If you are a vegetarian or a vegan, you know the difference between the two. However, for others it can get confusing, and people often mistakenly use the terms interchangeably.
"There is really one simple difference, both don't eat meat but vegans also don't eat dairy or eggs," says personal chef Cindi Avila.
Both require a bit of meal planning, but it is not hard to get all your nutrients.
"I kind of try to spice it up,” Avila says. “I think what can I do this week. Maybe I'm going to do an eggplant parmesan, maybe I'm going to make Mexican food but I'm just going to use black beans instead. So you kind of think a little out of the box and it makes shopping a little bit more fun. Because you look around and there are a lot of great meat substitutes these days. There's a lot of companies are making things like meatless meatballs, buffalo chicken that is not chicken."
Being a vegan is more restrictive.
"You cannot have cheese, you can't have milk, you can't have eggs,” Avila explains, “So it makes things more difficult because eggs are in so many products, you probably don't even realize how many things that eggs and egg whites are in."
If you are vegan, you should avoid the baked goods aisle. They typically have some sort of dairy product in them, unless the packaging actually says vegan.
"It gets very important if you're vegan to look for the word vegan on the packaging,” Avila says. “If the word vegan is not there, it probably means there's some type of dairy in it, which is fine for vegetarians. Vegetarians often eat cheese; they often eat butter, eggs and that kind of thing."