Just how vegetarian do you have to be to be a vegetarian? My wife's cousin claims to be a vegetarian, but...!
Answers: He doesn't have a problem with eating fish. To me, that's not being a vegetarian. My daughter is vegetarian, but she doesn't have a problem with eating marshmallows or other treats with gelatin in them. I don't eat fish or gelatin, deliberately. But some of my medications are coated with gelatin or composed of gelatin capsules, and I can't do without them. Does that make me less a vegetarian?
What does it matter what people think or label others as?
Continue to eat the way you do for health. Take your meds. Some meds are required to survive.
Stop taking them and you will be dead and wont have to worry about not consuming any animal product, right? Relax and do the best you can
Fish eater is not vegetarian. Your daughter and you I would see as vegetarian. Vegan is very strict, as far as gelatin and leather clothing and such.
my friend used to be a vegie and ate white meat and swore that she was a fully fledged vegie. If you are worried bout the gelatin on the tablets talk to your doctor he might be able to offer another tablet form or liquid form, doesnt hurt to ask. I had to change a tablet i was taking due to the sugar coating to a capsule, the sugar was effecting my diabeties.
But at the end of the day.... each to their own
Take care
If someone knowingly consumes the flesh of an animal, they are not vegetarian.
Fish, clams, shrimp, ants and worms are all animals.
If someone eats gelatin, they are not contributing to any demand for the slaughter of animals, so I consider them to be vegetarian.
Some vegetarians may disagree, but I find eating gelatin to be less harmful than dairy or eggs, so the argument seems petty to me.
No, gelatin is not vegetarian, but I wouldn't think someone of being a liar or a hypocrite for consuming it.
I'm vegan and would never want anything to do with it, but my exclusion of such a product my diet is only symbolic of my desire for a world that is free of animal exploitation.
Just so you know Gelatin is not necessarily vegetarian
Gelatin is an odorless, tasteless and colorless thickening agent, which when dissolved in hot water and cooled, forms a jelly. Gelatin is pure protein derived from beef and veal bones, cartilage, tendons and other tissue. Much of the commercial gelatin today is a by-product of pig skin. Until the advent of commercial gelatin in the late 19th century, jelled dishes were not very popular because housewives had to make their own jelling agent by laboriously boiling calves' feet or knuckles. Their only alternative was to use either the hard-to-obtain ISINGLASS (gelatin from fish air bladders) or CARRAGEEN (a dried seaweed product).
Vegetarian is relative. If you consider yourself a vegetarian and you actively restrict eating animal flesh, you have vegetarian tendencies. But as you point out, cutting some animal parts/derivatives and not others does not a "true" vegetarian make. The short answer is, yes, gelatin is technically not vegetarian, and therefore you are "less vegetarian" than someone who avoids it completely.
However, you're better off consuming that miniscule amount than going without medications. You can ask your doctor if these medications are available in liquid or uncoated tablet form if you want to. Many medications aren't, though, unfortunately. But seriously... you're actively avoiding eating animal flesh and derivatives thereof. You're aware of hidden animal products that others aren't (it could be that your daughter doesn't actually know what gelatin is) and you're thinking about what that means to you. You're doing a great job! Anyone who criticizes your sincerity as a vegetarian is a jerk.
Keep up the good work.
most marshmallows are made with plant gelatin as it's easier to get. Even many candies are made with plant gelatin which is from locust bean gum.. it's Vegetarian but not Vegan because bees make it just as they make honey! A Vegetarian just doesn't eat meat but eats vegetables and dairy products. Sometimes where meds are concerned exceptions have to be made! I have an allergy to the natural thyroid pills so I take the thyroid that is extracted from a pigs gland! It's cause my thyroid level is too low!
However I don't thing that makes me less a Vegetarian but I sure can't be a Vegan though! Vegans don't go for exceptions. You're no less a vegetarian than me!
Vegetarians don't eat animals or anything the animal had to die to give. Fish are animals. Chickens are animals. Gelatin is not vegetarian.
When it comes to medications, I always asked for a tablet form instead of a gelatin capsule. If I take vitamins or whatever now (i'm not on any medication) i'll make sure they're in vegetarian-friendly vcaps if not tablets.
I wouldn't actively search out or choose to eat gelatin, but if I *needed* a medication and there were no other alternatives, I'd take a gelatin cap.
Last I checked, ants were insects. Damn North Carolina education system...they haven't been upgraded to Vegan 5.0 yet...
There really should be a vegetarian safe alternative to your meds I would see if you could find that. Otherwise you are doing the best you can under the circumstances.
A lot of people put lables on themselves that don't really fit. To me a vegetarian for over 12 years now. Vegetitarian means not consuming any animal or anything that an animal had to die to get or process.
I would buy your daughter some vegetarian marshmellows they do make them.
Pescatarian (also spelled pescetarian)
The word “pescatarian” is occasionally used to describe those who abstain from eating all meat and animal flesh with the exception of fish. Although the word is not commonly used, more and more people are adopting this kind of diet, usually for health reasons or as a stepping stone to a fully vegetarian diet.
Vegan
Vegans do not eat meat of any kind and also do not eat eggs, dairy products, or processed foods containing these or other animal-derived ingredients such as gelatin. Many vegans also refrain from eating foods that are made using animal products that may not contain animal products in the finished process, such as sugar and some wines. There is some debate as to whether certain foods, such as honey, fit into a vegan diet.
. Vegetarian (Lacto-ovo- vegetarian)
When most people think of vegetarians, they think of lacto-ovo-vegetarians. People who do not eat beef, pork, poultry, fish, shellfish or animal flesh of any kind, but do eat eggs and dairy products are lacto-ovo vegetarians (“lacto” comes from the Latin for milk, and “ovo” for egg).
Flexitarian/Semi-vegetarian
You don’t have to be vegetarian to love vegetarian food! “Flexitarian” is a term recently coined to describe those who eat a mostly vegetarian diet, but occasionally eat meat.
Lacto-vegetarian is used to describe a vegetarian who does not eat eggs, but does eat dairy products.
Ovo-vegetarian refers to people who do not eat meat or dairy products but do eat eggs.
Raw vegan/Raw food diet
A raw vegan diet consists of unprocessed vegan foods that have not been heated above 115 degrees Fahrenheit (46 degrees Celsius). “Raw foodists” believe that foods cooked above this temperature have lost a significant amount of their nutritional value and are harmful to the body.
Macrobiotic
The macrobiotic diet, revered by some for its healthy and healing qualities, includes unprocessed vegan foods, such as whole grains, fruits and vegetables, and allows the occasional consumption of fish. Sugar and refined oils are avoided. Perhaps the most unique qualifier of the macrobiotic diet is its emphasis on the consumption of Asian vegetables, such as daikon, and sea vegetables, such as seaweed.
Hope this helps
There are no official definitions of vegetarian. It's a personal choice. 60% of India is vegetarian, and many of them eat fish. But I wouldn't call them vegetarian.
But if you say someone isn't vegetarian because they eat gelatin, that's really stretching it.
To me, eating fish is not vegetarian. It's just not eating red meat. Vegetarian is a no-meat diet- fish are animals too.
fish is not vegetarian.
gelatin is vegetarian.
Gelatin is not vegetarian. Your membership card should get revoked.
Nobody in your family is a vegetarian.
Now I know where the pumped up % of people that are vegetarians comes from.