Am I consider a vegetarian if I still eat cheese?

Question

I eat vegan foods as much as I can, but every once in a while I do eat cheese (specially when eating italian or mexican food). Am I still consider a vegetarian? I just feel a bit confused. Thanks all!

Answer 1

Vegetarians eat cheese but vegan people do not.=)


If you want to become a lacto-ovo vegetarian, the transition should be quite simple. Almost all meats have widely available commercial replacements. All that you have to do is replace any flesh in your diet (beef, pork, poultry, seafood) with meat analogs or just leave it out altogether.

You should keep in mind that a journey such as this can be quite short but should just be the beginning of a longer one to a plant-based diet with no animal products. This is because of the reality of factory farming in which animals that are kept alive to produce milk, eggs, etc suffer much more and longer than animals that are raised to a certain weight and then slaughtered.http://www.veganoutreach.org/whyvegan/
http://meat.org
Some people use the word "vegan" in reference to this idea, but be aware that applying that label to yourself should always come with the inclusion of wise activism and advocacy.http://www.veganoutreach.org/advocacy/index.html
Two extremely important examples of this are that you should never speak to someone about vegetarianism/veganism without their consent and genuine interest or as a comment on what they are eating AND your dietary beliefs should never be used as an introduction or explanation of who you are as a person. Veg*ism should be something that comes up AFTER people get to know you and they offer you a situation that makes it confusing to withhold the information/discussion. Also, if you are presented something that you choose not to eat or you are
ordering food/eating together somewhere/picking the best place to eat.

A responsible vegan ALWAYS studies the subject of their own health and how to keep their body completely provided for in every sense. http://www.veganhealth.org/sh
To neglect their body is to define a plant-based diet as unhealthy and is the opposite of helping the animals.

When you you hold off on the subject until it's necessary and then act like it isn't a big deal at all, people are usually surprised and WAY more interested and curious than if you were to bring it up when someone's eating or just using it as a conversation starter.

Just to clear things up, the vegetarian/vegan diet is not composed of salads, vegetables, fruit and fake meat. Fruits and vegetables are always important but they DO NOT make up the largest portion of any healthy diet.
A balanced plant-based diet includes grains(breads, pasta, rice,cereal), legumes(soy, beans, peas, lentils), fruit and vegetables.
http://www.pcrm.org/health/veginfo/vsk/food_groups.html
http://www.peta.org/accidentallyVegan/
http://www.veganoutreach.org/whyvegan/eating.html
Being vegan can be an art, one whose challenge is to take things that involve the suffering of the innocent and change them into something free of cruelty.

A vegan woman can create an ENTIRELY NEW,HEALTHY HUMAN BEING INSIDE OF HER. Many of these children stay vegan and grow up to be perfectly healthy adults. So just keep yourself educated about what you eat and don't let anyone tell you that a veg diet is lacking anything essential.

Technically the term "vegetarian" does imply that you don't consume anything that comes from the body of an animal that requires killing it. Many ingredients such as gelatin and glycerin are found in many candies, Fig-Newtons, and many of other foods as well as rennet found in many cheeses.
http://www.happycow.net/health-animal-ingredients.html
The best thing to remember is to take your time so that for example: when you are comfortable not eating beef and pork you can then give up chicken when you are sure you can make the commitment permanently.
Depending on your age or reliance on parents or regional options, it may not be best to give yourself a label. The important thing is to do your best to make progress and be committed to your compassion towards animals. Never put your focus onto what you or other people use to describe yourself.

If you meet someone that talks down to people for eating meat, dairy, etc or to you because they think they are "more veg" than you, laugh in their face and tell them they are a disgrace to the entire philosophy. People like this only hurt the idea of veg*ism AND the animals. The point of all of this is to live compassionately and and as free from cruelty as you can, all the while maintaining your health and a positive attitude. People who don't maintain either, need not open their mouths and represent our beliefs.

If you actually choose to read all of this, I hope it helps. If not, feel free to e-mail me if you have questions.

There have been vegan Olympic gold medalists and vegan mothers that grow healthy human beings inside their bodies that stay vegan their entire life and stay healthy.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Lewis
http://www.eatright.org/cps/rde/xchg/ada/hs.xsl/advocacy_933_ENU_HTML_(Draft).htm

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

I'm vegan and these are some of my favorite things to eat:

Breakfast: bananas, cream of wheat with brown sugar and soy butter, cereal, pancakes or french toast with real maple syrup, vegan "sausage" patties, smoothies.

Lunch: VEGAN "SAUSAGE" SANDWICHES, sandwiches with vegan deli slices(Tofurkey is the only one that's kinda funky), fruit, dinner leftovers, couscous salad, vegan sushi, potato or pasta salad.

