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Vegetarianism is the practice of not eating meat, including beef, poultry, fish, or their by-products, with or without the use of dairy products or eggs. The exclusion may also extend to products derived from animal carcasses, such as lard, tallow, gelatin, rennet and cochineal. Some who follow the diet also choose to refrain from wearing products that involve the death of animals, such as leather, silk, fur and many or all down feathers. It should be noted that although many vegetarians abstain from all animal by-products, others make exceptions in their diet and attire. Vegetarians may consume dairy and egg products; a stricter form is veganism, which excludes dairy, eggs, and any foods that contain these or other animal products; still stricter is fruitarianism, which excludes all food but the botanic fruits of plants.


History

Vegetarianism has been common in the Indian subcontinent, since possibly the 2nd millennium BC for spiritual reasons, such as ahimsa (nonviolence) and reducing bad karmic influences. Hinduism preaches that it is the ideal diet for spiritual progress and Jainism, which claims between eight to ten million adherents, enjoins all its followers to be vegetarian. Buddhist monks of Mahayana school have also historically practiced vegetarianism. In looking for parallels in Jewish and Christian antiquity for these practices, some Christian vegetarians feel a kinship with Nazirite, Essene and Ebionite practices.

Many Hindu scriptures advocate the diet. The secular literature of Tirukural in Tamil Nadu, India, proclaimed over 2000 years ago: "Perceptive souls who have abandoned passion will not feed on flesh abandoned by life. How can he practice true compassion, he who eats the flesh of an animal to fatten his own flesh?"

Vegetarians in Europe used to be called "Pythagoreans" , after the philosopher Pythagoras and his followers, who abstained from meat in the 6th century BC. These people followed a vegetarian diet for nutritional and ethical reasons. According to the Roman poet Ovid, Pythagoras said: "As long as Man continues to be the ruthless destroyer of lower living beings he will never know health or peace. For as long as men massacre animals, they will kill each other. Indeed, he who sows the seed of murder and pain cannot reap joy and love."

In 1847, the first Vegetarian Society in Ramsgate, England, agreed that a "vegetarian" — from the Latin uegetus "lively", and suggestive of the English word "vegetable" — was a person who refuses to consume flesh of any kind.

Seventh-day Adventists and Rastafarians, denominations founded in the 19th and 20th centuries, are also frequently vegetarian. African Hebrew Israelites only eat an organic vegetarian diet that also excludes dairy products such as milk.


 

Terminology and varieties of vegetarianism

Different practices of vegetarianism include:

  • Lacto vegetarianism — Lacto vegetarians do not eat meat or eggs but do consume dairy products. Most vegetarians in India and those in the classical Mediterranean lands, such as Pythagoreans, are or were lacto vegetarian.
  • Lacto-ovo vegetarianism (also called eggitarian colloquially in India) — Lacto-ovo vegetarians do not eat meat but do consume dairy products and eggs. This is currently the most common variety in the Western world.
  • Ovo vegetarianism — Ovo vegetarians do not eat meat or dairy products but do eat eggs.
  • Veganism — Those who avoid eating any animal products, including eggs, milk, cheese, and sometimes honey, are known specifically as dietary vegans. Most additionally avoid using animal products, such as leather and some cosmetics, and are called vegans.

The following are less common practices of vegetarianism:

  • Raw food diet involves food, usually vegan, which is not heated above 46.7°C (116°F) ; it may be warmed slightly or raw, but never cooked. Raw foodists argue that cooking destroys enzymes and/or portions of each nutrient. However, some raw foodists believe certain foods become more bio-available when warmed slightly as the process softens them, which more than negates the destruction of nutrients and enzymes. Other raw foodists, called "living foodists", activate the enzymes through soaking the food in water a while before consumption. Some spiritual raw foodists are also fruitarians, and many eat only organic foods.
  • Macrobiotic diet involves a diet consisting mostly of whole grains and beans and is usually spiritually based, like fruitarianism.
  • Natural Hygiene, in its classic form, involves a diet principally of raw vegan foods.
  • Fruitarianism involves a diet of only fruit, nuts, seeds, and other plant matter that can be gathered without harming the plant. Some fruitarians eat only plant matter that has already fallen off the plant. This typically arises out of a holistic philosophy. Thus, a fruitarian will eat beans, tomatoes, cucumbers, pumpkins, and the like, but will refuse to eat potatoes or spinach. It is disputed whether it is possible to avoid malnutrition with a fruitarian diet, which is rarer than other types of vegetarian or vegan diet.

The following similarly named diets are not considered full vegetarianism:

  • Pesco/pollo vegetarianism (semi-vegetarianism) — Some people choose to avoid certain types of meat for many of the same reasons that others choose vegetarianism: health, ethical beliefs, etc. For example, some people will not eat "red meat" (mammal meat – beef, lamb, pork, etc.) while still consuming poultry and seafood. It may also be used as an interim diet by individuals who are on a path to becoming fully vegetarian.
  • Flexitarianism — Flexitarians adhere to a diet that is mostly vegetarian but occasionally consume meat. Some, for instance, may regard the suffering of animals in factory farm conditions as their sole reason for avoiding meat or meat-based foods and will eat meat or meat products from animals raised under more humane conditions or hunted in the wild.
  • Freeganism — Freegans practice a lifestyle based on concerns about the exploitation of animals, the earth, and human beings in the production of consumer goods. Many tend towards veganism, but this is not an inherent practice. Those that eat meat generally support the arguments for vegetarianism, but as freeganism is concerned about waste, freegans prefer to make use of discarded commodities than to allow them to go to waste and consume landfill space.


Vegetarian societies


Vegetarian societies (apart from India) were first formed in majority meat eating European countries both as a means to promote the diet and to gather together vegetarians for mutual support. By 2000, most western and developing nations had functioning vegetarian societies. The countries that were first to establish societies are still the ones most likely to have the greatest proportion of vegetarians within their populations.

The first societies were:

1847 — United Kingdom
1850 — United States of America
1867 — Germany
1880 — France
1886 — Australia
1889 — India
1890 — Ireland
1893 — Switzerland
1894 — Netherlands
1895 — Sweden
1896 — Denmark
1896 — Hungary
1899 — Belgium
1900 — Austria

The International Vegetarian Union, a union of all the national societies, was founded in 1908.
 
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