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.

It means they wouldn’t be demanding a veg meal or “claiming to be vegetarian”...?

Why do they need a word then?

There is no reason for me to know whether other people eat meat every day or once every six months. It doesn't matter. I'd only need to know if someone didn't eat meat at all so as I know to make them a vegetable dish. Someone who 'eats meat sometimes' can eat the same as everyone else.

I call myself pescatarian. How is that 'wanky'?
Surely it's just an accurate way of letting people know what my requirements are if we're getting dinner together?
I've certainly never thought it makes me special or anything like that. If anything, it's frustrating having to explain it so often! So for me, this kind of thing is actually very positive. It means more options are available for me when eating out and I don't have to explain myself as much.

Not sure if it's relevant but my family are the kind of people who feel like every single meal should contain meat - so this was my diet too until I was old enough to cook for myself. (I was fully vegetarian until I added fish to my diet for health reasons a few years later)

I would probably describe my boyfriend as flexitarian if anything since he eats pescetarian with me but then two or three times a year when we visit family he'll eat what they're having and not worry about it. We'd never use that term to specify dietary requirements though as I don't think it has much meaning in that respect!

The language is wanky but there are still plenty of people out there who think it’s not a proper meal without meat. Have a look at some of the threads about vegetarian wedding menus.

This is a pescatarian

Why do people get so het up over this. Live and let live.

But what you’ve said is the exact reason for using “flexitarian” - it literally means “I try to stay vegetarian but I’m flexible about it”. It means they wouldn’t be demanding a veg meal or “claiming to be vegetarian”...?

Not really; they could just say "I eat everything. Whatever you're making will be lovely, thanks". Unless they're veggie or vegan obviously.

Do you know how language development works?

Oh ffs.

Yes language evolves. Over time, with collective change and understanding.

Individuals, pissing over universally agreed definitions, because they want to feel like special snowflakes, is not language development.

HTH.

If you're pescatarian (and it's frustrating to explain it) could you not just say you don't eat meat?

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.

And to think some people write off MN as too middle-class...

*You must have missed the thread on here a few months ago where some posters were claiming that someone can totally be vegan whilst having egg-containing cake when they're out and about because they're reducing the amount of animal products they consume.

Some posters (rightly!) said they have no problems catering to dietary requirements and preferences as long as people don't take the piss and say they have to have vegan cheese, send the host out their way to cater for it, only to have a few spoonfuls of their DH's non-vegan pudding 'to taste'. Apparently if a host found this behaviour rude and irritating then they couldn't have been a good host and the "vegan" wasn't being misleading at all.*

I have experienced a similar situation. The vegan in the group asked the host if they had got soya milk in for their after dinner coffee (host had bought specially) and then proceeded to tuck into the Cadbury miniature heroes and all manner of non vegan cakes and desserts.
Another time someone with a alleged gluten allergy on holiday had holiday organisers tracking down (with difficulty, in a foreign country) gluten free bread and pasta, only on the last night to try out all the local (non gluten free) cakes!

zuri If pescatarian is the accurate word for your diet then it isn't wanky. You don't eat meat and do eat fish
Vegan/vegetarian isn't wanky, not are people who say they eat halal/kosher... As long as they actually do.

Being vegan except for when the cake comes round, being vegetarian except when you want Christmas dinner, being coeliac except when you want a few spoonfuls of pudding is wanky.

Being vegan-ish or flexitarian is wanky because all it means is 'i eat a range of food and don't require any proper catering adjustments but I want you to realise I'm special and make a fuss'.

I have experienced a similar situation. The vegan in the group asked the host if they had got soya milk in for their after dinner coffee (host had bought specially) and then proceeded to tuck into the Cadbury miniature heroes and all manner of non vegan cakes and desserts.

What is so wrong about that to me is, after the guest took the little bit of soya milk in their coffee, what happened to the bottle? If the host isn't vegan and doesn't want to drink it, it's going down the sink. What a waste. So much worse than just drinking the splash of normal milk or taking the coffee black.

Of course the host could have given the (mostly)vegan the rest to take home OR not bothered to look for and buy a different type of milk when the guest turns out to be slightly part time about veganism!

We need a label for the act of wanky labelling.

I am a wankylabelologist or something

I suppose I'd be classed as a pescatarian who eats a largely plant based diet, if someone wanted to label my eating habits.

In other words I don't eat meat but eat fish and lots of vegetables, fruit and nuts; no labels required. If someone was going to cook for me I'd just tell them I don't eat meat, I wouldn't feel the need to put some wanky label on it.

And as for flexitarian? If you're will to eat meat at all in any form, no matter how seldom, you are not a vegetarian or vegan, or a sometime vegetarian or vegan, neither are you a 'flexitarian' you're just someone who doesn't eat a lot of meat.

Unfortunately, someone just declaring they don't eat a lot of meat doesn't make them sound as exotic as they might like so they like to, as you say OP, put a wanky label on it.

Words don't lose their meaning, they change their meaning.

Oh this drives me crackers. I don't eat a lot of meat and like vegetables and fish.

Yet if I go to a restaurant with work colleagues and order a veggie main. I can guarantee some daftie will say I didn't know you were veggie.

Ffs.

I'll take that as a "no" then...

lazylinguist
Not just that, but language change is a gradual process over time, not 6 people waking up one Wednesday and deciding that the commonly used definition of a cat is now wrong, so not only shall they invent their own definition of a cat, expect the world to play along with their definition of a cat, whilst also accepting that anyone else's definition of a cat is also equally valid even if none of the new definitions have any reasonable applicability in day to day life with most people.

Plus, all these vegans who just eat 'insert one off animal product here' / vegetarians who eat fish create more issues for actual vegans/vegetarians because the wider public end up not knowing what the rules are so think that vegetarians can eat parmesan because they know someone at work who eats it

True, but there's nothing people can do about that. People will use words how they see fit, and over time that may or may not change the meaning. I can see why people simplify things by saying they are vegetarian, rather than go into a long and boring list of precisely what they do and don't eat and how often tbh.

If I prefer to only eat high welfare meat, tend to avoid beef because it's particularly bad for the environment am allergic to pork, it would probably be politer and simpler to tell my dinner party host I'm vegetarian. If she then gets furious and indignant when she spots me in a café eating prawns that's her problem. .

It's a load of shite. I agree that for environmental reasons we should cut down on meat. Also in the current financial climate it can be cheaper to have at least a couple of meals a week that don't contain it but I don't get the need for all the wanky hashtags and labels.

I've made macaroni for tonights tea - I don't need to virtue signal to everyone that it doesn't have meat, it's just a meal.

Wanky food labels are the same level of wank as announcing your pronouns, and as Boy George succinctly commented this week (on the latter): "a modern form of attention seeking"