Usually, when you think of vegetarians, you think of people who avoid eating any type of animal flesh including beef, pork, lamb, poultry, fish, etc. There are several types and variations to vegetarianism. While many of the vegetarians are lacto ovo vegetarians who will everything but any kind of meat, some others will avoid eating eggs and dairy products and others will say no to beef, pork and poultry but will include fish and other seafood in their diet.

i) Vegans:

The followers of this type of diet stay away from all and any meat products as well as such food items that are derived from meat such as eggs, honey and even milk and its products. Stricter vegans stay clear even from beer and some wines. Others also do not use cane sugar because bone char is used in the production of it. Though not related, such dieters would also not buy jackets, purses or shoes made from furs or leather.

B) Macrobiotics:

The macrobiotic diet is part of the macrobiotic methodology that was originated in Japan. The macrobiotics practitioners follow strict diet rules based on the principle of balance between yin and yang. The macrobiotic diet is based on whole grains, vegetables, fruits, nuts, seeds and soy products. They are allowed to include seaweed and certain types of fish in their diet.

C) Lacto Ovo Vegetarians:

The most common type of vegetarians is the lacto ovo vegetarians. Lacto is the Latin word for milk and ovo means eggs in Latin. The lacto ovo vegetarian do not eat any kind of meat including beef, pork, poultry, fish, shellfish, etc. However, they will eat dairy products and eggs.

The lacto ovo vegetarian category is divided into two categories:

i) An Ovo Vegetarian does not eat meat and dairy products but does eat eggs.

ii) A Lacto Vegetarian does not eat meat and eggs but does eat dairy foods.

D) Raw Foodists:

Popularly referred to as raw vegans as well, such vegetarians follow a much stricter diet than other vegetarians. They will not eat any food that has been heated or cooked anywhere above forty-six degrees Celsius or a hundred and five degrees Fahrenheit. As you can decipher, this means that most of what they consume is raw. Even so, some do eat sushi and dairy products that are not heated during production.

E) Pescetarians:

The pescatarian or pescetarian (depending on how you spell it) are those who refrain from consuming meat but will take in shellfish, sea food and fish. This group of vegetarians are less formed from those who have become vegetarians because of ideology and more from those who are forced to follow such a diet due to health problems. Others also rationalize that the killing of fish is much less crueler than the killing of animals or that fish are not as intelligent as animals grown on a farm.

Dedicated vegetarians would put the pescatarian under the category of semi vegetarians. In the same category you can find the pollo vegetarians who will include poultry in their diet, the flexitarianism who will avoid eating meat that derived from an animal that was brought up and died in cruel conditions. The flexitarianism are similar to the freeganism that would not mind eating any type of meat unless any part of its process involved environmental damage or human or animals exploitation.