The Various Vegetarian Diets (with simple definitions and explanations!)

I've noticed for a while that people seem to be confused about vegan and vegetarian diets. Of course, they don't know that they're confused. They just seem to think that vegan and vegetarian diets are the same. But I'm here to say that, although they are similar, as are other diets that involve eating less meat, they are different from each other. I hope that the following list of definitions and explanations for various vegetarian diets clear things up and I also hope that it will give people insight into diets that may not be as commonly known such as vegetarian diets that still involve the consumption of fish and seafood or poultry and fowl. I will then follow up by talking about how some people follow the various vegetarian diets a bit differently. I have written about my pescetarian diet in the past and I have also written about my proctitis, which is the reason why I follow a pescetarian diet. So go check out both of those posts to get a bit of insight on pescetarian diets, how I follow the pescetarian diet a bit differently, and my experience with proctitis and how my pescetarian diet fits into it.

Vegan: Does not eat anything that comes from an animal. This means no meat, no dairy, and no eggs.

Vegetarian: Does not eat any meat. This means no poultry, no pork, no beef, no fish or seafood, etc. They may still consume dairy and eggs. Some people might therefore call this a lacto-ovo vegetarian diet ("lacto" meaning dairy and "ovo" meaning eggs). Some vegetarians might choose to follow a lacto-vegetarian diet, therefore excluding eggs and meat from their meals, or some might choose to follow an ovo-vegetarian diet, therefore excluding dairy products and meat from their meals. Some vegetarians may choose not to consume dairy or eggs, however, if they do this, I would consider them to be vegan.

***Big Difference Between Veganism And Vegetarianism***: Vegans do not consume anything that comes from an animal. Vegetarians do not eat any meat but they still consume dairy and eggs or they may only choose to consume dairy but no eggs or eggs but no dairy. Therefore, if a vegetarian does not consume meat, dairy, and eggs, they would technically be vegan. This is my opinion based on definitions. People may still say that they are vegetarian even though they follow a vegan diet, however, most people who follow a vegan diet say that they are vegan since vegans are a strict form of vegetarianism and people who understand the differences between vegans and normal vegetarians will understand that vegans do not consume anything that comes from an animal.

The following diets are technically not vegetarian but the people following these diets may follow a vegetarian diet most of the time and eat fish, seafood, poultry, or fowl once in a while or a few times a week. They are options for people who do not want to cut meat entirely out of their diets.

Pescetarian (or Pescatarian): The only meat that they eat is fish and seafood. This means no poultry, no pork, no beef, etc. but still eats fish, shellfish, and crustaceans. They still consume dairy and eggs. An easy way to think of this is thinking that pescetarians are basically vegetarians who still eat fish and seafood but they are technically not considered to be vegetarians since fish and seafood are meats. They may, however, follow a mostly vegetarian diet and only eat a few meals each week that actually contain fish and seafood.

Pollotarian: The only meat that they eat is poultry and fowl. This means no pork, no beef, no fish or seafood, etc. but still eats chicken, turkey, and other types of poultry and fowl. They still consume dairy and eggs. An easy way to think of this is thinking that pollotarians are basically vegetarians who still eat poultry and fowl but they are technically not considered to be vegetarians since poultry and fowl are meats. They may, however, follow a mostly vegetarian diet and only eat a few meals each week that actually contain poultry and fowl.

Pesce-Pollotarian: The only meat that they eat is fish, seafood, poultry, and fowl. This means no pork, no beef,, etc. but still eats fish, shellfish, crustaceans, chicken, turkey, etc.. They still consume dairy and eggs. An easy way to think of this is thinking that pesce-pollotarians are basically vegetarians who still eat fish, seafood, poultry, and fowl but they are technically not considered to be vegetarians since fish, seafood, poultry, and fowl are meats. They may, however, follow a mostly vegetarian diet and only eat a few meals each week that actually contain fish, seafood, poultry, and fowl.

Different Approaches To Various Vegetarian Diets:

• Some people choose to cheat and eat some meat on holidays or while on big vacations or only so many times a year. The people who choose to do this most likely follow vegetarian, pescetarian, pollotarian, or pesce-pollotarian diets. Vegans are so strict with their diets and they make that choice so they most likely wouldn't cheat.

• Some people follow more flexitarian diets where they still eat poultry, pork, beef, fish and seafood, etc. but they choose to eat a lot less than people normally do and they limit their meat intake for health reasons or just to help a bit when it comes to not harming animals. However, this is not considered to be vegetarian.

• People follow the various types of vegetarian diets for different reasons. The big reason for following vegetarian diets is so as not to harm animals. Another common reason is for health; either the person wants to eat a healthier diet or they have a health problem which leads them to switching to a healthier diet. Some people follow different diets for religious reasons. So, it's important not to judge a person if they are following a diet where they still eat certain types of meat or they sometimes eat meat. 

I hope this clears things up and that this post helps people to better understand the various vegetarian diets.

