To ask how you can be a pescatarian. Possible Triggers

[Jessiejuju]

So the whole point of being a vegetarian is that you don't eat meat from a living thing so why is it OK to eat fish and seafood. I know it is not classed as meat but it is still a living thing that is dying so you can eat it and is actually cruler than other animals for example chickens simply have their neck broken which is relatively quick as apposed to fish who suffercate when removed from the water.

I didn't know that fish were meat?
surely meat comes from a mammal?

entirely confused.

I know vegetarians that do and call themselves vegetarians .. people are always asking me to eat fish even though I'm a vege !!

I'm a flexitarian. It started because I never liked the taste or texture of most meat. My DM refused to cook me separate meals as a teenager so I would eat veggie whenever I could and eat a bit of meat at home when it was served. When I went to uni and left home I was largely vegetarian.

I've always enjoyed fish though. These days if I want meat I will usually go for fish instead. I have anaemia and have to really overconsume plants and beans to keep my iron up, which sets off my ibs. Eating a small amount of meat or fish seems to have a better effect.

I'm allergic to dairy, so I mostly eat plant based milks and milk products. I don't do it for ethical reasons, but hope my choices have less of an impact than someone who consumes meat and dairy with reckless abandon.

Because people have a choice about what they eat and there are other reasons to avoid meat than cos poor animals

I aim to eat healthily and so I eat mostly vegetarian meals or fish dishes, but as I eat meat occasionally, I can't call myself vegetarian.

I know someone who's pescatarian because he only wants to eat things that he'd be/is happy to slaughter himself.

I know vegetarians that do and call themselves vegetarians

No you don't know vegetarians who eat fish, because vegetarians do not eat fish.
You know pescatarians who erroneously refer to themselves as vegetarians. If people ask you to eat fish tell them you don't eat it because you are a vegetarian. If they don't understand that a fish in a animal then explain to them.

I was a vegetarian for 10 years, I also suffer from severe depression and PTSD. I read a study that found eating fish beneficial for helping depression and tried adding fish back into my diet to see if it helped. It may be totally coincidental but I did feel a bit of an improvement, so now I’m a pescatarian (although I ate meat when I was pregnant, I had gestational diabetes so I was limited enough)

People do tend to get quite confrontational about my diet, both as a pescatarian (“why are fish different?”) and as a vegetarian (if no one ate cows they would be EXTINCT is that what you want???”) and I really don’t know why they care so much. Eat what you want and leave me in peace.

@jessiejuju

What on earth are you on about?!

Pescatarians don't CLAIM to be vegetarians! They don't SAY they are vegetarians; they say they are pescatarians.

Daftest thread of the day.

And nobody likes someone who preaches! People like you give vegetarians a bad name.

People can eat, or not eat, anything they want for any reason they want.

Leave them alone.

@Romanyroots

I didn't know that fish were meat?
surely meat comes from a mammal?

entirely confused.

You are taking the piss right?

Did you realise that chicken, turkey, pheasant, and duck is meat too?!

If you limit your fish consumption to the most ethical fishing methods, you don't eat much fish and your reasons for not eating meat are to do with tackling climate change rather than animal welfare specifically then I think it does make some sense.

No, I know lots of veggies who eat fish.

I have vegan friends who don't eat anything that comes from an animal.

No, I know lots of veggies who eat fish.

No you don’t. If they eat fish they are not vegetarian no matter what they say.

@RomanyRoots

I didn't know that fish were meat?
surely meat comes from a mammal?

Chicken, duck, pheasant, goose.....etc are not mammals and most definitely are meat.

Whether fish is 'meat' or not is debatable I guess and a matter of semantics.

What people eat or don't eat can be the result of many different things - ethics, allergy/intolerance, distaste etc. My bil used to not eat meat because he didn't like the texture, but he was fine with fish. Somehow he got over it and now does eat meat - so he was pescatarian, though always told people he was vegetarian, and now, well, isn't. But that's not because he used to care about animals being killed and now he thinks it's fine (I have no idea about his feelings on animals being killed).

I get your point OP. I am a pescatarian and I am not totally comfortable with eating fish. Although their life is not as compromised as many farmed animals (e.g. battery chickens) they are ultimately killed so humans can eat them. But I continue to eat them because it’s easier for me to maintain a healthy omega 3 rich diet this way. (And it’s hard to visit the seaside without having fish and chips).

I see it as a halfway house and I expect to give it it up at some point. Although who knows? At other times I think I might go the other way and start having a free range chicken roast every once in a while.

But I totally agree with the poster who says it doesn’t have to be all or nothing.

From the OED:

VEGETARIAN reminds us that the practice of vegetarianism has been around for many years – the OED’s first example of vegetarian in the sense ‘a person who abstains from eating animal food and lives principally or wholly on a plant-based diet’ dating from 1842, in the Healthian magazine.

and the modern version

vegetarian
NOUN
A person who does not eat meat or fish, and sometimes other animal products, especially for moral, religious, or health reasons.

so vegetarians don't eat meat or fish and pescetarians are not vegetarian.

Agree with sausage and the other posters saying vegetarians DO NOT EAT FISH.

These people who eat fish can claim to be vegetarians but they are not.

@Romanyroots surely no-one can be THAT clueless?!

I’m mainly vegetarian, but very occasionally I do eat fish because I’ve had some health issues and have been generally depleted. I saw a nutritionist who felt it would be helpful to eat some meat or fish. So mostly I don’t because I don’t want to eat animals, but if I am run down then I do occasionally eat some locally caught fish.
I have a couple of friends who do the same, including one who was a vegetarian but has gone back to occasional meat eating because she just doesn’t feel as well on a vegetarian diet.

I mean no-one can possibly be as clueless as you @Romanyroots

You cannot POSSIBLY believe fish is not meat, and that you still think people are vegetarians if they eat fish or chicken.

NO WAY.

Romanyroots thinks that chicken, duck, turkey, quail, goose etc. are all mammals?

I think the trigger warning is for pedants like me who are screaming at the atrocious spelling

I'm a pescatarian. I feel entirely nothing about eating fish/seafood but do not eat meat due to the cruelty of the meat industry. I could go into long explanations of the reasons why, but not sure I can be bothered as I'm 46 and have had to bang on about these reasons for about 38 years now. I guess when I first gave up meat (as opposed to fish) my reasons were very teenage, which were; - The Smiths Meat is Murder / fish don't love their babies like chickens, pigs, cows etc do / being shown a video of the inside of an abattoir / my mate had a cade lamb that then eventually went off to slaughter / you can't cuddle fish etc etc. Although my reasons have grown in sophistication I tend to keep them to myself as they OBVIOUSLY mean a lot to me and I have no idea why someone else would want to poo-poo my OWN PERSONAL beliefs about what I put into my own body.

Taffeta I am being very restrained, really I am. Because we must never, ever, correct someone's spelling on MN.

Oh, and if anyone asks, I'm a flexitarian.

Funny as a lot of vegetarians I know kill alll sorts of bugs etc because they don't like them . I personally don't kill anything if I can help it regardless of if it's soft and fluffy or not .
I think a lot of adults could do well to teach their kids not to be murderous little feckers but that's a whole other thread .