My understanding of vegan is "nothing with a face". what about mollusks like clams, mussels and oysters?

Question

I have gone to a mostly raw vegan diet, but I do miss my shellfish. Since mollusks dont have faces, would they be considered vegan?

Answer 1

If you truly want to live on a vegan diet then I'm sorry to report that does not include mollusks. Remember to get plenty of supplements and soy protein to avoid anemia. And listen to your body. When you have a craving for foods usually that's your bodies way of telling you that you need whatever nutrient that food posses. There are also people who call themselves pescatarians who don't eat any meat but what comes out of the ocean and veggies of course.

Answer 2

My understanding of a vegan diet is that vegans consume nothing that is an animal byproduct. So a mollusk, being an "animal" as in "animal vs. plant" classification, technically, you wouldn't be vegan while eating them.

I do not know why you are vegan, but if you miss eating shellfish, why not just add them too your diet. The label of vegan shouldn't be as important as the reasons (health, animal rights, etc) that you adopted the diet.

Answer 3

The "nothing with a face" thing isn't from vegans... it's from vegetarians... and even then it's not totally accurate. Vegans don't eat ANY animal product, whether the animal died to make it or not (meat, eggs, milk, honey). Vegetarians generally just don't eat anything that directly caused the animal to die (meat, fat, etc.).

Even most vegetarians don't eat shellfish (and no vegan would) - those who do, according to most on this board are not "true vegetarians". I don't know... seems like more of a bug or something to me (we still swat flies in the house don't we?)... not really an "animal" per se... but it IS alive, so??

Answer 4

VEGAN is no animal products
vegetarian is often "nothing with a face"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vegan Veganism (also known as strict vegetarianism or pure vegetarianism) is a philosophy and lifestyle that avoids using animals and animal products for food, clothing and other purposes. In practice, a vegan (an adherent of veganism) commits to the abstention from consumption or use of animal products, including meat, fish, and poultry, animal gelatin, honey, eggs and dairy products, as well as articles made of silk, fur, wool, bone, leather, feathers, pearls, nacre, coral, sponges and other materials of animal origin. Vegans also avoid products that have been tested on animals. People become vegans for a variety of reasons, including ethical concerns for animal rights or the environment, as well as more personal reasons such as perceived health benefits and spiritual or religious concerns.


OK
why did this get a thumbs down?
Craziness

Answer 5

Where did you get "nothing with a face?"
Milk and eggs don't have faces, yet are not vegan, at all.
Seafood, with a face or not, is not only not vegan, it's not even vegetarian.
Vegan's don't eat living things or anything that came from living things, like dairy, honey, etc.
Mollusks= living things.

Answer 6

While that's a saying, "No food with a face" isn't really a mantra, definition, or rule.

The definition of Vegan is consumption and use of no animal products. This includes all animals (mollusks are animals) and their by-products (like stocks, gelatin, rennet, carmine, honey, silk, wool, fur, leather, animal hair make-up brushes, boar hair brushes, bone products, collagen, elastin, glucosamine, etc).

Answer 7

Vegetarian is "nothing with a face." Vegan is no animal products period. No milk, no eggs, no honey, no leather shoes, no down comforters. Nothing an animal was tortured or exploited for.

Answer 8

any kind of food a carnivore would eat for a source of meat is considered off limits to a vegan. eat peanut butter, beans, vegetable casseroles, lots of beans and nuts, tofu, and mushrooms and other foods like listed above. they keep you from being anemic. seafood counts though, because i would consider shellfish an animal, since it is a crustacean.

Answer 9

My understanding of vegan is nothing with any type of nervous system. Does that help?

Seafood IS an animal product, and cannot never, in any wahy, shapre or form, be considered vegan.

Answer 10

what about jonah crab claws? they don't die when you take the claw off, it just grows right back.
i heard vegans don't eat anything that dies/suffers, a jonah crab doesn't die when the claw comes off. you can eat lizard tails too by that logic- i'll have a steak.
mainly, it sounds like these "vegans" are having second thoughts about their lame choice and are looking for an "out"!