Why do some vegetarians (and carnivores for that matter) say fish

[dolo amber]

and chicken aren't "meat"? I've known several people who considered themselves vegetarian who will still occasionally have fish or chicken, and I've known meat-eaters who will not include them in a discussion of "meat". I find this very weird. :shrug:

[johnnie]

1. Because

[dolo amber]

2. Thanks! That was very helpful!

:D

[HarukaTheTrophyWife]

3. Because those assholes aren't really vegetarians and the carnivores

don't know any better, because of those assholes.

It makes things very hard for real vegetarians.

[LeftyMom]

4. Health food "vegetarians" and the catholic fish on friday thing, mostly

I think part of it is a gender thing as well. MEAT!!!= cow or pig, grilled as steaks or chops and is considered manly. Chicken and fish are diet food, and therefore feminine and thus not MEAT!!!! to the reptile brain crowd.

It's stupid, but I think that factors in.

[dolo amber]

7. This makes sense

Well, the explaination makes sense. I don't think the concept makes anything close to sense, but I agree with what you're saying. :D

[NewWaveChick1981]

5. I've thought the same thing.

Animal flesh is "meat". Plants are plants. :shrug: What gives?

[anarch]

6. that has always utterly baffled me

I don't get it, and I don't have an answer. You wind up with things like "Pesco-Ovo-Vegetarians" and whatnot. I mean, I don't personally try to influence other people's eating choices one way or the other, but why put a label on yourself if you just don't like to eat mammals, but do eat other animals? :shrug:

"Oh, I'm a vegetarian...but I eat fish." ummmm, ok then. Fish are vegetables?

[dolo amber]

8. Fish aren't all that bright from what I can tell

I don't know that they'd classify as vegetables though.

I kill myself. :rofl:

[Chan790]

10. Better still was the girl I dated

who called herself a vegetarian, then in the next breath ordered a BLT and explained to my disapproving stare that she considered bacon to be the world's best vegetable.

[Fleshdancer]

15. HAHA!!!! Bacon: The world's best vegetable.

:rofl:

Now that's a funny story. I can practically see the "WTF?" look on your face.

[Chan790]

9. My take, militant as it may be.

If you eat fish, you are a pescetarian; if you eat chicken or other fowl, you are a polletarian. In neither case are you a vegetarian. I respect their decision not to eat their fellow mammals, but they're not vegetarians. If they're going to call themselves vegetarians, I'm going to call them on it. If you want the label, live up to the label...otherwise get your own label.

As for why omnivores eat what they eat or consider what they consider to be meat, I have no clue. Meat smells bad to me, like old pennies, battery acid and spoilt milk so I don't eat it.

[Richardo]

18. Isn't that "polletariat"?

:)

[calico1]

11. Many people will refer to as "meat"

something that comes from a four legged animal. They will say meat, chicken and fish. My sister in law does not eat anything with four legs and my fiance keeps saying she is a vegetarian. I tell him she is not!

[Gormy Cuss]

19. That's the best explanation so far.

In the over age 70 set I think the categories were called meat,poultry,and fish. Why anyone thinks VEGEtarian includes chicken and fish eaters is a puzzle.

[pitohui]

12. yes i know some folks like this -- and i've been told the answer!

in one close friend's case, i know the answer, she is protesting the treatment of meat and poultry animals in factory farms but as we live in louisiana, she wants to support our local fisheries, so can eat such local seafood items as wild-caught louisiana shrimp

vegetarians are vegetarians for any number of different reasons and each one tailors their diet to their needs, just as we carnivores will do

altho i admit when i was a vegetarian i did not eat seafood because i was trying to reduce my exposure to mercury as well as any natural proteins that might have been contributing to my strong allergic responses

[HarukaTheTrophyWife]

16. She's still not a vegetarian and she shouldn't call herself one.

She's a pescarian. Pescarians eat fish, but no other meat. Vegetarians don't eat any animal flesh.

[GoneOffShore]

22. Shrimp & lobsters

have their stomachs almost directly behind their eyes.

Hmmmm.

And oysters and clams? Mouth, digestive track, cloaca..

Yumm.

As my sig says:

Eating meat doesn't kill you. Eating fuzzy, greenish blue meat kills you,

[RebelOne]

13. I am a vegetarian and I do not eat anything with hair, fur or feathers.

But occasionally I will have fish and I do consider it to be meat. So, actually, I am a piscatorian.

[HarukaTheTrophyWife]

17. Yeah, you really shouldn't be calling yourself a vegetarian then.

[Ravenseye]

14. Mammals are Meat....the rest don't count

It's all about meat having boobs...men. meat. boobs...male oppression. etc.

[Coventina]

20. This is a very old disconnect, going back to at least the Middle Ages

"Meat" as a culinary term refers to land animals such as cattle, pigs, sheep, goats, rabbits, etc.

Poultry and fish are separate categories in culinary thinking.

This was reinforced by the church with its "no meat" fridays. All sorts of "loopholes" were found.
Fetal rabbits, for whatever reason were not considered "meat" and could be eaten on fridays.

Ha! That always makes me laugh when I think about it. Good Catholics eating aborted fetuses on fridays.

Anyhoo.....these old categories are pretty outdated by now, but still....pick up any basic cookbook and you'll find that "meat" is a different chapter from "poultry" and "seafood".

[schmuls]

21. I gind it weird too; have never understood it

[jobycom]

23. Too much obsession with labels.

I used to never say I was a vegetarian, I just said I didn't eat meat. Labels are just peoples' way of categorizing you so they don't have to think about you. So I'd say "I don't eat meat," and they'd say "Oh, you're a vegetarian," and I'd say "Yeah," and they'd say "Do you eat fish? Chicken? Oysters? etc" and I'd repeat "I don't eat meat." And they'd say "Oh, okay." Amazing how hard it is to understand a person when you don't have a label for them. Starts early. Boy, girl, black, white, smart, dumb, good bad, gay, straight... labels are the bane of decency.

So my point is some people eat very little meat and feel like the majority of their sustenance comes from a meat-free diet, but for whatever reasons they choose to eat meat from time to time. Okay, work that into a label. People have. They've come up with pescatarian and polletarian and lacto-ovo vegetarian and vegan and fruitarian and probably a dozen labels I don't know. But some people feel closer to "vegetarian" than to "non-vegetarian" and don't want to memorize what label they are supposed to be that day, so they just say they are vegetarian.

It's cool with me. There's no controlling legal authority, people can eat what they feel good about eating, and I'll do the same, and we can all make the decisions that make us feel best about ourselves, and who cares what labels we apply? It's the doing that matters, not the naming.

[tjwmason]

24. Fish were thought to be vegetables for a while

Note that many languages refer to sea food as "fruit of the sea" (e.g., French fruits de mer), which lead to the Church's rules for abstinence (which allow fish but ban meat).

In culinary terms one would tend to treat them differently, and thus cookery books do have 'poultry' separately from 'meat' - but then such books also often put 'game' separate from 'meat', it would hardly be vegetarian to tuck into roast haunch of venison.

These are legitimate points - because they're basically a matter of nomenclature...

Pseudo-vegetarians, who use the term but eat fish and even more so chicken just bemuse me. I knew one person who had given up red meat, but when asked for dietary preference usually said vegetarian simply to keep things easy - in a serious discussion she wouldn't have called herself vegetarian.

I can understand somebody who has made the moral choice to become vegetarian, but who has yet to sever links with a few favourite meats - but that's more a vegetarian-in-training.