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.
I’m not trying to be perfect, I’m just trying to make a difference. Purity ideals are for 13 year olds.
These extreme line hunting is rather silly and benefits no one. Gamifying ethics is missing the entire point of ethics.
I eat eggs and cheese. I’m not vegan. But if it walked, flew or swam, I don’t eat it.
I’m not vegetarian or vegan but in my mind eggs have always been fair game for vegetarians. It’s just vegans who skip animal by-products as well as meat.
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.
Lacto-ovo veg for some 30+ years. I don’t do gelatin, animal based broths, leather, etc.
In my experience the loudest preachiest vegs that gatekeep are also the ones that’ll talk a big game for a year or two, then completely flip.
im not a vegetarian but I would like to be a lacto/ovo one. Thats basically as far as I can see going.
My three rules:
- I make exceptions for holidays and special occasions.
- If the meat is going to get wasted, I try to eat it. Example: my friend ordered a meat dish, didn’t finish and doesn’t want to take it home. I’ll eat the meat out of their plate before it hits the trash.
- if I kill the animal, I’ll eat it. I’m not a hunter so haven’t had to use this one before. Roadkill counts but again, I’m not a butcher and I don’t own a car.
In summary, make your own rules aligned with your own values. If a conversation with a friend makes you change your values then maybe it’s time to reassess your rules. If not then stay true to yourself.
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.
Same here. I do eat eggs, honey and cheese.
If it tries to run away, I don’t eat it.
Mrs Lovett agrees. Them pussy cats is quick.
Take it by surprise, got it.
quickly shoos the family dog into the other room
You’re eating cats, dogs, pigeons and doves?
With the letter two I’m not seeing any downside I have to admit
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.
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
It’s basically true. Animal agriculture (land use, resource use, and pollution to create animal products) is a major source of pollution which competes with transportation for the biggest source of global warming.
Unfortunately the more nuanced take is that it’s not a single thing; it’s a series of choices that eventually become habit. But so is not owning a car.
I think technically the single most impactful thing you can do is to remove major polluters from the planet (though in many cases that is illegal so, in case cops are watching, I’m certainly not recommending that).
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.
No one ever expects… THE VEGAN INQUISITION!!!
Incorrect. I am the vegetarian authority.
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 think it doesn’t have to be a gatekept cult. And fk the people who are trying to make it one. Don’t listen to them. Reducing meat is a purported way to fight climate change, anything you’re doing in meat reduction is good. If you don’t eat meat but do eat eggs, absolutely no problem. If you eat meat once in a while, whatever. Perfect should never be the enemy of good. And trying to tick every box exactly right could become so large a focus it takes up so much space and time in your life that could be spent enjoying the brief existence we get. Every time you feel like people are policing what you’re eating, remind you’re they’re probably super no fun at parties.
I think it doesn’t have to be a gatekept cult.
Yeah, remember the “vegan + bacon” principle. Choosing to reduce how much meat and animal products you eat is good. Don’t let perfect be the enemy of good.
I feel like a meat eater choosing to eat less meat makes more of an impact tham a vegetarian choosing to move closer to vegan, regardless of the specifics.
Personally, though? I’m a vegetarian who eats eggs and dairy, and occasionally whem dining out I’ll go for seafood. And I had chicken once last year in a super specific and special case (revisiting an Indian restaurant in Dublin that I had visited years before when I was only avoiding “red meat”, the chicken 65 was so incredibly good that I gave in). And I tried one small bite of blood sausage in Finland while visiting a good friend in Tampere who ordered it.
Basically, at home, ovo-lacto. Dining out, occasional allowance for pescatarian. Maybe once-every-few-years I might consider trying some meat thing if it’s super, super compelling for whatever reasons.
And I hate leather, I go out of my way to avoid it when buying a car.
I would feel better about myself if I went full vegan though.
It doesn’t make you sick when you eat meat after not eating it for a few years?
I don’t think that happened to me, no
I did a few years as a lacto-ovo vegetarian, but I also had a carve-out for eating anything I was served as a guest. I would tell people ahead of time, but if they added bacon to the potato salad, I’d just eat it anyway because being a good guest seemed more important than strict adherence.
That’s a good motto; I try to do the same thing, to an extent. If I’m at a family Christmas party or wedding, I’ll eat some roast chicken. To refuse would be rude.
But also, I tend to find that if you acquiesce once, it’s too easy to become a habit. People will assume you’ve given up vegetarianism and serve you meat every time forever (in my experience, anyway). So I usually offend people on the first meal post-Christmas.
I read this interesting article that is somewhat related.
I was more on the “if they’re serving me roast chicken after I told them I’m vegetarian, I’m not going to be their guest anymore” side of things, but everyone in my life was very accommodating, so that’s easy for me to say.
