Vegan and Gluten-free are different diets. A vegan diet is one that does not partake in any animal products, while a gluten-free diet is one that totally avoids gluten. While there are some areas of overlap, the core tenets are different.
What Is Veganism?
Veganism is the idea that you shouldn’t partake in anything that has an animal involved in the supply chain.
For example, a beef comes directly from cows, you wouldn’t be able to eat beef while following a vegan diet. Furthermore, since milk comes from cows, you wouldn’t be able to have milk, even though the animal isn’t harmed in the process of getting the milk.
This can be applied to a number of items, from chewy candy (which typically has beef gelatin in it, which is made from beef bones) to cheese (which, of course, comes from milk).
Veganism does extend out of the diet, as well. For example, a vegan might choose to avoid wearing leather, since a cow was killed to make that leather. Of course, the individual dos and don’ts of a given vegan are defined by that individual.
What Is Gluten-Free?
A gluten-free diet is one that, unsurprisingly, avoids gluten entirely. Gluten is a substance that can be found in some grains. More specifically, it is found in wheat, barley, rye, and triticale.
This can be a big deal, because those four grains make up the vast majority of the flour used in the world and, therefore, the vast majority of baked goods too.
To avoid having gluten from those baked goods, a gluten-free person might choose to make baked goods with coconut flour or rice flour, for example.
People can be gluten-free for a variety of reasons. The main reason that people adopt a gluten-free diet is that they may be celiac. This is a disease that prevents the human body from being able to digest gluten and can lead to the sufferer being very sick if they do accidentally eat some.
In other cases, people may simply choose to avoid gluten in their diets because a lack of gluten has positive knock-on effects for them. While this is rare, some people simply make that choice and have experienced a lot of benefits from it.
What’s The Difference Between Vegan and Gluten-Free?
Simply put, the difference between being vegan and being gluten-free is that the diets prohibit different things.
A vegan diet prohibits the eating, wearing, or general use of any animal products. This includes chicken, fish, and beef, as well as non-food items such as leather, honey and fur.
A gluten-free diet prohibits the eating of gluten. Gluten can be found in wheat, rye, barley, and triticale, and so a gluten-free person might avoid those grains where possible.
While there are some food items that would be unsuitable for both a vegan and a gluten-free person, they are not necessarily the same. For instance, a pizza with a wheat flour base and chicken as a topping would not be suitable for either vegans or gluten-free people. To adjust it, you could make the pizza base with cornflour, and replace the chicken with a meat substitute such as soy.
Another difference is that many choose to be vegan for a number of reasons whereas not all those who eat gluten-free choose it, it can often be a way of life due to medical conditions such as being allergic to gluten or gluten intolerant.
Hi all! I’m Cora Benson, and I’ve been blogging about food, recipes and things that happen in my kitchen since 2019.