Senior Editor here: https://www.vrg.org/journal/vj2026issue2/2026_issue2_notes_senior_editor.php
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In Reed Mangels, PhD, RD’s latest Nutrition Hotline Column in Vegan Journal, she answers a reader’s question about the differences between fermented and unfermented soy. Read the entire column here: https://www.vrg.org/journal/vj2026issue2/2026_issue2_nutrition_hotline.php
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photo by Hannah Kaminsky
Ellen Kanner shares recipes for vegan tapas from Spain including Patatas Bravas (Fiery Potatoes) with Fresh Greens; Sherried Mushrooms; Pimentos de Padrón (Padrón Peppers); Pa’am Tomaquel (Catalan Tomato Bread); and Catalan Spinach. Read the entire article here: https://www.vrg.org/journal/vj2026issue2/2026_issue2_tip-top-tapas.php
To subscribe to Vegan Journal is the USA only, visit www.vrg.org/member
The Vegetarian Resource Group is once again sponsoring a video contest. We will be awarding several monetary awards. The deadline for entries this year is July 15, 2026 and the contest is open to all ages.
Create and submit a video relating what you want to tell others about veganism. Some possible topics: food, nutrition, your feelings about veganism, water usage and veganism, veganism and animal rights, or other veggie topics which appeal to you. Humor and feelings are appreciated. All videos should be positive, not be critical of anyone, and not include any footage of animal cruelty. You may submit a video you have already made. Please do not enter videos made completely using AI.
Aspects of judging include accuracy and judges wanting to share the video with others. Entrants give permission to The Vegetarian Resource Group to post and share the video, to link to and from the video, and share the video with the media.
To see the video contest rules, visit: http://www.vrg.org/videoscholarship.php
Previous winning videos can be found here: http://www.vrg.org/veg_videos.php
Linda’s Ensalada
Come meet dietitians from the Vegetarian Nutrition Dietetic Practice Group and Vegetarian Resource Group members. The public is invited. You must preregister.
When: Sunday, October 25, 2026, 6 PM;
Where: Casa Rio on the River Walk
Menu:
Linda’s Ensalada de Colores Appetizer: Mixed Greens with Grapefruit, Orange, Bell Pepper, Avocado, and Red Onion with Lime Vinaigrette.
Plus Buffet:
Guacamole
Refried beans
Mixed Grilled Veggies
Grilled Peppers and Onions
Corn Salsa
Pico de Gallo
Chalupa shells
Wheat Tortillas
Corn Tortillas
Mexican Rice
Lettuce, Tomato
Fruit
Water
Iced Tea
Please prepay $30 ($35 after September 1, 2026) in advance per person at vrg.org/donate. In the Comments, write in names of attendees and that this is for the Vegan Networking dinner. Or call (410) 366-8343 with a credit card. Or mail payment to The Vegetarian Resource Group, P.O. Box 1463, Baltimore, MD 21203. We look forward to seeing you there. (Restaurant is seven-minute walk from the Convention Center.)
In the latest Scientific Update in Vegan Journal we cover these topics: Iron Absorption in Vegans and Plant-Based Meat Promotes Iron Absorption. Read the column here: https://www.vrg.org/journal/vj2026issue2/2026_issue2_scientific_update.php
To subscribe to Vegan Journal is the USA only, visit www.vrg.org/member
By Jeanne Yacoubou, MS
Mixue Bingcheng, a global ice cream and tea shop with over 46,000 stores – surpassing both McDonald’s and Starbucks in store units– opened in 1997 in China and spread throughout Southeast Asia, Australia, Philippines, and Japan. In December 2025, the first Mixue stores opened in New York City and Los Angeles. American dessert and tea lovers can also soon expect to find Mixue Bingcheng, which means “sweet snow palace” in Chinese, in other major US cities.
Known for low prices and real fruit pieces in many of its beverages, Mixue offers, at the time of writing, its signature soft serve ice cream for $1.19 and a wide variety of sundaes, milk teas, and fruit drinks ranging from $1.99 to $5.69 each.
The Mixue website states, “The Mixue menu USA has some great options for people who do not drink dairy. You can get fruit teas, lemon teas, iced green tea, and iced black tea … On the (other) hand the ice cream items at Mixue menu USA are made with dairy.”
We spoke with Mixue employees at both NYC and LA locations in May 2025 to find out if any of their menu offerings are non-dairy. They have:
Readers should note that not all of Mixue’s fruit drinks listed on its website or on in-store menus are non-dairy. For example, the Strawberry Bobo Tea, Mango Pomelo Taro Fruit Tea, and the Taro Ball Grape Tea are not non-dairy. Mixue employees told us that the taro and boba (also known as bobo) balls, as well as the pudding in these drinks, contain dairy.
For readers unfamiliar with the term, boba refers to chewy tapioca balls. When added to milk tea, the drink is called bubble tea. Boba pearls consist of brown sugar, tapioca starch, water, and sometimes sweet potato starch. At Mixue, dairy is also present.
