"Do you eat meat?" "No, but I eat fish/chicken."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I curious why the semantics matter to you so much.

My dd is a vegetarian, although she likes the occasional hamburger. LOL.

That's a flexitarian. I'm one.

That is ridiculous. That is simply a healthy diet.

[Anonymous]

Meat is kind of synonymous with red meat ,I.e beef, pork, ham etc. There are large populations for whom the definition of meat is only restricted to fish and chicken, with no red meat. I know people who enjoy fish or chicken but abhor red meat.
That's why they are quick to clarify.

[Anonymous]

That's a good question. I am a vegetarian and get asked quite often if I eat seafood or poultry. I've been asked by people from a variety of backgrounds so I wouldn't be able to suggest it's cultural.

[Anonymous]

My in-laws refer to beef as meat. In fact, beef is the default -- "a roast" means a beef roast, for example. In my in-laws' language, pork is pork, chicken is chicken, and fish is fish; they are not meat. Meat is beef.

Now, that's not how I think of it. But I don't argue with them, because

1. I understand what they mean when they say it, and
2. I don't think that my definition is any more or less correct than theirs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I curious why the semantics matter to you so much.

My dd is a vegetarian, although she likes the occasional hamburger. LOL.

That's a flexitarian. I'm one.

That is ridiculous. That is simply a healthy diet.

How is that ridiculous?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Met someone who said this recently. When you think "meat," do you only think red meat, or all animal meat?

I've never understood the disassociation of fish/chicken as meat - is it cultural?

If you don't think of fish/chicken as "meat," where were you raised? To me, meat = all animal flesh. Red, white, seafood, whatever. And if you eat seafood, you're not vegetarian.

OP, not sure what the big deal is? Those are just some phrases that people use. Perhaps the meaning of the word, 'meat' is evolving. Like I have never met a 'black' person. Let it go.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Meat is kind of synonymous with red meat ,I.e beef, pork, ham etc. There are large populations for whom the definition of meat is only restricted to fish and chicken, with no red meat. I know people who enjoy fish or chicken but abhor red meat.
That's why they are quick to clarify.

I get that, but WHY is there a distinction? Is it a cultural/historical thing for some populations?

[Anonymous]

I call chicken meat, but not fish. I don't make the distinction based on what I eat, because I eat all of it. That is just what I grew up hearing. Meat and fish are different departments in supermarkets and different sections on many menus. It's not a crazy or unusual distinction to make ( except of course chicken is meat.

[Anonymous]

This drives me crazy. Any flesh product is not meat.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Meat is kind of synonymous with red meat ,I.e beef, pork, ham etc. There are large populations for whom the definition of meat is only restricted to fish and chicken, with no red meat. I know people who enjoy fish or chicken but abhor red meat.
That's why they are quick to clarify.

I get that, but WHY is there a distinction? Is it a cultural/historical thing for some populations?

My armchair etymology: it comes from England, where the preferred animal flesh that people ate (and ate a lot of, when they could) was beef. Hence beefeaters, "In Old England our cheer is roast beef and beer", the French calling the English "les rosbifs", etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I curious why the semantics matter to you so much.

My dd is a vegetarian, although she likes the occasional hamburger. LOL.

That's a flexitarian. I'm one.

That is ridiculous. That is simply a healthy diet.

How is that ridiculous?

Because if you eat meat and edge tables you are an omnivore.

This article "why the term flexitarian is hipster rubbish" captures it well. http://bekkitae.blogspot.com/2011/05/why-term-flexitarian-is-hipster-rubbish.html

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Met someone who said this recently. When you think "meat," do you only think red meat, or all animal meat?

I've never understood the disassociation of fish/chicken as meat - is it cultural?

If you don't think of fish/chicken as "meat," where were you raised? To me, meat = all animal flesh. Red, white, seafood, whatever. And if you eat seafood, you're not vegetarian.

It is an older cooking classification. I have an old cookbook that has a section for meat, fowl and fish.

[Anonymous]

So, I've been vegetarian basically my whole life. Stopped eating red meat when I was 6, quit chicken at 18.

When I was in my early 30s, I lived overseas someplace where getting real veg food was very difficult. I started eating fish again. I moved back stateside and kept eating it a little.

I still call myself vegetarian, because it's easiest. I don't feel like having a long conversation with every damn person I meet about what pescatarian means, why I eat this fish and not that one, etc etc etc. Vegetarian is the easiest way to describe my diet.

I understand that there's some people on the veg side and others on the meat side who'd get snotty about me calling myself veg. But, you know what, I've had this diet for so long now that I don't feel the need to please anyone with it. It's who I am, and I actually don't care if they like my language or not.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Met someone who said this recently. When you think "meat," do you only think red meat, or all animal meat?

I've never understood the disassociation of fish/chicken as meat - is it cultural?

If you don't think of fish/chicken as "meat," where were you raised? To me, meat = all animal flesh. Red, white, seafood, whatever. And if you eat seafood, you're not vegetarian.

It is an older cooking classification. I have an old cookbook that has a section for meat, fowl and fish.

I have an old cookbook that includes noodles, dumplings, and rice in the vegetable section.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I curious why the semantics matter to you so much.

My dd is a vegetarian, although she likes the occasional hamburger. LOL.

She is not a vegetarian. She or you can call her that if it makes you feel better, but it is not true.

My dd is 6. But, feel free to come over and admonish her. Lord knows I've tried already.