Exploring the new lexicon around dietary food choices

It was Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin who said, “Tell me what you eat, and I will tell you what you are.”

But with our modern-day dietary monikers becoming as granular as the global food system we find ourselves in, a better perspective might be, tell me what you eat, and I will tell you what you care about.

So, in an effort to understand some of the new personal food labels, here’s a breakdown of some climate-motivated dietary affiliations and why people might be aligning to them.

But first a quick guide to the old classics:

Vegan

Vegans don’t eat:

Products that rely on animals or their exploitation
Red and white meat
Fish and shellfish
Eggs
Honey
All dairy products

Vegans do eat:

Fruits and vegetables
Grains, legumes and nuts
Soy alternatives to meat: tempeh, tofu, seitan
Dairy alternatives: plant milk, coconut yoghurts etc.

Likely reasons:

Animal suffering

Vegetarian

Vegetarians don’t eat animal meat, i.e. beef, chicken, pork, lamb, game and fish, regardless of how ethically it was killed.

Vegetarians do eat:

Everything vegans eat
Dairy
Eggs
Honey
Meat alternatives

Likely reasons:

Exclusions are due to animal suffering and environmental impact, but inclusions can be due to health reasons and/or alignment with animal produce if farmed ethically.

Click here to try some vegetarian recipes on Food24

Pescatarian

Pescatarians don’t eat red and white meat, like beef, pork, chicken and lamb.

Pescatarians do eat just like vegetarians with the inclusion of fish.

Likely reasons:

Health – excluding meat limits environmental impact; including fish maintains personal preferred protein needs

Flexitarian

What don’t they eat?

Individuals choosing to eat as flexitarians basically eat plant-based foods. So, they typically omit meat and dairy, likely at home and as far as is within their control in social circles.

What do they eat?

They’ll eat majority vegan- or vegetarian-aligned foods, but will on occasion make allowance for dairy or the odd meat dish here and there. Plants are their guide, not their rule.

Likely reasons:

These folk are environmentally motivated, feeling that a majority reduction on animal products serves to lessen their individual impact, but they aren’t aligned with hard and fast omissions, probably due to the social restrictions it brings about or because of hereditary traditional eating patterns that they don’t wish to do away with entirely.

Locavore

What don’t they eat?

Locavores pride themselves on consuming produce made close to home. So this dietary alignment frames their consumerism habits more than their meal preference. A locavore isn’t necessarily vegetarian. However, they won’t buy out-of-season fruits or vegetables or imported products. So they won’t eat kiwi in SA’s winter, as it will have been imported from New Zealand, but they will eat it grown in SA in our November growing season. They’ll also avoid Spanish olives and Norwegian salmon.

What do they eat?

Locavores tend to eat in alignment with a biodynamic food system in their area of residence. So they’ll choose to support local farmers growing fruit and veg in alignment with the seasons as well as dairy and meats produced on smaller farms closer to home.

Likely reasons:

This food preference is about reducing the carbon footprint of your food by limiting how far it travels. Foods grown and eaten closer to home may be more nutrient rich due to longer ripening periods as there is less need for extended cold chain storage to keep them fresher for longer.

Climatarian

What don’t they eat?

These folks will do their best not to eat foods high in environmental impact. Being a climatarian is less about a diet choice and more about a way of life, using food preferences and purchases to advocate for global system change. They likely won’t support a restaurant that is big on food waste, and won’t shop in stores big on plastic packaging. This lifestyle alignment also tends towards a plant-based diet because of its proven reduction on resources and impact.

What do they eat?

A climatarian chooses to eat in alignment with social and environmental regenerative practices. They’ll buy produce grown close to home, with as low a carbon impact as possible, but will also favour food producers with fair wage policies and community upliftment initiatives.

They eat food that aligns with their vision for a healthier future world. Their diets are also primarily plant based.

Likely reasons:

A climatarian is focused on reducing the carbon footprint of their food, but they will take into consideration more than just how close to home the food was produced. Your food’s footprint is also made up of how many resources it requires in production as well as the packaging thereof. So, your beef can be made on the farm next door to you, but it will still require as much water and land resources as the beef produced up-country.

If a dietary preference doesn’t align with your views, try to find appreciation for the multitude of approaches people are seeking to lessen our individual impact on our (and your) planet.

Reasons can also be multi-faceted. You might be interested to discover dietary nuances don’t even end with the newly added terms above. Some folks identify themselves as ‘intuitive eaters’, and others as ‘dietary non-binary’. It’s all in the name of flexibility, fluidity and mindful eating.

If you’re genuinely stumped at your next dinner party, ask your fellow diner more.

As long as your intention is to learn, not to criticise, we’ll all be better off. An open-minded conversation can tenderise an aged understanding just as well as beer and coke can marinate your aged steak.