Vegetarians: do you consider beeswax to be an non-vegetarian ingredient?!
Vegetarians: do you consider beeswax to be an non-vegetarian ingredient?
If beeswax were present in a nutritional supplement, particularly in a capsule shell of an otherwise completely vegetarian product, would that prevent you from taking the product, as a vegetarian?
Answers:
You would have to know the source of the beeswax.
some of it, particularly large commercial quantities used in processed foods, is harveted by fumigation. So this would not be acceptable to a vegetarian.
Nah, they treat those bees purdy nice.
Beeswax isn't actually an animal product in the same way that leather, meat or dairy products are (it's simply a by-product of the honeymaking system) and if you eat honey, I'd say beeswax is ok.
If you don't eat honey though, I think maybe beeswax would be a problem too?
It didn't grow out of the ground, It's bee spit! It's not a veggy.
Heck no. Many vegetarians are extremists. I just eat veggies because they are good for you. I even add a little chicken or fish, now and then. Simply because they are good for you. I avoid beef and dairy simply because they are NOT good for you, not because I care all that much about those poor cattle. (I prefer elk meat, anyway). I see no harm in consuming a little beeswax now and then.
Beeswax is produced by glands bewteen the chiton on the underside of the lower abdomen. It is NOT beespit, or any other digestive byproduct of the bee. If you must be ignorant and use a metaphor, then it is beesweat!
It's not a vegan product because it comes from an animal. There's no debate there. It could be considered vegetarian because it's obviously not meat.
I'm a veg and I still eat honey.
I would consider it a vegetarian ingredient in an ovo-lacto vegetarian diet, but I would not consider it a vegan ingredient. The problem with honey and beeswax for vegans is that honey is a by-product of animals, and the ways most companies harvest beeswax is not as natural or kind to the bees as many would like to believe. Ovo-lacto vegetarians may not see this as a major issue in that they consume dairy products as well.
The main issue for vegans is that by harvesting honey people are disrupting natural bee habitats. Also, in the harvesting of honey many bees are killed (albeit accidentally) in the process. When deciding whether or not to consume bee by-products, it just depends on how strict your diet is. Really, it should be your decision. Of course, reading up on the process of honey and beeswax harvesting should help that decision somewhat. Check out my sources, hopefully they will help.
I'd say that it's up to you. As a vegetarian I consumed beeswax, but I don't anymore as a vegan, and I think that that's how most people that I've spoken to did. If it bothers you, there are MANY completely vegan supplements (try natural food stores, ask them to point out completely vegan supplements) out there, and they all work just as well, if they are harder to find.
Slightly related answer- as a vegan, I would still use beeswax candles, seeing how the other candle making material harms the environment, or at least the leading one does (can't remember what it's called). So IMHO, it's all a matter of personal values. Maybe the supplement that you're looking at is the only one that has exactly what you want or something, in which case- go for it!
I wouldn't consider beeswax a non-vegetarian ingredient, but I would consider it a non-vegan ingredient.
Yes. Probably not vegan, but vegetarian? Definitely.
"You would have to know the source of the beeswax.
some of it, particularly large commercial quantities used in processed foods, is harveted by fumigation. So this would not be acceptable to a vegetarian."
Bee-S. Nothing about the treatment of the animal in question makes something veg or non-veg.
Or I'd have to go well out of my way, and pay literally twice the price, to get "vegetarian" milk.