I had a discussion recently where someone accused me of not being a "real vegetarian" because I eat eggs. I know that's kind of a grey area, and it differs for each person and their reason for being vegetarian (religious, texture, health, environmental, ethical, etc); but what do you personally eat?

For me, personally, I keep it simple. If it looks and tastes like meat, I don't eat it (except special occasions like religious holidays). It makes me feel bad, and I dislike the texture anyway. Feels like an animal died specifically for me, and I didn't even enjoy it. A waste of a perfectly good life. But I'm ok with "regenerative" animal products like eggs and cheese and honey and such, as long as the animals were treated with respect (hard to find dairy that meets this criteria).

Probably the most contentious is bones. Someone once gave me some ramen, and later told me they were surprised I ate it because the broth was made with chicken bones. I didn't know, but also it didn't really disturb me either. Those bones would have been thrown out if not put into soup; and the end result was soup, not a drumstick or something obviously meaty. If nobody told me, I wouldn't even notice. For some reason, occasional bone broth is fine by my books. I'm not an extremely strict vegetarian in the first place though, and everyone I asked said that bones are not vegetarian.

It makes me think about Blood & Bone fertiliser. If you grow tomatoes with it, are those tomatoes not vegetarian…? Where is the line? Curious on others thoughts.

There is no vegetarian authority. If you can live up to your own standards you doing better than most of us.

If any ingredient is a part of a dead animal, I don't eat it.

People complaining about eggs don't know the difference between "vegetarian" and "vegan".

https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/vegan-vs-vegetarian

I avoid eating humans when possible, but have no other limitations.

I did a few years as a lacto-ovo vegetarian, but I also had a carve-out for eating anything I was served as a guest. I would tell people ahead of time, but if they added bacon to the potato salad, I’d just eat it anyway because being a good guest seemed more important than strict adherence.

Puritanism rarely helps movements.

Sounds like the person speaking to you was trying on the 'no true Scotsman' logical fallacy, as definition of 'vegetarian' clearly allows eggs.

If someone is trying to reduce their animal intake I applaud them regardless of occasional relapses or exclusions.. Life is too demanding already to not be able to give yourself some leeway in circumstances when you need it or that are largely out of your control.

Not to mention that reducing your consumption of animal products, whether or not it's a total thing, is still a very good thing and is probably the single most impactful thing you can do as an individual to help out the planet and your health, especially when it comes to red meat.

How does that work for aged cheese? The cow that made the milk might already be dead.

Anyone gatekeeping vegetarianism can shush. Do your best, enjoy.

Once you start getting into the ovo-lacto-pecto-scattered-smothered-and-covered talk it’s already academic. It might be interesting, or it might be some jerk trying to hassle you for no good reason. And none of it’s necessary.

When people used to ask me what reason i had for being vegetarian, i said “all of them”. Because there’s a lot. Economic, environmental, health, and hell yeah animal rights. Which one did they need y’know?

I don’t mind hearing people talk about why they like being vegan - as opposed to vegetarian - heck, I like it. I’m aspirationally vegan when i can. But if they want to talk about my eating habits, that’s a red flag.

This is the mindset most should have about it

Perfection is hard

People shouldn't be giving others grief for making moves in the right direction just because it's not as far as they've gone

That's a good point. In my area we have a lot of Punjabi Sikh people from a specific sect (? not sure if correct word), so vegetarian is assumed to be lacto, with no eggs. I don't know a lot about their religion, but it seems pretty strict. I'd imagine most of the world assumes eggs as well, it's probably a local regional thing here.

They have some damn fine recipes too.

The strange thing is that the person griefing me was in no ways vegetarian and eats meat twice a day 😂 I didn't take it too personally

Just as long as you're not egalitarian.

Eagles are endangered. You should not eat them.

You're doing great, king, far better than I am! Keep it up.

By the way, not all cheese is even vegetarian to begin with: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rennet

I thought it was gonna be the one with the live maggots in it .. but that's also interesting!

Traditionally, vegetarian meant what we often call vegan or plant based today. If you consume eggs and dairy you’re a lacto-ovo vegetarian. I usually just use vegetarian as short hand, even though I on occasion have eggs or cheese.

As a life long lacto-ovo vegetarian, if it came from something that shits, it’s inedible to me.

Your example tomatoes aren’t a problem, but I don’t for example eat gelatin.

I’m also really against faux-meat, like the incredibly burger or whatever. If it’s too much like meat it grosses me out.

Why stop there. Why not bring in the morality of blood donations (and people who have been forced into selling their blood and plasma for money) and organ donations (for which the person didn’t explicitly declare that they wanted their organs donated before they died). But that would be more of an exploration of consent.

That's a good motto; I try to do the same thing, to an extent. If I'm at a family Christmas party or wedding, I'll eat some roast chicken. To refuse would be rude.

But also, I tend to find that if you acquiesce once, it's too easy to become a habit. People will assume you've given up vegetarianism and serve you meat every time forever (in my experience, anyway). So I usually offend people on the first meal post-Christmas.

I read this interesting article that is somewhat related.

Yeah I also dislike faux meat… most of the time a falafel or some other normal vegetarian option is more delicious and healthy anyway. Damn I want a falafel yiros now

Did you remove your own upvote? You're the first other person I've seen do that 😂

I consider myself a practicing vegetarian, as I never buy meat. I hunt though. Ecology is one thing that which we can neither own nor abstain.

We will be working to amend the sins of humanity for a long long time, one of them being the exterpations and extinctions of predators; upending trophic systems. Hunting is an ecology conservation practice, and a critical one.

I was more on the “if they’re serving me roast chicken after I told them I’m vegetarian, I’m not going to be their guest anymore” side of things, but everyone in my life was very accommodating, so that’s easy for me to say.

