"flexitarians" ... what's in a name?

[RSincere]

Winner – Most Creative – freegan: noun, person who eats only what they can get for free.

I just saw this. That's not how I've understood that word for the past 10 years. My brother used to be homeless (don't ask) and he traveled and associated with a large kind of an earthy, vegetarian, hippie-style group. The way he explained "freegan" to me back then was that it was a person who ate a vegan diet, unless they were offered free food that wasn't vegan, in which case they would eat the free food.

[Katherine]

So basically, a person who eats a mixed diet but only occasionally eats meat, can refer to themselves a a flexitarian if they want some of the presumed moral superiority of vegetarianism to rub off on them, yet not actually have to give up meat.

I had a boss who was like that.

[Chloe]

The terminology is certainly irritating or incorrect, but the concept of only occasionally eating meat/fish for whatever reason surely cannot dismissed out of hand!

For some people, the quality of the meat they can easily buy is so poor that they have little enjoyment in eating it. Chomping through typical lacklustre beef and pork or plasticky chicken just to prove a point isn't really much fun. I know that this is the opinion of my father back in the UK. And as organic meat is distinctly more expensive (the thread over whether organic chicken is tastier than normal chicken must be a very US thread - in Europe I don't think many would question the difference), is it not better to eat better meat and less often???

Surely this is valid for any type of foodstuffs? I am not the faintest bit vegetarian or vegan, but I find the somewhat hysterical reaction of anti-vegetarians/vegans similar to the hysterical reaction of vegetarians/vegans

I only willingly eat beef if it is really good and most of the butchers where I live sell dreadful beef most of the time. Luckily for me a) I have cheap restaurants that source good beef; b) I can easily travel a good few miles to buy better beef; c) I can occasionally buy organic "mountain" beef (and "pata negra" pork now, oh joy!); and d) I occasionally get given home-grown/slaughtered beef. So I do eat quite a lot - but only because of a, b, c and d!

Chloe

Wet, windy and warm north Portugal

[Majra]

I agree that the term "flexitarian" is annoying, but it is not difficult to understand the idea that the word is trying to represent. The hysteria over the word, however, really creates a no-win situation for vegetarians--either they are a pain in the ass when they won't eat meat, or they are a pain in the ass when they will.

I am decidedly omnivorous, but I spent many years of my young adulthood in a vegetarian state. I had various semi-ethical reasons for eating a meatless diet, but for the most part I kept to myself and tried not to inflict myself upon others. One way that I tried to remain sensitive to others was to occasionally eat meat if it was served to me. If a real meat-and-potatoes cook, like my mom for instance, went out of her way to prepare fish for her vegetarian daugher, I would eat it. Ethically, it just seemed like the right thing to do, even if fish was not part of my regular diet. At times like this, being flexible about my diet was definitely a positive thing, both for my own heart and for the well-meaning cooks who sincerely tried to accomodate me.

I bet there are many good reasons why people make the food choices they make. And it's definitely easier to give each other the benefit of the doubt, than it is to chastise.

(edited for spellink)

Edited October 9, 2004 by Majra (log)

[dougery]

wow it was probably created by a marketing firm to target the confused world of trendy eaters, I do not think they know what the hell they want.

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I wouldn't doubt it one bit!

[itch22]

It does sound a little bit more like it belongs in a dance studio, doesn't it?

Nevertheless. The word "omnivore" is perfectly fine for what people are describing here. Part of what bugs me about "flexitarian" is that first syllable. Most of the real vegetarians I know are that way for religious or ethical reasons, not reasons of fashion. There's nothing flexible about their commitment.

I think I feel my usual defense of the language coming on. Time to go read someone who's truly creative and playful with it, I guess.

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I agree. An omnivore is an omnivore, whether he/she prefers vegitables or meat as their primary source of food. There is no need to apply specific terms to omnivores because one omnivore prefers a salad for lunch over a humburger. If so, where does it end? How about lettuce-itarian, tomato-itarian, or beef-itarian?

[Gifted Gourmet]

one omnivore prefers a salad for lunch over a humburger.  If so, where does it end?  How about lettuce-itarian, tomato-itarian, or beef-itarian?

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I really laughed at your choice of the word "humburger" .. whether a typo or Freudian slip, it is perfect!!

I personally am a currently closetted shrimpatarian

[itch22]

I really laughed at your choice of the word "humburger" .. whether a typo or Freudian slip, it is perfect!! 

I personally am a currently closetted shrimpatarian 

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It was my coy wit! Nah... It was my bad typing.