#askchefgood Vegetarian? Vegan? Pescatarian? What’s the difference?

We bet you know at least one vegetarian, probably more, or maybe you, yourself, are on the vego-spectrum. And it really is a spectrum, there are vegos of all types around. So we thought it would be helpful to give you a rundown on some of the different ‘levels’ of vegetarianism.

This list is by no means exhaustive, nor do we think that people need to be ‘labelled’ – but it might shed some light on the eating habits of those around you (or even inspire you to give the #veglife a go yourself!).

Let’s start with a definition.

The Vegetarian Society defines a vegetarian as follows:

“A vegetarian is someone who lives on a diet of grains, pulses, legumes, nuts, seeds, vegetables, fruits, fungi, algae, yeast and/or some other non-animal-based foods (e.g. salt) with, or without, dairy products, honey and/or eggs. A vegetarian does not eat foods that consist of or have been produced with the aid of products consisting of or created from, any part of the body of a living or dead animal. This includes meat, poultry, fish, shellfish, insects, by-products of slaughter or any food made with processing aids created from these.”

Holy moly! That was a mouthful (pun intended).

So let’s break it down further. There are three types of vegetarian under this definition:

Lacto-Ovo

These vegos eat both dairy products and eggs.

Lacto

A lacto-vegetarian eats dairy products but no eggs.

Ovo

Ovo-vegetarians will eat eggs but no dairy products.

Next up – vegans.

Vegan

Vegans cut out all the same stuff as vegetarians, but also abstain from dairy and eggs. Many vegans will also avoid things like honey, leather and other animal products. As a vegan you might also only use ‘cruelty-free’ cosmetic and bath products ie. not tested on animals.

You may have also heard of the ‘raw vegan’ movement. These types of vegans will only eat fruits and vegetables in their raw state, no cooking allowed!

Some other common diets are pescetarian or ‘aquatarian’ (a vegetarian diet plus fish and seafood) or a pesco pollo vegetarian (a pescetarian diet plus poultry).

And of course, there are thousands upon thousands of people who don’t fit into any of the above – and that’s what makes us interesting!

Hopefully, this post has taught you a little about the preferences of those people around you who have adopted a vegetarian diet, and maybe even made it a little easier for you to cater for them at your next barbeque, dinner party or get together.