Question #11: What does it mean to be Vegetarian? All the terms confuse me.

You are not alone in the confusion. Due to the wide range of diets considered "vegetarian" it can be difficult to sort through what people mean. I will try to define as many of the terms as I can to help you sort through this mess.

Vegetarian in general means that the individual avoids eating meat.

When most people say vegetarian they are referring to what is often called a Lacto-ovo Vegetarian. Lacto refers to lactose or milk and ovo to eggs. This is someone whose diet consists of plant foods and non-meat animal products. Non-meat animal products include milk products, eggs and honey. (There is a debate about Jello and gelatin though. As a product made of collagen from bones and other animal parts some vegetarians steer clear of it and others do not.)

Two closely related and more narrow diets fall under the traditional term vegetarian. These are vegan and raw food diets.

Vegans are those vegetarians who choose to eat no products derived from animals. These diets do not include eggs, milk products or, in most cases, honey. Vegans rely solely on plants for nutrition.

Raw Food diets can be vegan, vegetarian or in the gray area I will discuss below. Those on raw food diets choose to limit or eliminate cooking of foods because they believe this maintains the nutritional integrity of the food. As you can imagine, most of those on raw food diets avoid meat though some will eat sushi, kibbeh and/or carpaccio which are raw meat dishes. Many raw food diets also include honey and milk. In essence, raw food diet describes food preparation styles and not necessarily what types of foods are taken in. For example, someone who consumes only grains and raw fruits and vegetables would be on a raw food diet... another who ate raw fruits, raw vegetables, milk, yogurt, honey and grains could also be termed on a raw food diet. Yet the first individual is vegan and the second is a lacto-ovo vegetarian. (Hope that is not too confusing.)

Then there is a gray area. These are diets termed vegetarian but that do not fit the traditional (Standard?) definition of vegetarian. Many refer to these diets as semi-vegetarian diets.

Pescatarian are individuals who have the diet of a lacto-ovo vegetarian (or vegan in some cases) and in addition include fish and fish products in their diet.

Related there are diets where it will include all the lacto-ovo vegetarian diet plus chicken (and sometimes fish).

Venn Diagram of diets

These gray area diets spark a lot of concern for many vegetarians because it makes it more difficult to make themselves understood when it comes to discussions of dietary requirements. I have heard from many vegetarians (and have had this happen to me as well) express their dismay when they comment about being vegetarian only to have someone ask them if they would like fish or chicken.

Hope this clears up some of the terms associated with a vegetarian diet. Here at the end I've included  great resource from Harvard University that discusses all sorts of diets and diet concerns.


Resource: Harvard's The Nutrition Source