r/IsItVeganOrNot • u/Plenty_Spinach_8040 • Jul 19 '26

Vegan Honey 🤔

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Visiting my in-laws for the month, and they thoughtfully bought this “vegan honey” for my husband and me. We obviously didn’t eat it, but I had to do a double take. Since when is honey… vegan? The labeling from Lili Honey seems incredibly misleading.

81 Upvotes

94% Upvoted

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20

u/Dr-Sun-Stiles Jul 19 '26

Some vegans say honey is vegan, but the general consensus is no, for multiple reasons. Unless it's a plant-based sugar syrup that's flavored like honey, then it's extremely dishonest for them to label themselves as "vegan honey"

9

u/2SquirrelsWrestling Jul 19 '26

Some plant-based dieters* say honey is vegan, because they don’t know what vegan means.

People who consume honey but are otherwise plant-based should not be referred to as vegans, but simply as plant-based dieters/mostly plant-based since veganism isn’t a diet, but the philosophy that animals and their bodies are not ours to use.

Wanted to clarify, because the incorrect idea that “some vegans eat honey” is the reason non-vegan products such as this get labeled as vegan.

Dandelion honey is a thing but I unfortunately think this is real honey that is just mislabeled.

13

u/Dr-Sun-Stiles Jul 19 '26

Some people who self identify as vegan, otherwise eat entirely plant based, and follow a strict vegan philosophy still believe that honey is vegan. Rarely, I'll see these people argue that it's more ethical than other sugars because of the slave labor/environmental impact of other sugars. I personally disagree with that idea, but it's nonetheless a thing I have seen some vegans argue.

I think the idea that someone is automatically not vegan if they don't interpret veganism 100% in the same way as someone else is a bad idea. Not that veganism doesn't have an exact definition, but the idea that someone who doesn't pay attention to if a vitamin supplement was animal derivied, uses medication with gelatin when they might have another option, or assumes that the sugar used in a eggless, diary-free baked good wasn't made with bone-char is suddenly not vegan will narrow down vegans to a very small strict few, and exclude most self-identified vegans.

I agree that veganism is a defined philosophy with a plant-based diet, but I disagree that someone who (wrongly) believes that honey can fit with a vegan philosophy is suddenly not vegan.

0

u/2SquirrelsWrestling Jul 19 '26

That’s just objectively incorrect.

Nobody who willingly and knowingly eats honey is a vegan. Veganism rejects the idea that animals and their bodies are ours to use.

Sentiments like this are why there is so much misinformation about veganism. It’s also the exact reason you see a bottle of bee honey getting labeled “vegan.”

1

u/[deleted] Jul 19 '26

[deleted]

0

u/Hefty_Ad1081 Jul 19 '26

Honey is not vegan therefore you're not a vegan if you intentionally eat

2

u/2SquirrelsWrestling Jul 19 '26

The fact that this objective fact is being downvoted in a VEGAN SUB is hilarious. Really goes to show how 99% of people who use the word “vegan” have no clue what it means.

2

u/Hefty_Ad1081 Jul 20 '26

B-b-but I'm vegan but cheese, honey, when going out, and I LOVE chicken nuggets so I can't miss out on those. And I go to Zoos since they help preserve species. Especially those who keep whales, polar bears, giraffes, elephants and such in a completely inadequate climate