✌ Vegan vs Vegetarian- The Great Debate ✌

Are you a vegan or a vegetarian? Are there any differences between the two or are they one and the same?

Hi, I am King Anima, hailing you from the isles of Jamaica today. I have been vegan since 2014 after a series of unfortunate events led me down this path. It was pretty easy for me to adjust as I literally stopped consuming animal products overnight without any prior thought.

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After this, I spent the next few months calling myself a vegetarian, not even knowing there was such a thing as a vegan. I had never heard the word before. It was a Gary Yourofsky's video posted on Fb that I learned it. Since then I have used the words interchangeably to refer to myself or anyone on a similar path.

To me, the word vegetarian comes from the root vegetation or vegetables, and so, it refers to a person who consumes only vegetation. But as I was trodding around each time someone discovered that I was a vegetarian they would ask me if I eat fish as if fish was a vegetable lol. My good friend Kaya, who posted that video on Fb, told me he was a vegetarian but he eats fish. This was very puzzling to me.

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After a while, I learned that there are people who call themselves lacto and octo-vegetarians. These are people who eat mostly plants but consuming dairy products and eggs respectively. This doesn't make sense I thought. These people are just regular animal product consumers.

Later on, since then I have traveled to many places and met many different vegetarians and vegans and from my observations and understandings, people who consume any animal product should stop staining the good name of vegetarians with their double talk. I believe that only a person who eats strictly plants can call themselves a so.

So where does this leave us now? Well, by definition, all vegans are vegetarians. But not all vegetarians are vegans. The reason for this is that vegetarianism is primarily a dietary choice while veganism is an ethical stance against animal abuse.

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Being a stance against cruelty to animals, veganism dictates that one must not eat, wear not use an animal product, bi-products or animals themselves for any reason. This is like taking vegetarianism to a higher degree. Birthed from compassion, love, intelligence, and empathy.

The reason I am writing on this topic is to have everyone think more about how our lives affect the animals of this planet. To say, if you are vegetarian, congrats, now just take that extra step onto vegan. We already enjoy the same foods and are more spiritually aligned. So let's join hands together and take that next step.

P.s I want to thank @eco-alex for his kind support and advise.

Much respect,

King Anima.