Flexitarian...really?

[FrustratedTeddyLamp]

Seen flexitarian a few times now and so off I went to Google which gave me this definition:

Flexitarianism or 'casual vegetarianism' is an increasingly popular, plant-based diet that claims to reduce your carbon footprint and improve your health with an eating regime that's mostly vegetarian yet still allows for the occasional meat dish

So a meat eater? An omnivore am I missing something? This seems stupid to me and just another unnecessary label

Some people feel the need to label everything and often do it in a very illogical way.

If you eat meat you're not a 'fexitarian' you're a omnivore whether you eat meat once a day, once a week or once a month.

I used to know someone who claimed to be a vegetarian but they did eat chicken.

I don't eat meat but I do eat fish. However, I have never felt the need to describe myself as a pescatarian. I'm just someone who doesn't eat meat.

@OpheliaThrupps

Isn't it like trying to reduce your carbon footprint to help with climate change, rather than eliminating it entirely by having your electricity cut off, living in a hut you've made from leaves and never travelling anywhere you can't walk to?

Flexitarians eating one less animal-derived meal a month definitely helps.

Eye but like anything (recycling, giving to charity etc) this is just something you quietly get on with, no need for a special name and announcing it to the world, unless you are indeed a virtue signaller

Bit of a throwback, haven’t heard this term for years.

I see people's distinctions but I still dont really see the need for a distinction, if you're willing to eat meat then you're not a vegetarian/vegan and feel like that covers it.

But you are working on the assumption that people only need to know your dietary requirements, which is soooo 2014. These days it's about performing an identity.

So what if you eat meat? If you have purple hair and want people to know you care more than them you need a label you can tell people about.

but like anything (recycling, giving to charity etc) this is just something you quietly get on with, no need for a special name and announcing it to the world

This is literal violence.

I guess I would consider myself a flexitarian but I would never label myself as one. It is different to someone who eats a more "traditional" diet with meat at almost every meal. I do make a conscious effort to eat mainly plant based foods with some meat but certainly not every day.

It’s just a way of describing a particular subcategory of omnivore. So you don’t assume we will eat meat, default preferred option is vegetarian/vegan but we’re not pretending we are actually vegetarian/vegan because we do eat some meat/fish very selectively.

Really couldn’t care if anyone thinks it’s “wanky”, I don’t know anyone who goes around harping on about it. It’s just a description to be clearer about dietary preferences when that is required.

Anything that encourages general reduction of meat consumption is a good thing overall though, surely?

I would say if you call yourself an omnivore you're probably more enthusiastic about meat eating, you're a regular consumer of meat. I think flexitarian is a reasonable term for someone doesn't buy or cook meat but will for example eat it if served at a family or friends home or who won't object to parmesan in a shared pasta dish at a picnic or geletine in a shared birthday cake. Not a regular consumer of it but can be flexible in certain circumstances.

@OpheliaThrupps

Isn't it like trying to reduce your carbon footprint to help with climate change, rather than eliminating it entirely by having your electricity cut off, living in a hut you've made from leaves and never travelling anywhere you can't walk to?

Flexitarians eating one less animal-derived meal a month definitely helps.

Not if that one less animal derived meal is based on avocado and quinoa it isn't.

Plenty of us make conscious decisions in terms of veggie/vegan days, buy free range locally sourced meat and eggs, and generally try to limit food waste, without the virtue signalling "look at me" bollocks attached to it. My mum did this when I was a kid and back then it was known as a normal varied diet.

The good thing about people attaching labels to this stuff is that they unwittingly help us to recognise and avoid them and their attention seeking.

The marker of being a vegetarian is in not eating meat - ever (during the time whilst being a vegetarian, if not whole-life) - that's the whole point of it.

A murderer might have spent 99.999999999999% of their life not murdering anybody, but the description refers to that one specific fact about them and is completely correct - all the rest is irrelevant.

'Omnivore' doesn't necessarily mean 'eats absolutely everything': it essentially means 'open to choosing from all foodstuffs' - thus some omnivores will eat meat three times a day and others will eat meat once a year; but because they don't deliberately strictly exclude meat (or any other food group) from their diet, they are not any kind of vegetarian.

@pigsDOfly

Some people feel the need to label everything and often do it in a very illogical way.

