I had a discussion recently where someone accused me of not being a “real vegetarian” because I eat eggs. I know that’s kind of a grey area, and it differs for each person and their reason for being vegetarian (religious, texture, health, environmental, ethical, etc); but what do you personally eat?
For me, personally, I keep it simple. If it looks and tastes like meat, I don’t eat it (except special occasions like religious holidays). It makes me feel bad, and I dislike the texture anyway. Feels like an animal died specifically for me, and I didn’t even enjoy it. A waste of a perfectly good life. But I’m ok with “regenerative” animal products like eggs and cheese and honey and such, as long as the animals were treated with respect (hard to find dairy that meets this criteria).
Probably the most contentious is bones. Someone once gave me some ramen, and later told me they were surprised I ate it because the broth was made with chicken bones. I didn’t know, but also it didn’t really disturb me either. Those bones would have been thrown out if not put into soup; and the end result was soup, not a drumstick or something obviously meaty. If nobody told me, I wouldn’t even notice. For some reason, occasional bone broth is fine by my books. I’m not an extremely strict vegetarian in the first place though, and everyone I asked said that bones are not vegetarian.
It makes me think about Blood & Bone fertiliser. If you grow tomatoes with it, are those tomatoes not vegetarian…? Where is the line? Curious on others thoughts.
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Someone knew you were a vegetarian, served you chicken broth with out saying anything, and then later acted surprised you ate it anyway? Wtf?
Yeah they forgot I was vegetarian until later lol. I’m not sure why they thought I could magically detect the stock in the broth though
All these labels…
I try my best to avoid beef and pork. Simy because, asan adult, i saw videos of cows frolicing in grass and getting pets. I saw pigs with as much personality as my dog. Any animal that will roll over to get a belly rub i can no longer bring myself to eat.
Thats it…no more reason than that… empathy.
This here. Although I also save spiders and all kinds of critters. And I do occasionally eat meat, but not with a clear conscience. I avoid most milk products, but still haven’t managed to let go of cheese. :/
I’m vegetarian mostly for environmental reasons.
If the food is going in the trash if I don’t eat it, I don’t really care if it’s meat or not. I’m mostly trying to reduce eating meat, but throwing it away otherwise is dumb.
My initial and main reason foris being vegetarian the environmental impact. From that perspective beef and dairy would need to be the main things to cut. I cut all meat and most milk, I’m not a big fan of eggs. Main issue is cheese. Otherwise I’d be vegan. Even though it’s a bit a mess, but the main goal of halving my food related carbon emissions is reached.
I am not a particularly strict person when it comes to eating, but my main criteria are environmental impact and “how complex was the nervous system involved and how much did it have to suffer”. I admit I am pretty racist in that regard. No big cluster of neurons, no pity from me.
There is no vegetarian authority. If you can live up to your own standards you doing better than most of us.
Not to mention that reducing your consumption of animal products, whether or not it’s a total thing, is still a very good thing and is probably the single most impactful thing you can do as an individual to help out the planet and your health, especially when it comes to red meat.
This is the mindset most should have about it
Perfection is hard
People shouldn’t be giving others grief for making moves in the right direction just because it’s not as far as they’ve gone
The strange thing is that the person griefing me was in no ways vegetarian and eats meat twice a day 😂 I didn’t take it too personally
You’re doing great, king, far better than I am! Keep it up.
reducing your consumption of animal products … is probably the single most impactful thing you can do as an individual to help out the planet
I seriously doubt this
The single most impactful is to have one fewer child than you had ‘planned’.
this is dangerously close to malthusianism and misanthropy.
No one ever expects… THE VEGAN INQUISITION!!!
I’m also curious - where do people come down on things like oysters and clams?
Mussels especially are so extremely basic in their construction they’re almost like plants. It’s an interesting question. Personally I don’t like the texture
Mushrooms are genetically more similar to animals than to plants.
This fact will not save them from my pan of butter 🫤
For me, the border is animal parts (meat and bones). I eat fish, all seafood (squid, shrimp, …), eggs, cheese, milk, … I know that fish and squids and shrimps are animals, but yes, eat what you want, don’t let groups with their ideology impose on you what you eat.
There is no shame in what you eat. Where I live (70% are Orthodox Christians, 25% are Muslims) religious fasting is very common. In short, Christians in certain parts of the year (and every Friday) follow a vegan diet, Muslims in one part of the year follow a diet with intermittent fasting.
I always ask them “You believe in God, the Almighty, the creator of the universe, all 2 trillion galaxies, each with 100 billion stars, countless planets, and he cares what and when you put something in your stomach?”
