Vegans are you really a vegan?

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Grimmerick
Grimmerick Posts: 3,344 Member
in Food and Nutrition
Or do you just eat that way. I find so many people a rigid over the title of Vegan that it got me thinking. All the Vegans on this site, are you really vegan? Or do you just eat a vegan diet? To truly be a vegan, it takes so much more dedication and work than what you just put in your mouth. It's what you wear, what you clean with, brush your teeth with, What products you use and how they came about. If you use something that effected an animal negatively then technically speaking you are not a true vegan. This is a very very hard thing to do and a difficult way to live for most of us. So I ask you are you really a vegan? Or do you just eat that way?
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  • swalberg0625
    swalberg0625 Posts: 98 Member
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    Or do you just eat that way. I find so many people a rigid over the title of Vegan that it got me thinking. All the Vegans on this sight, are you really vegan? Or do you just eat a vegan diet? To truly be a vegan, it takes so much more dedication and work that what you just put in your mouth. It's what you wear, what you clean with, brush your teeth with, What products you use and how they came about. If you use something that effected an animal negatively then technically speaking you are not a true vegan. This is a very very hard thing to do and a difficult way to live for most of us. So I ask you are you really a vegan? Or do you just eat that way?

    I just eat that way. I watched a few documentaries that opened my eyes to the healthy benefits of a plant based diet. I cut out eggs, dairy, and meat. But I still use honey. And I still wear/use items that may be derived from animals. I can understand one's ethical reasoning for being a Vegan, but I just think it's a little extreme. You can choose to eat farm raised meat vs factories because lets be honest, animals kill to eat in nature. For me, I just saw how high dairy and meat is causing health problems in the western diet so I just cut out those food groups.
  • veganbettie
    veganbettie Posts: 701 Member
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    are you the vegan police?

    I'm assuming most vegans that are vegan for ethical reasons do follow the complete vegan lifestyle, I know myself and my friends do our best to.

    I don't believe that you're vegan unless you're doing it for ethical reasons, the definition of vegan is about ending animal suffering, so if you don't care about that then you're probably not really vegan....technically.
  • Grimmerick
    Grimmerick Posts: 3,344 Member
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    I just see so many arguments on here and vegans that get upset when someone says they are veganish or kind of eat vegan that I really want them to stop and think......are they really vegan or do they just eat that way, so maybe they will be more forgiving to someone that says they are trying to eat vegan or kind of do, you know. :)
  • Grimmerick
    Grimmerick Posts: 3,344 Member
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    are you the vegan police?

    I'm assuming most vegans that are vegan for ethical reasons do follow the complete vegan lifestyle, I know myself and my friends do our best to.

    I don't believe that you're vegan unless you're doing it for ethical reasons, the definition of vegan is about ending animal suffering, so if you don't care about that then you're probably not really vegan....technically.

    lol yeah I'm a vegan marshall ma'am, hence the hat and awesome vest. Just left my badge at home ;)
  • veganbettie
    veganbettie Posts: 701 Member
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    personally I think every bit helps so I try not to be a brat, but it does start to get a little confusing to people when words are used incorrectly.

    it's like when people that eat fish call themselves vegetarians....it confuses people...I can't tell you how many people ask if I eat fish because they know so many vegetarians that eat fish. FISH IS AN ANIMAL!!! don't call yourself something that you're not, I don't know why people get so hung up on wanting to call themselves something that they aren't,
  • veganbettie
    veganbettie Posts: 701 Member
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    are you the vegan police?

    I'm assuming most vegans that are vegan for ethical reasons do follow the complete vegan lifestyle, I know myself and my friends do our best to.

    I don't believe that you're vegan unless you're doing it for ethical reasons, the definition of vegan is about ending animal suffering, so if you don't care about that then you're probably not really vegan....technically.

    lol yeah I'm a vegan marshall ma'am, hence the hat and awesome vest. Just left my badge at home ;)

    Awesome. ;)
  • swalberg0625
    swalberg0625 Posts: 98 Member
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    I just see so many arguments on here and vegans that get upset when someone says they are veganish or kind of eat vegan that I really want them to stop and think......are they really vegan or do they just eat that way, so maybe they will be more forgiving to someone that says they are trying to eat vegan or kind of do, you know. :)

