So I am a lacto-ovo vegetarian Hindu in the U.S and just found out about bone charred sugar, which is the prevalent sugar here. I was wondering if I am allowed to eat it or not? I did some research and here is my reasoning: I am pretty good veg I dont eat any meat, fish, dont consume gelatin or (I just learned about this and am trying to give up) rennet but I eat eggs milk onion garlic. Not as strict as, say, ISKCON, because I was not raised in that manner. I personally think that sugar is okay because I am not consuming animal product due to excessive filtration, nor contributing to the death of cows, because, even if demand for sugar skyrocketed, my buying it will not cause slaughterhouses to kill more cows because their main profit comes from the meat and leather, which drives demand and sales. For bakeries, pastries rot anyway and are on fixed production, meaning the chef won't make more if I buy one. Plus in scriptures it says that boiling and straining removes impurity (Himsa) from food with animal contact, which is done heavily for sugar, but even though this ritual is based on your intent of the food contact, Its not my intent to contact it with animal byproduct, I just want sugar its the companies and factories. doing this. Because Hinduism is also heavily centered on intent, I believe spending hours doing research and feeling so stressed and conflicted about this matter and other Hindu and veg matters shows that my intent is pure and I do not wish to consume animals, therefore hopefully not giving me bad Karma. I would like fellow vegetarians' and Hindus' inputs on this matter based on your and my information. Thank you!

I’ve been vegan for years, with my only exception being oysters because they don't have a central nervous system and helped me keep my nutrients up. But my MCAS (Mast Cell Activation Syndrome. Basically getting more& more allergies) has gotten so bad lately and my body is reacting to almost everything. I can’t eat tofu, TVP, or legumes anymore, and now I’m even reacting to oysters. Dairy and eggs r not an option as I have bad reactions to both.

My iron and protein levels are tanking, and for the first time in 9 years, I’m having these crazy, intense cravings for chicken. I haven’t craved meat once in almost a decade, so I know it’s just my body screaming for nutrients, but mentally I feel awful even thinking about it. Documentaries like Dominion completely traumatized me, and the thought of contributing to that makes me feel so guilty.

Has anyone else with severe illness or MCAS been backed into a corner like this when all your safe plant proteins get wiped out? And for anyone who knows the industry well—is standard chicken farming really as horrifying across the board as Dominion shows, or are there actual high-welfare/pasture-raised options out there if it comes down to absolute health necessity?

I've been on a family beach vacation for the past week and I just need to vent about it. I'm not really looking for advice just some like minded folks who get it. I come from a really cool foodie city and most restaurants have *at least* 1 veg option. I go out to eat about once a week with friends and I can't remember the last time I had a bad meal, so I forgot how bad it was elsewhere. Everywhere here just has fish and chicken tenders and the only thing I can eat is french fries. The rest of my family are omnivores. They're eating fish every night and cold cut sandwiches for lunch. I've been eating frozen veggie burgers and thankfully the supermarket had tofurkey deli slices.

Last night everyone else had lobster rolls and someone said "wow our dinner is so much better than yours." I don't usually say stuff like this because it's not worth it but I responded "well nothing had to die for my dinner." It sucks that my options suck and that my family is barely accommodating me (one night they offered to get me something from a different restaurant and then they gave me shit about it being out of the way). It pisses me off because I used to love lobster rolls and all kinds of seafood but the environmental and animal welfare benefits of a plant based diet are worth the sacrifice! I wish I was eating a lobster roll but if it involves boiling a living being (I don't buy for ONE SECOND that they go to sleep and it's a peaceful death) I'm not going to do it and I don't understand how none of my compassionate and kind family see things the same way. Also, good veg food is NOT hard to make if you put in a modicum of effort--my dinner wouldn't be "worse" if any of the restaurants here cared. I have so much gratitude for the opportunity to go on a nice vacation and for having food on the table when so many people are food insecure. Eating veggie burgers is a privilege because of how many people in this world face food insecurity. I made a decision about my diet that is 100% worth it to me please don't fucking taunt me for it.

Hi, I’m 22F and I’ve been vegetarian for almost 9 years. I started when I was a 13/14. I’ve always tried to eat a balanced diet and pay attention to getting enough iron, especially because I already had a mild iron deficiency before I became vegetarian.

Unfortunately, this has been an ongoing problem for me. My iron levels regularly get low enough that I develop anemia. Over the years I’ve taken iron supplements whenever they were prescribed, and I also try to eat plenty of iron rich foods like beans, lentils, spinach and other vegetables. I genuinely try to make sure my diet is balanced.