Cheers,

Kay

Be A Smart Patient

On January 28th, I had my first appointment with my new gastroenterologist. The first gastroenterologist that I ever had was not for long-term care so my family doctor set me up with a new gastroenterologist but he retired about 2 years later. When he retired, my family doctor set me up with yet another gastroenterologist. It took me a while to finally get an appointment since it was rescheduled twice, but it was worth it. She's amazing. I wasn't sure if I should be excited or nervous but everything turned out okay. In fact, it was better than I could have ever imagined.

I told her my whole history with intestinal disease. I first started having symptoms of blood in the stool around December 2011 but there was never any pain. My first colonoscopy in July 2012 showed inflammation and ulcers in the end of my large intestine and I was diagnosed with proctitis. I was prescribed cortifoam and then suppositories but the blood came back after I finished those medications and I was then sent to another gastroenterologist. This new one sent me for another colonoscopy around January or February 2013 which showed that there was now only inflammation in the end of my large intestine but it was all in one spot and I was prescribed enemas. I was also sent for a  CT scan (which was messed up because I was not given correct instructions) and it showed a suggestion of tightening of the end of my small intestine. My gastroenterologist said that that meant it was Crohn's Disease and I was prescribed mesalazine tablets which I had to work up to 8 per day. I continued taking enemas but the thing is that the blood would go away while I was taking enemas or suppositories but it would come back after I stopped the medication. At one point, I decided to try something on my own. I decided to try working with my diet to see if I could figure out a diet that would help me all the time, or at least most of the time. I started with following a low residue diet and then moved onto a pescetarian diet in May 2015. By following a pescetarian diet, I was not getting any blood most of the time, and when I did get blood, it was only a small amount. I also wasn't sure about the mesalazine tablets. I always asked my previous gastroenterologist if they would help the inflammation at the end of my large intestine and he always told me that they didn't really make it that far down. So I was always left thinking "Why am I taking so many of these pills if they won't even help the bleeding?" I just assumed that they were all for my small intestine but I decided to lower the dose myself to 4 per day.

I was afraid that my newest gastroenterologist might be a bit disappointed in me for lowering the dose myself or that she might not be a big believer in trying a pescetarian diet but I had nothing to worry about. She was so nice and she appreciated how much I knew and understood about my situation. She said that my question about the mesalazine tablets in regards to my situation was a very smart question. She also told me about how a test had shown that a pescetarian diet worked better than a normal diet when it came to patients with an intestinal disease. She explained that it's actually a very healthy kind of diet. The one thing that she said that made me the happiest, however, was that, looking at my previous tests and everything that I told her, it looked like I actually did have ulcerative proctitis and not Crohn's Disease. She explained how much better proctitis is than Crohn's and colitis. Proctitis is quite common and it does not put a person at higher risk of colorectal cancer. It can be treated simply with suppositories during a flare-up. She explained that some people have a lot of flare-ups and other people might just get a flare-up once in a while. She told me that I didn't have to take the mesalazine tablets anymore. I was so relieved! For several years, I had worried about my intestines and my health since I had been told that it was Crohn's Disease. I was worried when I decided to lower the dose of medication myself. I was worried that I would get a new gastroenterologist who would just send me for tests and prescribe me medication and wouldn't really listen to me. I needed someone who would listen to my questions and concerns. I needed someone who was okay with me trying things on my own to see what would work for me. In the end, I got the kind of gastroenterologist that I needed and I am so glad that I did!

I went through all of that over the course of five years. I worried and was stressed out over all of this for five years of my life when I didn't even have to be. If my second gastroenterologist had paid more attention to all of the information and he had really listened to my questions, maybe I wouldn't have had to take medication that didn't even do anything for me. I took the medication because my doctor told me to. Since he had told me that it was Crohn's Disease, I was worried that it would get worse someday. Along with school and everything else in my life, I really could have done without the stress that all of this caused me. Everything happens for a reason and, no matter how bad, can eventually lead to something good, though, so I guess that all of this had to happen for me to end up with my great new gastroenterologist.

Some people do everything that their doctor tells them to do without a second thought. Some people don't educate themselves enough about their health condition or ask enough questions. I learned about IBD and asked questions. I really thought about the medications that I was taking and looked at other forms of treatment as well. We need to listen to our doctors because they are highly educated in their medical field, but we also have to remember that this is our body that they are treating, so we need to know what's going on. We need to learn about our health conditions. We need to learn about our medication. We need to learn about other treatments available. We need to talk to our doctors, ask them questions, tell them our concerns. We need to discuss everything with them and not hide anything from them when it comes to our health. We need to be smart patients because sometimes, like in my case, doctors aren't always right about everything.

I guess what I'm trying to say is this: Listen to your doctor, but at the same time, understand what's going on and work with them to come up with a plan that works and  that you and your doctor both agree on and think is best for you. Tell them your concerns and don't be scared of them. If you feel that they are not the best doctor for you, that they aren't really listening to you or that they just say and do things and don't really evaluate the situation enough, then look into finding a better doctor. Don't just be a patient, be a smart patient. Trust me, it will help you in the long run.

