Feeling guilty about being a vegetarian, but not a vegan

[2littlemoos]

I've recently been eating a plant based whole grain diet for my health which has naturally made me look into vegetarianism/veganism (is that a word).

I have been having a bit of milk and cheese every other day or so and I've still been letting my toddlers have dairy and I guess I just feel like a massive hypocrite.

It's hard to express exactly how I feel but I hope what I've written makes sense.

If you are vegetarian do you feel the same?

I have to admit I do think people who are vegetarian for animal welfare reasons are a bit silly as there is so much horrendous cruelty in the dairy industry, and yet they will happily tuck into a big plate of cheese whilst patting themselves on the back for being so kind to animals.

I judge myself worse though because I think being vegan is the right thing to do if you love animals, and yet I'm not vegan, so I feel the guilt and do intend to become vegan but it takes will power and dedication that I currently lack.

Could you cut down on dairy? I've been vegetarian for decades but have only recently become aware of the ethical problems with dairy. So I'm cutting down slowly.

If eggs are free-range (truly, open-air during the day, small farms), then I have much less of a problem (personally) with that.

I feel the exact same. I'm vegetarian and attempt to eat vegan as much as possible but I used to have an eating disorder and still struggle with binge-eating, when I binge I eat things with cheese, dairy products and eggs in them so afterwards I feel doubly guilty as not only have I binged, I've binged on foods that I really don't want to be eating for ethical reasons.

I think if you're veggie for health reasons then it's not hypocritical, although not entirely logical.

But if it's for ethical reasons then yes, you're missing the point that dairy is way more cruel than (well sourced) meat.

I always wonder what veggies do about products containing animal products like moisturiser etc.

but any reduced animal consumption is a good thing.

I've been vegetarian for about 4 years, almost 5, I've also tried being vegan, managed it while not working, but as soon as I started working I found myself eating milk and cheese, I don't feel too bad, I've made a long standing change in vegetarianism so I am happy