Please come visit The Vegetarian Resource Group booth at San Francisco World Fest in California.

For more details on the Festival, see: https://www.sfvs.org/worldveganfest

By Whitney McVerry

We recently tried the mango fruit rolls from BOB SNAIL, and they were a hit with my kids. These chewy, naturally sweet rolls taste like real fruit because that is exactly what they are. The entire BOB SNAIL line is vegan-friendly and made with simple ingredients, which makes them a snack you can feel good about packing.

With zero added sugar and no artificial flavors, they are perfect for lunch boxes and after school treats. BOB SNAIL also makes “stripes,” which are similar to a fruit strip, and gummies all available in many fruity flavors.  

Check out all these flavorful varieties here: https://www.bob-snail.com/products/

The contents of this email, 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.

by Whitney McVerry

We recently tried Drumroll glazed donuts in the strawberry and vanilla flavors, and they did not disappoint! These donuts are gluten-free, vegan, and low in sugar. With 10 grams of protein per pack of three, they’re both filling and tasty. Kid- and grown-up-approved, they make the perfect snack for road trips, on-the-go adventures, and boxed lunches.

Drumroll also offers a chocolate flavor and bulk packs through their online store: https://eatdrumroll.com/products/plant-based-chocolate-donuts

The contents of this email, 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.

photo from Freepik

by Reed Mangels, PhD, RD

In May 2025, the non-profit organization Healthy Babies Bright Futures released a report What’s In Your Family’s Rice? (1). The important findings of this report included:

• 100% of 145 rice samples purchased throughout the United States contained inorganic arsenic, the most toxic form of arsenic.
• More than one-quarter of the products sampled had levels of arsenic above the federal limit for arsenic in baby rice cereal.

Inorganic arsenic is associated with a number of health problems including cancers, heart disease, hypertension, type 2 diabetes, and neurological harm during development (2). It is especially a concern in pregnancy, infancy, and young childhood (1, 3). The levels of inorganic arsenic found in rice in this study are not likely to cause a problem over a short time period; the concern is with low-level long-term intake of inorganic arsenic (4).

This report also checked the inorganic arsenic content of other cereal products (barley, amaranth, bulgur, quinoa, couscous, farro, buckwheat, millet and spelt) and found that rice had, on average, 28 times more arsenic than these cereal products (1). Rice is unique among cereals in that the rice plant accumulates much more inorganic arsenic than do other cereals (5). Higher temperatures, as we are seeing due to climate change, can increase the amount of inorganic arsenic in rice (6). The inorganic arsenic is concentrated in the bran layer of the rice, meaning that brown rice has more inorganic arsenic than does white rice (4).

What can consumers do to minimize their exposure to arsenic from rice?

• Choose varieties of rice with lower levels of arsenic. The report from Healthy Babies Bright Futures found that white rice grown in California, Thai jasmine rice, and Indian white basmati rice had markedly less arsenic than other kinds of rice (1). Brown rice, white rice grown in the Southeastern United States, and Arborio rice were all higher in arsenic (1).
• Choose one of the following cooking methods:
  • Cook rice with excess water, the same way that you would cook pasta. Cooking rice with a ratio of 1 part of rice to 4 parts of water and draining excess water after cooking reduced the amount of inorganic arsenic in both brown and white rice by 54-58% (7). Others suggest using 6-10 cups of water per cup of rice (1).
  • Parboil rice by boiling 4 cups of water for every cup of raw rice. When the water is boiling, add the rice and boil for 5 minutes. Drain and discard the cooking water. Then, add fresh water to the rice using 2 cups of water for every cup of raw rice, and cook rice, covered, on low to medium heat until the water is absorbed, and the rice is tender. This method removed 54% of the inorganic arsenic from brown rice and 73% from white rice (3). This method can also be used for a rice cooker by parboiling the rice, draining the cooking water and then cooking as usual in the rice cooker (1). You may need to tweak the amount of water.
• Vary your grain choices – try barley or couscous or quinoa or other alternatives in place of rice, at least some of the time.

References

2. 1. Houlihan J, Naumoff K. What’s in Your Family’s Rice? Healthy Babies Bright Futures. https://hbbf.org/sites/default/files/2025-05/Arsenic-in-Rice-Report_May2025_R5_SECURED.pdf. 2025.

    

   2. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. IRIS Toxicological Review of Inorganic Arsenic. CASRN 7440-38-2. EPA/635/R-25/005Fc. Integrated Risk Information System, Center for Public Health and Environmental Assessment, Office of Research and Development. https://iris.epa.gov/static/pdfs/0278tr.pdf. 2025.

    

   3. Menon M, Dong W, Chen X, et al. Improved rice cooking approach to maximise arsenic removal while preserving nutrient elements. Sci Total Environ. 2021;755(Pt 2):143341.

    

   4. Scott CK, Wu F. Arsenic content and exposure in brown rice compared to white rice in the United States. Risk Anal. 2025;45(8):2183-2196.

    

   5. Williams PN, Villada A, Deacon C, et al. Greatly enhanced arsenic shoot assimilation in rice leads to elevated grain levels compared to wheat and barley. Environ Sci Technol. 2007;41(19):6854-6859.

    

   6. Farhat YA, Kim SH, Seyfferth AL, et al. Altered arsenic availability, uptake, and allocation in rice under elevated temperature. Sci Total Environ. 2021;763:143049.