If you eat meat you're not a 'fexitarian' you're a omnivore whether you eat meat once a day, once a week or once a month.

I used to know someone who claimed to be a vegetarian but they did eat chicken.

I don't eat meat but I do eat fish. However, I have never felt the need to describe myself as a pescatarian. I'm just someone who doesn't eat meat.

My husband is a pescatarian, and he does use the term occasionally, mainly to clarify what he eats (and doesn't eat). He finds that if he just says he doesn't eat meat, people often think he means red meat and assume that he would eat chicken.

Flexitarianism is not a new term, OP. It's been around for years. So there's obviously a lot of people out there who are happy with/see a need for the label. As a vegetarian, I see this as a positive step.

@Underfrighter

It's just a sub group. To me, there is a big difference between an omnivore who eats mostly a plant based diet with a small amount of good quality meat occasionally, and an omnivore who thinks it's not a proper meal without some kind of meat in every dish. Both in terms of approach and in terms of environmental impact

This. You covered it perfectly.

It’s about reducing impact so if you want to call it whatever to motivate you with a goal to eat mostly vegetarian food then fine. Hopefully over time a shift will happen towards vegetarianism.

It's just another extension of identity politics.
Everyone and everything needs a lovely shiny label to stand out from the boring crowd. I mean they can't possibly be like everyone else, they're extra special.

I don't know that it needs a label, but aiming to eat more plant based whilst still occasionally enjoying meat seems a perfectly reasonable way to live to me.

@Citylady88

I would say if you call yourself an omnivore you're probably more enthusiastic about meat eating, you're a regular consumer of meat. I think flexitarian is a reasonable term for someone doesn't buy or cook meat but will for example eat it if served at a family or friends home or who won't object to parmesan in a shared pasta dish at a picnic or geletine in a shared birthday cake. Not a regular consumer of it but can be flexible in certain circumstances.

But I'm not. I don't eat meat much at all. I have a largely vegetarian diet and only by free range meat.

I'm an omnivore.

@pigsDOfly

Some people feel the need to label everything and often do it in a very illogical way.

If you eat meat you're not a 'fexitarian' you're a omnivore whether you eat meat once a day, once a week or once a month.

I used to know someone who claimed to be a vegetarian but they did eat chicken.

I don't eat meat but I do eat fish. However, I have never felt the need to describe myself as a pescatarian. I'm just someone who doesn't eat meat.

Hate to burst your bubble but fish is meat.

I'm assuming it just means someone who eats a reduced meat diet. They probably don't want to label themselves as vegetarian lest they get "caught out" eating meat. Hence this term which is upfront about the fact that they're mostly vegetarian but occasionally do.

Omnivore doesn't tell you how someone eats though. It's a wild assumption to equate it with some "traditional" diet (what's that nowadays in the UK or worldwide?) or meat with every meal/ every day or junk food.

The problem lies in the unwarranted assumption that everyone else belongs to some kind of lower thinking blob or maybe at best hive mind: the normies maybe. 🤷

The idea is that you eat less meat then you ordinarily would. Doesn’t bother me but then I’m a shit pescatarian

I think it's a useful term. If someone is an omnivore then they are likely to choose a meat based option on a menu, whereas a flexitarian is likely to choose the vegetarian option, but won't mind being shunted into having the meat if you run out of vegetarian servings. So from a catering pov is a valid term to differentiate from both omnivores and vegetarians.

if you're willing to eat meat then you're not a vegetarian/vegan

I've never referred to myself as a flexitarian but I can see where it's useful, and it's for this comment. I loathe to refer to myself as a vegetarian because I will eat meat rather than starve (at a wedding, or a shit restaurant for example) but if I don't refer to myself as a vegetarian then people won't cater for me as such. DHs office buys a round of bacon butties on a Friday for example, or a party buffet will have nothing but chicken goujons, sausage rolls and ham sandwiches. I tend to say "I don't eat meat" but that's not actually true; I just really really really don't want to.

" if someone is an omnivore they are likely to choose meat.."
🤷😣

I eat meat, fish and eggs but am fussy about the meat, fish and eggs. So if I'm eating out will always choose the vegetarian options unless in a very expensive restaurant who post the provenance of their meat. That makes me fairly wanky so I don't label myself.

I love my vegan foods/meals - I just don't eat them full time. Isn't that most of us to a greater or lesser extent?