Can vegetarians eat eggs?!
Can vegetarians eat eggs?
Answers:
yes, they can, but some of them don't .. I tried not to because one of the main reasons why I stopped eating meat was because I was against cruelty towards animals, and I've seen how those chickens live (the ones that lay most of the eggs you can buy in shops) ... I found it very difficult to avoid eggs, so i started buying them at farmer's market, from people a friend recommended ... the point of this is: this lady's chickens live in a yard, are free to walk around, and have a nice life ...
and those who definitely don't eat eggs are vegans, but they don't eat any dairy products aether, no milk, no cheese ... (I'm not sure about honey)
I can't believe that some people make a connection here between eating eggs and abortion!
I'm completely pro-abortion, and I am a vegetarian ... I tried not to eat eggs because I was never sure where did they come from, but it's so difficult to avoid them. I would have to cook absolutely everything, not even buy pastry anywhere, because it almost always contains at least a tiny amount of eggs, and I don't have time for that ... I don't like eggs, to be honest, and I don't think I had an egg based meal in over 15 years (I hate omelet's and boiled eggs, I don't like the smell) ... but hey ... not every egg is predestined to become a baby chicken ... the same way that not every egg in women's body is predestined to become a baby ... very often in yards where chicks live there even aren't any roosters, and even if there were, what makes some people think that 2 sells put together necessarily mean a life ... it's a very religious view, and it's not fair to make religions a basic guideline for everything that people do. I'm not religious, not in a traditional, or in a spiritual, or in any way, but I don't think any suffering is good (I don't need any god or divinity to tell me that), and what can -feel- can -feel pain-, so yes, fish too, and yes, oysters too .. and yeah ... squids too ... I don't eat them! ... I don't want to feed on anything by producing pain .. I seriously don't see who is getting hurt when a break a shell of an egg that a chicken (that happily ran around an pecked in grass) gave me.
and, although some religions do insist that the believers have to be vegetarians, practising vegetarianism is not a religious act! at least not for all of us!
vegetarians yes but vegans no bc if your vegan it means you dont eat any animal products
can they? yes. though i know some who don't because they don't like them.
vegans, of course, do not.
ovo-vegetarians can
Yes, it's vegans who don't eat things like that.
Yes but not vegans.
I dont think so because its a baby chicken.And vegetarians dont eat things with faces.
i dont see why not- it doesnt hurt the hens to eat them
Yes - eggs are just a product of hens and without fertilisation by a 'male chicken' are worthless - so are fine to eat!
Of course I men proper free range eggs! Otherwise hens are kept in bad conditions to produce the eggs!
Yes
Yes, but only if you're not a vegan. Vegans, from what I understand, limit themselves to anything other than meat/poulty or a fish product.
i'm a vegetarian, and i eat eggs. (i make sure they are free-range eggs though)
as far as i'm aware, most vegetarians do eat eggs & most dairy produce. it's vegans that don't eat eggs.
if u eat u becom non veg.and u r kiling a chicken who has not even seen its mom hen.
Of course they CAN...However, some may choose not to depending on the person.
Strict or pure vegetararians do not eat eggs or dairy. Vegans also do not. A vegetarian who does not eat eggs or dairy is not necessarily a vegan. Most vegetarians who are not eating meat because of conditions for animals in factory farms usually abstain from dairy and eggs, as the conditions are often horrific. Vegans seem to be a little more hard-core: usually no honey, no wearing leather or silk, no beeswax, nothing that exploits animals in any way whatsover, but there are different extremes. It's all very complicated, isn't it?! I try to eschew labels and just do what feels right to me. It sure makes it convenient when things are LABELED vegan though! I wish the FDA would mandate some sort of easily spotted code for when a product contains animal products *sigh*
Yes. Some choose not too though.
Regarding RS's comment. Eggs that are layed by hens that are sold in shops are not fertilesed. This is why we can eat them. They are not made from meat.
Yes - I am vegetarian but I eat eggs (freerange only, I'd like to get some hens to get my own though). I would just like to point out that eggs will never become chickens - hens, like many birds, spontaneously produce eggs. They are not fertilised, and will never hatch!
Hi keda, and Emma (see my P.S.), yes, they can. What makes vegetarianism different from veganism is that while they do not consume any animals (including fish and seafood), they do eat the items that these animals produce in their bodies: eggs, milk, honey, etc. However, VEGANS go even further in that we don't WEAR these animals (fur, leather, wool, and millions more items etc...that are robbed of them at great torture to them and finally still murdering them when they collapse!)