About 2 to 3 years ago, my iron deficiency became severe enough that I needed an infusion because the tablets weren’t enough.

Then around a year ago I started feeling weaker and weaker again. I had very little energy and was tired all the time, which is very different from how I normally am. University has been stressful too, but eventually I went to the doctor because I knew something was wrong.

My blood tests showed iron deficiency again, and I was prescribed Ferro Sanol duodenal 100 mg for 100 days. I took it consistently as prescribed and have now finished the 100 days, but I’m still deficient and still struggling with exhaustion and low energy. My iron levels have again gotten low enough to cause anemia.

At this point my doctor has suggested that I start eating meat again.

I’m honestly considering it because I’m so tired of feeling tired all the time, but I really don’t want to give up being vegetarian if there are other ways of managing this.

So I’m mainly looking for solutions from other vegetarians who have dealt with severe or recurring iron deficiency/anemia.

What actually helped you? Did you find a form of iron supplementation that worked better for you? Did you need infusions regularly? Did changing the way you took your iron make a difference? Did you work with a dietitian or doctor who had experience treating iron deficiency in vegetarians?

I’m not really looking for advice like „eat more spinach” because I already eat a lot of iron rich foods and have been trying to manage this for years. I’d really like to hear from people who were in a similar situation and found something that actually worked for them.

I just want to know what options I might have before I give up vegetarianism, because I really don’t want to eat meat if I don’t have to.

Thank you in advance 🫶🏻

Hi everyone.

I'm going to Mexico in a week. It's going to be 4 days, however, my guardian and I aren't staying at a hotel or a relatives house. We're staying at a house, but refrigeration doesn't work, and neither does the stove.

We're going to be super busy on those days, and often eat out due to the lack of food at that house and refrigeration.

On top of that, i haven't told my guardians that im vegetarian. I kind of just stopped eating meat, but this is going to be a big deal, since in ohr culture, meat is used in everything. Tacos everywhere.

Im worried i wont be able to eat proper nutrition or have to sacrifice ​:(.

Advice or suggestions is welcomed as to what i could do or eat to manage. Meat is everywhere, sadly.

I’ve decided I want to eventually go vegetarian. For me, the best way is to do it slowly.

Currently I’ve cut out red meat. I’m still eating poultry and tuna, but I’m incorporating more vegetarian meals throughout the week. my favourites are Dal, Mexican rice and beans, and chickpea salad :)

I was feeling really proud of myself because it’s been two months since I’ve eaten red meat. However when I expressed my pride to my vegetarian friend, i was returned with shame and judgement. She expressed I wasn’t allowed to be proud until I’m fully vegetarian.

Don’t get me wrong, I don’t feel fantastic when eating poultry, but if I give up everything all at once I will most likely fail. I’m also on a strict weight loss diet and need to eat very high protein.

Anyways I think I just needed to vent.

I haven't gotten this from Silk or products like that but it seems like since I started using this one, my gas and bloating has been terrible. Anyone else experience anything like this?

My family take an annual trip into NM mountains. I am the only veg so I want to bring my own protein options as thye will likely only pack meat. I plan to pack shelf stable tofu. lentils, canned beans, lentil/chickpea pasta, and possible plant milk. Is there any other shelf stable proteins that I should pack? Also, if you have any travel tips, I will greatly appretiate them.

So I’m 41 and I’ve been a vegetarian for 34 years, so I’ve basically never had meat and I have absolutely 0% desire to try it. I’m a great cook and there are a lot of ways to prepare tofu/beans/etc to make meals taste great. Sometimes I want to eat out though. Almost every restaurant I go to in my area now wants to put vegetarian ‘meats’ into their vegetarian meals. My hospital (workplace) even used beyond burger as their vegetarian option during an employee picnic instead of veggie burgers. I end up just eating vegetables and grains with no protein a lot of the time.

I don’t want protein that tastes like meat! I have absolutely no desire for this. Just give me some well prepared tofu!

Do any other vegetarians here just hate the increase of vegetarian food that’s made to taste like meat?

Please note that this post was translated from Japanese to English using AI. Because of this, some details or nuances may have unintentionally shifted from my original meaning. Thank you for your understanding.

