VEGETARIAN VS. VEGAN

Let's be honest. How many of us know the difference? 

For those that know congrats but if your like me then let's learn together!

Vegetarianism is the practice of abstaining from the consumption of meat – red meat, poultry, seafood and the flesh of any other animal; it may also include abstention from by-products of animal slaughter.

Vegetarianism can be adopted for different reasons. Many object to eating meat out of respect for sentient life. Such ethical motivations have been codified under various religious beliefs, along with the concept of animal rights. Other motivations for vegetarianism are health-related, political, environmental, cultural, aesthetic or economic. There are varieties of the diet as well: an ovo-vegetarian diet includes eggs but not dairy products, a lacto-vegetarian diet includes dairy products but not eggs, and an ovo-lacto vegetarian diet includes both eggs and dairy products.

So there are essentially 3 types of Vegetarians. 

Of course there are some other types for all you fact police reading.

You have:

• Pescatarians: (those who abstain from eating all meat and animal flesh with the exception of fish.)

• Pollotarians: Much like the pescatarian, this “semi-vegetarian” diet restricts meat consumption to poultry and fowl only. Pollotarians do not consume red meat or fish and seafood.

• You even have a term recently coined to describe those who eat a mostly vegetarian diet, but occasionally eat meat. Flexitarian.

However when one refers to vegetarian especially in the US they are usually talking about Ovo, Lacto, or Ovo-Lacto because they are the most common here.

What is a Vegan?

A vegan is essentially the "Ultimate Vegetarian" and they are the most restrictive as far as what they eat.

Vegans do not consume any animal products or by-products. So vegans of course do not consume red or white meat, fish or fowl. They also do not consume eggs and dairy. Vegans do not use honey or beeswax, gelatin and any other animal by-product ingredients or products. 

Vegans typically do not use animal products such as silk, leather and wool, as well. 

You may think Vegan is pretty much as far as it goes but there are Vegan subcategories:

Raw veganism is a diet that combines the concepts of veganism and raw foodism. It excludes all food and products of animal origin, as well as food cooked at a temperature above 48 °C (118 °F). The definition of a raw vegan diet can be loosened to include vegan diets with at least 75–80% raw foods.

A raw vegan diet includes raw vegetables and fruits, nuts and nut pastes, grain and legume sprouts, seeds, plant oils, sea vegetables, herbs, and fresh juices. 

There are many different versions of the diet, including

• fruitarianism: the practice of following a diet that includes fruits, vegetables, nuts and seeds, without animal products or grains.

• juicearianism: is a diet which consists mostly of the juice from fresh fruit and vegetable juice

and 

• sproutarianism: whose raw diet is almost entirely dependent on sprouted foods.

Hopefully you have an understanding of what a Vegan and Vegetarian are now and I think it is time for a CHALLENGE!!!

Choose one of the above eating styles (based on what you think you can handle) and commit to it for 1 week. Come back and let me know your results how you feel and if you think you could or are going to make it a permanent lifestyle change. 

Random Fact: I personally just became a Ovo-Lacto or Lacto-Ovo Vegetarian.

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- Peace