What is the difference between a vegetarian and a vegan? Why did you choose to be either?

I'm just curious and trying to get an understanding.

Vegetarians don't eat any meat.
Vegans don't eat any meat, + they don't eat any animal products, such as milk (and therefore cheese, yogurt, sour cream or chocolate containing milk, or cookies containing milk), eggs (and therefore no cookies containing eggs), honey (and therefore no sweets containing honey). Also, no gelatin as it includes animal something - and this can also go for vegetarians as a no-no.
Depends on how strict you want to be. Thus, vegans can also refuse to wear any leather clothes, or animal fur coats.
Some medicines may contain extracts of animal something, such as those fish oil supplements of Vitamin E - and well, vegans as well as vegetarians will refuse such a product.
I am a vegetarian. Both because I never liked meat much, and because I care for animals. Also cause it's healthy.
Vegan - it's too hard for me to be. I drink milk, I eat yogurt, honey, milk chocolate... I just do the best I can.

well vegetarians do not eat any animal that was once alive, red meat, poultry, fish e.t.c Whereas vegans don't eat anything that came from an animal even if they didn't have to die to get it e.g cows and goats milk, butter,dairy in general, honey, eggs e.t.c but the common misconception about vegetarians is that they don't eat meat but they eat fish. i've come across many of these people who have attempted to tell me they are vegetarians while clearing up a plate at pappadeux's! the proper term for these people is infact pescartarion which comes from the latin word for fish pisci and why the zodiac sign pisces is a fish....but whatever back to point, so they are the differences for you. personally i'm not either, recently (last 8months) i've decided to not eat red meat but that stictly because of all the stories i hear about how its not good for you.

Vegetarians:

they eat no meat what so ever, but they still drink milk and eat eggs and cheese, which COME from an animal but it isnt a part of the animal that they kill for them to eatt.

Vegans:

they eat no kinds of meat or dairy producs such as cheese milk and eggs.


I was a vegetarian because i was against people killing animals just to get their food. i wasnt a vegan though, since they didnt KILL the animals to get milk cheese or eggs, they just take it from them.

LACTO-OVO VEGETARIAN
Includes both dairy products in their diet

LACTO VEGETARIAN
Dairy products but no eggs

VEGAN
Eats no animal products whatsoever (usually including honey too)

I've been a lacto veggie for 9 years now. I just couldn't (and can't) stand the thought of eating dead animals anymore. The idea of cooked flesh made me feel sick.
When I researched more into it more too I also found that vegetarianism is much better for the enviroment and, when appropriately planned, can actually be healthier due to all the saturated fats of many meats in the modern western diet. A balanced veggie diet is low in fat, high in nutrients and can really boost your energy and fitness. You automatically boost your intake of fresh fruit & veg. No need to pop pills for optimum health!

Veggie: Does not eat animal flesh but,does eat animals by products, Dariy,Eggs,Honey etc.
Vegan: Eats no animals flesh or by products. Many do not use the by products in their clothing as well, silk, wool, leather etc.

I am a cross between the two: My body chose for me with extreme food allergies. 51 plus items, which include Dairy, Eggs, Gluten, way too many veggie to list. Surprising there is no meat, or fish that I am allergic too. I just never had a taste for animal flesh.

Slaint茅 (to your health)

A vegetarian does not eat the flesh of dead animals or any food that comes from dead animals, like gelatin, but may still continue to eat animal foods that come from living animals, like dairy and eggs. A vegan eats, wears, and uses no products of animal origin whatsoever.

I went vegetarian for a lot of reasons: it's healthier, it's more environmentally sound and it reduces animal suffering. I went vegan because I realized that the egg and dairy industries are death industries as surely as beef is (male chicks are suffocated or starved because they don't lay egg and male calves are sold for veal because they don't produce milk.)

Well a vegetarian doesn鈥檛 eat meat and a vegan doesn鈥檛 eat meat or any type of product that comes from an animal. I am a vegetarian because I think eating animals is wrong. We evolved from monkeys and there vegetarians so we don't need it to survive. I understand about the food chain and everything and if you need food to survive then eat it. But in this stain age we don't. So why eat an animal when we can live and let them live also. Plus vegetarians live longer! But I think being a vegan is going too far. As long as you make sure you get free-range products then the animal is not being harmed in anyway. If we didn鈥檛 eat there products them no farmers would keep the animals and they would all die out!

A vegan consumes no animal products. A vegetarian eats no meat, but there are also sub-types of vegetarianism.

I am currently vegan because I abhor cruelty to animals. According to the encyclopedia Britannica online this what veg*ans are:

the theory or practice of living solely upon vegetables, fruits, grains, and nuts鈥攚ith or without the addition of milk products and eggs鈥攇enerally for ethical, ascetic, environmental, or nutritional reasons. All forms of flesh (meat, fowl, and seafood) are excluded from all vegetarian diets, but many vegetarians use milk and milk products; those in the West usually eat eggs also, but most vegetarians in India exclude them, as did those in the Mediterranean lands in Classical times. Vegetarians who exclude animal products altogether (and likewise avoid animal-derived products such as leather, silk, and wool) are known as vegans. Those who use milk products are sometimes called lacto-vegetarians, and those who use eggs as well are called lacto-ovo vegetarians. Among some agricultural peoples, flesh eating has been infrequent except among the privileged classes; such people have rather misleadingly been called vegetarians.

A vegetarian doesn't eat meat (or fish), no animal flesh. He does eat dairy products, eggs and honey though.

A vegan doesn't eat anything that comes from an animal: no meat, fish, dairies, eggs or honey. Vegans generally don't wear anything that comes from and animal too (so no wool, silk, leather,...) or use products that have been tested on animals. Basically, they refuse to take part in animal exploitation.

I used to be a vegetarian, for over 20 years, because I didn't want to kill animals for my pleasure. But I thought, as many do, that cows were quite happy to give their milk. I only bought free range eggs, and thought the hens lived happily outside. I thought I wasn't killing any animals living this way.

Turns out I was. When I found out that to give milk, cows had to give birth every year, and their little one was sent to the slaughterhouse, and that the cow ended up there too when she didn't give so much milk anymore - when I found out that only the female chicks were kept at birth and that the male ones were sent down a machine to be crushed alive, and that the hens also ended up at the slaughterhouse when their eggs were getting less frequent, and that free range didn't really mean much, then I realized I had to go vegan if I didn't want to be responsible for animals suffering all their lives and dying.


Go vegan!

Vegetarian's still eat cheese, milk, and other dairy products. Vegan's on the other hand don't, and I'm not either. I love my meats. :)

A vegan eats no animal products of any kind. Many vegetarians eat dairy, fish, etc. I'm a carnivore so I can't offer any insight into the second half of the question. Some people say it's healthier, some do it because they think eating animals is wrong. Me, I love my cheeseburgers too much.