Is Oyster Shell Calcium, vegetarian?

[Nadira]

For Calcium, I usually take Calcium Citrate. I live with my mother, and we went to the store to by more.

They had a "buy one, get one free" sign in one of the isle, and it was for Oyster Shell Calcium. I am at a bend here. I am vegetarian, and whether this is safe for me. The one other option of calcium under the buy one get one free had "gelatin" in it. I clearly steered away from it. The fresh debate about whether gelatin was vegetarian was too close to home with my carnivore mother. I wasn't quite sure what I thought about Oyster shell derived calcium, and in failing for finding an equal price substitute, I sheepishly kept my mouth shut.

The supplements are sitting on the kitchen table now. I looked at them, and went online. Tried Ask Jeeves and even Bing, but no one seemed to breach the topic. There were some "organic" companies saying it was vegetarian safe, but the actual web sites were kind of sketchy themselves. I am not sure what to believe.

I don't want this to be the gateway to new arguments to "why I am a hypocrite", and how "I should eat meat", etc., etc. So I figured that I should post it in here, and get a collective point of view.

What do you think? Is Oyster Shells (the shell only) powdered and made into little capsules vegetarian?

One Japanese study claimed that the body could absorb it better versus Calcium carbonate and Calcium Citrate. Body absorption is very important to me, but also not shooting myself in the foot with my vegetarianism.

Please, your ideas? Thoughts? Beliefs?

Thanks.  

[LorienLlewellyn]

I probably wouldn't consider that to be vegetarian. I mean, I guess it's not technically meat. But it is still part of an animal, it's a part that I don't think they can live without, and I assume it's a byproduct of the meat industry.  

[Ailinea]

It's my opinion as well that it's a byproduct. The oysters are probably farmed or trawled, and the meat sold, pearls possibly extracted and the shells ground into calcium powder. I doubt that oyster shell calcium can be obtained without damaging or killing the oyster.  

[Nadira]

I am getting confused with the vocabulary used here...

If milk is a byproduct, and eggs in a byproduct, and they are ok to many vegetarians---how is a shell byproduct not considered ok? Is it due to be a part of the creature at one point, like leather is? Or what?

I'm just getting confused. Is shell like gelatin?  

[Ailinea]

Well, the shell is necessary for the oyster to survive. Milk and eggs can be obtained without killing the animal (though, obviously, it's still not quite ethical because of the constant impregnation of cows and the veal industry, and the mass death of male chicks because they cannot produce eggs, but that's a different issue). I don't see how oyster shell calcium can be obtained without killing the animal. Leather is obtained from killing the cow. Gelatin is obtained from killing the cow. Oyster shell calcium is obtained from killing the oyster. Milk and eggs are obtained without killing the cow or chicken so they can produce more milk and eggs. Once an oyster's shell is gone, it's gone. I'm not an expert on oyster shell calcium or have any idea how it's obtained, but I sincerely doubt it's sustainable and not harmful to the oyster since the oyster meat industry itself is pretty popular. The shells left over from pearls or the meat are probably what's used to be ground down into the calcium.  

[Nadira]

Got it.





The containers are still on the counter. Haven't touched them. Most likely won't.  

[Nadira]

Good news, I bought the calcium that I normally take. My mother started to take the oyster shell calcium supplements and found them impossible to swallow. She unfortunately choked on them, more than once... She was glad that I went out and bought the other kind, and wants to throw out the Oyster shell "crap" (in her words). I never took them, but she figures that I might have tried them, hence, me seeking out the other kind at another store.

It all worked out in the end...