Eggs are the menstruation of the chickens... eeek!!! and are overloaded with cholesterol! Milk is a secretion extracted from the poor cow's udders (which many times are infected from this torture and pus ooze from them which can't be helped to get into the milk). Millions of people suffer from milk allergy, but
you may be interested in the words of John Harvey Kellogg (the cereal inventor) who called milk "liquid meat":
"Milk. It is so unclean that it is unsafe to use as food without pasteurization, and even pasteurization does not render it entirely safe because this process does not destroy the spores of the pernicious Welch’s bacillus and other putrefactive organisms. So though much of the milk used in the cities is pasteurized, it cannot be relied upon as a source of vitamins. Also, among other things milk is lacking in iron." John Harvey Kellogg, M.D., LL.D., F.A.C.S. "The Natural Diet of Man"
Enjoy 2 eggless recipes here:
http://www.vegcooking.com/recipeshow.asp...
http://www.vegcooking.com/recipeshow.asp...
Thorough list of egg substitutes, for better health, in your kitchen cupboard or refrigerator: :o) http://www.dummies.com/wileycda/dummiesa...
Health and ehtical reasons for refusing to consume eggs: http://www.goveg.com/factoryfarming_chic...
Ditto for milk:
Illnesses by alphabet: http://notmilk.com/
To Kosher people: it's made with pigs??? http://notmilk.com/pigmilk.html...
Adela
P.S. Dear Emma (and any other members): You will be extremely surprised to see the truth behind the so-called Free Range Chickens and Eggs. See these 2 links:
"Free range": http://www.ivu.org/faq/eggsdairy.html...
"Free range": http://www.upc-online.org/freerange.html...
Pass this on to others...Bye...
eggs are non vegetarian with proof ?
Are eggs vegetarian?
There seems to be a lot of confusion as to whether eggs are or are not vegetarian. In Sikhi our rehit says we should not eat egg, be it processed, i.e. in cakes etc, or whole, as in an omelette, this is enough for us but for those that want a few more scientific facts, read on. This is a section taken from a Jainism article on meat and eggs. It has some interesting points and describes why eggs are not vegetarian.
Facts about Eggs
Do you remember as a child your mother telling you not to eat cakes or pastries that had eggs because you are a vegetarian? Many times I have heard people saying, eggs are vegetarian food and are good for health so we eat it. The myth about vegetarian eggs and its health-promoting qualities are misleading. Its consumption by so many vegetarians is really shocking. The ignorance of such matter has spread so far that people resist believing that an egg has potential life and that an egg has an unborn chick within its shell. Man's desires for food has made him go to extremes and leading him to eat those foods that are coloured with violence and pain. Nature has its reason for eggs, not by way of food for man but as an important link in the reproductive system of hens. It is the craving for violent food that actually numbs the feeling and thinking capacity of the human being. He ignores going deep into the subject and shuns the truth of the matter. But how long will he remain in darkness? For facts are facts and they will never change whether he accepts it or not. Let us look at some facts about eggs and remove the ignorance that prevails in our mind. The facts you are about to read are taken from the book Hundred Facts about Eggs by Dr. Nemi Chand.
Eggs of all birds are structurally alike (See the McDonald Encyclopaedia of Birds of the World, Page 30-31). Their internal structure is meant for reproduction of progeny and not for human consumption. By eating eggs, man has reverted to the hunting stage of his civilisation. He is meddling both with nature and with the reproductive system. The egg is totally forbidden for those who believe in non-violence. Right from the rearing of hens to the hatching of their eggs, there is violence all over. A visit to any poultry farm will support this fact. In poultry farms, hens are considered no better than egg-producing machines. They are confined to a narrow space of 15" x 19" in the midst of several hardships and tensions that are naturally passed on to the blood and system of those who eat their eggs and turn them into imbalance personalities. Chickens are housed in small-congested cages known as chickenhavens. Due to shortage of space, they naturally become violent, offensive, obsessed and quarrelsome. They attack one another in a barbarous manner. So they are de-beaked. Due to de-beaking, they are unable even to drink water. Do we not realise the cause of our present widespread complexes, aggressiveness and suffering in the chicken-havens? As mentioned earlier, hens are de-beaked to prevent them from fighting and wounding one another.
The de-beaking is done in brown light, especially during the night when hens become almost blind. The lower beak is cut. If any mistake is made, the hen is deprived of food for the rest of her life. The hen has to starve at least for three days due to the wounded beak. Wouldn't this act of cruelty affect the egg-eater?