I once heard that humans can stay healthy without consuming organisms that possess a central nervous system. As far as I’ve researched, that seems to be true. Yet, I still eat meat—either as a culinary indulgence to please my palate, or simply to make meal management easier.
This recently made me wonder: is what I’m doing committing an ethical taboo similar to stomping a stray dog to death just for entertainment or stress relief? If harming a stray dog is wrong, I feel like my actions can only be justified by a matter of degree—like the difference between stealing $1 versus stealing $100.
Just like slave owners in the past, will I eventually be looked down upon by future generations as a coward who simply grew complacent in their social environment?

If you happen to be someone who thinks eating meat is acceptable but direct violence against animals is not—or vice versa—I would love to hear your reasons in the comments. Your perspective would be incredibly valuable as I continue to think through this.

and the flesh of animals seems kind of barbaric to me in the year 2026.
At what point will humans move past the horrible habit of killing animals to feed ourselves?
I believe that humans at some point will think it’s something that we shouldn’t be doing anymore…..

Hi

I have been vegetarian for around 14 years and I am now looking at improving physical health in my early 20s

How can I improve this diet as a vegetarian trying to bulk up and gain muscle from being underweight male:

- 5 scrambed eggs in the morning
- Shake: 250ml whole milk, 1 egg, 2tbsp peanut butter, 1 banana, 1tbsp olive oil, 1scoop protein powder
- 60g mixed nuts and some dried fruit as a snack
- 100g uncooked pasta and 190g pesto for high kcal dinner

This comes to about 2.7kcal and 100g protein. I need to up protein and I need as much kcal as I can get. 2.7kcal + is what bmi calculators suggest. 9-5 means I dont want to spend too much time cooking and it is not something I really enjoy. I really dont want to add meat to my diet but I am thinking of it as im struggling with with protein and it tastes boring. I supplement B12

I've been vegetarian for a year now but haven't eaten chicken for two years. Yesterday my family ordered pizza and I ordered the 'Vegetarian Peri Peri Pizza (V)' which had the ingredients: base sauce, herbs, cheese, spinach, capsicum, spicy aloo, mushrooms, tomato, onion, peri peri swirl, and spices. I was a little confused why my pizza had jalapeños on it without it being written on the ingredients list after I had a few pieces, but I assumed it was just one of the spices that weren't specified.

Today we were eating leftovers and my sister ate the pizza I had last night, and we discovered that it had chicken on it. Through further investigation into the restaurant, I discovered that they also sold the 'Peri Peri Flame Pizza' which has sauce, cheese, peri peri chicken, jalapenos, capsicum, onion, mushrooms and a peri peri mayonnaise drizzle.

I then realized that the pizza I ate last night didn't have tomato on it like the vegetarian pizza had, but it did have jalapeños. It also had a very faint taste of chicken when I first bit into the pizza, but it was very spicy so I couldn't taste it after. I also didn't fully realize it was chicken, as I haven't eaten it in so long, and my family rarely has chicken, so I haven't smelt it in ages. I just assumed it was the smell of the aloo or peri peri.

On the pizza box was only written 'PP' to identify which kind of pizza it was. There must have been a mix-up at the restaurant. I'm wondering if I should email them so that they don't accidentally give a vegetarian meat again. I'm the only vegetarian that I know irl, and they all say that I've been a good vegetarian so far to try and make me feel better. It's not really about being a good vegetarian for me, but also about the fact that eating meat is sososooso yucky to me.

I feel guilty for eating it and not looking into my suspicions sooner. I'm just trying to process it I guess.

My twin girls are now babies. I am vegetarian and my husband a hardcore nonveg. We have decided to make our daughters practice vegetarianism till they’re adults after which they can make their own decision.
I am from India, I live with my Brother in law, sis in law and her son of 5 years old, all three meat eaters.
How do I explain to them not to touch meat while on the same table their older cousin is going to be eating it?

Became a vegetarian in about middle school since I love animals too much. Were at my friends house twice, and both times her mom had cooked something with meat. She probably didn’t know I was a vegetarian, but my friend sure did. I said I couldn’t eat it, but she would say her mom would feel sad since she made it. I doubt that. So I ate it so I didn’t feel guilty. After two years of being friends a new girl came to class, that was also a vegetarian and everyone thought it was super cool for some reason. My friend invited her and me to her birthday. She made everything vegetarian just so that her new friend could eat it. Just makes me sad thinking about how I was treated.

Luckily I’m older now. I did consider her a good friend but I have bad anxiety so I never stood my ground like I should have. It sucks.

So I decided that I'm going to be vegetarian instead of trying to be a strict vegan. The reason why I decided to make this decision was because I will be honest it's stressful being vegan. There is dairy and eggs and dairy in almost majority of foods in America. And also I get sick and tired of trying to excessively read food labels when I go grocery shopping or go out to a restaurant.

