Why Vegans Don't Eat Eggs? 10 Reasons To Give Up Chicken Eggs

Why do vegans not eat eggs - and why is it generally better not to consume eggs? If you're asking yourself these questions right now, you're absolutely in the right place! Whether it's scrambled eggs, hard-boiled eggs, or egg whites and yolks as a binding agent in cakes - Germans consume an average of about 230 eggs from chickens per capita per year.₁

But more and more people are deciding to stop eating eggs for a variety of reasons. And indeed, there are many ethical, ecological and also health-related arguments for doing without the consumption of hen's eggs altogether in the future.

In this article I would like to explain the most important reasons why vegans do not eat eggs. You will learn what exactly is the problem with the egg industry and the eggs from chickens - and on this basis you can then make an informed decision for yourself. Let's go!

10 reasons: Why shouldn't you eat eggs?

I myself have been very fond of eggs for about 30 years of my life - first as a mixed dietarian and then also during my transitional period as a vegetarian. I grew up with them and thought they were really tasty too. So eating eggs was quite normal for me. But at some point I learned about the background of the industry - and realized that Habit and taste not good justification for eating eggs are.

There are moral, environmental, as well as good health-related reasons to avoid eggs altogether. Here, as promised, I would like to explain my personal motives. I do not eat eggs...

1. because animal suffering does not end

Most vegan:in do not eat eggs mainly because the cruelty to animals and the physical as well as mental suffering of animals would otherwise find no end.

Even if we only did not eat their eggs and not their meat, would continue to be Diseases in the narrow stables of the Factory farming spread. In the EU, it is legal to grow up to 20 chickens per square meter to hold.

The chickens would continue to pick themselves, wound and lose their feathers with all the stress. In order for the chickens to survive the pecking, they are given antibiotics and the Beaks shortened. The latter is a process that is extremely painful for the animals. So much so that some chickens and chicks die under the stress. Apart from that, their death also generally comes much too early. But you'll learn a bit more about that in the course of this article.

"The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated."

Mahatma Gandhi (more at Animal welfare sayings)

Whether vegan:in or not, one question everyone should ask themselves: Even if one may not like to see the suffering as a consumer: who wants to consume the eggs or meat of suffering, sick animals? Chickens they are sentient living beings and not means of production for our purposes. But in factory farming they are treated exactly as if they were just an object.

Tip: Of course, not all chickens are kept in cramped, dark coops. But why I also no eggs from own or backyard chickens I explain to you in the linked blog post.

2. because male chicks are shredded and gassed immediately after birth

Male chicks have no value to the layer industry. They put on meat too slowly and do not lay eggs. Therefore, they are sorted out immediately after birth. Since this process separates female from male chicks, it is called "sexing" in technical jargon. The male chicks are then either gassed or shredded alive.

In 2017, about 45 million male chicks were killed in this way.₂ This is a major reason why vegans:inside do not eat eggs. The so-called Chick Shredding is now banned in Germany - but since eggs and products with egg, however, can still be imported from abroad, can never really be ruled out, that chicks were killed for your egg-based meals.

Good to know: Product seals such as "Without Killing Chicks" or "Brother Cock Initiative" do create a better conscience when buying eggs - however, the Raising the male chicks continues to be absolutely not economical. Therefore, they are usually killed after a few weeks in factory farming to produce meat from them.

3. because chickens are sentient, intelligent creatures

Chickens are sentient and extremely intelligent creatures. They communicate with each other, dream, feel empathy, have complex social structures and can remember faces, for example.₃ But because we want to eat eggs, we treat these innocent, clever creatures like objects.

This deplorable state of affairs and the keeping of chickens in cramped, dark, dirty barns, ultimately leads to Stress, psychoses and to attacks on the conspecifics. An obvious reason why vegans no longer eat eggs, don't you think?

4. because chickens naturally lay significantly fewer eggs

Whereas in 1950 a chicken laid about 120 eggs a year, today the figure is already 300 eggs.₄ These statistics illustrate above all the profit orientation of factory farming. However, it is still the same animal that we exploit as if it were a high-performance machine.

