The Vegetarian Society defines a vegetarian as: “Someone who lives on a diet of grains, pulses, nuts, seeds, vegetables and fruits with, or without, the use of dairy products and eggs. A vegetarian does not eat any meat, poultry, game, fish, shellfish, or by-products of slaughter.”
Pulses include beans and legumes such as lentils. Shellfish, are defined as any sea animal covered with a shell, such as crustaceans and mollusks. Crustaceans include lobsters, crabs and shrimp. Mollusks include oysters, clams, cockles and mussels. Seafood also includes squid and octopus.
Anyone who still eats these but has given up animal products is usually referred to as a flexitarian, not a vegetarian. Anyone who eats no living creatures of any kind, or any products from them, such as milk, yogurt, cheese and eggs is known as a vegan.
What Kind of Vegetarians are There?
There are two different types of vegetarians:
- Lacto-ovo-vegetarians eat both dairy products and eggs.
- Lacto-vegetarians eat dairy products but avoid eggs.
Why Become a Vegetarian?
The most obvious answer is because you are concerned about animal welfare and don’t wish to kill animals for food. But vegetarianism can often go beyond that, to animal rights activism and choices about the products that we purchase. For example, many vegetarians are concerned with products tested on animals and will either make their own personal care products or buy all-natural ones which aren’t tested.
Smart consumers have realized that they can ‘vote’ with their dollars and force companies to clean up their acts and stop testing on animals. Vegetarians also realize the huge impact of meat eating on the environment and land use. More than half of the water used in the US is consumed in ranching and factory farming.
Health conscious consumers give up meat for the sake of heart health, but there are other issues at stake as well. One of the key ones is that the food chain is so polluted in terms of appalling conditions the animals are kept in. Battery farm hens are kept in such tight quarters that they often get injured and die from suffocation. They are then cannibalized by their desperately hungry cage mates.
Poultry and beef cattle are filled with hormone, steroids and antibiotics, and these transfer over to humans when they eat chicken and beef, or drink milk and consume dairy products.
This being the case, going vegetarian is one of the smartest ways you can look after your health and alleviate the conditions of countless living beings suffering around the world.
