Pollotarianism

Pollotarianism (or pollo-vegetarianism) is a semi-vegetarian diet in which a person only eats vegetables, fruits, and poultry meat (particularly chicken), but does not consume meat from fish or mammals. Pollotarians tend to include non-flesh animal products such as dairy and eggs in their diet, as well.

Terminology

Terms for this diet arose in response to growing numbers of people (particularly in the United States) who have restricted diets that do not meet the definition of more restrictive diets such as vegetarianism or veganism.

Some people consider the term pollo-vegetarian (which is sometimes used to describe the diet) to be a misnomer, because they read the term as indicating a specific kind of vegetarian, whereas the central tenet of vegetarianism is abstinence from eating any animal flesh (except, perhaps, fish [Citation
title = Shorter Oxford English Dictionary
place = Oxford
publisher = Oxford University Press
year = 2007
volume = 2
edition = 6th
page = 3506
id =
isbn = defines "vegetarian" (noun) as "A person who on principle abstains from animal food; "esp." one who avoids meat but will consume dairy produce and eggs and sometimes also fish (cf. VEGAN "noun")."
Citation
title = Shorter Oxford English Dictionary
place = Oxford
publisher = Oxford University Press
year = 2002
volume = 2
edition = 5th
page = 3511
id =
isbn = has the same definition.] ).Other people consider the term pollo-vegetarian to be accurate, because they read the term as describing people who eat both poultry and vegetables.

The word "pollo" is derived from the Latin for chicken. Pesco-pollo-vegetarianism is a neologism that means one who includes both chicken and fish in their diets as well as non-meats (see flexitarianism), but pescetarianism and pollotarianism are separate entities.

Rationale

There are many rationales for maintaining a pollo-vegetarian diet.

Health

Based on findings that red meat is detrimental to health in many cases due to non-lean red meats containing high amounts of saturated fats. [E Giovannucci, EB Rimm, MJ Stampfer, GA Colditz, A Ascherio and WC Willett, cite web | title="Intake of fat, meat, and fiber in relation to risk of colon cancer in men" | url=http://cancerres.aacrjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/54/9/2390, Cancer Research 54, 2390-2397, (May 1, 1994)] [Frank B. Hu, MD, PhD, JoAnn E. Manson, MD, DrPh and Walter C. Willett, MD, DrPh, cite web | title="Types of Dietary Fat and Risk of Coronary Heart Disease: A Critical Review" | url=http://www.jacn.org/cgi/content/abstract/20/1/5, Journal of the American College of Nutrition, Vol. 20, No. 1, 5-19 (2001)]

Ethical

For some the rationale is ethics: believing that either the treatment, or simply the killing and eating, of mass market "meat" mammals is unethical. The rationalization for eating chickens in this case is usually to include consumption of some sort of a complete protein in their diet. Some believe that the treatment (specifically the caging) of mass market meat mammals is unethical, and only eat free-range (and sometimes only organic) chickens that are not caged.

Many communities and societies may have religious and/or cultural taboos against eating red meat from one or more animals.

ee also

* Pescetarianism
* Semi-vegetarianism
* Flexitarianism
* Lacto-ovo vegetarianism

References