I am no expert on food plans. Low carb, low fat, vegetarian, South Beach, vegan, Weight Watchers, Medifast, Jenny Craig, NutriSystem, Sugar Busters, Adkins, primarian, paleo...and on and on.
I have followed several of them throughout the years.
I got this comment yesterday after I briefly mentioned trying vegetarian, and trying to reduce the meat in my diet:
Hon, I was a vegetarian for 33 years. They don't eat ANY meat, including chicken and fish. You're a meat eater still, it's just that you don't eat the "red" meats. Please don't call yourself a vegetarian.
I relied on information from the American Heart Association to call my basic plan "vegetarian" although I stated the differences so far. Perhaps I should have stated that I was taking a few days to transition from my old plan of portion control into a form of vegetarian eating. Perhaps I did not explain in enough detail, because I didn't want to bore most readers. I just wanted to explain that I was reducing the animal products and dairy in my diet in order to hopefully get my cholesteral numbers to a more normal level. This does not mean I will be on ANY exact plan for the rest of my life. It is an experiment for me.
Some people follow a "vegetarian" diet, but there's no single vegetarian eating pattern. The VEGAN or TOAL VEGETARIAN diet includes only foods from plants: fruits, vegetables, legumes (dried beans and peas), grains, seeds and nuts. The LACTOVEGETARIAN diet includes plant foods plus cheese and other dairy products. The OVO-LACTOVEGETARIAN (or LACTO-OVOVEGETARIAN) diet also includes eggs. SEMI-VEGETARIANS don't eat red meat but include chicken and fish with plant foods, dairy products and eggs.
I will be calling my plan basically vegetarian. I hope to be able to transition into vegan. But I choose to transition over a few days instead of going cold turkey. This is not right or wrong, it is what I choose to do.
Again, thank you all for your comments and input. It is helpful in the learning process.
7 comments:
I wish you luck with you new diet and we all have to pick what works for us. For me it is Weight Watchers. Have a great day.
Whatever it is technically called, Jo, I wish you the best on it. I think you should be able to call it whatever you want without people calling you down for it. It is YOUR plan and you have every right to do it YOUR way. I hope it works out for you. I did a modified vegetarian plan for a while several year back but I just missed meat too much to keep it up. Good luck !
No need to explain yourself, Jo. Those of us who have supported you all along know exactly what you are doing, why and the process you are following to get to your goal of lowered cholesterol. You are right - it doesn't matter what you call it!
Jo, just chart your own course and listen to your body. You'll get there.
I think lots of folks find the terminology confusing. I think the vegetarians are correct in asserting that if one eats only VEGETATION (things that grow from the ground, on trees, under the ground and are not from an animal), that is the purest vegetariansm. We'd call it vegan.
I think once you add animal stuff, it has to be modified. I could have been an ovo-lacto vegetarian (as I love dairy, eggs, cheese). hahah. But I am eating a lot of animal protein now, so very far from any vegetarianism.
The most important thing is to eat in a way that makes you feel good, energetic, helps you get to and keep a healthy weight. The rest is semantics....
I agree. It does not matter what you call it, the new way of eating and vegetarian will offer many benefits to you including hopefully lowering your cholesterol.
I may have mentioned this before: but do you know Diet for a Small Planet by Francis Moore Lappe? A great book about cooking in a basically vegetarian way. Good luck.
However you call it as long as it works for you work it! I do like that according to the definations you posted I now know I am semi vegetarian....probably as close as I get to being flat out vegetarian lol!
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