It takes the top spot for most eaten whipped cream product in the United States, and it is so well sought after and bought that we would wager that every person in America has eaten cool whip at least once.
It goes on pies, it goes on chocolate, and sometimes it is just eaten on its own. People love cool whip. However, that doesn’t mean that cool whip is appropriate for everyone, though.
For starters, cool whip is not vegan. Yep, you heard that correctly, cool whip is not vegan in the slightest.
So, why is cool whip not vegan when people previously thought it was? What are some alternatives to cool whip? In this article, we are going to find this out, so you don’t have to.
However, this proved to be completely false, though probably through ignorance rather than malicious malpractice on the part of the creators.
See, cool whip used to contain sodium caseinate, which is a type of food addictive that is derived from milk proteins, thus making this dairy.
Jewish dietary traditions have always placed cool whip as a dairy product, and without the knowledge of this community, many vegetarians would never have known that they were eating a dairy product.
Since it was derived from dairy rather than actually being dairy and because of the views at the time, it was probably thought of as being as good as vegetarian, rather than fully vegetarian – hence the ignorance, not maliciousness.
In 2018, the recipe did change, but not to help the vegan community.
Instead, cool whip openly added skimmed milk to their product making it a definite dairy product now, instead of being unsure whether it was a dairy product.
Unfortunately, unlike what some people think, there are no actual ways to make cool whip vegan.
The product comes already made in its full form and unless you are planning to making cool whip from scratch, there isn’t a whole lot you can do to make your cool whip completely vegan.
Problems With Other Whipped Cream Products
There are plenty of other whipped cream products that do not use dairy in them and could for all intents and purposes be considered to be a good vegan replacement for cool whip.
However, they do use other products which you may not be comfortable with.
The first is palm oil. While it is technically a plant product and as such vegan, its production and harvest is done in such an unsustainable way that it might as well be an animal product for the harm it causes.
Vast tracts of rainforest are cleared for palm oil, and many animals are killed in its production each year.
This isn’t conjecture, either. Between 1999 and 2015, 100,000 Bornean Orangutans were reported as dying as a direct result of palm oil production, and that doesn’t include all the other animals that lived alongside them.
The other product that some of these vegan cool whips have is high fructose corn syrup. While this one isn’t exploiting animals, it could really damage you as a person.
This particular kind of corn syrup is one of the leading causes of obesity and diabetes in the country today, as we put it in everything with little regard for the consequences.
While this may not be bad for the environment, it may be bad for you, so if you are looking for a whipped cream to eat every day, avoid HFCS.
Vegan Alternative
With our piece stated about the problematic ingredients that you find in cool whip or other products, we will provide you with an alternative.
We say alternative, because getting rid of the dairy, palm oil, and high fructose corn syrup means that there are few products left that you can eat.
It is a delightful vegan cream that has no additives, while still being able to provide a fluffy, sweet tasting and shape holding cool whip alternative.
Its ingredients include:
– Soya drink (which is just soybeans and water).
– Palm Butter.
– Coconut fat.
– Sugar beet Syrup.
– Tartaric Acid.
– Corn Maltodextrin.
– Thickener (Seaweed Extract).
– Natural Vanilla Extract.
– Sea Salt.
As you can see, none of the ingredients have any red flags attached to them, so it is perfectly viable for a vegan person to eat this cream.
It will work in the exact same manner as cool whip and although the taste is slightly different, it is still just as delicious as the real thing.
Making Cool Whip At Home
Luckily for the vegan who is desperate for some cool whip but doesn’t like our alternative, there have been many vegans before you who thought the same thing.
As such, there have been a couple of home recipes created around making an ideal cool whip.
This recipe makes a completely dairy free alternative that uses a very high quality coconut milk (or coconut cream), icing sugar, and vanilla extract to create the delightful mixture.
If you want whipped cream as a topping for sweet products like pies or mousses, then this is the vegan whipped cream that you should use.
Conclusion
Cool whip is not vegan and, for all that its marketing has said it has been in the past, it has never been vegan.
Unfortunately, there aren’t too many ethical vegan alternatives that you can turn to.
However, there is at least one and if you really crave it, there are a few recipes online that you can use to create your own version of cool whip in your kitchen.
Hi, I’m Eve Mason and I’ve been a vegan since almost five years now.I can honestly say that veganism has changed my life for the better.The past few years I’ve been on a quest to find affordable vegan friendly food.Fortunately, meat-free alternatives have now become available in most supermarkets, which has made my life a lot easier.
I love cooking at home, but for those who don’t like cooking at all, there are more and more restaurants that offer vegan options as well nowadays.
I hope you enjoy my website and have fun preparing your own homemade vegan meals.
