Types Of Vegetarians

When you have invited couple of friends over to dinner and one of them is ‘vegetarian’, what do you do? Cook them food, which doesn’t include meat? Actually, it is the case with most of us. We hear the word ‘vegetarian’ and assume that it means food, which doesn’t include meat. However, not all vegetarian eat the same provisions and there are different types of vegetarians and different types of vegetarian diets as well. Originally, vegetarian diet just meant ‘with or without eggs or dairy products’. However today the term vegetarian has completely different meaning and it has become an umbrella term for different types of vegetarians with many different reasons for being vegetarians. Different people have different reasons for turning vegetarians and they avoid different types of food depending on their preference, liking and sometimes even depending on religious issues. Knowing different types of vegetarians will help you understand that vegetarian is not a homogeneous group and there are different types of vegetarianism diverse in range. It will help you choose your area of preference if you have been contemplating about turning vegetarian. Moreover, if you have many friends, who are vegetarian, knowing what type they belong will help you serve them better at your next party.

 

The vegetarians who are pescatarian are the people who desist from eating all the meat although they are open to eating fishes. It is a practice in which a person can eat seafood but refrain from mammals and birds. The term is fairly new and was added to the Merriam Webster in 1993 and this type of diet was adopted mainly for health reasons.

 

American dialect society defined flexitarian as a vegetarian who occasionally eats meat. Although there is no clear definition on how often, one should eat, meat but a flexitarian generally seek out to decrease the amount of meat from his/her diet without actually, completely abolishing it from his/her diet. This term was first used in 1992 by an article in Austin American-Statesman by Linda Anthony.

A lacto-ovo vegetarian is a person who refrains from meats like beef, pork, poultry, fishes, etc but is open to eating egg and dairy products. Some people are just Lacto-vegetarian, which means they can consume milk products like cheese, butter, milk etc, but refrain from having eggs. An Ovo-vegetarianism is opposite to lacto vegetarianism, which means an ovo-vegetarian can consume eggs but not milk and milk-products.

 

Veganism or strict or pure diet is a diet, which excludes using animals for food and any other purpose. This type of diet is adopted mainly due to avoid the exploitation of animals and environment. It was coined by Donald Watson in 1944. All vegans refrain from meat, poultry, fishes, leather, dairy products, honey, fur, silk, gelatin, whey, rennet etc. Although most vegans abstain from honey, some vegans consider the use of insect products okay.

 

It is a type of vegetarianism, which promotes the consumption of organic, unprocessed, and uncooked food. Raw vegans believe that the high the amount of uncooked food in their diet the more the health benefits would be. The diet may include raw fruits, nuts, seeds, and vegetables. The food is warmed below the temperature of 40¢ª C.

A macrobiotic diet is a food regime, which promotes the consumption of whole grains and promotes the avoidance of processed or refined food. It promotes the use of grains, seeds, beans, and vegetables and recommends a thorough food chewing. Use of the term macrobiotic is found as early in the writings of Hippocrates, considered as the father of Medicine.

 

Fruitarians, as the name itself suggests, consume mainly fruits or plants. Sometimes a person is considered fruitarian even when the diet consists of approximately 75% of fruits. Fruitarians consume fruits and sometimes seeds, nuts and vegetables, like tomatoes.

Pollo Vegetarian
Pollo is an Italian and Spanish term for chicken. Pollotarianism is diet that includes vegetables, fruits and poultry but avoid meat from fish and mammals. The Pollo vegetarian can include non-flesh animal products in their diet like eggs and dairy products.