Dinner: sloppy joes, "sausage" and gravy with homemade biscuits, Spaghetti and Trader Joe's "meatballs" or TVP, lasagna, Thai pad see ew, pad khi mao(drunkard's noodles), pad prig king, tofu+eggplant with basil sauce, yellow thai curry with tofu or vegan chikn and veggies and jasmine rice, Indian dal with homemade roti or dosai, channa masala, aloo gobi, vegetable or minestrone soup, pizza, STEAMED "PORK" BUNS with potstickers or spring rolls, sweet&sour/orange/lemon chikn, vegan pho or wonton soup

I use these sites to find recipes:
http://www.foodnetwork.com
http://vegweb.com
http://www.recipezaar.com

Answer 2

You're still a vegetarian. But you should try Soymage Parmesan if you want a dairy-free alternative for Italian food. You can't tell the difference (which is more than I can say for other vegan cheeses).

Answer 3

Cheese is not veggie if it contains animal rennet... The rennet is the ingredient that reacts with the Casein to harden the milk into cheese.. There are three kinds of rennet (Vegetable, Microbial, and Calf rennet). The calf rennet is from slaughtered baby calves and is not vegetarian.

If you are eating a lot of mexican food you need to be careful about lard too. It's hard to find a mexican restaurant that doesn't use lard (unless it is a vegetarian mexican restaurant). Lard is animal fat and is not veggie either.

Answer 4

You are still considered a vegetarian but not a vegan.

If you're a vegetarian for the ethical easons though, I would urge you to spare a thought for the suffering cows go through to give us cheese.

Dairy cows suffer tremendously... they don't produce milk for us naturally... they produce it for their calfs and so every year they are impregnated and then a day after the calf is born, it's torn away from it's mother so it won't drink 'our' preciouse milk. Male calves are then sold to the veal industry where they're pumped with drugs to make their meat white and after a few months of a miserable confined life, are slaughtered for their meat. This happens every year which traumatises the mother cows who can usually live for 20 years but are slaughtered after 4 or 5 when their milk production dwindles. These cows are also pumped with drugs to produce the most amount of milk possible. Many become lame because their bodies are used as machines and cannot handle the unnatural way we pump milk out of them.

I'm sorry but by supporting the dairy industry you're supporting the suffering and deaths of the cows involved.

I loved cheese but I can't think of one good reason why a cow should have to suffer and die just for my tastebuds.

Answer 5

Not if the cheese contains rennet, like many cheeses do. Rennet is an enzyme from calves' stomachs that aids in the aging process of cheese. You can buy vegetarian cheese, and it tastes pretty good, but it contains casein, a milk derivative, so its not vegan. Veggie cheese is pretty good, its the vegan cheese that not too many people are crazy about.

Answer 6

In India ,Nepal by Vegetarian we consider who do not take food from Animal source-by killing the animal.Even as a Religious practice (Hindu,Buddhist and Jain Religions) out of four nipples in the udder of a cow two or three must be left for the calf and the milk from the remaining nipples only can be drunk-Another group is first allow the calf as much as it wants to drink and then the left over milk ,one can drink.Even considering that as an obligation by the Cow ---Cow is considered as a sacred animal. Human at birth drinks Mother's milk only -in a sense "Animal Kindom's source only.Cow is called "Foster Mother"

Answer 7

Depends on how well you check the source of the animal rennet (cultures and enzymes used to curdle the milk and convert it to cheese). Most american cheeses are ok, and some cheeses are conveniently labeled with the source of the rennet, but avoid french cheese. Many times you can't tell from the package, and have to call the company (not convenient to do on the weekend, when you're grocery shopping). Best thing to do is to know your store, and memorize the brands and be willing to pay more if your cheese isn't on sale.

Answer 8

No, cheese has rennet which is the inside of a goat. Pretty disgusting...look it up.

"Cheese is made by coagulating milk to give curds which are then separated from the liquid, whey, after which they can be processed and matured to produce a wide variety of cheeses. Milk is coagulated by the addition of rennet. The active ingredient of rennet is the enzyme, chymosin (also known as rennin). The source of rennet is the stomach of slaughtered newly-born calves."

Answer 9

a Vegetarian does not eat meat, whereas a Vegan does not eat either meat nor dairy. It really is the better diet to be on and not really that hard to covert over to. Check out http://www.veganchef.com to help w/recipes

Answer 10

Yeah...a vegetarian doesn't eat meat. A vegan doesn't eat meat or dairy products. So you are a vegetarian but not a vegan.

Answer 11

yes u are a vegetarian but not a vegan b/c vegan's do not eat animal related products.