am i a vegitarian?

Question

ive been a vegitarian for about tree years, but ive been eating haribo sweets which ive been told contains gelitine. can i still call myself a vegitarian?

Answer 1

Hi Alice.

You are making great strides towards being veggie but you would have to exclude slaughter by-products to be a vegetarian.

However, its your choice what you eat. If you think you are making the right level of effort then stick with it, just please avoid the word vegetarian.

If you choose to exclude slaughter products you need to check labels for all foods. It seems difficult but only takes an extra 5 minutes for a weekly shopping trip and you soon get used to it.

Best of luck.

You may want to know that slaughter by-products account for 25% of the cost profit in a cow and 40% of a pig.

Leather accounts for 20% of the cost profit.

So as you can see, using animal products does contribute to the meat industry so its best to avoid them if you are abstain from meats for moral reasons.

I really don't know why all the other "yes" people answered, they are wrong. A vegetarian does not eat meat, fish, poultry nor slaughter by-products. This has been the definition since it was defined in 1847.

Answer 2

Don't get bogged down by the labelling. The label is not important. You have must become a vegetarian because you don't believe or agree with killing animals or the way they are slaughtered. It's not the meat (flesh) that decides what label you use or people use on you. People who don't believe in killing animals or who don't like the idea of eating animal flesh surely would not feel OK with eating ground bones, tendons and eye balls. That's what animal gelatin is. So 'it's vegetarian and it's just an animal by-product, it's not meat' argument is not an argument at all. If that's a good enough argument, then you'd be eating meat because at the end of the day, the animals get killed whether it's for their meat or bones, eye balls and tendons. Vegetarian or not. Vegan or not. I wouldn't touch animal gelatin.

Answer 3

Of course you are still a vegetarian - if you want to be! I was veggie for 19 years (vegan now) and it can be tricky learning what ingredients actually are and where they come from. I first became a veggie when I was 11 years old and had no idea that gelatine came from animals. There is a great website below, it has a comprehensive list of things which may not be suitable for veggies.

Best wishes.

http://www.vegsoc.org/info/stumbling.html

Answer 4

If you didn't know that you were eating something that contained gelatin than you could still call yourself a vegetarian. However, now that you are aware of the gelatin, if you continue to eat the sweets you are not a vegetarian. Since you are consuming the by product of a slaughtered animal and you making a conscience choice to eat it than you would not be a vegetarian.

Answer 5

I would say yes, that you can still call yourself a vegetarian. Gelatin does come from animals however. It mostly consists of boiled animal skin, boiled animal fat and bone marrow. There are different types of vegetarians. Some still eat eggs and drink milk. They are called ovo-lacto vegetarians. I am a lacto-vegetarian, which means I still use dairy products (cheese, milk, yogurt, ice cream). Vegans consume no animal products at all. Good luck with being a vegetarian. I love it. Wouldn't have it any other way. Here, I looked up a few sites that might be able to help you with being a vegetarian. At least with knowing the foods. Hope they help you.

-http://www.goveg.com < -http://www.vegkitchen.com < -http://www.vegetarian.meetup.com << different events and clubs for vegetarians and it can help you find vegetarians that live near you, they could probably help you a lot with it too

Best of luck hun.

~*Blessed Be*~

Answer 6

Are you obsessive, do you have irrational outbursts at people, do you believe you know more than anyone; without foundation or common sense getting in the way, are you thin, reasonably depressed or slightly ill all the time? If you answer yes too more than 3 of the above then you are definetly veggie. Don't worry though you can turn it around many people have and they have found fulfillment in their lives again by eating meat. Any sort of meat to start with bit of chicken or even some fish your faculties will soon return to normal or near normal levels. Good luck on taking your first steps back to sanity.

Answer 7

It depends if you keep eating them or not! Everyone makes mistakes,
But if you keep eating them regaurdless, no you arent.
Vegetarians dont eat any part of a dead animal - gelatine is a dead animal product.
Please dont call yourself vegetarian if youre going to continue eating gelatine, its unfair on other vegetarians who'll be given things with gelatine in and complained at when they dont eat it!
Loads of other things like youghurts, some cakes have gelatine in too - so watch out!

Answer 8

Yes you are still a veggie.
But my advice would be to check labels before you eat anything. Most good products have suitable for vegetarian on it marked with a small v.
Beware lots of products have gelatin in them i.e. desserts, sweets yoghurt's etc.
You must read the labels!!!

Answer 9

If you ate gelatin on accident, but now you have stopped, you are still a vegetarian. If you continue to eat gelatin, then you are no longer a vegetarian.
Gelatin is the outer layer of animal bones plus all the other animal parts they had no use for ground together and boiled. That is not vegetarian.

Answer 10

It would be good to stop eating gelatin and glycerin if you are going to call yourself vegetarian.

I would call you a vegetarian because you do not create a demand for the slaughter of animals, but eating dairy and eggs causes more harm than gelatin, so if if you are a lacto-ovo vegetarian it makes no difference unless you plan on going vegan in the future.

http://www.veganoutreach.org/whyvegan