Why do people assume that vegetarians eat seafood?

Question

ok im a vegan who visists the v&v section from time to time and im amazed that a lot of the time people put things on here like...im a vegetarian .....but i eat seafood...well no your not a vegie than are you?

vegies dont eat meat!! regardless if it swims or not!

Answer 1

It's a common misconception. I always thought that vegetarians ate seafood. Vegans, on the other hand, only eat fruits and veggies. Chances are I'm misinformed, though.  

Answer 2

Well, just like the other answerers up there, they were too lazy to do any research but they chose to run their mouth anyway.

A good chunk of the blame goes to people that say, "I don't eat anything with a face", "I don't eat anything that was once alive" or say that they don't eat "meat".

All of those backward explanations just leave the definition of "vegetarian" wide open to idiots that think hearsay is a form of education.

VEGETARIANS DO NOT EAT ANIMALS.

Chickens, fish, shrimp, clams, ants and worms are all animals.

Answer 3

it's cause they all listened to the one nirvana song where the part goes " it's okay to eat fish... cause they dont have any feelings"  

Answer 4

I don't know, but it annoys the living c**p out of me!!! I mean, just look at some of the answers that you got to this question. It's such a common misconception!

I once asked someone I know who has been vegan since the early 1980s where this idea comes from. She said that a lot of people associate being vegetarian with being healthy, and a lot of people consider fish health food. Also, she said people associate vegetarianism with the diet that many hippies consumed in the '60s, where eating fish may have been more acceptable. (Of course, the hippie culture grabbed a lot of philosophies from a lot of different cultures and merged them, so much of that probably wasn't right, anyway.)

I don't know if those explanations are true, but I definitely think that religion has something to do with it as well. I grew up Catholic in New Orleans, and you couldn't eat "meat" on Fridays. But fish and seafood were OK, which didn't make sense to me even as a child. I think a lot of people know that "vegetarians don't eat meat" but think "oh, but fish isn't meat" and come to an incorrect conclusion.

Anyway, it drives me crazy!!! People will tell me they're vegetarian, but they eat fish. People will offer me fish, knowing that I didn't like fish while growing up and certainly wouldn't eat it now as a vegetarian. I wish there was some way that we could change people's perceptions about what "vegetarianism" means because it's like the entire country collectively failed 5th grade biology and therefore think that fish are vegetables!

Answer 5

There are many vegetarian sub-group in SEMI-VEGETARIAN main group. The stricter vegetarians are also called as VEGAN in modern term.

Semi-vegetarianism is fashinable, and TRANSITION stage to become a stricter vegetarians.

The word "vegetarian" is a generic blanket term used to describe anybody who does not eat meat, poultry, fish, or seafood. This encompasses vegans and also the various vegetarian sub-groups. Vegetarians are generally those people who have chosen a diet with far less restrictions than those chosen by a vegan.

The differences between the various vegetarian sub-groups may appear to be small, but they are very important to the members who belong to each groups. In many cases the distinctions are important dietary or ethical decisions taken by the individual.

Here are the various vegetarian sub-groups:

SEMI-VEGETARIAN

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Semi-vegetarians are people who have chosen to live a lifestyle which is not strictly vegetarian. A semi-vegetarian may be a person who only eats meat occasionally, or perhaps doesn’t eat meat, but eats poultry and fish.

1) Ovo-Lacto-Vegetarian

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Ovo-lacto vegetarians are vegetarians who do not eat meat, poultry, fish, and seafood, but do eat eggs and milk. This is by far the largest group of vegetarians.

2) Ovo-Vegetarian

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Ovo-vegetarians are people who would be classed as vegans if they did not eat eggs.

3) Lacto-Vegetarian

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Lacto-vegetarians are people who would be classed as vegans if they did not consume milk.

VEGAN

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This is by far the strictest vegetarian sub-group or category.

