So I have spent the majority of the
day pondering one of the food universes great mysteries. Is honey considered a
plant based food product, or an animal product? Honey spends much of its time masquerading
around as the product of a plant. I say this because clearly it is not bee “meat,”
and no bees were killed in order for us to consume the nectar of the flowers. We
all know that honey is in fact made from the pollen of flowers. However, it is made from pollen that has been
collected by honeybees, processed and excreted in its golden and sweet syrup
like form that we know as honey. I think that description alone pretty much classifies
honey as a bee “by-product”. O.K. I can understand that, but aren’t bees are
insects? Do insects really count as animals?
Technically speaking, all living organisms besides plants belong the
Kingdom Animalia, Since insects, such as honeybees are multicellular organisms
that rely on other organisms for food, then they are “living” and therefore
officially classified as animals. Well now that the bee mystery has been
settled, lets delve into the next. Can
vegetarians eat honey? What about vegans?
This is kind of of a confusing question to answer without first
explaining that there are inherent differences between being a vegan and
following a plant based diet. A summary of
a plant-based diet is one that promotes planning meals around whole plant
foods, like vegetables, fruits, nuts, whole grains, seeds, and legumes. Processed foods and animal
products are not encouraged when following this lifestyle. There are many forms of vegetarians, and ultimately, they limit their
animal consumption based on what they are comfortable with. Lacto-vegetarians who consume dairy
products, or lacto-ova-vegetarians who deem it acceptable to eat both dairy
products and eggs, and even pesco- vegetarians that indulges in fish. Like I
said there are quite a variety of vegetarian “styles” and many allow
consumption animal by-products such as honey.
I am going to derail for a moment here and say that even
though a vegan may not eat animal products, this does not mean they are
consuming a healthy diet, or even plant foods. Many unhealthy and over
processed food options are available to vegans such as French fries, Oreos, and
sodas. Sadly, the food industry has filled the void in the vegan diet with
easily accessible and increasingly better favored “vegan junk food”. These
animal-free foods are still loaded with sugar, oil ,and salt . Whatever form you get you get your sugar
in, be it that honey or other sweeteners, they should still be used sparingly as
they are high in calories and low in nutrients.
What have we learned from all of this? Honey comes from bees,
which are officially classified as animals. That means if you're a vegetarian,
you can still enjoy honey, because it's not part of the animal itself. If
you're vegan you shouldn't eat it, because it does come from an animal
by-product. I know that a vegetarian diet is not for everyone, but I would go
out on a limb to promote a whole food, plant-based diet that includes very
small amounts of animal meat and animal products, over a vegan diet consisting
of highly processed foods.
I found
writing this blog to be personally enlightening. I learned much about the vegan culture and
although I do not practice veganism, I found it interesting to educate myself
on many of the standard practices of a vegan. I am going to leave you with a
list of things that I didn’t know before researching this article that strict
vegans wont eat or use because they are animal by-products.
• Honey of course
• Silk
• Other animal non-food products, such as
leather and wool
• Fish oil (non-vegan omega 3 supplements)
• Other hidden animal products, such as
gelatin
• Other foods processed with animal products,
such as non-vegan sugar, processed using a bone char filter
