Vegetarians, do you eat fish or geletin??

These are two things i've heard vegetarians eat, i'm new to vegetarianism and i don't know what to think!!

I don't eat fish, i only became vegetarian just over a week ago and i was just wondering what other people, so far i have been eating geletin coz i didn't know what it was, but i'm not gonna eat either!!!

I'm vegetarian and I don't eat fish. And for the most part, I try to stay away from gelatin. Right now, I take some multivitamins (One a Day Women) which has gelatin...but I got it from Costco long before I became vegetarian... and why waste a big bottle of multivitamin? but after I'm done with this bottle, I'm going to look for other multivitamins without gelatin in it.

I think it's best to keep in mind that whether or not you adhere to a vegetarian or vegan diet, what you are trying to do is eschew whatever animal products you want to avoid -as best as you can, to your own abilities-. Crap happens, and sometimes you later find out that something you had ate/drank contained some fish... or some gelatin... or some dairy (may not be the case for you)... but sometimes it just can't be helped, because you honestly didn't know. Don't let those minute mistakes get you down, regardless of if other 'hardcore' vegetarians/vegans say otherwise.

But good job on making a personal choice to become vegetarian. Good for you! I hope you'll enjoy it. =]

Thanks everyone!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm a lacto-ovo vegetarian. I'm OK with eating/drinking dairy and eggs. But I don't eat meat, which I sometimes refer to as carcasses or corpses to gross out the omnivores. =D

I don't get all picky about if there's some really strange animal ingredient in my food. I figure if I eat dairy and eggs, I'm still contributing to the problem a bit. I just can't afford to be vegan, being a college student with less than $350 to my name.

And honestly, eating dairy and eggs doesn't bother me that much. If we could turn things around and keep animals humanely, but milk cows and use extra chicken eggs, it's not that bad. I know the horrors of the truth, but there's always that little glimmer of hope in the back of my mind.

So I don't eat fish. At all. That was first to go before I was even 5 years old. I'm fine with eating gelatin or other weird animal ingredients, if that's what something's made with, but I don't go out of my way to buy them if I know it. For example, I don't go buy Jello. But I don't go beserk looking for the weird little ingredients either.

There are still vegans who eat honey and wear leather, so everyone makes their own choices I guess.

I personally don't consider people who eat fish vegetarians, because they are eating dead animal meat. They can call themselves pescetarians and I'll appreciate their contributions to the effort, but it irks me a bit when they call themselves vegetarians because in my opinion, they aren't. They have to stop eating all dead animal carcasses before I consider them veggie.

Like my cousin, she wasn't even a pescetarian and tried to call herself veg. People were saying that I must have got it from her, but she still ate both chicken and fish, just gave up red meat. Go ahead and make a new word for it. It's just not the same really.

Ok but gelatin IS part dead animal carcass.

Also, just wanted to make sure all the vegetarians know about rennet.  I don't have time to get into it, google it if you want.  But, I was a lacto-ovo vegetarian for 12 years before I even knew about rennet.  I am so ashamed, and would have been a vegan a lot sooner if i had found out sooner.  Anyway, the minute I found out about rennet (little over 2 years ago)I became vegan, on the spot.  I can't believe it took 12 years.  I should have become one because of the horrors of the dairy/egg industry alone but i wasn't educated enough on that, either.  

I'm a vegetarian and I don't eat fish. I ate it once after I became a vegetarian because I was at a restaurant and I didn't think there would be anything else to eat. Now I know its pretty easy to avoid so I can go to a restuarant and not have it.

My big problem is gelatin. I don't eat jello, marshmellows, some frostings, etc but there are times when I do slip (I ate skittles a week ago). I suppose its just really hard for me to picture  what its made of. I always feel gulity if I knowingly slip and I've replaced some foods like yogurt with versions that don't use it. I also check for rennet in the ingrediants of cheese.

My question is, do they always list that rennet is in cheese? I used to think singles didn't have any bt I didn't find it on a interet list of vegetarian cheese. Now I just stick to Land-o-Lake

I'm a vegetarian and I don't eat fish. I ate it once after I became a vegetarian because I was at a restaurant and I didn't think there would be anything else to eat. Now I know its pretty easy to avoid so I can go to a restuarant and not have it.

My big problem is gelatin. I don't eat jello, marshmellows, some frostings, etc but there are times when I do slip (I ate skittles a week ago). I suppose its just really hard for me to picture  what its made of. I always feel gulity if I knowingly slip and I've replaced some foods like yogurt with versions that don't use it. I also check for rennet in the ingrediants of cheese.