Take care,
Kay

On Being A Pescetarian (Who Cheats On Holidays)

Bonjour, mes amis!

A big decision that I made in 2015 was to switch to a pescetarian diet. Pescetarian means that the only kinds of meat that I eat are fish and seafood. I'm basically a vegetarian who still eats fish and seafood. I switched some time in May and decided to try it out for a little while before deciding to stick with it. My main reason for becoming pescetarian was for health reasons. As you may know, I have mild Crohn's Disease. I read in a health magazine that vegetarians have a lower risk of colorectal cancer than omnivores and that pescetarians have an even lower risk of colorectal cancer than vegetarians! That's probably because of the omega 3 fatty acids that can be found in some fish, especially salmon, and the fact that fish is the healthiest meat and it has a lot of good stuff in it. Since I have Crohn's Disease, I automatically have a higher risk of colorectal cancer so I thought that it might be a good idea to try going pescetarian, especially since omega 3 fatty acids are good for helping inflammation and switching to this diet might therefore help the disease right now!

I remember thinking, in the past, that if I were to ever go vegetarian, I wouldn't go entirely vegetarian; I'd still eat fish. Since I switched primarily for health reasons, I also still cheat on holidays and eat other meats. For example, turkey on Thanksgiving or Christmas, maybe ham on New Year's day, or corned beef on St. Patrick's Day (I'm part Irish so we celebrate St. Patrick's Day in order to celebrate our heritage). After all, having a little bit of other types of meat on holidays won't hurt me since it doesn't happen a whole lot of times in a year and also since I don't eat that much meat when I do cheat anyway. People might wonder if, during the rest of the year when there are no holidays, I still eat soup broths with meat or foods that contain a little bit of meat, real meat flavouring, etc. The answer is no. Holidays are the only time that I have any meat other than fish and seafood. If I do have one of those things during the rest of the year, then it was by accident. For example, I just didn't know that it was in the food or someone else made the food and perhaps they didn't know that it was in something that they bought from the store. I always try to read ingredient lists carefully on packaged food from stores to make sure that there is absolutely no chicken, beef, pork, etc. I decided to avoid all other meats, except on holidays, and I'm sticking to it! I even stick to my pescetarian diet when I travel which can sometimes be a challenge!

*Update*: This post was written before my first appointment with my new gastroenterologist and the following reason for switching to a pescetarian diet is my original reason for switching to a pescetarian when I still thought that I had Crohn's Disease. On January 28th, 2016, my appointment with my new gastroenterologist revealed that, based on my medical tests and story thus far with IBD, my new gastroeneterologist felt that I actually have proctitis rather than Crohn's Disease. I proceeded to write a blog post with my up to date story of living with proctitis and my thoughts on the whole process of figuring out what kind of IBD I really had. My reason for following a pescetarian diet is now because of my proctitis, although I will leave the original reason here.

The big question that you're probably wondering is if switching to a pescetarian diet has helped my Crohn's Disease. I have noticed that my Crohn's Disease is better than ever before. My Crohn's Disease is considered mild because there isn't a whole lot of inflammation inside my intestines and also because I don't get any pain. The only times that I've had pain is when I have eaten too much of certain types of food that irritates the inflammation but that has only happened a few times. Basically the only noticeable symptom that I've had of the inflammation is blood in the stool. Before I went pescetarian, I tried a low residue diet, once again. I did this because the bleeding came back after I ended a certain medication. The blood came back when I was done the medication because the blood only stayed away while I was on the medication and then it would always come back when I was off the medication. My gastroenterologist prescribed stronger medication but I decided that I wanted to experiment with diet a bit to see if it would help. The bleeding hadn't come back as bad as it usually did so that was already a good sign and then the low residue diet helped it even more. Once I cut out all meats except for fish and seafood, there was either only a small amount of blood or no blood at all. Sometimes a little bit of blood will come back if I eat certain foods that irritate the inflammation.

Of course, another reason why my Crohn's Disease is doing better might be the fact that, for various reasons, I have less stress in my life now. I still get stressed out about other things but there are a few things that were stressing me out that are no longer in my life now and I am also learning how to deal with the stress that I still have. Since there has been an enormous improvement in my Crohn's Disease since I became pescetarian, however, I am going to accredit my improvement to my pescetarian diet.

I'm still adjusting to a pescetarian diet. For example, I'm still trying to get enough iron in my diet, which can be a challenge for people when they take a lot of meat out of their diet. I actually had iron deficiency and had to take iron supplements in order to have enough iron in my body again and to avoid iron deficient anemia. I have become more interested in cooking and baking, however, and I have seen many recipes (both vegetarian and pescetarian) that I want to try so maybe that will encourage me to explore more options for getting enough iron.

I'm still learning and adjusting and hopefully my diet will be well balanced soon. I hope this helps anyone who wanted more insight into a pescetarian diet, especially one that was chosen specifically for health reasons.

Bien à toi,
Kay