The extreme increase in the laying performance of hensThis, of course, is mainly due to the increasing demand for eggs by consumers and is one of the main reasons for vegans not to eat eggs.

5. because eggs are the menstruation of the chicken

Eggs are the Menstrual product of the chicken. Female chickens, like all chickens, go through a reproductive cycle. If not fertilized, they would lay an egg only once a month in the wild. But in order to meet the high demand for eggs, the hens must lay eggs constantly. To achieve this, they are given hormones. This is the only way to achieve egg laying rates of 300 eggs per year.

This unnatural treatment is also one of the motives for vegans to do without eggs. And if we are quite honest: with this knowledge the breakfast scrambled eggs taste only half as good, right?

6. because eggs are not really healthy

Many people do not want to give up eggs because of the high protein content. It is true that chicken eggs are rich in protein. At the same time, however, with 396 milligrams of cholesterol per 100 grams of egg, they are also one of the most foods containing cholesterol the world.₅ The connection between cholesterol and Heart disease has long since been scientifically proven.₆ Anyone who has heart healthy diet would like, therefore, better refrain from eating animal eggs.

In addition, animal-based foods such as eggs are the number one source of infection for Salmonella are. This is also the reason why women should not eat eggs during pregnancy, as this can lead to an undersupply of the baby and ultimately to miscarriages.₇ Another health-related motive for vegans not eating eggs is also the Antibiotic residues from factory farming, which have already been detected in eggs.₈

These aspects alone are extremely questionable. And even if eggs were healthy: You can also get protein from plant foods, like Soy products, beans, chickpeas, lentils or nuts. In the end, this would not support a brutal, exploitative industry.

7. because chickens are slaughtered as soon as they become uneconomical

"It's not like animals die for eggs!" is only easy to say if you have not yet taken a closer look at the background of the egg industry. Of course, animals have to die for eggs. Male chicks even die right after they are born in a brutal way (gassing or shredding) because they are uneconomical.

And so-called hybrid chickens lay eggs for about 2 years.₉ After that, they are also uneconomical and are slaughtered. But normally the chickens would live between 6 and 10 years.₁₀ 

In addition, there are the animals that are Abuse, creepy postures and Diseases die. All in all, this is a pretty good reason for vegans to stop eating eggs.

Fact on the side: Every day, we humans kill around 200 million farm animals worldwide. That's the equivalent of 74 billion animals a year.₁₁

8. because the mass farming of chickens destroys the environment

Just like cows and pigs, chickens in factory farming also eat lots of soybean meal so that they grow quickly. This animal feed has to be grown somewhere, of course. As a rule, it comes from South American countries, such as Brazil. There it comes to the Deforestation of the rainforests, to Cultivated areas for animal feed, as well as pasture land for the animals to create.

And then the feed must also transported to Germany become. Due to the high demand for chicken meat and chicken eggs, animal husbandry has a decisive influence on the global warming.

However, not only the fodder cultivation and transports, but also the Keeping chickens is an environmental burden on air, soils and waters. The excretions of the animals produce the toxic gas ammonia. Among other things, it can lead to acidification of the soil.

Therefore, the ecological factors are also a major reason why vegan:in give up eggs and try, for example, Celebrate Easter sustainably.

9. because every year 45 million chickens die in vain

In total, around 628 million chickens are slaughtered each year in Germany alone.₁₂ That's the equivalent of about 20 chickens per second. The animals that died due to disease or sorting are not even part of these statistics. Already because of these numbers, vegans refrain from eating eggs.

But if you now add to this the fact that every year around 45 million chickens die in vain, because we throw eggs and meat into our garbage cans₁₃, the motivation becomes even greater.

Tip: The respectful handling of one's own food is an important part of the sustainable lifestyle. Feel free to look at the post about the Reduce food wasteto learn more.

