Whats the difference in vegetarian and vegan?

Vegans are part of the vegetarian group, except that they are strict vegetarians in that they don't consume eggs or dairy or honey. They also try to go beyond just diet, and eliminate other animal stuff from their lives, such as leather jackets, shoes, belts etc.

In American culture, people use the word vegetarian to mean someone who doesn't eat meat, but usually eats dairy and eggs. However, the actual term for this was lacto-ovo-vegetarian-- but here people have dropped the 'lacto-ovo' term for convenience. However, if someone wants to explore this further, it is not exactly fair to assume that a vegetarian eats eggs and dairy. If you read on Wikipedia, until the 1940s, a vegetarian was NOT someone who ate dairy or eggs, but after people started including dairy and still called themselves vegetarian-- then the word vegan came about. For instance, if you traveled to places in India, many people call themselves 'pure-vegetarians' but really they are lacto-vegetarians and would be appalled if you presented them with egg products. However, there are others who call themselves strict vegetarians and are actually common-day vegans. So it does get confusing sometimes. But I just thought it would be useful to clarify this, so that way people don't get confused when they see people who are vegan call themselves vegetarian, or get confused when they meet vegetarians who don't eat eggs. It would be a lot easier if people just called themselves lacto-vegetarians, or lacto-ovo-vegetarians, or ovo-vegetarians, but they don't very often anymore.

So in summary, in the US:

-vegan= no meat, no dairy, no eggs, no honey

-vegetarian=no meat, sometimes dairy, sometimes eggs (depending on the level of vegetarian-- lacto/ovo)

Vegetarians (by my definition) eat no meat, fish, or eggs, but do consume dairy products made from, or including, milk. As a 'lacto-vegetarian', however, I still have to beware of ingredients hidden in foods, such as animal rennet in cheese, lecithin (from eggs), fish oil in the milk, etc. Vegans (I'm trying to be 100% vegan these days) do not consume any animal products whatsoever, which means no dairy or, as someone else mentioned, honey even. Some people get worried when you mention being vegan, but it is easy really, as long as you eat a good, varied diet - plenty of fruit, veg, good oils (like olive or flax), good grains and pulses. It is important, especially if you are a young woman, to make sure you have plenty of calcium in your diet (otherwise you will be susceptible to osteoporosis later in life) so if you are cutting out dairy, make sure you drink soy or almond milk (or something similar) that has added calcium (and they usually add vitamins too). Going organic vegan is the ultimate!

Vegetarians don't eat meat (food that requires the killing of a live animal), vegans don't eat anything that comes from an animal whether it harms the animal or not ex. meat, milk, eggs, cheese, yogurt, any dairy products etc.

Vegetarians eat dairy, eggs and honey.

But vegans refrain from eating or using any animal product whatsoever.

Vegetarians don't eat foods that come from killing animals. This includes meat, meat broths, lard, tallow, gelatin and rennet.

Vegans don't eat anything of animal origin whatsoever, regardless of whether or not the animal is killed for it. So they avoid all the same things vegetarians avoid, plus dairy, eggs and honey.

vegetarians dont eat meat. vegans dont eat meat or anything that comes from meat. like, vegans dont eat cheese, or eggs, or anything that touches meat..i think.