Oh barf. Newsweek has an article about which is the phenomenon of being vegetarian but eating meat occasionally. This sounds like pescetarianism, which is also not vegetarianism. According to the article only 2-3 percent of Americans are traditional vegetarians – I can’t believe it’s that low – and lot more people eat meat occasionally. You guys might remember the foray I attempted to make into meat eating a couple of months ago…but I just can’t do it. I’ve been vegetarian for 15 years and the idea is just abhorrent to me.
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I agree, I think the name is incredibly dumb. Why come up with a name for people who eat one way most of the time, but another occasionally? I suppose you could term someone “plant-centric” but I don’t know why it needs a label or name.
The other problem, though, is that the term “vegetarian” has been “santified” in such a way that it’s used by its adherents in the same way as “pregnant” is – an absolute. It’s become a defining aspect for many that combines dietary, spiritual, ethical, etc. values. But if you think of it solely as a dietary term, one should be able to use it in the sense of “I practice a mostly vegetarian diet” – meaning 95% of the time you don’t eat animal meat. After all, you can say similar things about other aspects of dietary restrictions – “I eat mostly a low-fat/low-carb/whole-foods-based/fill in the blank diet.” To me the only difference with vegetarian is that it is viewed in a more lofty way by its followers. It’s not just a “diet” it’s a “lifestyle.” I don’t know, what do you think?
I don’t think there’s any way it’s only 2-3% … they must be skewing the traditional definition to come up with that number, to back up the rest of the article. I’ve read it’s as high as 7-10%.