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.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] 15 points 19 hours ago (2 children)

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.

  • source
  • hideshow 2 child comments