Are you a Vegan or a Vegetarian?

Question

Share why?

Answer 1

I'm a vegetarian, for a variety of reasons.

I stopped eating meat several years ago, because I'd been wanting to for years and finally got up the drive to look into it. Basically, any time I'd eat meat, I would feel sick if I thought about what it was at all. I didn't care about the health benefits, though they are a nice benefit. I also didn't really pay attention then to the factory farming cruelties, though I have since learned more about how horrible they can be. Still, my reason is really just the very personal wish to feel okay about what I'm eating. I have no problem with others eating meat, outside of the above mentioned issues, and items such as veal, which are innately wrong.

I have a few times tried to go vegan, but found myself lacking the willpower. As long as the milk I drink is not connected to the veal industry or the cheese processed with rennet, I guess I'm mostly okay with dairy...Unfertilized eggs are basically like a chicken's period, or so I've been told, so I guess they're not that bad... Every once in a while I still try to cut them out, but I've never managed to hold out for more than a couple of weeks at a time.

Sigh...

Answer 2

Both… leaning towards vegan.

I live in farmland/ranch country. I work in the animal welfare field and have seen the horrors and cases of abuse first hand. I’ve seen goats grazing happily one day, only to be turned into a meal the next. I’ve seen dairy farms let their cows die by the side of the road – no help in sight, no vet appointments, nothing.

Milk is something I’m slowly phasing out of my diet. Along with that would come cheese and all the products of milk.

Eggs, however, I don’t have much of an issue with. The only eggs I eat come from the hens I personally know and care for. Only a small number are fertile and allowing them to hatch would be a strain on the hens trying to raise the chicks, possibly causing illness or secondary infections and decreasing their life span.

Nothing I buy or wear has ever been associated with an animal if I can help it. The only leather in my house has been in the form of hand-me-downs or gifts I received before becoming a vegetarian.

Occasionally I’m sure there are some animal products snuck into the items I buy; the griddle at the restaurant may be greased with butter or lard, the sugar in my tea may have been bleached through animal bone ash, etc. I do what I can to avoid them, but I try not to lose sleep if I think about what I may have ingested.

Answer 3

I am a vegan. I was a vegetarian for about 15 years prior to becoming vegan. I always knew I wanted to be vegan once I became a vegetarian, it just took me awhile to be comfortable enough with the change to adopt it full-time.

As far as why, I don't like to support unnecessary suffering of any kind. Since all animals with a nervous system suffer the same (including humans), I can't justify inflicting such pain on them. I know that I can live a happy healthy life without doing so. What kind of a monster would I be if I knew that and still continued to fund such horrific acts? I treat others how I would I would like to be treated.

Answer 4

Vegetarian (aka lacto-ovo vegetarian)

Why? Cuz sometimes I just get the strongest cravings for a fried egg sandwich on white bread with tons of miracle whip... or some cheese pizza.. or something else with cheese..I'd like to be vegan.. I do think it's the healthiest.. but I haven't "made it there yet."

Well.. I should explain that in my large circle of vegetarians/vegans I associate with every day.."Vegan" means "no meat, slaughter by-products, milk, or eggs." That's it.. The "vegans" even eat honey.. See.. we're far away from the west-coast hippie culture, and the people I know are all vegetarian/vegan for health reasons, because meat, milk, eggs are bad for us.. We're not militant PETA or "back to nature" kind of people..

Let me make it clear that I am not putitng the PETA people down.. I love animals as much as anyone, get teary eyed quicker than anyone at the images of animal cruelty, wish I could do more. Even if there was nothing unhealthy about meat, I still wouldn't eat it if the animals were still treated the way they are..
I agree wholeheartedly with what the PETA and those kind of people are trying to accomplish, but I can't link myself with them because I don't agree with all their methods.. I don't believe that "The end justifies the means." Many times I think they turn people OFF to vegetarianism/veganism by their attitudes or methods, rather than getting more people to live a healthier and more compassionate lifestyle..

Just like I personally would like to stop abortion, but would never associate with a group that bombed clinics.

Answer 5

I'm a vegan.

1. Eating blood, pus, and sh*t is gross.
2. Eating meat and dairy is very unhealthy.
3. The animals are treated horrifically.

The better question?

Why is anyone NOT a vegan and why?

Answer 6

I'm a veggie, dont have dairy but do eat eggs.

The reason i eat eggs is because they come from our own free range hens. These will never be killed for food or when they drop production, they are free to do what they like, they receive vet treatment when needed, they are treated as freerange pets. They are free to go broody when they feel like it, at which point theose eggs are left for the hen. They are rescued pure breed hens.

I don't see too much wrong with that, but happy to hear your view.

If i lost all my chickens, I would never buy eggs from anywhere other that hobby farms where i can see the hens. Freerange commercial farms are a joke - nothing more that large outdoor cages....we have 2 near us for a well known UK supermarket

Answer 7

i think all this vegetarian issue is a sort of modern brain sickness. it's like those people affraid of baloons or ketchup (they exist, belive me). people have been eating meat since the stone-age and have lived long, healthy lives. my great-grandmother was not a veggie and reached the age of 96. milk is healthy, meat is nutritious whatever the origin ( i'm not sure about dogz ). you can't live on grass and think you're healthy, people !!!

Answer 8

I'm a vegan.

Answer 9

Flexitarian vegetarian--we are growing faster in numbers than vegans and vegetarians.

A flexitarian vegetarian diet, provides me with a moderate, well-balanced diet that keeps me mentally and physically alert and in shape without fuss and frees my life to do other things besides foraging for foods, reading labels, worrying about the shape and color of my "poop", and keeps me open to the world and not just to bizarre "veggie heads".

Answer 10

Answerer #1 isn't either


Vegetarian baby!