Vegetarians: Where Do You Draw the Line?

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

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.

Ovo-lacto vegetarianism is by default what people mean by vegetarian in the US at least. Maybe where you're from it's different but that criticism would be strange here.

I think most vegetarians try to avoid things like bone broth (or things containing gelatin if they know about it) but people are strict to different levels. Assuming a vegetarian would be fine eating a soup that included bones would be pretty rude so it's not weird someone might be surprised you're less strict than others.

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.

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.

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.

I'm not trying to be perfect, I'm just trying to make a difference. Purity ideals are for 13 year olds.

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

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.

I'm vegetarian mostly for environmental reasons.

If the food is going in the trash if I don't eat it, I don't really care if it's meat or not. I'm mostly trying to reduce eating meat, but throwing it away otherwise is dumb.

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.

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

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

I'm level 5 vegetarian with couple of missionary badges and gold stars for public protest. Next year I hope to adopt couple of old chickens and ascend to level 6.

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.

Someone knew you were a vegetarian, served you chicken broth with out saying anything, and then later acted surprised you ate it anyway? Wtf?

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.

These extreme line hunting is rather silly and benefits no one. Gamifying ethics is missing the entire point of ethics.

To me a everything that's not part of or made from a part of an animal's body is vegetarian. So no meat, bones, liver, gelatine etc. I would consider vegetarianism to be first and foremost a diet.

Veganism on the other hand is more like an ideology. It is the belief that no human has the right to exert control over another animal. So obviously a vegetarian diet that also excludes products that are obtained from animals, like eggs, milk, honey, leather, wool, etc. But also being against zoos, pets, working animals (such as police dogs) and other stuff like that. I think though that veganism is an ideology that requires nuance. It's going to be basically impossible to be a "perfect" vegan and most probably wouldn't go so far as to reject everything I listed, or would agree that compromises can be made for the greater good (for example I don't believe police dogs should be a thing, but I wouldn't want to take away a blind person's dog and I can't help but like pets).

tl;dr: If you eat meat or bones sometimes you're by definition not a vegetarian and probably nobody is actually 100% vegan. It's perfectly understandable that you'd call yourself a vegetarian to keep it simple, even if it's only 95% true though. I certainly call myself vegan, even though it's definitely less than 95% true.

Just as long as you're not egalitarian.

Eagles are endangered. You should not eat them.

All these labels....

I try my best to avoid beef and pork. Simply because, as an adult, i saw videos of cows frolicing in grass and getting pets. I saw pigs with as much personality as my dog. Any animal that will roll over to get a belly rub i can no longer bring myself to eat.

Thats it....no more reason than that.... empathy.

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

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.

For me, the border is animal parts (meat and bones). I eat fish, all seafood (squid, shrimp, ...), eggs, cheese, milk, ... I know that fish and squids and shrimps are animals, but yes, eat what you want, don't let groups with their ideology impose on you what you eat.

There is no shame in what you eat. Where I live (70% are Orthodox Christians, 25% are Muslims) religious fasting is very common. In short, Christians in certain parts of the year (and every Friday) follow a vegan diet, Muslims in one part of the year follow a diet with intermittent fasting.

I always ask them "You believe in God, the Almighty, the creator of the universe, all 2 trillion galaxies, each with 100 billion stars, countless planets, and he cares what and when you put something in your stomach?"

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

I think you are doing great, good on you for thinking about what you eat and doing your best to do it thoughtfully. I think you should feel comfortable calling yourself vegetarian because you are doing your best to eat as little meat as possible. People who ask questions are probably mostly curious how it works and sharing your experience might help them make similar choices. In my experience the only people policing these labels are too online or openly antagonistic to the entire premise I don't pay either much mind.

Personally I don't like eggs much, but I think getting then from a local farm you have a relationship with is the best possible scenario. I do try to avoid dairy as much as possible. You have to remember, in order to get animal milk you need to take it from the baby animals. At scale this involves a pretty horrible love for everyone involved. At small scale maybe it's ok. If the mom is overproducing for example, and both the mom and child have a good life. But that doesn't exist in the grocery store or even at most farms. So I just avoid it. It's hard at first until you find good replacements but many cultures in the world got by fine without it for centuries so there's plenty of great recipes to learn. I'm not interested in trying to get everyone off it, but most people I talk to have never given it a thought. They think cows just make milk no matter what and need you to milk them so we might as well. I think if you know the true cost of something you might at least have more respect for it.

But as far as things like bone broth, gelatin etc. I basically agree, these are waste products. I might not like the industry it's coming from, but for God's sake if you are going to kill an animal at least use every last bit of it.

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.

I'm also curious - where do people come down on things like oysters and clams?

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.

My initial and main reason foris being vegetarian the environmental impact. From that perspective beef and dairy would need to be the main things to cut. I cut all meat and most milk, I'm not a big fan of eggs. Main issue is cheese. Otherwise I'd be vegan. Even though it's a bit a mess, but the main goal of halving my food related carbon emissions is reached.

I am ovo-lacto and pretty strict about it. To me the line is "did an animal have to die to produce this?"

If the answer is no, I'm okay with it. Eggs, dairy, honey etc. Are all on the table. I always try to avoid low-quality eggs that are likely factory farmed. Organic only or cage-free local farms I have seen with my own eyes. Dairy I am a little split on - we do cheese and yogurt and plenty of dairy products, but we use oat milk instead of regular milk. This has more to do with flavor and texture preferences than dietary morals.

There is ONE exception I allow myself and that's gelatin in unavoidable areas - the main one being medicine. I will try to find vegetarian options but sometimes it can be quite hard to find pills which do not contain pregelatinized starch or gelatin capsules.

I eat eggs and cheese. I'm not vegan. But if it walked, flew or swam, I don't eat it.

Eggs don't sound like veggies to me but, at the same time, don't let perfect be the enemy of good. I cut beef almost entirely out of my diet, but I still eat other meat. I also eat offal and such, though. Still, beef can be really bad for the environment so I decided to make it something I have a couple of times a year (or if served it as a guest). Will purists or vegetarians or vegans largely dislike this decision? Probably. Still, I'd rather slightly reduce my impact than do nothing at all.

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.

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 am not a particularly strict person when it comes to eating, but my main criteria are environmental impact and "how complex was the nervous system involved and how much did it have to suffer". I admit I am pretty racist in that regard. No big cluster of neurons, no pity from me.

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

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

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.

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

Vegan. Anything else and you're just doing mental gymnastics.