    Yeah I guess upon looking it up I could classify myself as implementing 'Veganism' because it's diet based. Vegan is defined as restricting from all animal derived products. But i'm not dieting, it's a lifestyle change. There will always be animosity to things that people don't educate themselves in, but then choose to have an opinion. That's society, I don't let it bother me.
  • veganbettie
    veganbettie Posts: 701 Member
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    I just see so many arguments on here and vegans that get upset when someone says they are veganish or kind of eat vegan that I really want them to stop and think......are they really vegan or do they just eat that way, so maybe they will be more forgiving to someone that says they are trying to eat vegan or kind of do, you know. :)

    Yeah I guess upon looking it up I could classify myself as implementing 'Veganism' because it's diet based. Vegan is defined as restricting from all animal derived products. But i'm not dieting, it's a lifestyle change. There will always be animosity to things that people don't educate themselves in, but then choose to have an opinion. That's society, I don't let it bother me.

    If I were you I would say I followed a plant based diet, or just I have a vegan diet. I probably wouldn't say I'm vegan, just because that single word implies so much more to me.

    that's just my thinking though.
  • swalberg0625
    swalberg0625 Posts: 98 Member
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    personally I think every bit helps so I try not to be a brat, but it does start to get a little confusing to people when words are used incorrectly.

    it's like when people that eat fish call themselves vegetarians....it confuses people...I can't tell you how many people ask if I eat fish because they know so many vegetarians that eat fish. FISH IS AN ANIMAL!!! don't call yourself something that you're not, I don't know why people get so hung up on wanting to call themselves something that they aren't,

    I think when anyone has a special diet people tend to be confused because not everyone takes it completely literal. There are strict vegetarians/vegans, and then one's that choose this diet for the majority but not always. It's all confusing, paleo, clean eating, vegan, vegetarian, medetraninan, so many people define them all in different ways or tweak them to their own lives.
  • veganbettie
    veganbettie Posts: 701 Member
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    personally I think every bit helps so I try not to be a brat, but it does start to get a little confusing to people when words are used incorrectly.

    it's like when people that eat fish call themselves vegetarians....it confuses people...I can't tell you how many people ask if I eat fish because they know so many vegetarians that eat fish. FISH IS AN ANIMAL!!! don't call yourself something that you're not, I don't know why people get so hung up on wanting to call themselves something that they aren't,

    I think when anyone has a special diet people tend to be confused because not everyone takes it completely literal. There are strict vegetarians/vegans, and then one's that choose this diet for the majority but not always. It's all confusing, paleo, clean eating, vegan, vegetarian, medetraninan, so many people define them all in different ways or tweak them to their own lives.

    Which is why I think it's important for everyone to use correct terms when referring to how they eat. Otherwise you'll have some waiter bringing a celiac something with wheat, because they knew of one person that said they had the disease but they still ate wheat once in a while....

    it's just a pet peeve I have.
  • swalberg0625
    swalberg0625 Posts: 98 Member
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    I just see so many arguments on here and vegans that get upset when someone says they are veganish or kind of eat vegan that I really want them to stop and think......are they really vegan or do they just eat that way, so maybe they will be more forgiving to someone that says they are trying to eat vegan or kind of do, you know. :)

    Yeah I guess upon looking it up I could classify myself as implementing 'Veganism' because it's diet based. Vegan is defined as restricting from all animal derived products. But i'm not dieting, it's a lifestyle change. There will always be animosity to things that people don't educate themselves in, but then choose to have an opinion. That's society, I don't let it bother me.

    If I were you I would say I followed a plant based diet, or just I have a vegan diet. I probably wouldn't say I'm vegan, just because that single word implies so much more to me.

    that's just my thinking though.


    Yes I agree, it is more plant based. But on the other hand I educated myself on the way animals are raised just to be slaughtered and pumped up with hormones in an overflowing chicken coop and can't even move because their legs can't hold up their breasts. So I would have to say that it was somewhat my decision to not eat meat because of that, but a large part was because of the unbelievable health problems from Americans (mainly) consuming massive amounts of. It could go so many ways.
  • Graelwyn75
    Graelwyn75 Posts: 4,404 Member
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    I am just blown away that anyone would place so much importance on what word someone uses to describe their eating. I mean, seriously. First world problems or what.
  • veganbettie
    veganbettie Posts: 701 Member
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    Like I said, it's really about just making things easier, that way someone that can't eat something, or won't, won't get fed it on accident.

