Pescetarianism ( ; sometimes spelled pescatarianism) is a dietary practice in which seafood is the only source of meat in a diet. Other animal products, such as eggs and dairy, may also be included. According to research conducted from 2017 to 2018, approximately 3% of adults worldwide are pescetarian.
Definition and etymology
"Pescetarian" is a neologism formed as a portmanteau of the Italian word "pesce" ("fish") and the English word "vegetarian". The term was coined in the United Kingdom in the late 1980s. "Pesco-vegetarian" is a synonymous term that is seldom used outside of academic research, but it has sometimes appeared in other American publications and literature since at least 1980.
History
Early history The first vegetarians in written western history may have been the Pythagoreans, a title derived from the Greek philosopher Pythagoras. Though Pythagoras loaned his name to the meatless diet, some biographers suspect he may have eaten fish as well at some points, which would have made him not a vegetarian but a pescetarian by today's standards. Many of Pythagoras's philosophies inspired Plato, who advocated for the moral and nutritional superiority of vegetarian-oriented diets. In Plato's ideal republic, a healthy diet would consist of cereals, seeds, beans, fruit, milk, honey and fish.
In 675, the consumption of livestock and wild animals, with the exception of deer and wild boar, was banned in Japan by Emperor Tenmu, due to the influence of Buddhism and the lack of arable land.Hisao Nagayama. 「たべもの江戸史」 新人物往来社, 1976. p. 66. 『、「牛馬犬猿鶏の宍(肉)を食うことなかれ」の殺生禁断の令は有名拍車をかけたのが仏教の影響である。』 Subsequently, in the year 737 of the Nara period, the Emperor Shōmu approved the eating of fish and shellfish. During the 1200 years from the Nara period to the Meiji Restoration in the latter half of the 19th century, Japanese people ate vegetarian-style meals, and on special occasions, seafood was served.Mitsuru Kakimoto. International Vegetarian Union, http://www.ivu.org/news/3-98/japan1.html Exceptions were wild fowl served amongst the Heian nobility,Ishige, The History and Culture of Japanese Food, pg 73-74 and when Europeans arrived in Japan in the 15th century, the Japanese diet included boar meat.Shimizu. Akira, Meat Eating in the Kojimachi District of Edo, 2010. in Japanese Foodways, Past and Present, University of Illiois Press, Assman, Stepanie and Rath, Eric C eds. 2010
Several orders of monks in medieval Europe restricted or banned the consumption of meat for ascetic reasons, but none of them abstained from the consumption of fish; these monks were not vegetarians, but some were pescetarians.Lutterbach, Hubertus: Der Fleischverzicht im Christentum, in: Saeculum 50/II (1999) p. 202.
Marcion of Sinope and his followers ate fish but no fowl or red meat.May, Gerhard; Greschat, Katharina. (2013). Marcion und seine kirchengeschichtliche Wirkung / Marcion and His Impact on Church History. De Gruyter. pp. 213–216. Fish was seen by the Marcionites as a holier kind of food.Fontaine, Petrus Franciscus Maria. (1994). Gnostic Dualism in Asia Minor During the First Centuries, A.D. II. Brill Academic Publishing. p. 84. They consumed bread, fish, honey, milk, and vegetables.Tyson, Joseph B. (2006). Marcion and Luke-Acts: A Defining Struggle. University of South Carolina Press. p. 35.
The "Hearers" of the ecclesiastical hierarchy of Manichaeism lived on a diet of fish, grain, and vegetables.Spencer, Colin. (2002). Vegetarianism: A History. Four Walls Eight Windows. pp. 135–136. Consumption of land animals was forbidden, based on the Manichaean belief that "fish, being born in and of the waters, and without any sexual connexion on the part of other fishes, are free from the taint which pollutes all animals".
The Rule of Saint Benedict insisted upon total abstinence of meat from four-footed animals, except in cases of the sick.Keevill, Graham; Aston, Mick; Hall, Teresa. (2017). Monastic Archaeology. Oxbow Books. p. 54. Benedictine monks thus followed a diet based on vegetables, eggs, milk, butter, cheese, and fish.Butler, Edward Cuthbert. (1919). Benedictine Monachism: Studies in Benedictine Life and Rule. London: Longmans, Green. p. 44 Paul the Deacon specified that cheese, eggs, and fish were part of a monk's ordinary diet. Benedictine monk Walafrid Strabo commented, "Some salt, bread, leeks, fish and wine; that is our menu."Riché, Pierre. (1978). Daily Life in the World of Charlemagne. University of Pennsylvania Press. p. 171.
The Carthusians followed a strict diet that consisted of fish, cheese, eggs, and vegetables, with only bread and water on Fridays.
In the 13th century, Cistercian monks consumed fish and eggs.Barber, Bruno. (2004). The Cistercian Abbey of St Mary Stratford Langthorne, Essex. Museum of London Archaeology Service. p. 158. Ponds were created for fish farming. From the early 14th century, Benedictine and Cistercian monks no longer abstained from consuming meat of four-footed animals.Kerr, Julie. (2006). Life in the Medieval Cloister. Continuum. pp. 48–50. In 1336, Pope Benedict XII permitted monks to eat meat four days a week outside of the fast season if it was not served in the refectory.
