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Semi-vegetarianism
 
 
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Semi-vegetarianism is a term used to describe the practice of excluding some meat
Meat

In modern English usage, meat most often refers to animal biological tissue used as food, mostly skeletal muscle and associated fat, but it may also refer to offal, including livers, skin, brains, bone marrow, kidneys, in some countries lungs, and a variety of other internal organs as well as blood....
 (particularly red meat
Red Meat

Begun in 1989, Max Cannon's Red Meat is an independent comic strip. It appears in over 75 alternative weeklies and college papers in the United States and in other countries....
) from the diet while still consuming limited amounts of poultry
Poultry

Poultry is the category of domesticated birds which some people keep for the purpose of collecting their egg , or kill for their meat and/or feathers....
, fish
Fish

A fish is any marine biology vertebrate animal that is typically ectothermic , covered with scale , and equipped with two sets of paired fins and several unpaired fins....
, and/or seafood
Seafood

Seafood is any aquatic animal that is served as food and eaten by humans. Seafoods include fish and shellfish .The harvesting of seafood is known as fishing and the cultivation and farming of seafood is known as aquaculture, mariculture, or in the case of fish, fish farming....
. In many references, a semi-vegetarian is also a flexitarian or "almost vegetarian". The term semi-vegetarian is sometimes also referred to as a diet that excludes "red meat
Red Meat

Begun in 1989, Max Cannon's Red Meat is an independent comic strip. It appears in over 75 alternative weeklies and college papers in the United States and in other countries....
". Semi-vegetarian diets are not vegetarian diets, which exclude ingestion
Ingestion

Ingestion is the consumption of a substance by an organism. In animals, it normally is accomplished by taking in the substance through the mouth into the gastrointestinal tract, such as through eating or drinking....
 of all animals.








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Semi-vegetarianism is a term used to describe the practice of excluding some meat
Meat

In modern English usage, meat most often refers to animal biological tissue used as food, mostly skeletal muscle and associated fat, but it may also refer to offal, including livers, skin, brains, bone marrow, kidneys, in some countries lungs, and a variety of other internal organs as well as blood....
 (particularly red meat
Red Meat

Begun in 1989, Max Cannon's Red Meat is an independent comic strip. It appears in over 75 alternative weeklies and college papers in the United States and in other countries....
) from the diet while still consuming limited amounts of poultry
Poultry

Poultry is the category of domesticated birds which some people keep for the purpose of collecting their egg , or kill for their meat and/or feathers....
, fish
Fish

A fish is any marine biology vertebrate animal that is typically ectothermic , covered with scale , and equipped with two sets of paired fins and several unpaired fins....
, and/or seafood
Seafood

Seafood is any aquatic animal that is served as food and eaten by humans. Seafoods include fish and shellfish .The harvesting of seafood is known as fishing and the cultivation and farming of seafood is known as aquaculture, mariculture, or in the case of fish, fish farming....
. In many references, a semi-vegetarian is also a flexitarian or "almost vegetarian". The term semi-vegetarian is sometimes also referred to as a diet that excludes "red meat
Red Meat

Begun in 1989, Max Cannon's Red Meat is an independent comic strip. It appears in over 75 alternative weeklies and college papers in the United States and in other countries....
". Semi-vegetarian diets are not vegetarian diets, which exclude ingestion
Ingestion

Ingestion is the consumption of a substance by an organism. In animals, it normally is accomplished by taking in the substance through the mouth into the gastrointestinal tract, such as through eating or drinking....
 of all animals.

Motivations

There are several reasons why one might follow a semi-vegetarian diet.

  • Health reasons: To help reduce saturated fat
    Saturated fat

    Saturated fat is fat that consists of triglycerides containing only Saturation fatty acid radicals. There are several kinds of naturally occurring saturated fatty acids, which differ by the number of carbon atoms - from 1 to 24....
     or cholesterol
    Cholesterol

    Cholesterol is a lipidic, waxy alcohol found in the cell membranes and transported in the blood plasma of all animals. It is an essential component of mammalian cell membranes where it is required to establish proper membrane permeability and membrane fluidity....
     in the diet, or for other health reasons.
  • Ethical/philosophical reasons: Some people believe in avoiding certain animal foods but not others due to a belief in a hierarchy or evolution
    Evolution

    In biology, evolution is change in the heritability trait of a population of organisms from one generation to the next. These changes are caused by a combination of three main processes: variation, reproduction, and selection....
    ary scale that places some animals higher than others. Those at the top of this scale are considered "higher-order" animals, deserving of better treatment. The following is an example of such a scale:
    1. Mammal
      Mammal

