No, no, no, no, no, a thousand times no!

[legalmoose]

Can You Be a Vegetarian and Still Eat Meat?

Um, no. If you eat meat, you are not a vegetarian. Vegetarians, by definition, do not eat meat, they eat plant-based foods. If you are mostly vegetarian and occasionally eat meat, you are still a meat eater. End of story. This is not a difficult concept, people!

The truly annoying part is that when people refer to themselves as vegetarian and then eat, say, chicken or fish, they make it that much more difficult for those of us who are vegetarian, who know what that means, and who really and truly don't eat meat. I can't believe the number of times I've been told/asked, "But it's just a little bit of chicken/fish/meat/egg/etc..." Ugh! That's the point, I don't eat it, but thanks.

Comments

[saltbox.livejournal.com]

As you know, I don't eat meat except when it's an ethnic food I've never/rarely had and really want to explore (i.e., my "cultural exception"). It was the only way I could balance my interest in (a) changing my environmentally damaging consumption patterns but (b) retaining my ability to explore, in an experiential way (as opposed to intellectually and academically, where I already have 30+ books on food history and sociology, and this is on top of any recipe books I have), ethnographic food trends.

To my friends, I explain the whole situation. But, lately, to people I will never encounter again---for instance, at restaurants---I do occasionally use "vegetarian" as a shorthand, much as you might be annoyed at me for that. For the very reason you describe---I don't want people sneaking little bits of chicken/fish/meat/egg/etc into my food when I'm trying to avoid meat or telling me "it's just a little bit". But that is far more likely to happen if I explain "I don't eat meat except for certain cultural exceptions" because this far too difficult for many people to get, on a surface level. Believe me, I understand your concerns about this shorthand making it difficult for people who never ever ever eat meat. But I think by limiting it to people who I'd never encounter again, that's avoided, because those people would never see any non-"vegetarian" behavior of mine in the first place. And I think it probably helps the concerns of "true vegetarians" by raising the percieved demand for vegetarian food.