    Words are important regardless of the situation.
  • veganbettie
    veganbettie Posts: 701 Member
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    also regarding your "first world" comment, having the option to be vegan in a lot of scenarios is an option of privilege. Sometimes you just have to eat what you can get.
  • FlaxMilk
    FlaxMilk Posts: 3,452 Member
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    I follow a vegan diet and do my best with the rest. No leather, silk, wool, etc. Hygiene, cosmetics, household cleansers all vegan. Is my computer technically vegan? Probably not. The flip side of that is the only way to avoid any animal products is to go and live as a hermit and grow my own food and take care to not injure any insects while doing that. That's great, but all the animals I've been able to have over a lifetime, each a rescue from a shelter or a stray, would probably consider that to be the "less vegan" thing to do. I am able to do more to help animals by not being a hermit. I don't like how many products are made with animal byproducts, but I am comforted in knowing that it's likely that animals are killed primarily for food and the byproducts are purchased for things like computer parts or whatnot. I don't have control over the whole world, so I control what I can. (If a vegan option exists, I buy that, basically.)

    If someone said, "I don't kill animals" accidentally hit a squirrel with their car, I'd let them keep the "I don't kill animals" descriptor. :tongue:
  • 3dogsrunning
    3dogsrunning Posts: 27,167 Member
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    I am neither vegan or vegetarian. I did follow vegetarian diet for a short awhile. I was always under the impression that the term "vegan" implied more than just about what you do or don't eat. It is about an ethical philosophy as well. Technically, a "vegan diet" is vegetarian. Some vegetarians are less strict than others and often use different terms, like ovo, lacto, etc.
    I guess I can see where an ethical vegan would be coming from when they get upset someone uses the term "vegan" who is following a "vegan diet" or describes themself as "partially vegan". I don't really get why you have to define your diet that way if you don't really follow the whole philosophy of it. Just my opinion, like I said, I don't have a horse in this race.

    I also understand the problem with incorrect labelling which can cause confusion in things like food service and such.
  • segovm
    segovm Posts: 512 Member
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    When I was a vegan I used to get really mad at people that misused the word. They had no idea the sacrifice and commitment that went into living vegan. Even claiming to be a vegetarian, the poor step brother of committed vegans, was insulting as they drank their milk and ate their eggs.

    I was mad.

    All the time.

    You have no idea what it takes to be a vegan and you will never have the willpower to become one.

    It was only years later after I started eating food again that I realized why I was so mad about the labels people put on their diet... I was mad because being a vegan made me miserable and for anyone to claim they too were a vegan without suffering as I did was a personal insult to my own ridiculous dietary choices.

    I'm cured now. There's hope for everyone out there that is still suffering like I was. A rack of ribs will fix you right up and thereafter the word vegan will no longer spark your rage.
  • SomeNights246
    SomeNights246 Posts: 807 Member
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    I am just blown away that anyone would place so much importance on what word someone uses to describe their eating. I mean, seriously. First world problems or what.

    Right?
  • 3dogsrunning
    3dogsrunning Posts: 27,167 Member
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    I am just blown away that anyone would place so much importance on what word someone uses to describe their eating. I mean, seriously. First world problems or what.

    Right?

    I don't know, I am a fan of meanings and definitions. But I'm wierd like that. :laugh:
    I don't really get the insistance of describing yourself as something you are not.

    Also, vegan is about more than just what you eat.
  • countscalories
    countscalories Posts: 418 Member
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    When I was a vegan I used to get really mad at people that misused the word. They had no idea the sacrifice and commitment that went into living vegan. Even claiming to be a vegetarian, the poor step brother of committed vegans, was insulting as they drank their milk and ate their eggs.

    I was mad.

    All the time.

    You have no idea what it takes to be a vegan and you will never have the willpower to become one.

    It was only years later after I started eating food again that I realized why I was so mad about the labels people put on their diet... I was mad because being a vegan made me miserable and for anyone to claim they too were a vegan without suffering as I did was a personal insult to my own ridiculous dietary choices.

    I'm cured now. There's hope for everyone out there that is still suffering like I was. A rack of ribs will fix you right up and thereafter the word vegan will no longer spark your rage.


    Is this what they call "Rib Rage"? My fear of tofu and other mysterious vegan-friendly foods was born in 1973, when Charlton Heston uttered the fateful words, "Soylent Green is PEOPLE!"

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