We asked Mixue employees if they used cane sugar, which, unlike beet sugar, may have been whitened through a cow bone char filter, in their beverages and desserts. They didn’t know the type of sugar in Mixue menu options. However, they added that patrons could ask for no sugar in the Lemon Iced Tea.
Besides the three Mixue beverages identified above, all the other menu items at Mixue contain dairy. The soft serve ice cream is made with “whole milk powder” according to Mixue employees. One worker at the 8th Avenue location in New York told us that there is a “low chance of milk droplets” contaminating tea-based fruit drinks because several drink bases come out of a common dispenser unit.
We asked Mixue employees if plant-based milk was an option in any of their beverages or desserts. Without hesitation, employees at both locations told us no. While there may be coconut milk in some beverages, it is always served in combination with dairy. Coconut milk cannot be substituted for dairy in any menu items.
If you’re stopping by Mixue for a fruit-based beverage, please inquire about the ingredients before ordering to be 100% sure. When we asked Mixue employees to check the container because they weren’t sure about ingredient sources, they gladly did so and read from the label while on the phone with us even in a busy store.
The VRG also recommends that you request plant-based milk options at Mixue if you’re ever there. When a company hears often enough from its customers that they want vegan alternatives, that company is more likely to offer them in the future.
For more restaurant information, see
https://www.vrg.org/fastfoodinfo.php
https://www.vrg.org/restaurant/index.php
The contents of this posting, our website and our other publications, including Vegan Journal, are not intended to provide personal medical advice. Medical advice should be obtained from a qualified health professional. We often depend on product and ingredient information from company statements. It is impossible to be 100% sure about a statement, info can change, people have different views, and mistakes can be made. Please use your best judgment about whether a product is suitable for you. To be sure, do further research or confirmation on your own.
Recent topics brought up include:
– What should you look for in a plant milk for a vegan toddler?
– Children’s Veg Fest in Baltimore, Maryland will be in August 2026
– VRG 2026 Scholarship Winners (High School Seniors promoting veganism)
https://www.facebook.com/groups/VRGparentsandkids is intended to be a group that offers support for families raising children on vegan diets and for vegan kids around the world. We envision it as a place to get advice about a wide-variety of topics: pregnancy, birthday parties, school lunches, Halloween, non-leather apparel, cruelty-free products, summer camps, and more. Please use it as a place to share your wisdom, seek advice, or just find a sympathetic ear. The goal is to offer support.
Consequently, any profane, defamatory, offensive, or violent language will be removed. Feel free to disagree, but do so respectfully. Hateful or discriminatory comments regarding race, ethnicity, religion, gender, disability, sexual orientation, or political beliefs will not be tolerated. We expect that posts should relate to vegan diets and lifestyles. The Vegetarian Resource Group reserves the right to monitor all content and ban any user who posts in violation of the above rules, any law or regulation, SPAM, or anything otherwise off topic.
Please share this information with any veggie families that you know! Thanks.
by Reed Mangels, PhD, RD
One of the joys of working in vegan nutrition is the extraordinarily gifted colleagues I have had the opportunity to work with. Two of them, both vegan dietitians, Jack Norris, RD and Ginny Messina, MPH, RD, have websites and a blog whose contents I frequently refer to for current, thoughtful information about vegan nutrition.
Jack is the Executive Director of Vegan Outreach; VeganHealth.org (I am a contributor to this site) is a project of Vegan Outreach. VeganHealth.org’s mission is to provide “reviews of the scientific literature related to the health benefits of a vegan diet, discussions about concerns related to vegan nutrition, and recommendations for nutrients that can be low in the diets of some vegans.” As an example of the type of in-depth work that is a feature of VeganHealth.org, Jack recently provided an extensively researched article, “Folic Acid: Does It Make a Multivitamin Unsafe?” in which he explored the safety of folic acid, a vitamin found in many multivitamins. This article debunks the advice that some practitioners have given to avoid multivitamins that contain folic acid due to concerns about cancer. This does not appear to be a valid concern based on current evidence.
Ginny’s blog, The Vegan RD, has a wealth of content going back to 2007. Ginny’s posts are insightful and have practical tips as well as being based on the latest scientific information. A recent post, Vegan Diets and Colon Cancer: The Role of Calcium, is an example of the in-depth content that’s a feature of The Vegan RD blog. In this post, Ginny explores a recently published study that found a higher risk of colon cancer in vegans. As Ginny points out, the number of vegans was low, and these results should be interpreted with caution. Still, this study leads Ginny to “consider whether there might be something we can learn here to make vegan diets better.” I encourage you to read Ginny’s full post to see what she is suggesting.
I hope you’ll continue to read VRG’s blog (www.vrg.org/blog/) and also to take a look at VeganHealth.org and The Vegan RD blog.
Join The VRG with $35 via our subscription form, and receive the Vegan Journal for two years and a copy of Simply Vegan!
The Vegetarian Resource Group (VRG) is a non-profit organization dedicated to educating the public on veganism and the interrelated issues of health, nutrition, ecology, ethics, and world hunger. We have been helping health professionals, food services, businesses, educators, students, vegans, and vegetarians since 1982. In addition to publishing the Vegan Journal, VRG produces and sells a number of books.
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