OPPapers.com

Vegetarianism

Vegetarianism: for and against

Vegetarianism is the practice of a diet that excludes all animal flesh, including poultry, game, fish, shellfish or crustaceans, and slaughter by-products. A generic term for both Vegetarianism and Veganism as well as for similar diets is "Plant-based diets".   There are variations that admit dairy products, eggs and/or products from animal labor such as honey. The following table includes the most common types of Vegetarianism.

Diet Name Meat (including fish and poultry) Eggs Diary Honey
Ovo-lacto Vegetarianism No Yes Yes Yes
Lacto Vegetarianism No No Yes Yes
Ovo vegetarianism No Yes No Yes
Veganism No No No No

The earliest records of vegetarianism as a concept and practice amongst a significant amount of people concern ancient India and the ancient Greek civilization in southern Italy and in Greece. In both instances the diet was closely connected with the idea of nonviolence towards animals and was promoted by religious groups and philosophers. Following the Christianization of the Roman Empire in late antiquity, vegetarianism practically disappeared from Europe. Several orders of monks in medieval Europe restricted or banned the consumption of meat for ascetic reasons, but none of them eschewed fish. So these monks were not vegetarians, but some of them were pescetarians (the person will not eat the flesh of any animal except for seafood). Vegetarianism was to reemerge somewhat in Europe during the Renaissance. It became a more widespread practice in the 19th and 20th centuries.
In 1847 the first Vegetarian Society was founded in England; Germany, the Netherlands and other countries followed. The International Vegetarian Union, a union of the national societies, was founded in 1908. In the Western world, the popularity of vegetarianism grew during the 20th century as a result of nutritional, ethical, and more recently, environmental and economic concerns. Today, Indian vegetarians, primarily lacto vegetarians, are...