What Are the Various Types of Vegetarians?

I think I should have made this post before I wrote about Vegans. However, as they say better late than never. So here it goes.

Vegetarianism is not a religion, but a way of life. However, like Hinduism, Christianity, Islam or other religions of the world, Vegetarianism too has many shades. They come in as many flavors as there are cuisines.

We will first try to understand the various types of vegetarians that walk the earth. We will also try to understand their likes, dislikes and if possible their motivations.

Who is a Vegetarian: Before we understand the various vegetarian sects, we need to understand who is a Vegetarian in the broadest sense of the term – a Christian is a follower of Christ, a Muslim follows Prophet Mohammad, and likewise a Vegetarian is one who does not eat the following:

• Meat (any kind of land animal / eggs thereof),
• Fish (any kind of water animal or their eggs), and
• Poultry (any kind of bird or their eggs).

A vegetarian, therefore, is not someone who sometimes eats vegetables, maybe as a side dish; he always eats vegetables. Some kinds of vegetarians might, however, sometimes eat the above food items as side dish! But can they be called vegetarians? Or do they fit into one of the various classes of vegetarians?

Vegetarians can be classified into two broad categories:

1. Vegans (covered in my previous post), and
2. Lacto Vegetarians (the category that I belong to)

Some people also classify the following as vegetarians, though their inclusion in the tribe is highly debatable because their diet contains some kind of meat or eggs.

1. Ovo-Vegetarians – These are people who do not eat meat in any form but do consume eggs.
2. Pesco-Vegetarians or Pescatarians – They abstain from eating all meat and animal flesh with the exception of fish.
3. Pollo-Vegetarians – They eat vegetarian diet and also poultry such as chicken, turkey, and duck but no other type of animal flesh and meat.
4. Flexitarian or Semi-vegetarian – It is a term used for people who mostly eat vegetarian diet, but eat meat once a while.

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