10. because there are plant-based alternatives

There are many ways to replace the taste or benefit of eggs. However, the 5 percent of eggs that are organic in our country are not an alternative. Because "Organic chickens" do get a little healthier feed and a little more space - but in the end there are still six of them in one square meter and they have to die early, even though they don't want to die.₁₄

The egg as Binder replace vegan:inside for example with bananas, soy flour, tomato paste or applesauce. To the Taste and smell The sulfur salt Kala Namak in particular serves to imitate this. A comparable Humidity can be achieved with soap tofu. Feel free to look at my detailed post about the vegan egg substitute an.

Tip: We Germans love scrambled eggs! With this vegan scrambled eggs recipe I have already found a really great alternative. Taste and appearance are absolutely comparable, just try it out.

Why don't vegans eat eggs? Because they don't have to!

In the end, vegans have a handful of good reasons to avoid eggs. There is no need to continue to eat the eggs of chickens. And taking into account the moral, health and environmental factors, at least for me the decision was finally really easy.

"I am life that wants to live, in the midst of life that wants to live."

Albert Schweitzer (more at Animal welfare quotes)

I hope that I could answer you with this article why vegans do not eat eggs. Do you have any questions or comments about not eating eggs? Then feel free to write me a comment.

Stay animal-friendly and sustainable,

PS: Feel free to look around a bit more in the Vegan diet blog around. There you will also find out, for example, why vegan:inside do not drink milk or not eat honey.

References:

₁ Federal Agency for Agriculture and Food (BLE): Supply balance 2022 - consumption of eggs falls to 230 pieces per person (as of 15.03.2023), available at https://www.ble.de/SharedDocs/Pressemitteilungen/DE/2023/230315_Eierbilanz.html. [21.07.2023].

₂ Süddeutsche Zeitung GmbH: The carnage continues (as of March 29, 2018). https://t1p.de/7c78. [21.07.2023].

₃ PETA Deutschland e.V.: The chicken - 10 fascinating facts about chickens (as of November 2021), available at https://www.peta.de/huehner. [26.06.2020].

₄ German Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture (BMEL): Neue Wege für mehr Tierwohl - Ein Magazin des Bundesministeriums für Ernährung und Landwirtschaft, 1st edition, January 2016, p. 7.

₅ Deutsche Herzstiftung e.V.: Cholesterol - How can heart patients protect themselves?, available at https://www.herzstiftung.de/cholesterin.html. [21.07.2023].

₆ M. Greger: How Do We Know that Cholesterol Causes Heart Disease? (Accessed January 2017), available at https://t1p.de/4xg5. [21.07.2023].

₇ A. Kneller: Unsuitable foods in pregnancy, available at https://t1p.de/0qp7. [21.07.2023].

₈ R-Biopharm AG: Antibiotic residues, available at https://t1p.de/gk4a. [21.07.2023].

₉ H. Froehlich: How long do chickens lay eggs?, available at https://t1p.de/fv8g. [21.07.2023].

₁₀ HEINICOOP UG: Life expectancy - how old do chickens live?, available at https://t1p.de/k6le. [21.07.2023].

₁₁ Things Explained - In Brief: Meat - The World's Tastiest Evil, YouTube, Jan. 24, 2019, web, Jul. 21, 2023 at 10:50 a.m., in: http://y2u.be/y6f3dwxexZM.

₁₂ C. Ehrenstein: Germans slaughter 750 million animals per year, available at https://t1p.de/fclq. [21.07.2023].

₁₃ Welt.de: Germans throw away gigantic amounts of meat (as of 16.10.2014), available at https://www.welt.de/wissenschaft/article133345055/Deutsche-werfen-gigantische-Mengen-an-Fleisch-weg.html. [21.07.2023].

₁₄ Vegan is Unhealthy: 10 Reasons to Eat Eggs, YouTube, Oct. 24, 2017, web, Jul. 21, 2023 at 10:50 a.m., in: http://y2u.be/y6f3dwxexZM.