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Flexitarianism is the practice of being "flexible" about the degree to which one is actually a vegetarian. A "flexitarian" might make only vegetarian dishes at home, but eat dishes including meat at the home of family or friends. In 2003, the American Dialect Society voted flexitarian as the year's most useful word, and defined it as "a vegetarian who occasionally eats meat."
None of the vegetarian organizations recognize this as a category of vegetarian, and it is generally viewed as being as paradoxical as the word "pescetarian".
Why Flexitarianism
People choose to follow flexitarianism for a variety of reasons.
- They may consider a vegetarian diet to be healthier, but enjoy eating meat.
- They may prefer a vegetarian diet, but would not restrict themselves from eating if vegetarian options are not available.
- They may not be ethically opposed to eating meat, but find a vegetarian diet to be less expensive.
- Other members of their household might be vegetarian and a flexitarian diet is more convenient.
- They may believe vegetarian food conserves water and land resources and thus feeds more people.
- Some, like freegans, believe that wasting already-cooked food does more damage than eating it.
- They may believe it is rude to refuse a meal cooked by a friend, even if it contains meat.
- They may oppose the poor conditions or environmental consequences of certain practices in animal husbandry, and hence will only eat what they consider "ethical meat".
- They may believe in minimising their environmental footprint by eating less meat.
- They may be unwilling to invest in the sanitation needed for keeping meat safe to eat.
- They may favor a vegetarian diet, but also need to supplement it with added protein for health reasons.
- Strict Diets can be very unhealthy. Diets have an 80% failure rate. Balance is an important value.
Origin of term
The earliest known use of the term "flexitarian" occurred in the October 17, 1992 issue of the Austin American-Statesman. In this issue, reporter Linda Anthony wrote an article titled, "Acorn serves up 'flexitarian fare'". The article discussed the recent opening of the new Acorn Café and stated that owner Helga Morath calls her fare "flexitarian".
External links
"Flexitarianism"