    

   7. Menon M, Nicholls A, Smalley A, et al. A comparison of the effects of two cooking methods on arsenic species and nutrient elements in rice. Sci Total Environ. 2024;914:169653.

To read more about arsenic in foods see: Off to a Good Start with Baby Cereal

Be sure to follow The Vegetarian Resource Group on Instagram: @vegetarianresourcegroup

There are so many different vegan milks on the market today and it’s often hard to decide which one should be used to make a particular vegan dish. Hannah Kaminsky has created a handy guide you can refer to. See: https://www.vrg.org/journal/vj2025issue3/2025_issue3_plant_milk.php

Subscribe to Vegan Journal in the USA only at www.vrg.org/member

Diana Goldman has written Plants for You and this book is reviewed in the latest issue of Vegan Journal. You’ll find a wide variety of delicious vegan recipes, as well as many helpful cooking tips. Read our review here: https://www.vrg.org/journal/vj2025issue3/2025_issue3_book_reviews.php

Subscribe to Vegan Journal in the USA only at www.vrg.org/member

Virtua Health hospital in New Jersey features a plant-based menu section for their patients. Though note the choices are not all vegan. Dishes on the menu include vegetarian stir-fry, hummus and vegetable wrap, and black bean burger.

See information on some other hospital experiences:  https://www.vrg.org/blog/2025/05/01/vegan-in-the-hospital/

Foraged & Found has produced pickles made from kelp! They are available in three flavors. Read the product review here: https://www.vrg.org/journal/vj2025issue3/2025_issue3_veggie_bits.php

Subscribe to Vegan Journal in the USA only at www.vrg.org/member

photo from Freepik

by Reed Mangels, PhD, RD

Baby-led weaning is a feeding approach in which babies feed themselves instead of having parents or caregivers spoon feed. Picture a baby sitting in a high chair feeding themselves graspable pieces of the same or similar food as their family is eating. Just as with other feeding approaches, baby-led weaning starts at around age 6 months, the age when babies typically are ready to develop the skills needed to start eating solid foods.

Interested? First talk to your baby’s pediatrician. Every baby is different and not all babies are ready to self-feed. Some babies may benefit from a combination of self-feeding and being fed by a parent or caregiver. If the baby’s pediatrician approves and you want to try baby-led weaning, here’s what it involves:

• Offering the baby small amounts of foods the family is eating at that meal. Foods are in pieces that are a size the baby can grasp but not so big that they are a choking hazard.
• Making sure that the foods that are offered are soft enough that the baby will be able to gum them or chew them. They should be soft enough that you can smush them with your fingers. Foods should not be hot—hot foods could burn the baby’s mouth or fingers.
• Having the baby eat with the family so that the baby sees others eating.
• Serving a variety of healthy foods. There’s no need to add salt or sugar or other sweeteners.
• Letting the baby self-feed at their own pace. Many foods are eaten with fingers; a baby-safe spoon is offered for soft foods.
• Not requiring the baby to finish all of their food.
• Recognizing that it’s fine to use a combo approach, letting the baby self-feed and also doing some spoon feeding.
• Continuing to give the baby breast milk or commercial infant formula; babies get much of their nutrition from breast milk or formula throughout their first year .

Proponents of baby-led weaning point out that this approach gives a baby greater control over when to stop eating which may help to reduce the risk of obesity later in life. Other benefits include exposing the baby to a wide variety of foods, including more whole foods, and promoting skill development such as grasping foods and handling a spoon.

Some commonly expressed concerns with this feeding method are the risk of choking and the possibility of a nutritionally inadequate diet. Foods a self-feeding infant may prefer are fruits and vegetables which can result in too few calories and not enough iron and other essential nutrients.

Avoiding potential choking hazards and following safe feedings techniques can reduce the risk of choking. Choking risks such as chunks of raw hard fruits and vegetables, whole nuts, dried fruits, salad greens, and round foods (such as grapes and cherry tomatoes) should be avoided or modified. Foods the family is eating can be modified so that their size and texture are appropriate for the baby’s developmental stage. Meal times should be carefully supervised, the infant should be sitting upright in a high chair, and distractions (music, television, etc.) should be minimized. Caregivers should be aware of what to do if choking occurs. The American Academy of Pediatrics has more detailed advice about avoiding choking hazards and has a link to a site about what to do if a baby is choking.

Each meal should include a higher calorie food such as avocado, bananas, tofu, potatoes, or sweet potatoes. Higher iron foods including iron-fortified infant cereals used in baked goods or spread on toast pieces, cooked beans, tofu, and hummus should be offered at each meal. These foods are often also sources of zinc.

Some ideas for vegan-friendly foods for babies:

• Fruits such as sliced bananas, smushed blueberries, steamed and peeled apple slices or thick unsweetened applesauce, very ripe peeled pears, sliced avocados.
• Vegetables such as steamed sweet potato or winter squash strips, steamed beet strips, steamed zucchini strips, steamed green beans, steamed carrot strips, steamed broccoli.
• Well-cooked dried or canned beans, smooshed into a thick mass.
• Bean patties, cut into strips or other graspable shapes.
• Lightly steamed or baked tofu strips.
• Whole grain toast strips.
• Whole wheat pasta shapes, cooked until quite tender.
• Baby cereal made thick enough to cut into strips when it cools.
• Oatmeal or polenta cooked, cooled, and cut into strips.

To read more about vegan babies see:

Feeding Vegan Kids

Vegan Nutrition in Pregnancy and Childhood

The contents of this website and our other publications, including Vegetarian Journal and 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.