Had quite a chuckle reading Mia Freedman’s Opinion piece this morning – The Occasional Vegetarian.
I’ve been a non-red meat eater since I was pregnant with Daughter – about 12 years now. I eat fish and chicken – but won’t (can’t) touch anything red.
My switch had nothing to do with ethics. I simply (literally) could no longer stomach the taste of red meat. And the texture of it in my mouth – ack!
I refer to myself as vegetarian. Although the definition of ‘Vegetarian’, according to the Websters Online Dictionary is
Vegetarian: Noun
1. Eater of fruits and grains and nuts; someone who eats no meat or fish or (often) any animal products.
And an interesting piece of trivia about the word “vegetarian” – date “vegetarian” was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1853.
So what am I then?? I love my cheeses. Have milk on my cereal and in my coffee. And one of my favourite snacks is a boiled egg…
So, does anyone else out there fit in to the same category?
What do you call yourself?
As always, I’m curious…
That sounds like the definition of a Vegan, not a Vegetarian.
True.
The Websters Online definition of vegan is someone who eats no animal products at all, which is confusing, because it is so similar to the definition of vegetarian.
I have just found the word lacto-ovo-vegetarians – they eat dairy and egg.
I think I’ll just call myself a no-red-meat-eater 🙂
I didn’t eat red meat for a few years, myself, and if I do have it now, I don’t eat much. It confused a lot of people and they thought I was vegetarian, which, as I ate a lot of chicken and turkey, really wasn’t true. I went with Chickitarian for a while. Or Fowlatarian. :p But it is hard to categorize… people generally understand meat or no meat, not picking and choosing certain types. Hehe. 🙂
It is hard to categorize Lexa.
I was discussing it with my family over dinner last night, and telling them about the term lacto-ovo-vegetarians.
Then I mentioned vegequarians – fish eaters…
So we came up with lacto-ovo-vegequarian for me. Not sure I’ll ever use it, but we all had a giggle.
T
Well, the word “VEGETARIAN” is used as an overall term for a person who lives on a diet of grains, nuts, seeds, fruit and vegetables, with or without eggs and dairy products.
There are several types of vegetarians accordingly.
>>LACTO-OVO-VEGETARIANS: This is the most common type of vegetarians. They don’t eat meat but do consume eggs and dairy products. (I fall under this category.) 🙂
>>VEGANS: This is the strictest type of vegetarians. They eat only plant-based foods. They don’t eat fish or any foods from animals…..meat, poultry, milk, eggs, cheese, etc.
>>OVO-VEGETARIANS: They eat eggs but do not consume meat and any kinds of dairy products.
>>LACTO-VEGETARIANS: They do consume dairy products like milk…but ignore meat and eggs.
But there’s also this so-called “SEMI-VEGETARIANISM” which consists of a diet largely of vegetarian foods, but may include fish and sometimes poultry, as well as dairy products and eggs. The following types fall under semi-vegetarianism:
>>PESCO-VEGETARIANS: Their diet includes fish but no meat, eggs, and dairy products.
>>POLLO-VEGETARIANS: They eat poultry but do not eat fish and red meat such as beef and lamb. They tend to include non-flesh animal products such as dairy and eggs in their diet, as well.
>>FLEXTARIANS: They consume mainly vegetarian foods but do eat meat on rare occasions.
😉 😉 😉 😉 😉 😉
Thanks for the detail, Ex-Corpse-Muncher (love your screen name too – gave me a huge giggle ;-O ).
I really wasn’t aware that there were so many ‘variations’ of vegetarianism.
Thanks again,
Cheers,
T
We shouldn’t be worried about labels…being vegetarian at least is great for your health…and the taste of meat is yucky…
Too true. In the end the label doesn’t matter – its your health and happiness.
Cheers,
Tasha