Ovo-Vegetarians eat eggs along with their diet of fruit, vegetables, nuts, seeds, grains, pulses and so on. The do not consume dairy products or meat of any kind.
You will often find that Ovo-Vegetarians made their choice because they are lactose intolerant. There are of course always exceptions to that rule. I am lactose intolerant but I am actually a Lacto-Vegetarian.
You may ask yourself how a vegetarian can be a vegetarian if they in fact consume eggs; well it is an easy question to answer. The eggs that are eaten are not yet animals or sentient. They are un-fertilised and would never have hatched into being.
For a vegetarian eggs can be a very important source of nutrition and in fact the easiest vegetarian diet to follow is probably an Lacto-Ovo-Vegetarian diet which I will cover in another article.
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
I’m an ovo veg. and some of my friends in school ask me if any vegetarian can consume milk and of course I don’t know how to answer.
Hi Desiree
There are many vegetarians out there who eat dairy products, and they are known as lacto-vegetarians. Vegans are the only group of vegetarians that use no animal products at all.
So yes some vegetarians consume milk, mostly they take care to try and get hold of organic milk. The organic label goes some way to make sure that the animals are treated humanely and that the milk is pure. Although, this is hard to guarantee even with the organic seal of approval if the latest press reports are to be believed. Milk production is not generally animal friendly so if you are a person that is vegetarian mainly due to animal welfare then dairy should be removed from your diet.
There are so many great milk substitutes out there that you really don’t need it in your diet. It is easily cut out and replaced with rice milk, soy milk, almond milk, hazelnut milk and so on. The big problem comes with processed foods; they have lots of hidden milk ingredients in them.
Thanks for a great question
Kittie