this post was submitted on 20 Jul 2023
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Flexitarian is apparently someone who has a primarily vegetarian/plant based diet but will still occasionally eat meat. This is a new term for me too and it's apparently what I am. I've been describing myself as a "part time vegetarian" lol.
Also impossible burgers are superior to beyond and I will die on this hill. Beyond is better at everything else though. Their ground breakfast sausage is ๐ค perfection
This term has been around for decades and still, very few people know what it means. As someone who eats 0 animal products 90+% of the time, it's just easier to say "mostly vegan."
Some people will nitpick and say that I mean plant based instead of vegan but the general public knows what vegan means and do not think of plant based as synonymous with "vegan in diet only" so I'll continue to use what doesn't require a ton of explanation.
I dated a girl who really didn't care for meat or cheese and was 98% vegan. Her mom was/is a militant vegan, so growing up she just never developed a taste for meat or dairy. She had no problem eating it, but it was far from her go to - the best steak in the world would have been 'meh' to her cause it's wasn't her jam.
I get what you're saying tho. If I understand right, a flexitarian is a vegetarian/vegan by preferred diet but not unwaveringly.
Yes, a flexitarian is a part-time veg but still sometimes eats animal products. A vegan does not consume or use any animal products for ethical reasons. If you consume a vegan diet but still buy animal products to wear, clean with, etc, then you consume a plant-based diet but are not technically vegan.
The problem with saying plant-based is that it implies "based on plants" with no rigid definition. Some people think it means "vegetarian but not vegan" or just "mostly plants." I have even seen products that contain animal products that I am allergic to marketed as "plant-based," so it's just not a good term for me.
FWIW I think impossible is closer in texture but further in taste. I'm pretty open to meat alternatives but something about Impossible just doesn't taste quite right to me (not bad, just off somehow).
But that's just me, I can't hate on what others prefer since neither are actually bad imho