If you eat eggs, does that discount you as a vegetarian?

So I am pretty much vegetarian, except I eat eggs for two reasons.

A) Eggs are essential in gluten-free baking (which I have to eat gluten-free)

B) I really feel no remorse about stealing eggs from a chicken


Anyways I was thinking, does eating eggs really discount you from being a vegetarian? Because an egg is not a real chicken... Like you know, a human fetus isn't a real human, why would a chicken fetus be considered a real chicken?

You know, I think an egg could be considered like... milk or cheese. Just a not-actual-animal food that comes from animals. And you can still be a vegetarian and eat eggs.

So I guess the question is, does being an animal fetus eater mean your an animal eater? I really don't think so, eating a fetus does not count as eating an animal.

 

No. You would be discounted as a VEGAN, but you're an "ovo-vegetarian" if you want to get technical.

An unfertilized chicken's egg is equivalent to a woman's menstrual release (so in short, eggs are chicken periods, one of the many reasons I refrain from eating them). It's not a "fetus" until it gets spermified

 

Doesn't the male chicken have to put his thing into the female chicken for it to produce an egg?

I thought chicken eggs came out pre-fertilized.

 

Nope, when the time comes, she's gonna drop an egg with or without the rooster around. The egg will only be fertilized if they mate before she lays.

 

personally, i think of eggs as a chicken's period.

 

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Vegetarian= the exclusion of meat
Vegan=The exclusion of any animal product

I've been both. Now I wouldn't give up my eggs. Free range and very healthy, plenty of local farmers etc or even just people with a bit of land have happy chickens laying so many eggs they'll sell them to you cheap. Why waste em?

 

They're not foetuses. Firstly a foetus has a recognisable animal body. Before that stage it is an embryo. Secondly most eggs are not even fertilised. That would only be the case if the chickens had been mated prior to laying (which would be pointless for a farmer) Chickens lay eggs daily during the fertile period of their lives whether they're mated or not. Without males it's just a waste product

 

The difference between the human menstrual cycle and a chickens cycle of laying eggs every day is so vast that I'm failing to see how on earth you came to have this view. If one were to insist upon this comparison, surely the ovulation stage of the human cycle would be the point of most similarity: the release of eggs.
Menstruation itself serves an entirely different purpose

 

The way I look at it is the hens will lay eggs without the presence of a rooster so its really the potential for life. If you think about it, it kind of depends on where you stand on the abortion issue.

 

In my opinion, no. Eggs do not discounted you as a vegetarian. My bestfriend is a vegetarian too and she also takes eggs as part of her meal. So, your not alone on this.

 

I'm not a vegetarian, so I probably shouldn't talk.

It seems to me it would depend a lot on why you are a vegetarian. I'm sure some people are because it's more healthy.

I do totally understand being disgusted by eating animal parts or animal by-products.

I'm probably just rationalizing not being a vegetarian, but sometimes I wonder how many animals are affected by farming plants. I'm sure some die and some have their habitats destroyed. I always felt it would be hard to be a vegetarian on purely moral grounds because of that.

I know Jain monks try really hard not to kill or harm even insects or anything. I guess it's all about how far you will go to do no harm.

 

I consider myself a vegetarian and have always eaten eggs. I'm don't like processed things such as tofu, I avoid butter, cream and milk and I feel a little underweight at times. The occasional eggs I eat help provide me with some B12, protein, calcium and some fat, which all works for me.

I grew up on a large area of land and had around a dozen free range chickens. We never ate the chickens, but they produced about a dozen eggs each day naturally since we also had a rooster. If we didn't eat them, they would likely rot, because the chickens did not lay on most of them. Every once in a while, a chicken would try to hatch an egg, and we allowed it, but it wasn't likely and often didn't hatch. Our chickens were always very happy, independent and had a great quality of living.

I no longer have chickens so I buy eggs now, but I only buy organic vegetarian fed, free range chicken eggs.

 

Anonymous Aussie, eh?

 

you will never be a vegetarian

 

there is a point where you realize that nearly all eating is killing something

in a sense, where eating an egg from a well-treated chicken is more ethical than eating a carrot [killing a plant] or rice [wet-harvesting kills amphibians, fish, insects]

everyone has to figure out where their own line should be drawn, and situational considerations - what food is available to you and where does it come from - should help determine your eventual decisions

i am wholly dependent on food found in a market, and food found cheaply

the determination on eggs is negative as i have no known source for cruelty-free

as far as cultivation/insects vs the misery and slaughter of cows, well, i'll be a speciesist and say that i have to care a bit more about the cows

i make it up to the insects by not killing them when i find them in my home

life is a compromise, make the best one you can . . .

 

the problem with this [for me, personally] is that these labels have been co-opted by the food industry and rendered nearly meaningless

 

I have zero ethical issues with eating eggs...

Of course... I also know for a fact where they come from, how the chickens are treated and what they eat (at least in general as I don't follow them around...lol)

I once had a person whine to me (in their defense, they likely didnt think of it as whining) that they didn't want any meat eaters on their property, as they carried with them the 'aura of death'.

When asked about the aura of death that comes along with killing plants, causing pollution, using (or abusing) a system that kills people around the world to feed itself (and them), suddenly, the issue wasn't about the aura of death anymore...

It was then about the aura of asshole about me... lol

If someone wants to choose to not eat a certain type or group of food for their own personal reasons, that's fine... right up until they start dictating what choices others make.

To the OP... eat what you want and let others worry about how they label you.