Eating a varied diet doesn't need a wanky label?

[Wherearemyminions]

Lots of articles and discussion in the media at the moment around diet, eating less meat, increased availability of vegan options etc. I keep seeing reference to Flexitarianism and think it's bonkers tbh.

I think we're a fairly typical household diet wise, I don't know anyone who has "meat and 2 veg" type meals every night, the last time I saw that was my grandparents in the 70s.

If we're eating out, sometimes I'll opt for the veggie/vegan option, purely because it's the thing I fancy or most like the look of on the menu.
At home, we probably have red meat once a fortnight, quite a bit of fish and chicken , maybe 3 or 4 times a week on average, the rest is plant based.

This is just being an omnivore, and eating a varied diet for taste, preference and choice with a nod to health and budget reasons.

I would not describe myself as flexitarian, or part time veggie/vegan, all of which I have seen recently. Unless you are actually vegetarian or vegan then no descriptive label of your diet is required.

Does it really matter what people label themselves? As long as they’re not affecting anyone else let’s just let people live their lives.

Everything needs a wanky label. It's a thing.

YANBU, 99% of the time I don't eat meat, mainly as I just don't enjoy the taste and texture. If I do fancy something though I will eat it, and people always say omg thought you were veggie why are you eating that? Er because I want to? I also tend to have almond milk as dairy doesn't agree with me much, and often at work get the you're not a very good vegan as you eat eggs. I'm not a vegan though or trying to be. I think the labelling is often counterproductive, just eat what you like and try and make good decisions.

It's the moralising aspect that's irritating. People preaching at you about 'meat free days' as if most people haven't been doing that forever. My born in the 1910s grandparents had days when they didn't eat meat, as did my born in the 1940s parents, no one ever thought anything of it, you were just having eggs for tea today or whatever.

YANBU. I eat pretty much the same as you OP and I'd never describe myself as flexitarian, part time vegan or doing veganuary or all the other crap that everyone's banging on about these days, just because I had falafels, salad and hummus for lunch yesterday. I had that because it's just food that I like.

I'm already ready to explode every lunchtime at work because they're all doing veganuary so we have forensic analysis of everyone's lunchboxes. It seems that making a big song and dance about it is Very Important .

It's about 10 years since Michael Pollan published his 'food rules' 'eat food, not too much, mostly plants', which is all we all need to know about eating.

michaelpollan.com/reviews/how-to-eat/

And YY to 'meat free days' not being a new thing. Eating meat every day is a relatively modern phenomenon, fuelled by meat being made cheap by industrial scale farming.

People take the piss out of the 'Mumsnet chicken' on here, but that's just going back to pre-1970s era where people had a joint on Sunday, whether chicken, pork, beef or lamb, and probably not that often for chicken as it was very expensive and the joint would last until Tuesday and then people would have things like egg and chips on Weds and Thursday, maybe fish on Friday, don't know what on Saturday, but almost certainly not anything elaborate and certainly not eating out or takeaways as that was a 'high days and holidays' occurrence, if that, before coming back round to the Sunday roast, with small portions because the leftovers had to last.

You’re absolutely right OP.

But people like labels. It makes them feel special.

The other day, someone told me they are ‘65% vegan’ 😂

Totally agree re 'meat free days', as a child regular staples were beans or spaghetti hoops on toast, egg and chips, tomato soup and a cheese roll, or egg salad in the summer. They weren't 'meat free days' they were just what we were having for tea that night!

TBH I find calling food "plant based" pretty wanky (sorry OP! )

TBH I find calling food "plant based" pretty wanky

Fair point, I've been reading too many of those articles lately and it's crept in

YANBU. I've been vegetarian for more than 30 years and I feel I should be excited by this new 'plant based' talk, but actually I find it really depressing and boring. Especially the way it's become a huge marketing thing for ready meals and more and more bizarre meat substitutes (the ingredients on some of these make my head spin). The Michael Pollan thing is spot on, or as my mother has always said 'everything in moderation'. A focus on people being able to cook properly (and simply), from scratch, with respect for all their ingredients would be welcome.

I wish we didn't have some form of meat every day but dh does a lot of the cooking and that's his default. It might just be bacon in the pasta sauce but tbh if he had his way it would be some sort of piece of meat daily.

I have started making one vegan meal a week just to make a point, really. Mainly dhal or a vegetable stir-fry.

I don't really care about the vocabulary but there are definitely people out there who are omnivores and tend towards meat more often than not!

What's the difference between flexitarian and omnivore?

@Wherearemyminions

YANBU at all, and thanks for the mid morning laugh. 'Wanky label!'

Yeah, flexitarianism, what a load of tosh. Unless someone made it up to mock vegans and vegetarians. People mocking the veggies and vegans does happen occasionally!

The Flexitarian will tell you about it.

One of dd12 friends announced that she was becoming vegan or actually no vegetarian or actually no flexitarian or actually still wants her meat with Sunday roast.
It was A Big Announcement on nye.
Still none the wiser ..

You are definitely not being unreasonable! Why do they think anyone else even cares what they eat?

Hmm, I’m divided. Virtue signalling is annoying but if people use it as their own personal targets to reduce their meat consumption for whatever reason they might find it helpful to do meatfree Monday’s etc. I definitely found it much easier once I was ‘officially vegetarian’ rather than when I was just cutting down on it as my family that eat barely any meals without it didn’t keep expecting me to just eat it because ‘well you sometimes eat it!’ I don’t care what people call me as long as they don’t expect me to eat meat but the label means something to them.

Agreed. It's how I've lived for the last 45 years at least.

I have a friend who will literally not eat a meal unless it has meat in it. I wonder if she has a label for herself.

Pescatarians and fish eaters calling themselves vegetarian get on my nerves. Fish is just one type of flesh. I've got a friend who was one of the latter and used to take the moral high ground until I called him out on it.

I think there's some kind of rule now that everything has to have a wanky label. Pretty sure if you could be arsed to check there'd turn out to be a wanky label for having wanky labels.

I'm also totally fed up with all the absolute diet madness and increasingly weird meat substitutes everywhere, Still can't get my head round why in the name of all that is holy I would want my vegetarian 'steak' to simulate bleeding? That's just weird.

I've gone back to old-school dried soya mince/chunks as my go-to meat substitue. it's refreshingly non-wanky.

@Gatehouse77 an omni is an omni - a flexitarian is special. And wants everyone to know it

We do eat meat everyday. I've no interest at all in any of this flag waving 'look at me' attention seeking self labelling. Society is over run with these self absorbed, navel gazers.

I shall continue to eat what ever I like. No label necessary.

What's the difference between flexitarian and omnivore?

Marketing potential, wanky diet books, support groups, etc.