As I was eating my key lime pie-flavored Yoplait yogurt, for some weird reason my eyes were fixed on ‘live and active cultures’ on the container. In other words, living organisms. Meaning the Lactobacillus bulgaricus and Streptococcus thermaopilus, which convert pasteurized milk to yogurt during fermentation.
Would a vegetarian eat yogurt, then? I pondered. It has a living ‘thing’ in it.
Vegetarianism is, cheating from Wikipedia, the practice of a diet that excludes all animal flesh, including poultry, game, fish, shellfish or crustacea, and the slaughter-by products. Since I skipped a lot of my Microbiology classes back in high school *ahem* especially the microorganism subject, I don’t quite remember the detail about bacterias. Would a few micrometres in length (in the shape of spheres, rods, or spirals) be considered ‘fleshy’ for Lactobacillus or its cousin, Streptococcus? Does eating something alive or fleshy even though it’s a tiny thing, bother a vegetarian?
Something to keep in mind though, unlike cells of animals, bacteria cells do not contain a nucleus and rarely harbour membrane-bound organelles. In plain English, bacteria does not have chromosomes thus we won’t know if it’s a girl bacteria or a boy bacteria. Not only bacteria lacks of gender identity, it also lacks of proteins and lipids.
So what? We don’t need to call it Miss Lactobacillus or Mr. Streptococcus anyway. I pondered again. No protein or lipids? Even better for the vegetarians. I began to feel confident.
If a tiny living thing doesn’t bother a vegetarian, would the fact that Yoplait contains gelatin -which is made from boiled pig skin, animal bones and hooves- bothered them?
This is the way to approach the yoghurt problem: cool and in a scientific standoffish way.
And with tongue in the cheek of course – which makes it even taste better.
(I love it: it should be in the “Irony” or “Fun” category also I guess)
‘Vegatarianism’ is just another eating disorder, in disguise.
thanks, colson. i took you up on creating ‘irony’ category. after i wrote the posting, i couldn’t really fit it into my existing categories. and yeah… i think ‘irony’ fits just fine, doesn’t it?
thanks for your time to read it, but i still want to know the answer. would you pass this to your vegetarian friends, if there’s any, please?
I’ve got some. I’m living in a town which is crowded with people who adhere to antroposophy. Poor bastards.
So without any doubt I will offer them yoghurt you described (without telling them about the ingredients in it – yes, I’m a devil in disguise. And moreover it will do them no harm: ignorance breeds happiness).
how strange our eyes pick some words up 😀
did you play “find the word blablablabla” with friends during traffic and make sure that it’s hard to find?
*gak nyambung ya..hehehe*
huahahaha…… for some reasons, this posting really made me laugh!!!
i wonder what this posting would do to some very dogmatic vegans…
@colson: how did it go? the yogurt trick for the poor bastards? did you get them?
@melly: i guess we both have wondering eyes
@mer: glad you find it amusing :p too bad i don’t have friends who neither vegetarian or vegan
Every time you eat something it has living bacteria on it that you ingest. Every time you breathe you inhale living bacteria. I don’t think it bothers vegetarians much then to consume living bacteria in yogurt. Most people have a level of complexity of life they usually don’t go beyond in their consumption, but I don’t imagine there are any out there that go that far (which isn’t possible anyways.) The gelatin is another issue though and there are supposed to be gelatin free yogurts out there.
Most commercial Yogurt has gelatin.
Most gelatin is not from a vegetable . Why do you think they have to make it kosher?
You guys really are pretty ignorant about vegetarianism. First of all, I’m mostly a lacto-vegetarian (I eat dairy, but avoid eggs). Anyway, I eat yogurt that does not contain gelatin, such as Stonyfield Farm, since gelatin is usually mashed up animal bones. Secondly, it never even occured to me that someone would be stupid enough to think that vegetarians would not eat bacteria, which is practically unavoidable in life. But I guess all of you really think this is a moral quandary for vegetarians! However, something that really is non-vegetarian that many vegetarians eat is cheese made from animal rennet (m-w says it is “the lining membrane of a stomach or one of its compartments (as the fourth of a ruminant) used for curdling milk ; also : a preparation of the stomach of animals used for this purpose.” Yum. So, all you meat-eaters, if you really wanna “get” (read: be a deceitful bastard to) your vegetarian “friends,” then give them some disgusting processed cheese, such as Kraft, since it surely contains animal matter…
So, does all milk contain animal rennet? Where does the live bacteria in yoghurt come from?
@Jeff: I don’t think they’d like to hear their ‘way of life’ to be labeled as an eating disorder, tho :p
they actually make vegan-friendly yogurts, with soy, that are gelatin free and still taste really good. most are made with vanilla soy milk or just plain soy. they’re pretty yummy!
and i find it funny that a LOT of people label vegetarianism or vegan-ism, or any form of a meatless diet a form of “eating disorder,” probably because a lot of people with eating disorders actually cover it up by saying things like “oh sorry, i’m a vegan…” but really, us veggie people eat. trust me!
but i find your post humorous and a good question if there are vegetarians out there that might be unaware of all these little knit-picky things, like all the hidden ingredients and such, inside of foods… even healthy foods like yogurt.
what i’d wonder is, what about the brands that don’t contain gelatin? breyer’s doesn’t? there might be some extremist, bacteria-lovin’ vegetarians out there! who knows?
@mary: thank you for the info. i’m glad you find this posting humorous because i didn’t mean to offend vegetarians or vegans. i was just curious about this whole yogurt and vegetarian thing. like i said to the owner of a local indian restaurant in our town, i wish i know how to cook like them because their vegetarian food is oh so delicious, then i’d be happy to be a vegetarian 🙂
Ummm, the whole point of LIVE and ACTIVE cultures is that they get to go live in your LIVE and ACTIVE digestive system, so you’re not killing them, just rehoming them.
The gelatin, however, is disgusting. I let myself get away with it (and that’s what led me to this post) occasionally because I also have to take medicine with a gelatin base, but that’s like anyone who is on a diet and say ‘Oops. Shouldn’t have had that cookie. Oh well, the diet’s ruined– might as well eat this cake, too!”
Here’s another dilemma with finding vegetarian yogurt (unless I’ve been completely mislead). Whey protein.
Whey protein is a by-product of cheese production (curdling). So, although it may be vegetarian (if acid was used) it could also be considered not to be (is rennet was used for curdling).
Now personally, I’m going vegetarian as an experiment, so really I could just continue with gelatin and whey protein and rennet, but for the sake of experimentation I plan on attempting the entire shebang.
I am just quickly realizing how much of a hassle it really is when you start picking down into every ingredient as to whether it has an animal in it.
As far as the bacteria goes…I know many vegetarians say “if it has eyes and a brain, I’m not eating it.”
vegetarians don’t eat most yogurts because they are made with getetan: derived from the collagen inside animals’ skin and bones.(to quote wiki). escpecially yoplait. it has nothing to do with the bacteria.