Is the term "Lessetarianism" a viable label?

Question

I just found out that I have been a practicing Lessetarian for the past 25 years since I quit having to do so much manual labor.

from wikipedia- Lessetarianism - A diet which focuses on reducing, but not eliminating, the proportion of animal flesh consumed.

Answer 1

i think all those pesco lacto lessitarian folks just make up those names for attention.

vegetarian or vegan

there are 2

Answer 2

If such a title is something that makes you feel better about yourself, then by all means call yourself such.

Just remember that it is under the heading of a questionable source, wikipedia, that it is also under "semi vegetarian" which indicates you are just as much a meat eater as you are a vegetarian.  That equates into a fence sitter and not either.

Answer 3

I think someone just stuck that on the wikipedia page to make people look stupid. Like, if they said it in a conversation, people would probably stare at them thinking they were dumb or that they just called themselves a Lezitarian which would mean you only eat lesbians?... Or maybe that you're a L*****n vegetarian. Not that you're stupid for believing it, I probably would too if I came across it in a wiki article. I'm bad about being scrutinizing towards wikipedia and always take the word of their articles.

Answer 4

If there is such a thing as a lessetarian, it's time to call a moratorium on dietary neologisms.

Answer 5

Lessetarianism is not a viable label. Neither is your TC badge...

Answer 6

Lesse--what?  Oh, my goodness.  That's a new one on me.  I'm trying not to fall off my chair laughing here.  And there is no such thing as "semi-vegetarian".  That's like being sorta pregnant.

Flexitarian was made up recently--like in the past five years or so--to describe people who (1) only eat certain types of animal flesh (such as someone who has eliminated red meat from his or her diet) or (2) people who are consciously trying to reduce the amount of meat they consume or eat mostly vegetarian with the occasional bite of meat.  I prefer to call the second type "meat reducers" as it's a pretty accurate description, and you get the label  some of you so dearly want.  For those of you in the first camp, you'll just have to say "I don't eat red meat" or "I don't eat any meat except for seafood."

By the way, the word "vegetarian" has been around since 1847--not very recently, I would argue, unless you consider 161 years "recent".  "Vegan" was created in 1944, also not very recently when you consider how quickly language changes.  According to the founders, it starts with vegetarianism and follows it through to its natural conclusion.

Answer 7

If you eat any flesh, you are an omnivore

If you don't eat any flesh, you are a vegetarian

All other made up words are rubbish

Answer 8

*sigh* Everyone wants to be in the club.

;-P

Answer 9

You are free to call yourself whatever you want but don't be surprised if everyone abandons all faith in your intelligence.

Answer 10

No, it sounds like that clown wujoo's work.

There is a wiki page to voice an opinion on this nonsense:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Vegeta...

Answer 11

Try as I might I can't find it on Wikipedia to explore its etymology.

Vegetarian and vegan are recently coined (or made up) words of course, and language changes all the time. It seems odd to want or need a word for such a diet - it wouldn't be helpful when eating out for example, which is  when veg*ns are most often called upon to use a word to describe their diet.

Still, if people want a special label to describe themselves, fine by me (though this is  a particularly clumsy one). I don't object to the word 'flexitarian' either (though again, I can't see where it would come in useful); words like this only really become a nonsense when they're used as a prefix in front of the words vegetarian or vegan, as these words have specific meanings.

Answer 12

haha. I personally would have to say if this is a viable label then I would never use it. It would be just as simple to say I don't eat beef or pork....which I don't.

Answer 13

I don't think it's a viable label, I think vegetarianism begins once you no longer eat any meat and intend to keep it that way. Lessetarianism directly implies (like flexitarianism) that meat will continue to be eaten whenever the person feels like it, whenever it's convenient for them, or just because they don't want to eliminate it entirely.

I think it's great to cut back on eating animal flesh, even if it's just for health reasons, and I would be much more open to a different way to phrase it, rather than attaching some sort of word to "tarianism", in an attempt to associate it with vegetarianism. It's just not going to work. Playing with the same rules, it's like my saying that my meat and potatoes dad, born and raised on a farm, would be a porko-beefo-chickeno-fisho- gameo-hunto-leathero- tarian, and should get a little category under vegetarianism too...