Okay, I've been wanting to go Vegetarian for awile. If I did go Vegetarian, would I not be able to eat other things besides just meat? or, can I still be vegetarian if I just don't eat meat?

Vegetarian means you don't eat dead animals....I'm not sure if your question was whether you can eat fish or not, but being veg. basiclly means no dead things. Sometimes foods might have smaller ingrediants like lard(beef fat), gelatin(cartilidge/bones of dead animals), or chicken broth, which you may want to look for.

There are plenty of vegetarian foods though :) A good thing to do when you first go vegetarian, is to try out some fake meat, I found that helped me a lot in transitioning. Morningstar Farms and Boca Burgers are great!

There are four types of vegetarian:

lacto-ovo: this sounds like what you are. l/o eat dairy and eggs

lacto: eats dairy only

ovo: eats eggs only (pretty rare)

vegan: eats no eggs/dairy

fruitarian: eats plants that if you ate them, they don't "die". (AKA: once you eat a carrot the plant is gone, but if you eat an apple the tree is still alive)

BUT geletin, lard and meat flavorings (if natural) aren't meat and aren't vegetarian.

So, basically, in addition to meat, avoid jello, marshmellows, some guacamolie (sp)/sour cream/yogurt, skittles...etc...

fruitarian: eats plants that if you ate them, they don't "die". (AKA: once you eat a carrot the plant is gone, but if you eat an apple the tree is still alive)


Wow, i never thought of the fruitarian idea that way. it's an interesting concept.

Okay, I've been wanting to go Vegetarian for awile. If I did go Vegetarian, would I not be able to eat other things besides just meat? or, can I still be vegetarian if I just don't eat meat?

...Well actually you should probably eat nothing. Because as you'll soon learn on VeggieBoards, nothing is Vegan. So the safest option is to just not eat.

...Well actually you should probably eat nothing. Because as you'll soon learn on VeggieBoards, nothing is Vegan. So the safest option is to just not eat.

Now that is the best advise that I have seen you give.:p

...Well actually you should probably eat nothing. Because as you'll soon learn on VeggieBoards, nothing is Vegan. So the safest option is to just not eat.

:lol:

Way to make it sound impossible.

a lacto ovo vegitarian would not eat rennet, animal broths, lard, gelatin, carmine [crushed bettle juice - beetles are animals].

If you just abstain from eating meat (meat, poultry, fish) and do not worry about broths, gelatin, etc. you are a person who doesn't eat meat, not technically labeled "vegetarian". You are lacto-ovo vegetarian if you don't eat the products penny mentioned.

a lacto ovo vegitarian would not eat rennet, animal broths, lard, gelatin, carmine [crushed bettle juice - beetles are animals].

But aren't animal broths MEAT based? Lacto ovo involves milk and eggs, I thought.

But aren't animal broths MEAT based? Lacto ovo involves milk and eggs, I thought.
Yes, animal broths are meat-based. Lacto-ovo vegetarians do not eat meat or anything meat-based, but they do eat eggs and dairy, lacto meaning dairy and ovo meaning eggs.

a lacto ovo vegitarian would not eat rennet, animal broths, lard, gelatin, carmine [crushed bettle juice - beetles are animals].
What types of cheese (if any) don't have rennet? I'm not old enough to move out, so my mom will kill me if I don't find something.

What types of cheese (if any) don't have rennet? I'm not old enough to move out, so my mom will kill me if I don't find something.

Check out this thread: http://www.veggieboards.com/boards/showthread.php?t=46149

Why would your Mum kill you for not eating cheese?

Good luck on becoming veggie!

Why would your Mum kill you for not eating cheese?
She dosen't want me to because "It ruins your health! You barely eat milk anymore!" and the ever-popular, widely-used (in my family at least) "I control what you eat!" :rolleyes: :stinkeye:

a lacto ovo vegitarian would not eat rennet, animal broths, lard, gelatin, carmine [crushed bettle juice - beetles are animals].

Many vegetarians do not care about carmine.

Many vegetarians do not care about carmine.
Most people don't know what carmine is.

She dosen't want me to because "It ruins your health! You barely eat milk anymore!" and the ever-popular, widely-used (in my family at least) "I control what you eat!" :rolleyes: :stinkeye:


I'd say EATING cheese is more likely to ruin your health than NOT eating it.

Most people don't know what carmine is.

Ignorance is no excuse :lol:

This is Carmine..

http://www.geocities.com/squeakyland/ls6509.jpg

What types of cheese (if any) don't have rennet? I'm not old enough to move out, so my mom will kill me if I don't find something.


At the risk of sounding HORRIBLE, I would say that as a young veggie who may not have full control over where their cheese is bought, you should not worry about the rennet issue, unless you and the person who does the cooking in the house is willing to go to an HFS which will provide this kind of info. Most cheeses are not labeled according to whether they contain rennet, and whether the rennet is animal- (cow tummy) or vegetable-based.

Get your mother, if you can, to check out "The Optimum Nutrition Bible". It sums up some very interesting research on milk.

The definition of vegetarian as no dead animals is good. I call myself vegetarian for lack of a better word but really my diet doesn't fit into a category. I eat no domesticated animal products, so basically nothing that comes from a farm. No animal flesh from a farm, no dairy (although I'm not quite 100% there yet), no eggs, no gelatin, no casein/rennet, no lard, etc.

While it's a rare occasion, I do eat fish. And while I wouldn't eat an animal coming from the forest that a hunter shot because of health reasons, I would have no ethical obligation to it. My moral motivation is that the domestication of animals is wrong and against animal rights (not to mention my environmental qualms), but eating animals from their natural habitat such as fresh fish does not violate animal rights.

I will probably eliminate fish as well since I am starting to feel more of the take-no-life vegan philosophy as I continue to not eat meat. But this is my condition right now.

To the OP: you can see that there's no cookie cutter definnition of vegetarian or vegetarian-like diets. It's really a personal choice and the labels are pretty unimportant.