Vegetarians vs. Vegans: The way of life!

Vegetarianism is the practice of not eating meat, including beef, poultry, fish, or their by-products, with or without the use of dairy products or eggs. The exclusion may also extend to products derived from animal carcasses, such as lard, tallow, gelatin, rennet and cochineal. This means that a vegetarian is one whose diet consists of vegetables, fruits, grains, beans, nuts, and sometimes animal products such as eggs, milk, or cheese. Whereas Vegans shun all animal products, Vegetarians do not. A vegan is someone who lives solely on the products of the plant kingdom without the addition of eggs, dairy or animal products. It is up to the individual to choose what option is better for following its own personal beliefs! 

Vegetarianism 

History

Terminology and varieties of vegetarianism

• Lacto vegetarianism — Lacto vegetarians do not eat meat or eggs but do consume dairy products.
  Most vegetarians in India and those in the classical Mediterranean lands, such as Pythagoreans, are or were lacto vegetarian.
• Ovo-lacto vegetarianism — Lacto-ovo vegetarians do not eat meat but do consume dairy products and eggs. This is currently the most common variety in the Western world because it isn't that much rigorous.
• Ovo vegetarianism — Ovo vegetarians do not eat meat or dairy products but do eat eggs.

Vegetarianism practices

• Fruitarianism - is a diet of only fruit, nuts, seeds, and other plant matter that can be gathered without harming the plant. A fruitarian will eat beans, tomatoes, cucumbers, pumpkins, and the like, but will refuse to eat potatoes or spinach.
• A raw food diet - includes only food, usually vegan, which is not heated above 46.7 °C, so it may be warmed slightly or raw, but never cooked.  
• A macrobiotic diet is a diet consisting mostly of whole grains and beans and is usually spiritually based, like Fruitarianism.
• Natural Hygiene, in its classic form, includes a diet principally of raw vegan foods.
• Pesco/pollo vegetarianism - Some people choose to avoid certain types of meat because of health, ethical beliefs, etc.  
• Lacto-ovo-pesco vegetarianism — People that practice this form of vegetarianism don’t eat meat but do consume milk, eggs, and fish. This diet is popular in Japan.
• Flexitarianism — People that follow this diet are telling that it is mostly vegetarian but occasionally consume meat.  
• Freeganism — these people practice a lifestyle based on concerns about the exploitation of animals, the earth, and human beings in the production of consumer goods. Freeganism is also concerned about waste.

Motivation

• Environmental reasons
  This is very popular approach to the vegetarianism. These, so called- environmental vegetarians believe that the production of meat and animal products at present and likely future levels is environmentally unsustainable. The fact is that the process of Industrialization has lead to intensive farming practices and diets high in animal protein, primarily in developed nations and mainly the United States.

• Physiological reasons
  Some experts that studied this field are telling that humans are physiologically better suited to a vegetarian diet. For instance, life expectancy is considerably greater in parts of the world where a semi-vegetarian diet is common than in the parts where a meat diet is more common. Some experts are also telling that human beings are designed to consume vegetable diet rather than meat. The reasons are mainly associated with the differences between predators and plant-eating animals.
  
  
• Psychological reasons
  Many vegetarians choose to be what they are because they find meat and meat products aesthetically disgusting. Proponents believe that human beings are not instinctively attracted to eating live or dead meat in nature.
  
  
• Reasons concerning food safety
  People that are eating meat on a daily basis started to fear about different diseases and conditions that could be caused by various microorganisms found in different animal products! Some of those are: BSE in cows, avian flu in poultry, foot-and-mouth in sheep, and salmonella in eggs, PCBs in farmed salmon and high dioxin levels in animal products.

Veganism

Veganism Definition

Vegan nutrition

• Vitamin B12 - Vegans are recommended to eat foods with B12 added. Some of those foods are soy milk, fortified margarines, commercial breakfast cereals, certain brands of nutritional yeast, or dietary supplements. Inadequate absorption of the body's stores of vitamin B12 poses a health risk, so the vitamin must often be ingested through fortified products and nutritional yeast.
  
• Iron – Although it isn't still well studied- researches show that iron deficiency is more present in vegans than in the general population.  It is important to note that iron deficiency is one of the most common nutritional deficiencies that’s why many nutritionists and dieticians recommend a daily multivitamin.
  
• Iodine - The low iodine levels in many plant foods reflects the low iodine levels in the vegans. That’s why it must be replaced with dairy products and than iodized salt.

• anemia
• pernicious anemia
• cretinism
• Hyperthyroidism

Criticism and controversy: Vegetarianism or Veganism?