Types of Vegetarians November 14, 2007

I am always surprised by people calling themselves vegetarians when they eat regularly many animal products… and most recently I wrote a post on a local restaurant guide,  and people commented on restaurants being Vegan-friendly… and to tell you the truth, I am not too sure if they know what a Vegan is.

So let me shed some light on the different types of vegetarians categories there are:

By definition, vegetarians do not eat or consume any type of animal meat or derivate - be it red meat, poultry, fish, seafood, reptile and such.  If they’re more strict, a true vegetarian will not consume gelatin, collagen, or any ingredient derived from an animal, such as carmine coloring, derived from an insect. 

Lacto-Ovo vegetarians - These are vegetarians who consume eggs and dairy products.

Lacto-vegetarians - These vegetarians eat dairy products, but refuse eggs.  This is the type of vegetarian I am.

Ovo-vegetarians - accept eggs but do not consume dairy products.  These are not very common.

Vegans - Vegans shun all type of animal products.  They do not consume any dairy, eggs or even honey.  They will not wear silk, any type of leather product or wool. 

There are other types, who restrict their diets to just raw foods, or just fruits. 

And, there are people out there who call themselves vegetarian, who refuse to eat red meat, but they still eat  poultry and/or fish/seafood.  In my opinion these people, by definition, are NOT vegetarians.  They are really a sub-group of the omnivorous diet.

Hope this helps you understand more the different types of vegetarians out there.