Vegetarianism Guide to Types of Vegetarians

Usually, when you think of vegetarians, you think of people who avoid eating any type of animal flesh including beef, pork, lamb, poultry, fish, etc. There are several types and variations to vegetarianism. While many of the vegetarians are lacto ovo vegetarians who will everything but any kind of meat, some others will avoid eating eggs and dairy products and others will say no to beef, pork and poultry but will include fish and other seafood in their diet.

1) Lacto Ovo Vegetarians:
The most common type of vegetarians is the lacto ovo vegetarians. Lacto is the Latin word for milk and ovo means eggs in Latin. The lacto ovo vegetarian do not eat any kind of meat including beef, pork, poultry, fish, shellfish, etc. However, they will eat dairy products and eggs.

The lacto ovo vegetarian category is divided into two categories:
a) A Lacto Vegetarian does not eat meat and eggs but does eat dairy foods.
b) An Ovo Vegetarian does not eat meat and dairy products but does eat eggs.

2) Pescatarias:
The pescatarian or pescetarian are vegetarians who avoid eating meat but will continue eating fish and shellfish. The rationales behind the pescatarian diet are varied. Many choose this lifestyle for health concerns rather than ethical reasons. While others would claim that the fish industry is less cruel than the meat industry. Others will simply justify their decision by arguing that fish are less intelligent than farm animals.

Dedicated vegetarians would put the pescatarian under the category of semi vegetarians. In the same category you can find the pollo vegetarians who will include poultry in their diet, the flexitarianism who will avoid eating meat that derived from an animal that was brought up and died in cruel conditions. The flexitarianism are similar to the freeganism that would not mind eating any type of meat unless any part of its process involved environmental damage or human or animals exploitation.

3) Vegans:
They do not consume any product that was derived from animals including, of course, any kind of meat, fish, dairy products, eggs as well as honey and foods that contain gelatin. Some vegans would not touch cane sugar, beer and wine since animal products involve in the finishing process: cane sugar is filtered with bone char and some beer and wines are clarified with egg white. As part of the vegan ideology, vegans would not consume products made of leather, furs, pearls, etc.

4) Raw Vegans:
Also called raw foodists limit themselves to unprocessed food that has not been heated above 115 degrees Fahrenheit or 46 degrees Celsius. Therefore, their diet mainly consists of raw vegetables, fruits, nuts and seeds. However, some of the raw foodists do consist raw food that was derived from animals in their diet including raw eggs, unheated dairy products and sushi.

5) Macrobiotics:
The macrobiotic diet is part of the macrobiotic methodology that was originated in Japan. The macrobiotics practitioners follow strict diet rules based on the principle of balance between yin and yang. The macrobiotic diet is based on whole grains, vegetables, fruits, nuts, seeds and soy products. They are allowed to include seaweed and certain types of fish in their diet.