Many levels of vegetarianism exist, each entailing different eating preferences and dietary restrictions. Generally, a vegetarian is anyone who doesn't eat animal flesh. Subtypes might restrict themselves further by allowing some types of meat or by eliminating any foods that depend on animals, such as dairy products. If you're preparing food for a vegetarian, the safest approach is to ask about the individual's dietary preferences.
Vegetarians
Vegetarians vary widely, but all of their diets consist primarily of fruits, vegetables, grains, nuts, legumes and seeds. With careful food selection, it's possible to obtain the nutrients your body needs without consuming meat or animal products. Certain nutrients, such as essential amino acids typically found in meat products, might not appear in sufficient amounts in vegetarian diets unless practitioners take steps to ensure proper nutrient intake. If you're considering adopting a vegetarian lifestyle, work with a nutritionist to find alternate ways of obtaining any missing or decreased nutrients that are necessary for proper body function.
Suffixes
The names of the various forms of vegetarianism usually reveal what their practitioners will eat. For example, the prefix "lacto" indicates that type of vegetarian will eat dairy products. "Ovo" refers to eggs, "pesci" refers to fish and "pollo" refers to poultry.
Types
Pesci-vegetarians eat fish. Lacto-ovo vegetarians do not eat fish, meat or poultry, but they will eat eggs and dairy products, such as milk, butter, cheese and yogurt. Lacto-vegetarians do not eat fish, meat, poultry or eggs, but they do eat dairy products. Ovo-vegetarians eat eggs but not meat or dairy products. Pollo-vegetarians eat poultry, such as chicken or turkey, but not other forms of meat or dairy products. Note that vegetarian diets often are highly individualized, meaning practitioners might adopt general tenets but customize the diet to their own preferences.
Vegans
Vegans are vegetarians who do not eat any form of animal product. This disqualifies many foods that use substances derived from animals. For example, gelatin manufacturers often use collagen from animal skin and bones, which means vegans must find foods with gelatin alternatives that don't rely on animals. Further distinctions of veganism include raw vegans and macrobiotic vegans. Raw vegans believe that heating food over a certain temperature, typically 112 degrees Fahrenheit, destroys its nutrients. Macrobiotic diets vary widely, but they typically limit or eliminate heavily processed foods in favor of fresh foods.
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