Types of Vegetarianism
People tend to have different ideas about what a vegetarian diet includes or excludes. Being served salads with bacon bits, or being asked whether you eat fish might be the result of this confusion. It gets compounded by PETA writing about vegetarianism when they refer to vegan diets, however historically correct that may be (see below). So here’s a short list of types of vegetarianism, and their definition:
| Vegetarian | Historically, a vegetarian diet excluded all foods that come from animals. However, the definition got diluted over time to include eggs and dairy products. Nowadays it refers to a diet without meat, fish/seafoods and poultry. |
| Vegan | A term coined with the founding of the Vegan Society, it derives from the term VEGetariAN as “the beginning and end of vegetarian”1. The term refers to a diet without meat, fish/seafoods, poltry, eggs or dairy products. Other animal-derived products (even non-food items) such as honey, beeswax, leather, wool, etc. are usually also avoided. |
| Lacto-Ovo-Vegetarian | Synonymous with the modern use of vegetarian. |
| Ovo-Vegetarian | A diet best described as modern vegetarianism sans dairy products. |
| Lacto-Vegetarian | A diet best described as modern vegetarianism sans eggs. |
| Pescetarian | Same as modern vegetarian diet, but also allows fish. |
| Fruitarian | Fruitarians extend the ideal of not harming other living things to plants, and avoid eating any part of a plant that would damage the plant. In essence, that requires fruitarians to only eat fruit that the plant already discarded (no plucking allowed), and to reintroduce the seeds contained in the fruit back into the natural cycle. |
| Macrobiotic | A macrobiotic diet is mostly identical to a vegan diet, but may allow some fish. The major difference is that it shuns processed foods, sugar, or refined oils. |
| Freegan | Freegans take a wholly different approach to not harming living things by living off items that other people discarded. Technically, freeganism does not have to be an extension of a vegan diet, and can include the consumption of meat — these freegans are sometimes called “meagans”. |
- See also the history of the vegan society. [↩]
