what is the difference between a vegan and a vegetarian?

Question

i was just wondering, cause the only meat i eat is fish, i hate eating meat. i love animals and also hate the taste of meat. i was wondering what i would be considered. what IS a vegan? and what's the difference between a vegetarian and a vegan?

Answer 1

a vegan eats no animal products at all, including milk, cheese, eggs, etc.

a vegetarian can eat those things; just not meat. it's up to the indiviual if light meat/fish are included in that.

Answer 2

A vegan eats nothing that has anything to do with animals - a vegetarian mainly sustains from meat and fish, they still drink milk and stuff like that

Answer 3

A true vegetarian eats no meat (including fish). A vegan won't eat any animal product, including milk, cheese and eggs.

Answer 4

A Vegan eats no animal products - meat, milk, eggs, butter. Many Vegans don't even use animal products, like leather shoes or belts. Vegetarians eat eggs, milk, butter and such. Some of my friends who are vegetarians don't eat fish or any kind of seafood either.

Answer 5

As posted already, Vegans don't eat any animals or animal products (though there may be some debate about honey.) Vegetarians don't eat things made from animals, but may eat things made by animals (milk, eggs.)

You are neither if you eat fish or other seafood. You would be what's called a “pescatarian”.

Here are some other types of vegetarians: http://vegetarian.about.com/od/vegetarianvegan101/tp/TypesofVeg.htm

I don't fit into any of the categories listed there. I've just about eliminated my fellow mammals from my diet (except for the occasional slice of pepperoni pizza if there's nothing else at my in-laws,) but I still consume other creatures.

Answer 6

A Vegan is a vegetarian who chooses to follow a real vegetarian diet and eat only vegetable foods.
No honey, no dairy, no eggs and of course no flesh of any kind.
A Vegan also chooses not to use animal products in her or his cosmetics, cleansing products, etc.
As well a Vegan chooses not to purchase products made out of animals or with animals (leather, wool, silk)

A Vegetarian is a person who does not eat any meat at all.
A person who eats fish is NOT a vegetarian by any definition. Just a picky omnivore.
Some people who still eat animal products call themselves Vegetarians here are how they define themselves:

Lacto-Ovo Vegetarians eat dairy and eggs.
Lacto-Vegetarians eat dairy but no eggs.
Ovo-Vegetarians eat eggs but no dairy.

A Strict Vegetarian is someone who eats NO Animal Products at all but who does not necessarilly subscribe to the Vegan Philosophy of abstaining from using animal products or contributing to animal suffering so may still use leather, silk and wool.

Flexitarians and Pescatarians are just omnivores with restricted diets.

Vegans do not consider that animal products are food. It is not really that we can not eat animal products or that we are abstaining from them, it is rather that we would rather eat food, and in our minds animal products are not food.

Honey is not food, it is the vomit of bees
Eggs are not food, they are the unfertilized ovum of birds.
Meat is not food, it is dead flesh (fish, crabs, shrimp, oysters, clams even grasshopers are dead flesh)
Just like humans cows and goats produce milk for their babies (the baby of the cow = calf, the baby of the goat = kid, the baby of a human = child)

Plus, NO Mammal drinks milk passed the weaning stage (for humans approximately 3 years old).

And it is an abheration to drink the milk of a mother from another species ... think about it: Would you drink the milk from your friend's mom? then why drink the milk from a cow? It's gross!

Congratulations on limiting your intake of flesh foods. By not eating any flesh foods except for fish you are making a positive contribution to the environment, your health and helping the animals. YOU ARE WONDERFUL!

If you stopped eating fish that would be even better! AND if you became Vegan you would be making the ultimate positive choice for your health, your soul, the environment and for the survival of the human species.

Why not take the next logical step and go Vegan? For information on how to do it healthfully check out the Physician's Committtee for Responsible Medicine http://www.pcrm.org/ and read the book "Becoming Vegan" by Vesanto Melina and Brenda Davis.

If you love animals you should go Vegan
watch this and then decide: http://www.meat.org/

If you are an environmentalist you should go Vegan.
and you should go Vegan if you want to assure the survival of the HUMAN species.
Here is some info on the environmental reasons to go Vegan: http://www.goveg.com/environment.asp

and you can order a FREE vegetarian starter kit here: http://www.goveg.com/order.asp

I recomend that you read the following books for more information on Veganism:

"The Vegan Sourcebook" By Jo Stepaniek
"Mad Cowboy" by Howard Lyman
"Vegan: The new ethics of eating" by Eric Markus

the movie "Earthlings" is also a good movie that is definitely worth watching!

Good luck and thank you for everything that you are doing for the animals.

Answer 7

vegan is a person who won't eat anything that are or made from animals like eggs or fish a vegetarian eat some products that are made from animals and some times fish

Answer 8

By definition, you are a vegetarian. Vegan does not eat any animal products, i.e. milk, cheese, meat, eggs and the like.

Answer 9

You are a vegetarian..... a vegan eats absolutely no fish fowl or meat of any kind or anything made by animals. no milk no cheese ect.

Answer 10

a vegan eats absolutely nothing from an animal, they don;t eat white sugar as it is filtered thru charred animal bones, no dairy no meat, nothing from an animal period. Also they do not use animal products, you can get a list of products that have animal byproducts in them on peta.com i think