A vegan is a person who has chosen not to consume any animal products or byproducts. Some will even so far as not consuming honey and yeast, and others will not wear any clothing made from animal products. Veganism is a diet and lifestyle that seeks to exclude the use of animals for food, clothing, or any other purpose. Vegans endeavor not to use or consume animal products of any kind. The most common reasons for becoming a vegan are ethical commitment or moral convictions concerning animal rights, the environment, human health, and spiritual or religious concerns. Of particular concern are the practices involved in factory farming and animal testing, and the intensive use of land and other resources required for animal farming.

Answer 6

I know how you feel, its so annoying when people say fish isn't meat. Once I went to a restaurant, and there was a "vegetarian" section on the menu, and it was all fish! Fish are animals, so vegetarians don't eat them. Simple enough. Oh and someone else's answer said vegans don't have pets, that's not true. Vegans typically don't buy pets from pet stores, because that would be supporting breeders, but vegans often adopt animals from shelters and keep them as pets, and that gives the animals a happier life, and a lot of times the animals would be killed if nobody adopted them if it's not a no-kill shelter.

Answer 7

Because unfortunately many people are unaware of the fact that it's called Pescetarianism, which means that they live on a vegetarian like diet, but continue to eat fish and other sorts of seafood.  

Answer 8

It's a type of vegetarian. It's technically called a macrobiotic or pesco-vegetarians. There are several other pseudo kinds of vegetarians; pollo-vegetarians eat chicken.

I personally, don't eat anything that had a face. But they do their part in a way. Some animals are spared. It's better than nothing at all =D

Answer 9

You have to go back in the history to understand the reason. In the ancient times there were only two cultures that were vegetarians. Indians and Greeks. Vegetarianism in India was based on the principle of Ahimsa (Non-violence). It was against killing animals as a blood-sport or ritual sacrifice. Fish was neither hunted nor sacrificed. Buddhist even ate meat if it was not killed to feed them

Greek vegetarianism was started by Pythagoras for health.. Then as the Christianity came around and the vegetarianism was wiped out from Europe. We will not talk about the reasons. we are talking about fish. Jesus ate fish twice after death. During lent, catholics are allowed to eat fish on Fridays. its not considered as meat.

For religious reasons, fish was always open question if it was meat.

It was the Vegetarian Society and The Vegan Society in 1944, that included the fish among meat. Because the basic principle was changed to the 'compassion' towards animals.

Answer 10

beacuse it is the only other true source of protein that is not classiffied as a meat

Answer 11

its a sub category of vegetarians, some also just don't eat red meat but eat chicken, but thats mostly for health reasons. My mom is vegan/vegetarian chef and owns her own restaurant/ grocery store. ;]] People just think that it's all vegetarians because they don't know about the other categories. You should teach people about them instead of acting like they're stupid for not knowing.  

Answer 12

i am a vegetarian and i dont eat fish but i suppose that

alot of people do not see eating fish as that bad

people probably think that because there are so many and that they live a normal life like they are not caged up or anything that its ok what happens to them

these people do probably not realise that not only the fish die when people are fishing the hooks and nets can also catch dolphins, whales, turtles and many other sea creatures and hurt or kill these animals. i see your point though these people probably just dont.

Answer 13

I don't know it's really annoying though, people don't think fish is meat, or people don't have the self control to be actual vegetarians or vegans and so they make up things like pesco vegetarians/pescetarian to make themselves feel better about themselves.

Ovo and Lacto I can understand, because eggs and milk don't cause the death of a living thing (they actually do, but inadvertently), like being a "pescetarian" does.  Have you ever seen a fish struggling to survive...that looks pretty painful to me, gasping for air and flipping around.

VEGEtarians only eat vegetation, things that can grow from the earth, not out of an egg or stomach, beans, nuts, seeds, fruit, vegetables, grains.  

Real Vegans, don't have pets, go to zoos, circuses, eat honey, use silk, buy/own leather products, etc etc.  They believe that animals should be left to their own, and we should not interact with them.

Answer 14

it's annoying. i tell people i'm a vegetarian and they offer me fish. i say i don't eat fish, i'm a vegetarian... "what?!?!?  you dont' eat fish?!??! but WHY????"

vegetarians don't eat any meat.... nothing wtih eyes as i say :)