Vegetarianism - Varieties of Vegetarianism

Varieties of Vegetarianism

There are a number of types of vegetarianism, which exclude or include various foods.

• Ovo vegetarianism includes eggs but not dairy products.
• Lacto vegetarianism includes dairy products but not eggs.
• Ovo-lacto vegetarianism (or lacto-ovo vegetarianism) includes animal/dairy products such as eggs, milk, and honey.
• Veganism excludes all animal flesh and animal products, including milk, honey, and eggs.
• Raw veganism includes only fresh and uncooked fruit, nuts, seeds, and vegetables. Vegetables can only be cooked up to a certain temperature.
• Fruitarianism permits only fruit, nuts, seeds, and other plant matter that can be gathered without harming the plant.
• Sattvic diet (also known as yogic diet), a plant based diet which may also include dairy (not eggs) and honey, but excludes anything from the onion or leek family, red lentils, durian fruit, mushrooms, blue cheeses, fermented foods or sauces, alcoholic drinks and often also excludes coffee, black or green tea, chocolate, nutmeg or any other type of stimulant such as excess sharp spices.
• Buddhist vegetarianism (also known as su vegetarianism) excludes all animal products as well as vegetables in the allium family (which have the characteristic aroma of onion and garlic): onion, garlic, scallions, leeks, chives, or shallots.
• Jain vegetarianism includes dairy but excludes eggs and honey, as well as root vegetables.
• Macrobiotic diets consist mostly of whole grains and beans.

Within the 'ovo-' groups, there are many who refuse to consume fertilized eggs (with balut being an extreme example), however such distinction is typically not specifically addressed.

Some vegetarians also avoid products that may use animal ingredients not included in their labels or which use animal products in their manufacturing; for example, sugars that are whitened with bone char, cheeses that use animal rennet (enzymes from animal stomach lining), gelatin (derived from the collagen inside animals' skin, bones and connective tissue), some cane sugar (but not beet sugar) and apple juice/alcohol clarified with gelatin or crushed shellfish and sturgeon, while other vegetarians are unaware of such ingredients.

Individuals may label themselves "vegetarian" while practicing a semi-vegetarian diet, as some dictionary definitions describe vegetarianism as including the consumption of fish, or only include mammalian flesh as part of their definition of meat, while other definitions exclude fish and all animal flesh. In other cases, individuals may describe themselves as "flexitarian". These diets may be followed by those who reduce animal flesh consumed as a way of transitioning to a complete vegetarian diet or for health, environmental, or other reasons. Semi-vegetarian diets include:

• pescetarianism, which includes fish and possibly other forms of seafood;
• pollotarianism, which includes chicken and possibly other poultry;
• "pollo-pescetarian", which includes poultry and fish, or "white meat" only;
• macrobiotic diets consisting mostly of whole grains and beans, but may sometimes include fish.

Semi-vegetarianism is contested by vegetarian groups who state that vegetarianism excludes all animal flesh.