Lacto-ovo vegetarianism

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article does not adequately cite its references or sources.
Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. (help, get involved!)
This article has been tagged since February 2007.

A lacto-ovo vegetarian is a vegetarian who is willing to consume dairy products (i.e. milk and its derivatives, like cheese, butter, or yogurt) and eggs. Lacto means "milk" and ovo means "egg".

In the Western world lacto-ovo vegetarians are the most common type of vegetarian. Generally speaking, when one uses the term vegetarian a lacto-ovo vegetarian is assumed. Lacto-ovo vegetarians are well-catered to in restaurants and shops, especially in Europe and metropolitan cities in North America.

Some lacto-ovo vegetarians who are motivated by ethical reasons may avoid fertilized eggs as well as caviar, feeling that both involve the killing of beings or torture and exploitation of source animals. Most vegeterians motivated by ethics, would only use "Free Range" eggs.

A lacto-ovo vegetarian usually doesn't eat poultry, meat or fish. However, cross-culturally, different cultures recognize vegetarianism differently. For example, there are Japanese vegetarians who consider fish to be vegetarian, and Indian vegetarians who consider eggs to be non-vegetarian.

In contrast, a vegetarian who consumes no animal products is called a vegan.

In the airline industry a lacto-ovo vegetarian meal is known by the acronym VLML.