Incorrect. I am the vegetarian authority.

I’m a lamb gyro guy but I’ll be damned if I don’t get a side of falafel with it. Just too delicious

"You are what you eat
That makes me eagle meat"
-Knower, "do hot girls like chords"

If humanitarians are saving the lives of people and easing their suffering, then vegetarians should be stopping the consumption of and destruction of vegetables. I don't see how eating all these plants is helping them!

/j

I feel like a meat eater choosing to eat less meat makes more of an impact tham a vegetarian choosing to move closer to vegan, regardless of the specifics.

Personally, though? I'm a vegetarian who eats eggs and dairy, and occasionally whem dining out I'll go for seafood. And I had chicken once last year in a super specific and special case (revisiting an Indian restaurant in Dublin that I had visited years before when I was only avoiding "red meat", the chicken 65 was so incredibly good that I gave in). And I tried one small bite of blood sausage in Finland while visiting a good friend in Tampere who ordered it.

Basically, at home, ovo-lacto. Dining out, occasional allowance for pescatarian. Maybe once-every-few-years I might consider trying some meat thing if it's super, super compelling for whatever reasons.

And I hate leather, I go out of my way to avoid it when buying a car.

I would feel better about myself if I went full vegan though.

Personally, I just try to minimize things. Cutting things out wholesale is far too much effort for me. If I can, I'll get the veggi option, unless I'm craving something specific, then I won't stress about it too much. As long as I'm trying, thats still better than most people do

I can only speak for myself.

For me, it's about harm reduction so not being perfect is OK with me as long as I'm trying. Now personally, that means if my cousin gives me eggs from her spoiled hens, that's probably OK, but I don't eat egg dishes when i go out (but paradoxically, I will eat a bun that has egg in it if there is not an alternative).

I eat cheese occasionally, but not if it has animal rennet in it. I rarely drink, but avoid clarified wines since they use isenglass in the processing.
I don't eat gelatin or meat stocks or bullion.
I also avoid leather in my clothing and prefer plant-based clothes over wools.

I limit my dairy, not just for moral and environmental reasons but also since my tolerance for it has diminished with age. Before I went veggie I would drink a gallon of whole milk every week. When I stopped I felt so much better, my acne cleared up, my hair got less oily and my intestines were way happier with me.

I also take B12 supplements because I will often go long periods without having any animal products in my food.

No one ever expects..... THE VEGAN INQUISITION!!!

If it tries to run away, I don't eat it.

quickly shoos the family dog into the other room

I don't eat flesh. I do eat eggs, honey, and sometimes but rarely dairy. It is not a health condition, so if I end up accidentally eating something with meat in it I won't get sick and if it was an accident I also won't get upset with myself or anyone who gave the food to me.

I think it doesn't have to be a gatekept cult. And fk the people who are trying to make it one. Don't listen to them. Reducing meat is a purported way to fight climate change, anything you're doing in meat reduction is good. If you don't eat meat but do eat eggs, absolutely no problem. If you eat meat once in a while, whatever. Perfect should never be the enemy of good. And trying to tick every box exactly right could become so large a focus it takes up so much space and time in your life that could be spent enjoying the brief existence we get. Every time you feel like people are policing what you're eating, remind you're they're probably super no fun at parties.

You're eating cats, dogs, pigeons and doves?

With the letter two I'm not seeing any downside I have to admit

Do not let people gate keep who you are. Their opinions are their and sometimes an opinion sucks. You are your own person and are allowed to define and identify as you like. Are they then going to tell you that you're not a real straight/gay/trans person because you do or do not do something?

I am a strict vegetarian that trends towards vegan. Cheese and yogurt are really the only things that keep me from being strictly vegan.

I do not cook with eggs and generally avoid using cheese at home. I will have egg incidentally (i.e. bread, etc.) but will occasionally have eggs in a diner or such when traveling. Cheese I will have fairly commonly.

I avoid anything with gelatin--that's a hard line for me. I will, however, have honey.

Funny: in much of East Asian, "vegetarian" doesn't really exist as a concept and the best you can get is the "Buddhist meal", which will contain fish.

Take it by surprise, got it.

Honestly, who cares. Eat what you're comfortable with. The label thing being a real or not is do assine. People doesn't eat certain things all the time.

reducing your consumption of animal products ... is probably the single most impactful thing you can do as an individual to help out the planet

I seriously doubt this

im not a vegetarian but I would like to be a lacto/ovo one. Thats basically as far as I can see going.

My three rules:

• I make exceptions for holidays and special occasions.
• If the meat is going to get wasted, I try to eat it. Example: my friend ordered a meat dish, didn’t finish and doesn’t want to take it home. I’ll eat the meat out of their plate before it hits the trash.
• if I kill the animal, I’ll eat it. I’m not a hunter so haven’t had to use this one before. Roadkill counts but again, I’m not a butcher and I don’t own a car.

In summary, make your own rules aligned with your own values. If a conversation with a friend makes you change your values then maybe it’s time to reassess your rules. If not then stay true to yourself.

I'm not vegetarian or vegan but in my mind eggs have always been fair game for vegetarians. It's just vegans who skip animal by-products as well as meat.

Okay, I laughed, I guess this circumvents this requirement. In Japan you can get a live, as in still living, fish to eat. Few restaurants still do it, it's called Ikizukuri. I didn't get it because it was too weird.

Same here. I do eat eggs, honey and cheese.

It doesn't make you sick when you eat meat after not eating it for a few years?

Lacto-ovo veg for some 30+ years. I don't do gelatin, animal based broths, leather, etc.

In my experience the loudest preachiest vegs that gatekeep are also the ones that'll talk a big game for a year or two, then completely flip.

TIL swim bladders from fish are used in the production of some alcoholic beverages. Thanks!