2024 Author: Jasmine Walkman | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 08:29
If you are a "new" vegetarian or are just considering becoming one, you may have come across the term "lacto-vegetarian". Here's what you need to know about this type of vegetarian diet:
What does lactovegetarian mean?
The lacto-vegetarian is a term sometimes used to describe a vegetarian who does not eat eggs but eats dairy products. In other words, lacto-vegetarian diet includes all plant foods, including fruits, vegetables, grains and legumes, as well as dairy products such as milk, cheese, butter and any other products made from them.
In other words, lacto-vegetarianism is a diet that is simply "vegan plus dairy".
Most people do not know what kind of vegetarians they are. More often, someone who follows a lacto-vegetarian diet is defined as "I'm a vegetarian and I don't eat eggs" or "I eat mostly vegan with milk and cheese."
The majority of Hindus who follow a vegetarian diet are lacto-vegetarians, avoiding eggs for religious reasons while continuing to eat dairy products. In fact, in India, vegetarianism itself is defined as lacto-vegetarianism, as eggs are considered a non-vegetarian food. In the United States and most European countries, although there may be some small debate and many misunderstandings, vegetarianism includes both eggs and dairy products.
The word lacto- comes from Latin and means milk.
According to the simplest definition of vegetarianism, milk is vegetarian and you can still drink milk on a vegetarian diet and call yourself a vegetarian. Vegans, on the other hand, do not consume any animal products, including milk, eggs, or any type of dairy product, such as cheese or butter.
So, in short, yes, milk is a vegetarian food, but it is not vegan. Milk comes from animals, usually cows, but this is not the meat of the animal, so you can safely include it in your menu.
However, if you have a problem with including it in your diet, nowadays there are many alternatives to real milk, so it would not be difficult to replace it in your diet.
