Plant-Based Diets: Understanding the Differences Between Vegetarian and Vegan

For us to understand the main difference we need to go deep into the history of both and get to know their diet difference and the thin line that make these two diets different in certain ways and why people choose to live with these diet in the first place. So let’s understand this with our article on the difference Between Vegetarian & Vegan. Hope you get the information you need from our efforts.

To understand the difference between vegan & vegetarian let’s understand vegetarianism first.

Vegetarianism means not eating meat (animals) and Vegetarianism have mainly 3 diets but if we include a vegan diet then there are four diets we will talk but the 3 main diets

1 Ovo-Lacto Vegetarianism — in the simple term you can add dairy Products & eggs but not meat to your diet. & this diet is most common in the western world and some parts of India.

2 Ovo Vegetarianism — this type consume eggs but not dairy product & meat for their food intake. The general population following this diet is lactose intolerant and this diet is good for them for sure.

3 Lacto Vegetarianism — this concept mainly came from ancient India. In this diet, you can consume dairy products but not meat & egg. Mahatma Gandhi was a notable Lacto Vegetarian.

History: vegetarianism is a very old concept and its earliest signs are from the 9th century BCE, From the jain vegetarianism concept of Parshwanatha & Mahavira two spiritual teachers of Jainism from India.

Ancient Greece also has traces of vegetarianism as is in Japan in 675. & in china too where many meat substitutes like Konjac, Tofu, and seitan originated.

Now let us focus on veganism and what its diet is

Vegan & Vegetarian are mostly common in terms of many things but the most common difference is vegan diet does not include egg and dairy products and vegetarians do.

Veganism is a concept and also a way of life for many people. Veganism means no animal products whatsoever in your diet and what it means is that no dairy product, egg, meat, and any other food or item which have animal-derived content.

A vegan diet contains fruit, grains, seeds, beans, mushrooms, nuts, and vegetables and that is what makes Vegetarian & Vegan different.

The vegan diet becomes more famous in the 2010s decade more importantly in the second half of that decade. Plant-based meat becomes more famous and has a grew sales by 37% from the 2017 to 2019 period.

History: the word vegan came from Donald Watson and Dorothy Morgan and they say that the word derived from the last 2 and first 2 letters of vegetarian. The first edition of vegan news had more than 100 letters from people including George Bernard Shaw. In 1945 they had 500 subscribers. In 1948 USA had its first vegan society. With different activities during all this time. And In 2021 January 582,538 People from 209 different Countries signed up for Veganuary and 36% of the British public showed interest in veganism.

Keeping all details in mind we can say veganism is more restricted than vegetarianism and vegan does not mean any interesting food but you can enjoy all wonderful vegetarian food excluding dairy and eggs from them.

The bottom line

The conclusion about this information is that there are differences between vegan and vegetarian but one thing is for sure they both avoid consuming animal products for various reasons and beliefs and we all should respect that. We also want you to know that keep all information to mind and then decide on your diet but make sure you keep animal lives in the matter and in these times that is all we need also consider the benefit of the diet and what it can to help your body and to the whole planet.