'sNice owner Mike Walter has been scrambling to get rid of all hydrogenated oils on his menu since New York City passed a ban on trans-fats last year. First it was the cream cheese (Tofutti); then the more insidious margarine (Willow Run soy-based - three grams each serving, and three boxes in my freezer right now). Mike Walter thought his Tofutti American cheese was okay. Mike Walter was wrong.

"You can go to McDonalds," Walter said when I broke the bad news. "You can sit on the couch all day smoking Marlboros. But you can't have Tofutti."

So why didn't Walter know that? Because Tofutti flouts the law. Food manufacturers are required to include a "trans fat" count on the Nutritional Information of all products. Tofutti cheese lacks this basic info, and so, in turn, do restaurants such as s'Nice and Foodswings. It's great to see Walter and 'sNice making an effort to change. But perhaps a mystery has been solved: is this where that awful plastic cheese smell comes from..?

This is part three of SuperVegan's "No more trans-fats? But how will I go on?" series on the ban as it affects vegans in New York City (unlike those in LA - see, I don't hate everything about LA!). Read part one and part two, and eat Tofutti cheese on your sandwiches here and here - if you're into that sort of thing.

Kudos to Do It Yourself Activists (DIYA) in Bangalore, India. The animal advocacy group got select McDonald's outlets throughout Bangalore and Thane to celebrate Meatout 2006 by offering a vegan meal for two days. The Mcdonald's Vegan Meal promotion consisted of a regular iced tea and medium fries which could be used to complete a meal of one of the many McDonald's India vegan dishes including "McVeggie McAloo Tikki" and "Cripsy Chinese."

Yes, it's true: McDonald's serves products that contain dairy and wheat, although you might not think that either are in their French fries. Well, such knowledge has so upset a vegan in Los Angeles that she's brought a lawsuit against McDonald's that claims that she "would never have purchased or consumed the French fries if she had known they contain dairy and were not vegan."

I'm sure this person was truly shocked, but is anyone under any illusions about McDonald's by now? After all, McDonald's paid $10 million in 2002 to various aggrieved veggies when it was discovered that its fries were cooked in beef-flavored oil, and then in 2005, settled a lawsuit regarding its cooking oil.