To be sick of people thinking vegetarian eat fish

[Dearaugust]

Also, people who eat fish but not meat calling themselves vegetarian!

When people find out I’m vegetarian, a lot of people ask me if I eat fish. If I ate fish, then I wouldn’t be vegetarian! It wasn’t a big deal really, but an incident has happened recently where I was choosing a meal for a wedding and there was only meat options and a “none of these due to dietary preferences” option. So I ticked that. The person then contacted DH (it’s his friend who is getting married) and he explained I’m vegetarian. A few days later she said not to worry, they have sorted a fish meal for me. So he’s now had to go back to her again saying I don’t eat fish. What a faff!

I honestly thought it was common knowledge that vegetarians don’t eat fish. But apparently not because i get asked it a lot.

I've never seen that.
I've never heard anyone say that's ok.

The dictionary definition of vegetarian is a person who does not eat meat or fish. You do. It’s really not a difficult concept.

Quite a few people are saying the word and meaning has evolved and that it's widely accepted that vegetarians eat fish, or that many of the people they know say they are veggie yet happily eat chicken.

When I do events I always ask for dietary requirements and allergies, whether that's halal, vegan, gluten free, pescatarian, veggie. We have people who specifically say they don't eat fish.

Everyone gets catered for.

The ignorance of people assuming veggies eat fish is shocking. I can't decide if they're deliberately being ignorant or are actually thick.

The dictionary definition of mostly is doing something most of the time but not all of the time. It's also not a difficult concept for most intelligent people, heck even most not that intelligent people!

I think most people would assume that vegetarian means no meat, of any kind, anyone who does eat meat isn't 100% vegetarian (a bit like me, mostly vegetarian).

Then your friends are not vegetarian. The hint is in the name.

Or they are mostly vegetarian but occasionally eat some meat. I knew a man lived with a vegetarian wife and was vegetarian at home, but he told me that he did have the odd bacon sandwich out and about. I don't think it was in secret or anything, but most people thought he was 100% veggie. His wife was an annoying person, but that aside, she was also a very good vegetarian cook, so I assume it wasn't a sacrifice to eat veggie at home.

I wouldn't assume a vegetarian would eat fish - but have met many who claim to be who do so would now double check.

Worst one was one of our wedding guest very small wedding she made a huge song and dance about being veterinarian. We were eating at a restaurant after - really was small wedding - and she had fish as starter - then chicken for main. Apparently she was using it as didn't eat red meat ( or very often as apparently occasionally she would eat pork and beef). As we'd said it was normal menu not a set why she assume a normal restaurant wouldn't have many options for normal diet is beyond me.

🤣

I have a handful of "vegetarian" friends who have all told me on separate occasions quite clearly that they're vegetarian "but sometimes eat fish". Obviously this is technically inaccurate but I don't actually know any true vegetarians - most make exceptions for fish or gelatine etc. If I met someone new who told me they were a vegetarian I would ask if they ate fish because that has been my own personal experience with people who call themselves "vegetarian".

Tell them you are a vegetarian,NOT a fish and chipocrite

I am reminded of very simple, and wrong, books for the very young which divide living things into Animals, Birds. Fish, Insects including spiders, Reptiles etc- I can't recall what they do with molluscs and marine arthropods, but anyway they imprint the young minds with animals as only mammals. If that's what a person thinks, and they add veggie is not eating meat, you can see that's how you get the veggies eat fish or chicken. They are not animals to their minds.

SIL calls herself vegetarian but eats fish 🤷🏼‍♀️ I know it's inaccurate.

Nobody is suggesting that they are; it was clearly hyperbole.

So if he was teetotal at home but got drunk when out, he's a teetotal who occasionally drinks?

You're not vegetarian if you eat animals. You're a meat eater who doesn't eat much meat.

Simply put if you eat any meat no matter how often you aren't vegetarian. There's no mostly about it, no exceptions. No, I only eat chicken or bacon. You can't be vegetarian and eat meat.

If you eat fish but not meat you are a pescatarian.

If you eat no animal derivatives including honey, you are a vegan.

I don't drink alcohol, but I do drink alcohol very occasionally. Doesn't make me teetotal on the 364 days I choose not to drink alcohol.

You can't be "mostly vegetarian". You either are vegetarian or you're not. You can eat a mainly vegetarian diet but if you eat meat, you are not a vegetarian.

My dh is similar to your friend. I'm a vegetarian and an excellent cook. We eat veggie at home. He eats meat occasionally when out but he would never describe himself as vegetarian.

Same as my sil. She never describes herself as vegetarian in front of me any more as I always ask when she gave up fish

@OchonAgusOchonOh lol It usually comes up in conversation on Xmas day when she's eating her salmon parcel. DH says but you're eating fish right now? She'll just shrug.

Well no they don't assume that, that's the problem they assume otherwise. See this post, quoted directly below yours:

Never knew this and most of my friends are vegetarian. They’ve all always eaten fish when we go out

Because of people like you, people like this poster assume that 'vegetarian' means something it doesn't. Eat what you like, just don't call yourself 'mostly' something which is either/or. You're vegetarian or you're not, there's no degrees of vegetarianism any more than you can be mostly faithful, or mostly a non smoker, or mostly female, or mostly a virgin.

People on this thread saying 'Some vegetarians eat fish' surely would.

But it IS a fixed rule of word definitions, @marmaladeandpeanutbutter - a vegetarian is someone who does not eat flesh, and that includes fish. The only way someone could define vegetarianism to include eating fish would be if fish were vegetables, which they clearly are not!

I once worked with a bloke who by all accounts was intelligent, had a degree etc.

We were shown a video to show to our staff for motivation purposes. I have mentioned it on here before in a different conversation. It was entitled 'FISH!' and was designed to help motivate staff as these fellas in it who worked on a fish market were happy as Larry with their otherwise mundane, unexciting job.

To kind of boost morale I guess even though I managed a team of folk who dealt with bills and customer queries and all manner of things boring.

I did NOT want to show it to my staff. One vegan was crying. There were these blokes throwing the fish around, laughing, making them make stupid faces etc as they worked. One thing it did not do was boost morale.Most people just thought it was stupid and didn't grasp the point it was trying to make.

Aforementioned bloke thought it was hilarious albeit he did say he couldn't understand why it was a good choice for showing to staff.

I said 'to be fair, I don't like to see videos of folk throwing dead animals around either'

This was an email conversation and he became confused eventually saying to me 'Well fish aren't animals that's why I didn't know what you meant'.

Fish aren't animals!?
He eventually said he thought an animal was 'A LAND creature'.

Hm.

It is clear to me that, when @NormaleKartoffeln says she is 'mostly vegetarian', she means that, most of the time, but not all of the time, she eats vegetarian food. I was recently diagnosed type 2 diabetic, so I have cut out a lot of sugar from my diet - I don't say I eat a completely sugar-free diet, but I do eat a largely sugar free diet - so that's why I understand the difference between mostly vegetarian and completely vegetarian.

In my mind, the definition really matters because, whilst a pescatarian is not going to be upset if they are served a completely vegetarian meal, a vegetarian (someone who does not eat any meat including fish) WOULD be upset if they were served fish. The pescatarian could eat the vegetarian meal with no issues, but the vegetarian could not eat the pescatarian meal.