Vegetarians and vegans are usually lumped together. What exactly separates the two?
Are the differences greater than the similarities? And is vegetarianism really a healthy, moral
way of living? Let’s find out!
Hi it’s Emily from Bite Size Vegan and welcome to another vegan nugget! Something I find
interesting is that if you tell someone you’re vegetarian they are usually okay with it.
But tell them you’re vegan and suddenly you’re a militant extremist tiva-wearing
tree-hugging whack-job covered in animal tattoos. The basic difference between vegans and vegetarians
is that veganism means abstaining from all animal products, byproducts and methods of
exploitation while vegetarianism simply means abstaining from meat while still consuming
diary, eggs, and honey, and wearing silk, down, wool, and sometimes leather. While vegetarianism
is usually portrayed as a healthy, animal-friendly way of living, the truth is it’s crueler
than meat eating and arguably more unhealthy.
Let’s address health first and then move onto the moral aspects. Dairy, eggs and honey
are not only extraordinarily unhealthy food choices but also really unnatural ones. Try
to think of another animal who, once weaned from their own mother, goes to suckle from
the teat of another species. It’s just not meant to be. (And if you do suckle directly
from another species, you probably need help outside of my expertise.) And how natural
is it to eat the menstruation of another animal, or their vomit?
Now aside from how unnatural it is, dairy consumption is linked to a slew of medical
conditions, including heart disease, obesity, clogged arteries, diabetes, osteoporosis,
arthritis, a variety of cancers, and more. Dairy is loaded with fat, cholesterol, sugar,
not to mention all the fun bonuses that come from our modern dairy industry, including
antibiotics, growth hormones, and pus. Oh yes. I said pus. Check out this video for
more details about what exactly is in your food.
Now let's address the moral aspects of vegetarianism. One of the most cruel meat products that even
some meat-eaters refuse, is veal. What many people don’t realize is that the calves
used for veal are the stolen children of dairy cows and that consuming dairy directly supports
the veal industry. I’m going to let vegan activist Gary Yourofsky elaborate a little
more on the ethical implications of vegetarianism:
Gary: It is not an animal-friendly lifestyle when you support the dairy industry. In fact,
if you asked me to rank cruelty of animals, and I don't like to because it's all unjust,
but the dairy industry is the worst industry on this planet. You have mother cows being
raped every year to impregnate them, you have their babies being stolen every year, 3-7
years. You have machines being hooked up to their udders, to their breasts three times
a day to suck them dry. Then you send them to the slaughterhouse when they can't produce
milk anymore? So this is what vegetarians support- they support the oppression and enslavement
of hens in the egg industry. Even if it is a cage-free free-range farm, when the hens
stop laying enough eggs after 2-3 years, you don't get a free stay- you get sent off to
the slaughterhouse. Vegetarians wear leather and silk and wool. They consume honey. I'm
still trying to figure out how vegetarianism is considered an animal-friendly lifestyle,
cause it's not. Now, as I say all this, if you are using that as a stepping stone, I
don't care how you get to vegan- just sooner rather than later. And I have to be fair,
I don’t want to be an Al Gore type, a politician bullshitter- I went vegetarian for a year
before I became vegan, but, I want to put this out there- like most vegetarians I was
not aware of the dairy and the egg industries. If I had known then what I know now and I
wasn't going to become vegan all at once, I would've stopped eating dairy and eggs first.
Then I would've taken meat out at the end.
It’s true that many of us use vegetarianism as a stepping-stone to veganism- but if the
goal is to reduce the amount of cruelty of our diet, or even increase our health, we’re
really missing the mark here. A vegetarian diet is still one composed of incredibly unhealthy
animal byproducts and severe animal suffering. Dairy and eggs support the same torture, cruelty,
and slaughter that the meat industry does- only the suffering of the animals involved
is more prolonged than those raised for meat alone.
You can get more information about this topic and the subjects related to it in my free
eBook, which is linked below, or in any of these videos. Please share this video around
to help inform vegetarians and potential vegetarians. Many of us (including me) started there because
we didn’t know any better. And be sure to hit the subscribe button down there for more
awesome vegan nuggets. Here at Bite Size Vegan I address all aspects of veganism and always
in around 5 minutes. Now go live vegan, not vegetarian, and I’ll see you soon.
I do love hugging trees. And I have owned some tivas.
I can't- I can't cover all my tattoos at once.