What kind of vegetarian are you?

We all know people who claim to be vegetarian: ”Yeah, I’m a vegetarian … except for fish … and birds.”

Reasons aside, true vegetarians don’t eat any meat from any animal. One is either vegetarian or not. There are categories of vegetarians and there are categories of semi-vegetarians.

Most vegetarians just shun the meat and consume dairy products and eggs. These vegetarians are called lacto-ovo-vegetarians. Lacto-vegetarians include dairy in their diets, but can’t fathom eating an egg. Ovo-vegetarians don’t mind the scrambled, fried, hard-boiled, etc., but scoff at dairy as if they’re lactose intolerant.

And then there are vegans, who shun any any of the above-mentioned vegetarians. Vegans leave out of their grocery shopping lists (and stomachs) any and all animal products (no poultry, meat, fish, dairy, eggs or honey).

Now on to the vegetarian imposters! The “semi”-vegetarians. A straight semi-vegetarian especially excludes red meat, but leaves room for other animal meats in some instances. Pescetarians say bleh to all animals, except of course those that live in water (fish and shellfish). Pollotarians are almost opposite to pescetarians; pollotarians only eat animals with wings.

And for some reason the category of flexitarian exists. Flexitarians for the most part don’t eat any animal meat, but allow for occasional exceptions … like what? National Eat Meat Day? It seems kind of ridiculous. As an 2004 AP story lead describes flexitarian: “Even after five years, Christy Pugh has no trouble sticking to her vegetarian regimen. The secret to her success? Eating meat.”

So … what kind of vegetarian are you?