Hens are given five kinds of violent-generating foods: bone meal, blood-meal, excreta-food, meat-meal and fish-meal. Can we dare to call eggs vegetarian food even after learning this? The term vegetarian egg is a first-rate misnomer. The purpose of a fertile egg is to animate life, but an infertile egg has no such purpose and as such should be considered totally inedible.
Battery and factory eggs are harmful to health. It is better that we abstain ourselves from eating them. The egg produced without any contact with the male bird (and thus producing an infertile egg) is also animate because it is born out of the hen's body with its blood and cells. Therefore, its consumption is 100% non-vegetarian. According to the famous American scientist Mr. Philip J. Scamble, no egg is without life in it. The scientists at Michigan University in America have proven it beyond doubt that no egg - fertile or infertile - is without life (inanimate). The hen gives infertile eggs during the absence of the male bird. But it has been observed that she gives an infertile egg before the day of contact with the male bird - and also the next day. In other words, she can give a fertile egg even without contact with a male bird. On the fifth day, again she gives a fertile egg. This means that the semen of the male bird remains lying in her body for a considerable duration. In some cases, this duration has been observed to be as long as even six months. A fertilised egg is a pre-birth stage of a chicken; unfertilised eggs are the result of the sexual cycle of a hen and very unnatural. Both are non-vegetarian food. Victoria Moran, the author of the book Compassion:
The Ultimate Ethics says, to eat fertilised egg is in fact to consume a chicken before its birth (The Ethic on borderline). I was told that an unfertilised egg is the product of a bird's sexual cycle and can hardly be regarded as natural food for Man. Whether the egg is fertile or infertile, life is essentially there; and it has all the symptoms of life, such as respiration, brain, feeding ability, etc. There are 15,000 porous-breathing holes on the shell, the cover of the egg. The egg begins to rot at a temperature of less than 8^ Celsius, 00^ Fahrenheit. When it begins this process, its rotting manifests itself through evaporation of the water content. The egg becomes infected by germs and thus becomes diseased. The progress of the rotting soon reaches the shell of the egg.
Eggs contain cholesterol in large quantities. The yellow bulk of the egg is the major source of cholesterol. Cholesterol narrows down the arteries and may eventually lead to a heart attack or to paralysis. Eating eggs may also lead to rheumatism and gout that can cause serious and painful joints in old age.
All the above facts lead to prove that eggs are not vegetarian and so let us re-think about the issue of eggs and realise that a balanced vegetarian diet contains an abundance of health protecting nutrients and fibres without eggs.
Yes they can as you are not killing any animal, but Vegan no.
Some excellent answers here, However, 'free-range' eggs are often fertilised as the hens are kept in a natural environment with cockerels present, to eat these eggs you run the risk of denying life to the unborn animal.
Battery hens are not fertilised, they are just fed hormones to keep the laying unnaturally, eat these eggs and you condone the factory farming method.
Its your choice.
Incidentally eggs help contribute to a high cholesterol level in the blood which may in turn lead to heart disease.
Stick to your carrots.
Firstly, well done to 'Abafna' for talking some sense on this question! Simply put an egg grows into an animal. Just as people oppose abortion even though the fetus has not yet grown into a baby, the fact is it will, if left to it's own accord. An egg is still an animal, it is the start, it has life, and it is not a plant! Therefore, it is an animal...
Even many scientists condem using human cells etc because it is morally wrong.
It is just one of those stupid excuses to allow veggies to eat them. It's just as bad as stupid veggies that still eat fish for god's sake!
Most western vegetarians do yes.It's vegans who don't.
I'm told that in some eastern cultures eggs are considered meat and so vegetarians in those places don't eat them.
there is, near where i live, a wonderful free range chicken farm. there is a layby on the road and cars can park and watch the chickens running around free with little houses and grass .these chickens do what chickens do. it is so lovely to watch . and its almost unheard of. most poultry is locked in sheds.but i wont go into that.i am buying eggs very soon from my local chicken farm. if it costs an arm and a leg ? fine. i will have a fine egg from a happy chicken. this chicken farm is a rare sight to most people. thanks to factory farms . yuk
Im a vegetarian, however i do not eat eggs, i have other dairy products such as cows milk and cheese etc, but i think its in my religion not to eat eggs, so i think religion may have an influence in whether some one eats eggs or not!
yes
Yes, they can. Unless your a vegan. some choose not to because it is really killing an animal
yes they can. im a vegarteian and for a little while well years i thought i couldnt eat them, but we can :) its vegans that cant