I’m curious why you don’t eat animal parts but squid is ok? Squid and octopus are more intelligent and show more self awareness than many animals raised for food. I am no longer a vegetarian, but still won’t eat squid or octopus any more than I would a chimpanzee. I guess it depends on your reason for vegetarianism. Please do not take this as an assault on your beliefs, just curiosity.
Initially, it was a bet with my daughter that I could go a year without eating meat. After that, I got used to it and don’t feel the need to eat meat in my diet. The second factor is the quality of the meat in the stores. Everyone brags about “organic”, but it’s very different from real farm meat. When the meat is “industrial”, I won’t eat it. Third, I’m starting to get annoyed by the greed of farms to produce and sell more meat with a longer shelf life for a lower price. They don’t care about the health of the buyers (or the animals in general). So no thanks.
Why fish, squid, mussels, octopuses, crabs? They weren’t originally included in the bet, secondly, I don’t know, my decision without any particular reason. BTW, I don’t think any animal is intelligent so I don’t have a problem with that.
Thanks for the explanation. When I started being a vegetarian it was a similar situation; not a bet, more of a “let’s see if I can do this”.
Honestly, who cares. Eat what you’re comfortable with. The label thing being a real or not is do assine. People doesn’t eat certain things all the time.
Anyone gatekeeping vegetarianism can shush. Do your best, enjoy.
Once you start getting into the ovo-lacto-pecto-scattered-smothered-and-covered talk it’s already academic. It might be interesting, or it might be some jerk trying to hassle you for no good reason. And none of it’s necessary.
When people used to ask me what reason i had for being vegetarian, i said “all of them”. Because there’s a lot. Economic, environmental, health, and hell yeah animal rights. Which one did they need y’know?
I don’t mind hearing people talk about why they like being vegan - as opposed to vegetarian - heck, I like it. I’m aspirationally vegan when i can. But if they want to talk about my eating habits, that’s a red flag.
I consider myself a practicing vegetarian, as I never buy meat. I hunt though. Ecology is one thing that which we can neither own nor abstain.
We will be working to amend the sins of humanity for a long long time, one of them being the exterpations and extinctions of predators; upending trophic systems. Hunting is an ecology conservation practice, and a critical one.
These extreme line hunting is rather silly and benefits no one. Gamifying ethics is missing the entire point of ethics.
I don’t eat flesh. I do eat eggs, honey, and sometimes but rarely dairy. It is not a health condition, so if I end up accidentally eating something with meat in it I won’t get sick and if it was an accident I also won’t get upset with myself or anyone who gave the food to me.
Do not let people gate keep who you are. Their opinions are their and sometimes an opinion sucks. You are your own person and are allowed to define and identify as you like. Are they then going to tell you that you’re not a real straight/gay/trans person because you do or do not do something?
I am a strict vegetarian that trends towards vegan. Cheese and yogurt are really the only things that keep me from being strictly vegan.
I do not cook with eggs and generally avoid using cheese at home. I will have egg incidentally (i.e. bread, etc.) but will occasionally have eggs in a diner or such when traveling. Cheese I will have fairly commonly.
I avoid anything with gelatin–that’s a hard line for me. I will, however, have honey.
I can only speak for myself.
For me, it’s about harm reduction so not being perfect is OK with me as long as I’m trying. Now personally, that means if my cousin gives me eggs from her spoiled hens, that’s probably OK, but I don’t eat egg dishes when i go out (but paradoxically, I will eat a bun that has egg in it if there is not an alternative).
I eat cheese occasionally, but not if it has animal rennet in it. I rarely drink, but avoid clarified wines since they use isenglass in the processing.
I don’t eat gelatin or meat stocks or bullion. I also avoid leather in my clothing and prefer plant-based clothes over wools.I limit my dairy, not just for moral and environmental reasons but also since my tolerance for it has diminished with age. Before I went veggie I would drink a gallon of whole milk every week. When I stopped I felt so much better, my acne cleared up, my hair got less oily and my intestines were way happier with me.
I also take B12 supplements because I will often go long periods without having any animal products in my food.
TIL swim bladders from fish are used in the production of some alcoholic beverages. Thanks!
Puritanism rarely helps movements.
Sounds like the person speaking to you was trying on the ‘no true Scotsman’ logical fallacy, as definition of ‘vegetarian’ clearly allows eggs.
If someone is trying to reduce their animal intake I applaud them regardless of occasional relapses or exclusions… Life is too demanding already to not be able to give yourself some leeway in circumstances when you need it or that are largely out of your control.
