Introduction
Vegetarians represent only a small section of the community who refrain from eating meat or eat little meat. By studying their attitudes we can identify some of the key features which lead to more generalised reduced meat eating. This review examines attitudes and beliefs along with those of young semivegetarians. It is thought that the attitudes and beliefs amongst young semivegetarians could be important in influencing whether reduced meat eating will increase in the future.
Vegetarian concepts may also be contributing towards the beliefs about meat amongst meat-eaters. In many cases the trend away from meat-eating is occurring without the individuals becoming vegetarian, but they are following some of the beliefs of the vegetarian and semivegetarian movement. In the first parts of the review the innate cultural attitudes and beliefs about meat are examined. This leads into recent changes in attitudes and then into the reasons for vegetarianism and semivegetarianism.
The various terms used to describe vegetarianism are as follows:
| Veganism - | excludes the consumption of all food of animal origin except human breast milk. | |
| Rastafarian veganism - | in general the diet excludes all red meat, milk, fats and oils of animal origin, but it may include fish depending on the nationality of the Rastafarian. | |
| Macrobiotic - | a diet which does not totally exclude but strictly limits foods of animal origin. | |
| Fructarianism - | the diet is confined to foods such as fruit, nuts and certain vegetables, where harvesting allows the parent plant to flourish. | |
| Polo-vegetarianism - | form of vegetarianism which includes the consumption of chicken. | |
| Lacto-vegetarianism - | form of vegetarianism which includes the consumption of milk. | |
| Lacto-ovo-vegetarianism - | form of vegetarianism which excludes red meat, poultry and fish but includes the consumption of dairy products and eggs. | |
| Pesco-vegetarianism - | form of vegetarianism which includes the consumption of milk and eggs, and, occasionally, fish. | |
| Semivegetarian - (demi-vegetarian; quasi-vegetarian) |
a self-classification amongst people who claim to have eating habits which focus on vegetarian foods, but they eat some kind of meat on an occasional basis. Red meats are usually excluded. | |
| Reduced meat-eaters - | people who classify themselves as reducing their overall meat consumption. |
Researchers have taken two approaches when classifying people according to their meat-eating habits:
- Specify precise meanings for terms such as vegetarian or vegan and clearly describe what is encompassed by the word "meat".
- Accept self definition, which implies less precision, but will reflect beliefs.
In this review the researchers' definitions have been accepted at their face value.
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