If you're a vegan or a vegetarian, why don't you eat eggs?

Question

First, I'm not trying to upset anyone - I'm just curious. My family used to have a single chicken in a pen (large) with plenty of area to roam and we used to gather her eggs every day. She produced one unfertilized egg a day and was never fed anything other than regular chicken feed. The eggs would never have developed into chicks because there was no rooster to fertilize the eggs so they woud have gone to waste if we hadn't gathered them. I know some people become vegans for health reasons and others become vegans because of the treatment of animals for food and their effect on the environment. I have the utmost respect for those who have decided to become vegans. Thanks for your input.

Answer 1

Because the majority of eggs we consume come from chickens that were unfortunately not given the same treatment as your family chicken was.
My family gets its eggs from its own chicken coop but I still refuse to eat those eggs... my opinion is that the eggs belong to the chickens.
Hens that have been rescued from factory farms are often fed the eggs they produced back to them, because giving an egg a day is simply exhausting to the chicken. The original chickens did not lay eggs as often as they now do and the loss of nutrients eventually catches up with a hen.

Answer 2

Eggs have cholesterol, which is found almost exclusively in Animal products (meat/dairy).

Protein can be found in beans, and some other vegetables.

Think of it this way, it's not that the egg will die due to lack of a rooster, it's that the egg will die because they chose to not have a rooster at all. Basically the farmer decided that those eggs will be layed for food, and not for reproduciton. This is what many vegetarians have a beef with (no pun intended).

Some vegetarians may choose to have some dairy, just no meat.

Vegans, are not just anti meat/dairy, but they actually go so far as to avoid animal products altogether...this means no leather and other products made from animals or through testing on animals.

Vegetarian is primarily dietary in nature, Vegan is a lifestyle.

Myself...I'm a carnivore...I just can't go a week withough my red meat. Those that can get my respect though.

Answer 3

Unfortunately most hens aren't treated the same was your one is and the laws surrounding the labeling of products allow for a lot off lee way on the use of the term free range.
I'm vegan more for health reasons than anything as I believe that things that have to be heavily processed before you eat them generally aren't going to be good for you.

Answer 4

Vegans dont believe in using animals for food..this includes "food" that animals make like eggs, honey, milk etc. For many it's an animal rights issue, most eggs and dairy are taken from animals that live their lives in small spaces and are not treated well. As far as health issues, neither eggs nor dairy is good for us.

I do eat eggs..and they come from a local farm that truely love the chickens.

Answer 5

A lot of people come up with different types of "vegetarians", but the reality is that a vegetarian does not eat any animal, fowl, or fish products. Therefore if you eat eggs you are not a vegetarian. The term vegan came about because people were calling themselves vegetarian but not following a vegetarian diet.

I eat eggs but I don't consider myself a vegetarian even though my diet is almost vegetarian.

Hope no one takes this as critical, I just don't understand the why someone who isn't commited to a vegetarian diet wants to have the label.

Answer 6

Vegetarians and vegans don't eat eggs because they are an animal product. Some people become vegetarians from watching slaughterhouse videos and their reasons are because battery eggs come from battery hens and are kept in poor conditions.

For others, it's because they are animal products.

Answer 7

If vegetarians don't eat eggs it's because an egg is actually a baby chick that just got turned into an egg. Vegan's dont eat them because vegans don't eat anything that comes from an animal which includes milk and cheeses and yogurts and stuff like that.

Answer 8

I beleive it's because most vegans cannot be sure eggs are unfertile so choice is not to eat embreotic proteins.

Answer 9

An egg is a chicken embryo.

Answer 10

eggs are non vegetarian with proof ?
Are eggs vegetarian?


There seems to be a lot of confusion as to whether eggs are or are not vegetarian. In Sikhi our rehit says we should not eat egg, be it processed, i.e. in cakes etc, or whole, as in an omelette, this is enough for us but for those that want a few more scientific facts, read on. This is a section taken from a Jainism article on meat and eggs. It has some interesting points and describes why eggs are not vegetarian.





