Types of Vegetarians: Vegans
Vegans lead the strictest diet among vegetarians. Being a vegan involves not eating meat or dairy products, eggs and even honey. More often than not, vegans adhere to this kind of lifestyle from ethical reasons and fight for animal rights. What is more, they usually do not wear nor use products of animal origin, such as silk, leather or wool fabrics.
Lacto vegetarians
Lacto vegetarians avoid eating meat, fish and eggs, but indulge in dairy products. This type of vegetarian diet might be preferred for health reasons. Moreover, it has the advantage of not favoring calcium deficiencies that might occur among vegans.
There are also ovo vegetarians who choose to avoid dairy products, but instead eat eggs and egg based foods.
Lacto-ovo vegetarians
One of the most common types of vegetarian diets, the lacto-ovo vegetarian one, involves avoiding only meat, poultry and fish products. Lacto-ovo vegetarianism has become a synonym for vegetarianism amongst the majority of people.
Pescetarians
Among the different types of vegetarians there are the pescetarians as well. Pescetarianism is a less restrictive type of vegetarianism as it allows for the consumption of seafood. It may be considered one of the healthiest types of vegetarian diets since it helps provide a larger array of nutrients, compared to other kinds of vegetarian diets.
Flexitarians
Flexitarians or semi-vegetarians form the most controversial type amongst vegetarians. The reason is that, as the naming suggest, they don’t strictly adhere to a vegetarian lifestyle, consuming meat, fish and/or poultry occasionally.
Flexitarians may go for this type of vegetarianism as a transition towards a strict vegetarian lifestyle, too.
More often than not, both pescetarians and flexitarians are not considered vegetarians. Actually, the Vegetarian Society has listed them as non-vegetarians, given the fact that fish, birds, mammals are animals.
Other types of vegetarians might be those following a raw vegan diet, a macrobiotic diet or a fruitarian one. The first is a type of vegan diet that involves the consumption of solely uncooked (thermally processed) food, whereas the macrobiotic diet involves eating mostly grains and avoiding refined foods and oils. As for the fruitarian diet, it consists of fruits, but also of veggies classified as fruits, as well as nuts.
See also:Healthy Vegetarian Snack IdeasCommon Mistakes in the Vegetarian Diet
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