Whether you give up on eating flesh and meat and become a carnivore based on moral or religious grounds, or whether you do so because you want to cleanse yourself and adopt a healthier lifestyle, you are in effect embracing the vegan way of life. When turning vegetarian, you may not have pondered over the fact that there are actually various kinds of vegetarians, six to be precise. So, do you know what kind of vegetarian you are?
The kind of vegetarian you are or choose to be depends on what you want to include in your diet or avoid from it. Here are the six kinds of vegetarians described in detail. Identify which category you fit into. The six types of vegetarians are as follows:
Pescetarians are a kind of vegetarians who tend to abstain from all kinds of meat and flesh, with the exception of fish. It can be viewed as a stepping stone towards vegetarianism, as you cut out everything flesh related from your diet, except fish. Usually, pescetarians move on to other forms of vegetarianism where all they consume is vegetables and fruits.
Flexitarians are as the word suggests, rather flexible in their approach towards vegetarianism. Flexitarians are the kind of vegetarians who mostly consume vegetables, but sometimes they are allowed to take a break and go consume some meat occasionally as well!
This kind of vegetarian is characterized by a staunch approach towards vegetarianism. These individuals do not consume any forms of flesh, nor beef, poultry, shellfish, fish, pork, but do tend to consume dairy products and eggs. However, within this category lay the lacto-vegetarians and the Ovo-vegetarians as well. Lacto-vegetarians are the kind of vegetarians who consume dairy products, but no eggs, and Ovo-vegetarians are the type of vegetarians who consume eggs but do not eat dairy products or meat.
The macrobiotic diet to vegetarianism is a rather simpler one to follow. This diet caters to those kinds of vegetarians who consume unprocessed vegan foods such as vegetables, fruits and whole grains, and the occasional fish. In a macrobiotic diet, refined oils and sugars are mostly avoided, and more of an Asian consumption of vegetable is promoted, which includes seaweed and other sea vegetables.
Raw vegans are a type of vegetarians who consume a raw vegan diet. A raw vegan diet basically includes unprocessed vegan food that is cooked under 46 degrees Celsius. Reason why people go for this diet is primarily because they believe food that is cooked or heated above the said temperature tends to lose its nutritional value and is not as healthy.
When you think about vegetarians, the image that you get is that of vegans. Vegans are a type of vegetarians. They do not consume anything that even hints of flesh. They refrain from eating meats of any sort, eggs, and dairy products and even processed foods that include any of the stated as ingredients or other ingredients derived from animals such as fats and gelatin. Vegans even refrain from consuming those products that may be made using animals, even if they do not contain the animals in the finished form, for example wines and sugars.