Can You Eat Eggs If You're a Vegetarian?
Vegetarianism comes in many forms, some of which accept eggs as a vegetarian food. Understanding a bit about the egg farming industry reveals why this is the case. Unlike the birds' eggs that you see hatching into chicks, the eggs that you eat do not contain a developing embryo. In fact, these eggs almost never contain even the potential for life. As such, eggs are typically considered safe on most vegetarian diets.
Types of Vegetarian Diets
Whether or not you can eat eggs depends largely on the type of vegetarian diet that you follow. Semi-vegetarian and pescetarian diets allow for the consumption of eggs, as well as some animal or fish meats. Among pure vegetarians, lacto-ovo vegetarians eat eggs and dairy products, but no meat, poultry or fish. Ovo vegetarians also eat eggs, but do not include dairy in their diet. In contrast, lacto vegetarians eat dairy products, but not eggs. Veganism is the most restrictive vegetarian diet and does not allow for any animal products, including eggs, dairy and honey.
Hens and other female fowl can lay both fertilized and unfertilized eggs. Some vegetarians have ethical issues with eating eggs because they believe that this destroys a developing animal. In reality, this is true only of fertilized eggs. In the commercial egg farming industry, egg-laying hens are kept separate from roosters at all times. This almost completely eliminates the possibility that the roosters will impregnate the hens. As such, almost all commercial eggs are unfertilized and purely vegetarian.
Small-scale and local farmers typically are not as strict about keeping hens and roosters separate. In general, the same is true of farmers who sell the eggs of other types of fowl. As such, you are more likely to eat fertilized eggs occasionally if you purchase from these producers. However, even large-scale commercial farmers cannot completely eliminate the possibility of a fertilized egg sometimes slipping through the cracks. With no way to avoid fertilized eggs entirely, you might want to consider eliminating eggs from your diet if you believe fertilized eggs to be non-vegetarian.
Vegetarian or Not?
Farmers typically collect and refrigerate eggs as soon as possible. Refrigeration completely halts the development of a fertilized egg, resulting in no noticeable difference between these and unfertilized eggs in appearance, taste, texture or nutritional value. Even when they are not refrigerated, fertilized eggs rarely develop into embryos because they require very specific conditions to do so. In fact, legal restrictions prevent farmers in North America from selling eggs that house developing embryos. Although it is clear that eggs are almost always purely vegetarian, your decision of whether or not to eat them depends on how you define the limits of your vegetarian diet.
- The Dietitian's Guide to Vegetarian Diets: Issues and Applications, Third Edition; Reed Mangels, Ph.D., Virginia Messina, R.D., and Mark Messina, Ph.D.
- Understanding Food: Principles and Preparation, Fourth Edition; Amy Brown
- Eggs.ca: Q&A
Matthew Lee has been writing professionally since 2007. Past and current research projects have explored the effect of a diagnosis of breast cancer on lifestyle and mental health and adherence to lifestyle-based (i.e. nutrition and exercise) and drug therapy treatment programs. He holds a Master of Arts in psychology from Carleton University and is working toward his doctorate in health psychology.