Why not eggs?

Question

I'm wondering why some people have given up eggs?

Health reasons?
Animal-related reasons (explain)?
Morals?

I, personally, have never found eggs morally wrong (which is the reason I became a vegetarian), so long as the chickens are local. I can understand why they can be disgusting for some people, but I just want further insight into things.

Answer 1

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.

Answer 2

I don't hate eggs - I'm a healthy meat eater. But my friend, after going to a chicken farm, has voted eggs off her list. (She's a vegetarian)

The chicken farm had the chickens in square shaped hens, barely enough to breathe. Below it's meager nest is a tube where it can lay it's eggs. The henhouse was no bigger than a closet, and it housed at least 40+ chickens, all stacked up like a shelf. Overall, the conditions were pretty awful, and I can see why she feels that way.

Answer 3

I have no problem with eggs from well-treated, properly fed, cage free chickens. My neighbors keep chickens and treat them like loved pets; they have fresh eggs from healthy, happy chickens. But the ones you buy in the store are from tortured, abused chickens. They stuff them five or seven at a time into tiny cages where they start pecking at each other from the stress of not being able to move. Then they cut off their beaks and sometimes their feet so that they can't damage the "product." Cages are stacked on top of each other so each chicken is living in the filth pooped down from the chickens above it. When a hen stops laying, it is starved and kept in total darkness to force moult, which usually starts a new laying cycle. Chickens should live for years, but the average life span of a laying hen is like four months. They are alos pumped full of antibitics because the overcrowded conditions breed infection and disease. They are fed an unnatural diet which includes forcing them into cannibalism and even feeding them cow parts (the prion that causes mad cow disease is not destroyed by a chicken's digestive system and chicken poop is often added to cattle feed, so despite the fact that it's illegal to feed cow to cows, it happens indirectly.) If your chickens are "local" and treated like chickens instead of egg-producing machines, I have no moral issue with eggs. If the factory farm that is abusing and torturing hens just happens to be close to you, I don't see why "local" would absolve you of the ethical issues involved with eating eggs.

Answer 4

Chickens are remarkably stupid animals. I find it hard to believe they are even capable of suffering. Other than direct physical pain of course. As for eggs, a hen produces something like 320 eggs per year, fertilized or not. So I don't want to hear anyone objecting to eating baby chickens, because the eggs you buy in the store are not, and were never going to be, chickens.

Answer 5

well, I eat eggs.

I am not really sure why people think certain things, of course this does not make them wrong and me right nor the other way around. These links are about one side's argument about eggs, and the abuse of chickens...

http://www.goveg.com/whatsWrong.asp

http://www.goveg.com/factoryFarming_chickens_egg.asp

as far as I am concerned without eggs and chickens, many would starve. I think it makes more sense to raise animals and increase their number by the thousands just to feed the human race. If we did not do such things as this, like raising cows and chickens and making fish farms, the natural existence of animals would diminish at a much faster rate than it is currently.

And lets face it, if the whole world were vegetarians, how long could we survive? Not very long at all, expecially if we were to use alternative fuel methods like ethanol, which is using food not to help starving people but to power vehicles.

Answer 6

I like this hip youngster music now these days ba da da I like egg ahh aaa egg egg ohhh I like egg

Answer 7

Eggs are a great source of omega fatty acids if you buy the right ones, and a good source of vitamin b12, vitamin a, phosphorus, zinc, and complete protein.

However, they are high in cholesterol. Cholesterol can be bad if you overdo it. That being said I would not eat them everyday.

Lacto-Ovo Vegetarians are permitted to eat eggs, it does not go against this type of vegetarianism.

Some lacto-ovo vegetarians though who are motivated by ethical reasons may avoid fertilized eggs, feeling that they involve the killing of beings or torture and exploitation of source animals. Most vegetarians motivated by ethics would only use "Free Range" eggs.

Answer 8

All of the reasons you mentioned are good ones. I think factory like farming conditions are the major issue for most people. Also, many of the world's religiously motivated vegetarians avoid eggs because they are considered tamasic (inactive or dark) in Hindu philosophy just like flesh foods. This also applies to many western practitioners of yoga who have adopted the lacto-vegetarian diet.

Answer 9

I myself like eggs also and I'm sometimes vegetarian

Answer 10

I am allergic to egg white. So.. I should avoid it.
If I eat it, I'll get itches in my ear and tongue.

Answer 11

vegetarians do eat eggs ...no problem! it is the vegan who do not consume any animal products...not even cheese or dairy. What are you...vegan or vegetarian?