What's the difference between a vegan and a vegetarian?

Question

Are there like, different levels of not eating meat?

(This is a serious question, I'm just a bit daft on the subject, I'm not being rude.)

Answer 1

VEGETARIANS:
*Eat NO dead animals, whether they walk, swim or fly
*There is no such thing as a vegetarian who eats fish or birds
*Vegetarians do not eat foods that are *code words* for dead animal, such as "geletin"
*they can eat dairy and eggs but some choose not to
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VEGANS
*Same as vegetarians
*They also do not eat products that come from animals, including eggs, dairy or honey
*They do not eat code words for products that come from animals such as casien (and many others)
*Vegans do not wear products from animals either. This includes: leather, wool, suade, down, silk etc.
*They (whenever possible) purchase products that were not tested on animals or contain animal parts (soaps, health&beauty, toiletries etc.)
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Now for some similarities:

BOTH are lifestyles and not just diets (except for the small group of vegetarians who only stop eating meat because they are on a *diet*

BOTH lifestyles are different levels of the same cause. BOTH contain people who are trying to wrap their minds around a new concept (of what the meat-industry actually is) and figuring out what they can do to not be a part of it.

Yes, the very base level of vegetarianism is simply the absensce of animal flesh. That is a wonderful step. If that person does not ever go further, then kudos to them. But they often stay at this point for a couple of years
A.) Because the evils of eating dead animals is all they are aware of, and
B.) Because giving up eating meat is hard, and a person has to work on that for quite some time.

If everyone who learned about animal cruelty learned about every aspect at one time, it would seem too big and too unstopable.

If every person who went veg, went straight to vegan, he would go back to eating animals because he wouldn't be able to cope with all the missing food, and wouldn't have the knowledge or experience to fill the gaps to make it a comfortable transition.

There are many layers of vegetarianism because as people feel comfortable, confident and knowledgable, they drop something else from their lifestyle. If a vegetarian does not want to be a part of animal cruelty, then veganism would be an ultimate goal, but it takes many people well over a decade to get there.

Answer 2

Actually, there are several levels of meat eating. You have vegan which doesn't have any meat. The really strict ones won't eat honey (the bees working) or gelatin (because bones are used in the processing most of the time.)

There are ovo-vegetarians which eat eggs.
Lacto-vegetarians which eat dairy.
Lacto-ovo-vegetarians which eat dairy and eggs.
There may even be more.
Vegetarian is a very broad term. Some people even claim to be vegetarian because they don't eat beef. Like chicken and fish aren't meat. Meat is the muscle of an animal. But what ever blows your hair back is good. I had more energy while vegetarian (vegan) than ever in my life.

Answer 3

Vegans eat no meat or any product that comes from an animal. Vegetarians just don't eat the meat.

Answer 4

There are many different types of vegetarians and vegans the initial difference is that vegetarians eat dairy products e.g. eggs, milk, cheese or fish and vegans don't.However you can get demi-vegetarians that eat only white meat like chicken and fish and lactose vegetarians that won't eat any animal product so they have variations like tofu which is a fungus that they eat or soya milk or rice milk.
Hope this helps your understanding but it is such a vast subject though! :)

Answer 5

There are levels- vegan is the highest and most extreme level.
My step father is a vegetarian. He'll eat fish and some times chicken. But he refuses to eat shell fish, mushrooms, pork, lamb, beef or turkey. Vegans, wont eat any of the above. And except in some cities, very few resturants are vegetarian or vegan.

Answer 6

Im sure a lot of other people have already answerd this question, so im going to add this. I dated a vegan once and I must say they smell so much better than someone who eats meat ( and they taste better too if you know what I mean). I have also been with vegitarians and its just not the same as a vegan. Meat makes you stink!!!!

Answer 7

To add on to what the above answerers have said about a vegan excluding animal and animal-derived products in their diet, a Vegan avoid using any animal products or animal-derived products in his/her lifestyle.

A vegetarian may eat eggs or dairy depending what type of vegetarian they are.

Answer 8

A vegetarian does not eat meat, but will eat dairy products. A vegan does not eat meat, nor will he or she eat dairy products. You are not being rude, you're being smart to ask!

Answer 9

I believe that a vegetarian can get things that are made from animals such as milk or cheese. I believe they are mainly against the killing of animals for food. Vegans on the other hand will not eat anything that is associated with animals.

Answer 10

Vegetarians do not eat meat.

Vegans avoid eating or using all animal products; meat, dairy, eggs, leather products, lotions including animal products, etc. While it's not possible to be 100 percent vegan, we try our best to avoid what we can.