Facts about Eggs

Do you remember as a child your mother telling you not to eat cakes or pastries that had eggs because you are a vegetarian? Many times I have heard people saying, eggs are vegetarian food and are good for health so we eat it. The myth about vegetarian eggs and its health-promoting qualities are misleading. Its consumption by so many vegetarians is really shocking. The ignorance of such matter has spread so far that people resist believing that an egg has potential life and that an egg has an unborn chick within its shell. Man's desires for food has made him go to extremes and leading him to eat those foods that are coloured with violence and pain. Nature has its reason for eggs, not by way of food for man but as an important link in the reproductive system of hens. It is the craving for violent food that actually numbs the feeling and thinking capacity of the human being. He ignores going deep into the subject and shuns the truth of the matter. But how long will he remain in darkness? For facts are facts and they will never change whether he accepts it or not. Let us look at some facts about eggs and remove the ignorance that prevails in our mind. The facts you are about to read are taken from the book Hundred Facts about Eggs by Dr. Nemi Chand.

Eggs of all birds are structurally alike (See the McDonald Encyclopaedia of Birds of the World, Page 30-31). Their internal structure is meant for reproduction of progeny and not for human consumption. By eating eggs, man has reverted to the hunting stage of his civilisation. He is meddling both with nature and with the reproductive system. The egg is totally forbidden for those who believe in non-violence. Right from the rearing of hens to the hatching of their eggs, there is violence all over. A visit to any poultry farm will support this fact. In poultry farms, hens are considered no better than egg-producing machines. They are confined to a narrow space of 15" x 19" in the midst of several hardships and tensions that are naturally passed on to the blood and system of those who eat their eggs and turn them into imbalance personalities. Chickens are housed in small-congested cages known as chickenhavens. Due to shortage of space, they naturally become violent, offensive, obsessed and quarrelsome. They attack one another in a barbarous manner. So they are de-beaked. Due to de-beaking, they are unable even to drink water. Do we not realise the cause of our present widespread complexes, aggressiveness and suffering in the chicken-havens? As mentioned earlier, hens are de-beaked to prevent them from fighting and wounding one another.
The de-beaking is done in brown light, especially during the night when hens become almost blind. The lower beak is cut. If any mistake is made, the hen is deprived of food for the rest of her life. The hen has to starve at least for three days due to the wounded beak. Wouldn't this act of cruelty affect the egg-eater?

Hens are given five kinds of violent-generating foods: bone meal, blood-meal, excreta-food, meat-meal and fish-meal. Can we dare to call eggs vegetarian food even after learning this? The term vegetarian egg is a first-rate misnomer. The purpose of a fertile egg is to animate life, but an infertile egg has no such purpose and as such should be considered totally inedible.

Battery and factory eggs are harmful to health. It is better that we abstain ourselves from eating them. The egg produced without any contact with the male bird (and thus producing an infertile egg) is also animate because it is born out of the hen's body with its blood and cells. Therefore, its consumption is 100% non-vegetarian. According to the famous American scientist Mr. Philip J. Scamble, no egg is without life in it. The scientists at Michigan University in America have proven it beyond doubt that no egg - fertile or infertile - is without life (inanimate). The hen gives infertile eggs during the absence of the male bird. But it has been observed that she gives an infertile egg before the day of contact with the male bird - and also the next day. In other words, she can give a fertile egg even without contact with a male bird. On the fifth day, again she gives a fertile egg. This means that the semen of the male bird remains lying in her body for a considerable duration. In some cases, this duration has been observed to be as long as even six months. A fertilised egg is a pre-birth stage of a chicken; unfertilised eggs are the result of the sexual cycle of a hen and very unnatural. Both are non-vegetarian food. Victoria Moran, the author of the book Compassion:
The Ultimate Ethics says, to eat fertilised egg is in fact to consume a chicken before its birth (The Ethic on borderline). I was told that an unfertilised egg is the product of a bird's sexual cycle and can hardly be regarded as natural food for Man. Whether the egg is fertile or infertile, life is essentially there; and it has all the symptoms of life, such as respiration, brain, feeding ability, etc. There are 15,000 porous-breathing holes on the shell, the cover of the egg. The egg begins to rot at a temperature of less than 8^ Celsius, 00^ Fahrenheit. When it begins this process, its rotting manifests itself through evaporation of the water content. The egg becomes infected by germs and thus becomes diseased. The progress of the rotting soon reaches the shell of the egg.

Eggs contain cholesterol in large quantities. The yellow bulk of the egg is the major source of cholesterol. Cholesterol narrows down the arteries and may eventually lead to a heart attack or to paralysis. Eating eggs may also lead to rheumatism and gout that can cause serious and painful joints in old age.






All the above facts lead to prove that eggs are not vegetarian and so let us re-think about the issue of eggs and realise that a balanced vegetarian diet contains an abundance of health protecting nutrients and fibres without eggs.