Over the years this has been a pretty highly debated topic among vegans. Thus, the best way to resolve it is to start by looking at some basic definitions. Let's first define what a vegan is. Generally, a vegan is defined as someone who does not consume any animals or animal products. Pretty straight-forward right? Okay, so what about bees? Well, bees are insects, which are a type of animal. That was pretty straight-forward as well.
Now for the sticky part (pun intended). The argument gets sticky here because some vegans argue that honey is not an "animal product," but again this is easily resolved. Typically, the term "animal product" refers to things such as dairy that come directly from the body of animals. Honey is what is produced in a process whereby bees ingest flower nectar, partially digest it, regurgitate it, then fan and cool it to produce the substance that we know as honey. So let's see, honey is produced by and comes directly from the body of bees making it, by definition, an animal product.
Now as promised, that was pretty easy to resolve, but the debate does not end there. There are other vegans who assert that although honey is an animal product it is still vegan because, unlike cows, bees do not experience pain which satisfies the goal of vegans not inflicting pain on animals. The only way to resolve this argument is to say that it just depends on your perspective of death. If you view death as painful than honey is probably not vegan since many bees are killed in the process of being robbed of their hives.
Whether you position yourself on the side of the argument that is for or against consuming honey all can agree that there are several alternatives to be used as natural sweeteners. Some include organic raw cane sugar, raw agave nectar, barley malt syrup, blackstrap molasses, brown rice syrup, date sugar, maple syrup and more. As such, if you'd rather not debate the issue and just want to get down to enjoying some of the sweet tastes of nature why not give some of these a try? Not only are they a healthy alternative, but procuring them doesn't involve inflicting any harm to any animals or getting caught up in a never-ending debate.
Amirah Bellamy is a Vegan Transitional Coach, Vegan Fitness Meal Planning Expert, and Author. To learn more about her fabulous Vegetarian Meal Plans, purchase her infamous eBook "The 50¢ Book That's Hotter Than 50 Cent," or INSTANTLY grab her FREE Vegetarian Starter Kit go to http://www.AmirahBFit.com
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