      Mammals are a class of vertebrate animals whose name is derived from their distinctive feature, mammary glands, with which they feed their young....
      ian meat - cow, pig
      Pig

      Pigs, also called hogs or swine, are a genus of even-toed ungulates within the Family Suidae. The name pig, hog, or swine most commonly refers to the Domestic pig in everyday parlance, but technically encompasses several distinct species, including the Wild Boar....
      , deer
      Deer

      Deer are the ruminant mammals forming the family Cervidae . A number of broadly similar animals from related families within the order even-toed ungulate are often also called deer....
      , etc
    2. Poultry
      Poultry

      Poultry is the category of domesticated birds which some people keep for the purpose of collecting their egg , or kill for their meat and/or feathers....
       - chicken
      Chicken

      The chicken is a Domestication fowl. Recent evidence suggests that domestication of the chicken was under way in Vietnam over 10,000 years ago....
      , turkey
      Turkey (bird)

      A turkey is either of two Extant taxon of large birds in the genus Meleagris. One species, Meleagris gallopavo, commonly known as the Wild Turkey, is native to the forests of North America....
      , duck
      Duck

      Duck is the common name for a number of species in the Anatidae family of birds. The ducks are divided between several subfamilies listed in full in the Anatidae article; they do not represent a clade but a form taxon, being the Anatidae not considered swans and goose....
      , etc
    3. Fish
      Fish

      A fish is any marine biology vertebrate animal that is typically ectothermic , covered with scale , and equipped with two sets of paired fins and several unpaired fins....
       - tuna
      Tuna

      Tuna are several species of ocean-dwelling fish in the family Scombridae, mostly in the genus Thunnus. Tunas are fast swimmers?they have been clocked at 70 km/h ?and include several species that are warm-blooded....
      , salmon
      Salmon

      Salmon is the common name for several species of fish of the family Salmonidae. Several other fish in the family are called trout,the difference is often attributed to the migratory life of the salmon as compared to the residential behaviour of trout, this holds true for the Atlantic salmon....
      , tilapia
      Tilapia

      'Tilapia' is the Common name#Biological common names for nearly a hundred species of cichlid fish from the tilapiine cichlid tribe . Tilapias inhabit a variety of fresh water and, less commonly, brackish water habitats from shallow streams and ponds through to rivers, lakes, and estuaries....
      , etc
    4. Seafood
      Seafood

      Seafood is any aquatic animal that is served as food and eaten by humans. Seafoods include fish and shellfish .The harvesting of seafood is known as fishing and the cultivation and farming of seafood is known as aquaculture, mariculture, or in the case of fish, fish farming....
       (other than fish) - clam
      Clam

      Clam is a word which can be used for all, some, or only a few species of bivalve mollusks; the word is a common name which has no real Taxonomy significance in biology....
      s, oyster
      Oyster

      The common name oyster is used for a number of different groups of bivalve mollusks, most of which live in marine habitats or brackish water....
      s, crab
      Crab

      Crabs are Decapoda crustaceans of the infraorder Brachyura, which typically have a very short projecting "tail" , or where the reduced abdomen is entirely hidden under the thorax....
      , lobster
      Lobster

      Clawed lobsters compose a family of large marine crustaceans. Lobsters are economically important as seafood, forming the basis of a global industry that nets United States dollar1.8 billion in trade annually....
      , scallop
      Scallop

      A scallop is a Marine bivalve mollusk of the Family Pectinidae. Scallops are a wiktionary:cosmopolitan family, found in all of the world's oceans....
      s, etc
  • Environmental reasons: Larger livestock, such as cows or pigs, use more resources per pound of meat and create more waste than other meat sources.
  • Gastronomical reasons: Some may not like the taste of e.g. red meat or fish, and exclude that from their diet.


Types

  • Flexitarianism
    Flexitarianism

    Flexitarianism is a semi-vegetarianism diet focusing on vegetarian cuisine with occasional meat consumption. A self-described flexitarian seeks to decrease meat consumption without eliminating it entirely from his or her diet....
     - Mostly avoiding all meat, but eating it under some situations.
  • Mafism - Mammalian meat is excluded, but fish, seafood and poultry are not.
  • Pollotarianism - Mammalian meat, fish, and seafood is excluded, but chicken or other poultry is not.
  • Pescetarianism
    Pescetarianism

    Pescetarianism is a diet choice in which a person, known as a pescetarian, eats any combination of vegetables, fruit, Nut , beans and fish or seafood, but will not eat mammals or birds....
     - Mammalian meat and poultry is excluded, but fish and seafood are not.


See also