My question is, do they always list that rennet is in cheese? I used to think singles didn't have any bt I didn't find it on a interet list of vegetarian cheese. Now I just stick to Land-o-Lake

I'm not sure if they list or not because as soon as I found out, i became vegan, so I never actually had to look.  Good luck, though!  I do know that subway and pizza hut cannot confirm if their cheese is calf rennet based or not.

Technically if you eat fish you are a pescatarian.

I'm pescetarian so I eat fish but not things containing gelatin, as gelatin usually comes from cow or pig bones and/or skin. I don't eat pigs or cows so I'm not OK with eating their skin or bones, even if I can't tell they're in there! Hey but everyone has thier own limits. There's no reason to be judgmental about other people's personal choices.

no fish, no gelatin.

otherwise i wouldn't be a vegetarian.

To me it is simple. Vegetarians do not eat meat, fish, or gelatine.

Pescatarians are just that, not "a form" of vegetarian.

I do not have a problem with any one eating fish/ meat etc. That is personal choice.

I do though, have a problem with fish/meat/gelatine eaters labelling them selves as vegatarian as they are largely responsible for all the confusion that reigns in restaurants.

I am also a pescetarian. Actually, an ovolactopescatarian but most people give me a blank look when I say that so I just tell people I don't eat meat :). I eat fish but I try to shop for locally caught wild fish and buy from local vendors - I'm lucky I live on the ocean and can do that. I chose not to eat other animals mostly because 1) it breaks my heart to do it* 2) because I don't feel its healthy and 3) and because by now I have no taste for it.

I try to make healthy fish choices and started by using this guide: http://www.nrdc.org/health/effects/mercury/gu ide.asp

It has info on which are farmed, in low numbers, use up resources, etc.

*(I know one can make the same argument about fish, arsenic on "organic" vegetables, imported goods and factory made breads and the like but unless I could have my own sustainable food source I have to compromise somewhere and eat something).

Fish - meat from a sentient being. NOT vegetarian!

Gelatin - Ground down animal hooves? REALLY not vegetarian in my opinion.

I don't judge what anybody else puts in their mouths. Actually that is a lie, I do judge (especially if it's sharkv/eal/foie gras), but I won't berate someone that eats a steak.

On the other hand, I think that if you are going to proclaim vegetarianism, then you should really have educated yourself  about, and embodied, what exactly that is.

I am fully vegan now, but I ate Quorn meatfree products while I was making the transition from veggie to vegan. In that period, even though I was not eating any dairy or eggs or using any other animal products, I couldn't call myself vegan because... well.... I wasn't!

This is a tough question for people to grapple with because 'vegetarianism' has multiple meanings: a behavior, a lifestyle, an identity, etc.  Several people have made analogies to religion and the fact that one can be an adherent to a religious lifestyle but at the same time engage in behaviors seemingly antithetical to that lifestyle and I think that is an apt analogy to the extent that religious categories can also have multiple meanings (behavior, lifestyle, identity, etc.). Another good analogy is sexual orientation, as people in the GLBT community often get in huge debates over whether or not someone is "really" gay, lesbian, etc.  As an example, how does one deal with an individual who identifies and behaves as a lesbian but then begins dating a man?  She may still maintain a lesbian identity, participate in the lesbian community, and consider it a part of her lifestyle, even if her behavior doesn't match the conventional definition of a lesbian.  There is, of course, no answer because lesbian (like Christian, like vegetarian) has multiple social meanings.

What is interesting to me is that people seem so quick to judge others based on their 'incorrect' use of a label with multiple meanings without attempting to understand how others are intending the label to be used.  I've found this to be a problem both within and outside of vegetarian circles.  Omnivores often assume that vegetarians mean the label as a political ideology when they often simply mean it to indicate what they do and don't eat; strict vegetarians often assume that all vegetarians use the label to refer to a strict diet while others use it to describe their average lifestyle or preferences. 

By simply applying one's own definition of the concept to others, we inevitably lose our ability to understand anything outside ourselves.

To the question at hand, yes I eat gelatin and fish.  However, I don't always describe myself as vegetarian, either (part of the whole multiple meanings thing).  If I was talking with friends, for example, I probably wouldn't say I was a vegetarian but would instead explain what I do and don't eat.  If I was at a dinner party with hosts I am unfamiliar with, however, I would most definitely describe myself as a vegetarian because it is the fastest and easiest way to guarantee that no one will put a piece of chicken in front of me. 

Of course, I'm a sociologist, so I like to complicate everything ;)

I use to not eat fish, but i recently ate imitation crab which i didnt read the label(ugh, always do this!)and it turned out to be fish...

so now im a pescatarian

and i do eat gelatin

i feel awful, but there is hardly anything 4 me to eat here at my house

and im more vegetarian for the health benefits soo....