Defending the flexitarian
True confessions - I am a vegetarian. I have been one off and on since I was in college. My children on the other hand would argue that I am a "flexitarian." They say that true vegetarians DO NOT cheat - you either are one or are not one, sort of like being pregnant.
A flexitarian (which is not one of the official vegetarian classifications by the way) is a vegetarian who occasionally eats meat or fish for various reasons. People live longer and live healthier when they eat vegetarian, but sometimes it's just too darn hard to do it 100 percent of the time. Here are some of my reasons:
1) you don't want to offend your friends at a dinner party by refusing the food
2) there is nothing on the restaurant menu considered vegetarian
3) your students just made this fabulous dish and you need to try it to grade them
4) last but not least, you just have a craving for a bite of that "Huddy's Burger"
Flexitarians eat a lot of fruits, vegetables, nuts, tofu, tempeh and veggie burgers and beans. They adhere to a vegetarian diet, but once in a while they cheat. Vegetarian diets have become very popular, but many of the diehard vegetarians that I have counseled over the years also accidently cheat. It is difficult not to. For example if your French fries were fried in beef tallow, you are a cheater; if you use mayo in your tofu salad, you're a cheater; if you eat that oatmeal, raisin, carob cookie made with and egg, you are a cheater; if you defy your diet to take a bite of that pizza...well you get the picture. The flexitarian complies with the 80/20 rule, which I think is a good way to live. What that means is that you eat healthy 80 percent of the time and every once in a while (20 percent of the time) you go out with friends and get a pizza or ice cream or whatever. Trying to have a perfect diet all the time can cause major stress which is also unhealthy.
Please note that I am in no way promoting vegetarianism. That is a personal choice. But cutting back on meat, rather than abstaining completely and focusing on a plant based diet may be a practical compromise that benefits our bodies and our environment. There are so many healthful reasons to eat vegetarian for example, vegetarian diets have more antioxidants, more vitamins, more fiber, less hormones from animal products, plus it is truly a greener way of eating. But, in reality a plant based vegetarian diet is very hard to adhere to. A 2003 study in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition found that two out of three vegetarians say they can't stick to a pure vegetarian diet all the time. So if you are going to "cheat" and I prefer the word "flex," then flex well and be sure you enjoy your food. Cheers to all of you fellow flexitarians!
Dr. SeAnne Safaii, Ph.D., RD, LD, is an assistant professor at the University of Idaho.