"total vegetarian"

[Second Summer]

Also, do you guys think that it is okay for a "strict vegetarian" to say that their on a vegan diet? I'm not really sure if I am "vegan" enough in some respects, but I don't really like the term strict vegetarian.

"Vegan diet" is fine. Just don't say you're a "dietary vegan"!

 

[Clueless Git]

I think that it is okay for people to create new names for themselves, as long as they distinguish the difference. I mean, who's to say that someone can't coin a new word? They have to start somewhere.

Also, do you guys think that it is okay for a "strict vegetarian" to say that their on a vegan diet? I'm not really sure if I am "vegan" enough in some respects, but I don't really like the term strict vegetarian.

Aye,

If I understand my veg*an history correctly: Vegetarian orinaly meant what vegan means today; An exclusively vegetable diet.

The term vegan having been coined when the vegetarian flag was irretrievably hi-jacked by people who ate milk and eggs which are defo animal products.

 

[thefadedone]

I think that it is okay for people to create new names for themselves, as long as they distinguish the difference. I mean, who's to say that someone can't coin a new word? They have to start somewhere.

I disagree. Creating new names only creates confusion and misunderstandings. It makes it problematic for the people that correctly follow the term.

 

[PTree15]

No matter how often I try to explain it to my parents, they still think someone who eats fish is a vegetarian.

My mom keeps telling me about vegetarians she knows who eat fish. I have to keep telling her that they are not vegetarians but pescatarians. So yeah, another vote for pescatarian to avoid confusion.

 

[Danielle]

vegetarians can eat fish because they live in the water... but not dolphins because they come up for air.
so I was told

 

[FortyTwo]

I think that's an opportunity to educate, not an opportunity to invent more and more new terms.

I actually don't mind pescetarian for someone whose only meat consumption is only fish. I knew someone online who called herself vegetarian but ate fish. After I explained to her the issues this could cause for actual vegetarians, she adopted pescetarian instead.
Then I've seen people who eat only fish calling themselves aquarivores.

Wtffff. The existing term wasn't good enough for them? They needed to feel special by inventing a new word? If they go to a restaurant, how confused will the wait staff/chef be when faced with all these terms? We can't even agree on a term amongst ourselves, no wonder restaurants can't get it right.

I'm a vepoggàn, it's different from vegan even though it's really the same.

Also you can't forget the accent, you uncultured swine, otherwise it means something totally different.

 

[Danielle]

vepoggan..?

 

[Clueless Git]

My mom keeps telling me about vegetarians she knows who eat fish.

We need a name for that ...

"Whiskey drinking tea-totaller syndrome"?

 

[Danielle]

I don't do drugs.
Alcohol is legal.
Weed is a plant.
Saying you know a vegetarian who eats fish is like saying you know someone who is straight edge that smokes weed. I dunno if that is accurate or not, but it makes sense in my head.

 

[SummerRain]

Intuitively, "strict vegetarian" sounds to me like someone who is very strict about not consuming anything non-vegetarian from cross-contamination or minuscule amounts of ingredients of unknown origin etc, and at the same time it creates the idea that other vegetarians are less strict, perhaps they eat a fish or two once a week like Bill Clinton?

I agree with this. I actually prefer "vegan diet" or even "dietary vegan" (controversial I know!) because I just think it makes more sense, and people are much more likely to know what it means intuitively.

Outside of forums I've never heard the phrase "strict vegetarian" (or total vegetarian) and I always forget it means vegan diet, because it just sounds like somebody that is very strict about being a vegetarian. Which does make sense, considering out of all the people I've met who identify as vegetarian, there is definitely a scale of "strictness" with some eating fish, some eating gelatine and others not wearing leather or using products tested on animals (and considering them part of being vegetarian). It doesn't matter that I think vegetarian is a diet free from all meat products, that's now how the word is always used in the real world.

I've also come across a range of confusing terms people adopt - most recently "clean vegan" (which apparently includes some eating of animals). People are welcome to use whatever words they want to describe themselves, but personally I don't see a need other than words that explain things you absolutely do not eat (vegetarian, vegan/vegan diet, kosher, halal, etc), because they are actually useful in real-life situations like labelling food and menus. Other words just seem like labeling for the sake of having a label to your name and for most people it's just confusing. I guess over time most will be dropped, some will stick and become more widely known.

 

[FortyTwo]

vepoggan..?

*vepoggàn

 

[Danielle]

*vepoggàn

whatevs i a pig i do wut i want

 

[thefadedone]

I've also come across a range of confusing terms people adopt - most recently "clean vegan" (which apparently includes some eating of animals

I shudder every time I hear that term or "clean eating", "clean food", "clean diet", etc.

 

[SummerRain]

I still don't understand what it means, all I know is the person who used the term ("clean vegan") said they ate animal products when they felt "their body needed it".

 

[Forster]

I agree with this. I actually prefer "vegan diet" or even "dietary vegan" (controversial I know!) because I just think it makes more sense, and people are much more likely to know what it means intuitively.

It does make sense but in my happy world vegetarian would mean just that, vegetarian, none of this egg/dairy crap as they are not plant based. Vegan would denote a lifestyle, not a diet, the assumption being if one called oneself a vegan, well then duh, of course they eat a vegetarian diet. Those who want to include eggs/dairy into their otherwise vegetarian diets ought not to be able to "get away" with calling themselves simply vegetarian, because that IMO is where all the confusion lies. They are the ones modifying the term vegetarian and ought to bear the brunt of clarifying what they eat with the lacto/ovo designation not the poor vegetarian who is not pure enough to be a vegan and doesn't want to have to explain that no, they don't eat eggs/dairy/fish/whatever and no they are not a vegan.

There I feel better now.

 

[KLS52]

I think I'm more confused now. I didn't know vegetarian, initially, meant vegan although it makes total sense if you define it as a plant based diet.

 

[Tom L.]

Well, the term "pescetarian" is actually very new... maybe around 1990? At any rate, I wasn't familiar with the word when I was one (from 1968 to 1972). I didn't know that "vegetarian" originally meant basically what is now known as "vegan", either.

As far as "chicken-eating vegetarians" go, I think the difficulty and confusion arises when people restrict their consumption of red meat for perceived health reasons. They're not concerned with animal welfare- they're just restricting their saturated-fat intake, and believe that bird or fish flesh is healthier to eat than cow or pig flesh (don't know if that last part is true- I'm not eating it anyway).

 

[Clueless Git]

I agree with this. I actually prefer "vegan diet" or even "dietary vegan" (controversial I know!) because I just think it makes more sense, and people are much more likely to know what it means intuitively.

The controversy over that frustrates me ...

If everyone was a dietary vegan there would be no animals slaughtered and thus no slaughter by-products entering the chain.

Basicaly if everyone went vegan in diet only then, very shortly, everyone would be fully vegan by default.

 

[Danielle]

unless they think its ok to skin animals for their leather and fur?

 

[Pirate]

I still don't understand what it means, all I know is the person who used the term ("clean vegan") said they ate animal products when they felt "their body needed it".

It must have been very hard not to smack them in the face!

*vepoggàn

I dont even know how to pronounce that à : ( clearly I can never be a vepoggàn!