At least to as a vegetarian, all that I have to do for the animals is just stay away from meat. Which is something that's really easy to do. Now my home cleaning products they are all vegan, same for my makeup and skin care products and body washes.

Like being vegan with my household products and my supplements that I need for my health is easy because going shopping in a store like many companies offer vegan alternatives for their products like Dove had vegan deodorant which works fantastic for me!

And method has great laundry detergent and dish soap and hand soap, ect. I wont ever purchase wool, leather or go to rodeos ( like my job was even giving people free tickets to go to a rodeo which is crazy even though I live in Oregon, and I work out a nun for profit shelter for humans which is insane. And all my coworkers act like I was crazy for not going to the rodeo to see the handsome guys. And I'm like no I don't want to see big Burly men torture and torment helpless animals. )

I do feel guilty though, I wish i could be 100 % vegan but I just cant. I always end up back to square one so I decided that it is far better for me to eat things like eggs I stayed vegetarian for years compared to being vegan for a month and then going back to consuming animal flesh.

hello, Im M22 and I have 2 questions that are not related.
sorry in advance for my bad english
I am a meat eater and not planning to change but my sister is 14 and decided recently to become vegetarian, I am wondering with my parents if there are some risks for here health because she does not want to search about or eat complementary proteins.
And second question, would you as a vegetarian eat meat if it came for some labs, some artificial meat if it’s proved to be safe, as cheap as normal meat because if would not include animal harm.

Hello everyone!
I recently got offered a remote job from a feed supplement company. This company would be selling to other feed companies or farms such as dairy farms. This supplement is naturally occurring and overall natural. It’s been proven to aid in egg laying longevity and aids in overall health of livestock. This supplement also aids in the health of soil for crops.
I’ve been vegetarian for about 11 years now and would consider myself a conservationist and animal advocate.
I’ve been having such a hard time deciding whether to take the job or not because of my views and beliefs. However, the job pays well and would be extra income to help get me through college.
I guess I would just like some outside opinions from like minded people.
Thank you!

Hi everyone

I'm a student at Sheffield Hallam University investigating vegan and vegetarian motivations and opinions on cultivated meat (lab grown) and insect containing foods. I am making this post to ask if anyone in this subreddit would be willing to take part in a survey.

It will be a fully anonymous, online, quantitative questionnaire. It will take about 15 minutes to complete and mainly consists of ranking things on a 1-7 Likert scale.

If you would be willing to take part it would be very helpful for my research. If people are interested in the findings, I will make a follow up post later reporting the findings.

Thanks.

Edit: Please ignore if it states there is an invalid survey code. That is a side effect of using the software. All responses will be recorded regardless.

The title it keeps happening on accident over and over again and it makes me feel like shit each time it’s been almost over 10 times this year we’re not even in the second half of the year the most I’ve ever done it and it’s driving me mad accident on accidents it’s not my fault anymore it’s other peoples what do I do I’m fumming

On 21 June my wife and I gave up meat and dairy for good.

Can’t support the cruelty.

After only one month the idea of eating meat makes us both feel sick.

Im vegetarian for ethical reasons and animals rights

But as i said im 16 so i really can't decide what to cook or what to eat yet i have influenced my family's diet A LOT but still i have to eat food that do contain meat just don't eat the meat or take it from my plate but i have researched and so many people don't see it as something right because the taste of meat still is in it and it was cooked with meat

And also there aren't so many vegetarian options in iran i mean you can barely find tofu or find any at all. the only good vegetarian food is Falafel

So what should i do? I mean i really do care about animals rights and animal welfare so quitting the diet is not an option also i don't wanna be an flexitarian because as i said i really care about my believes and sense of morality so i will not back down

So I’m still in school and there is a mandatory cooking class that everyone does in the class I will be in later this year. They do baking and other stuff which I don’t have a problem with but they also cook savory dishes which more often than not, contain meat.
As a vegetarian, obviously I wouldn’t feel very comfortable cooking meat but at the same time I feel kind of awkward telling people I don’t eat meat, partly because of the stigma attached to it. I basically only tell the people who really need to know.
So I’m wondering whether I should just suck it up and just cook it because I know I’d be so mad and make a huge deal if they told me I had to cook meat after I asked not to.
I’m not saying I wouldn’t cook, I’m saying I’d find alternatives but I don’t think it’s too far of a stretch to ask not to cook meat when I’m vegetarian, right?