The anchorites of England ate a pescetarian diet of fish seasoned with apples and herbs, bean or pea soup and milk, butter and oil.Clay, Rotha Mary. (1914). The Hermits and Anchorites of England. London: Methuen. p. 104Anson, Peter F. (1932). The Quest of Solitude. London: J. M. Dent. p. 232. "The food of an anchorite or an anchoress was mainly vegetarian. They could have soups or "pottages" made of herbs, peas, or beans; or "furmity," sweetened with milk, butter, or oil, and fish seasoned with apples or herbs."
19th century to present Francis William Newman, who was President of the Vegetarian Society from 1873 to 1883, made an associate membership possible for people who were not completely vegetarian like pescetarians.Spencer, Colin. (1995). The Heretic's Feast: A History of Vegetarianism. University Press of New England. pp. 274–276. Eventually, in the 1890s, Newman himself switched from following an ovo-lacto-vegetarian diet to a pescetarian diet, with the rationale that fish do not waste land space, are plentiful due to high reproduction rates, do not care for their young and have no parental feelings to violate, and can be captured and slaughtered in ways that inflict minimal pain.May Vegetarians Eat Fish?. Dundee Evening Telegraph (11 September 1895).
Interest in pescetarian diets continued to grow into the 21st century, alongside broader trends in plant based eating. Surveys in the 2010s and beyond have found that a small but noticeable segment of populations in Western countries identify with pescetarian or related diets, often citing environmental motivations for reducing consumption of red and processed meats in favor of seafood and plant foods.
A 2016 book Seagan Eating promoted a seafood diet,"Fishy business: should we all be seagans?". The Guardian. Retrieved 18 January 2022.Erbentraut, Joseph. (2017). . huffingtonpost.co.uk. Retrieved 18 January 2022. which is distinguished from ordinary pescetarian diets because it discourages consumption of dairy and eggs."Seaganism". macmillandictionary.com. Retrieved 18 January 2022.
Trends and demographics , pescetarianism has been described as a plant-based diet."Plant-based, vegetarian and vegan diets" . Heart Foundation NZ. Retrieved 30 October 2020. Regular fish consumption and decreased red meat consumption are recognized as dietary practices that may promote health."The Pescetarian Diet By Judith C. Thalheimer, RD, LDN" . Today's Dietitian. Retrieved 30 October 2020. Pescetarianism has been shown to be more popular among women than men in all regions where the data on sex ratio is available.
Global In 2018, Ipsos MORI reported 73% of people worldwide followed a diet where both meat and non-animal products were regularly consumed, with 14% considered as flexitarians, 5% vegetarians, 3% vegans, and 3% pescetarians. These are similar to the results collected by GlobalData just a year earlier; where 23% of the sample had below average meat consumption, 5% had vegetarian diets, 2% had vegan diets and 3% had pescetarian diets. Globally, pescetarian diets seem to have increased in popularity in the mid-to-late 2010s; only 40% of pescetarians surveyed had been adhering to the diet for more than a couple years and another 18% reported adhering to diet for about a year.
United Kingdom A 2018 poll of 2,000 United Kingdom adults found that ~12% of adults adhered to a meat-free diet; with 2% vegan, 6–7% ovo-lacto-vegetarian, and 4% pescetarian. Different studies and survey have found a more modest number of meat-abstainers; a 2021 survey found 10% of Brits were meat abstainers with 3% of the population being pescetarians.
In Great Britain as of January 2019, women between 18 and 24 years of age were the most likely demographic group to follow a pescetarian diet. In general, men were less interested in pescetarianism, and men 35 years and above were the least likely to adhere to a pescetarian diet pattern.
Other regions In 2018, one survey found that people in Africa and the Middle East had a high incidence of pescetarian diets (5%) when compared to other areas of the world. In Europe, the incidence of pescetarianism varied by country, according to a 2020 survey documenting the dietary practices of residents in seven European nations: on average, pescetarianism was about 3% of the EU population, with slightly higher incidence in Germany and Belgium.
Motivations and rationale Animal welfare concerns
Pescetarianism may be perceived as a more ethical choice because fish and shellfish may not experience fear, pain, and suffering as more complex animals like mammals and other tetrapods do. As a counterargument, from a scientific viewpoint, there are functional areas in the brains of fish that can make them feel pain. Furthermore, fish have pain receptors similar to humans, and evidence shows that pain signals are sent from these receptors to the brain, enabling fish to feel pain. However, this is an ongoing debate.
Some pescetarians may regard their diet as a transition to vegetarianism, while others may consider it an ethical compromise,Ronald L. Sandler, Food Ethics: The Basics, Routledge, 2014, p. 74. often as a practical necessity to obtain nutrients that are absent, not easily found, or not readily bioavailable in plants.
Sustainability and environmental concerns
It is common for all kinds of meat-abstainers to participate in the "green movement" and be conscientious about global food sustainability and environmentalism; switching to a pescetarian dietary pattern can potentially positively affect both. People may adopt a pescetarian diet out of desire to lower their dietary carbon footprint. A 2014 lifecycle analysis of greenhouse gas emissions estimated that a pescetarian diet would provide a 45% reduction in emissions compared to an omnivorous diet. Research on the diets of over 55,000 UK residents found that meat-eaters had dietary greenhouse gas emissions that were about 50% higher than pescetarians. Compared to an omnivorous diet, pescetarian diets also had 64% less environmental impact overall when the amount of greenhouse gas emissions, land use and cumulative energy demand were assessed together.