There is some classification I made about food habits, keeping vegetarians in mind, with some information available over net. Here they are.
- Fruitarians. – These people eat fruits, seeds and raw roots (sweet potatoes etc). The Hindu (including Buddhist and Janis monks) we heard, meditating in Himalayas and jungles are supposed to be eating only these. This category need not to be included, because I feel such people don’t exist now or did not exist.
- Raw/living foodists Eat major part of the food uncooked, or just warmed. (Again this category wouldn’t have existed, if doctors dint ask them to do.
- Brahmins – One of the loosing definitions in India. There is a special reason I categorized them separately, instead of naming them in vegetarians. They in addition to not eating meat, they also don’t eat onions (for the reason of, the organic fertilizers used in these farms are human wastes), papaya, chilly (since these are of Indian origin), sugar (since animal product is used to polish jagarry), boiled rice (since it is boiled twice) thus so many concepts. Some of them may be valid but most of them are outdated. For example. If sugar is not accepted, the leather products also shouldn’t get used. The food habits are driven by religious rules, not ethics. Dairy products are always OK.
- Vegans. This is one of the concepts recently getting very popular in west. They don’t consume anything, which has something to do with animal. Along with not consuming meat, egg and dairy products, they don’t buy leather, wool, silk, honey etc. Ethics keeps these people on. If religiously some people fall into this category they are Jain and Buddhist monks.
- image source
- Lacto vegetarians – those who don’t consume any meat but OK with dairy products. Vegetarians, what is referred in India (by caste and religions) are these. The argument is, milk is not a part of animal body and also they don’t get hurt, and the card runs here is – are all mammals are non-vegetarians? They do drink milk of its mother.
- Lacto ovo vegetarians – Those who eat egg along with dairy products, but no meat. The argument is “egg is not animal, it dint born”, and the card played is – egg produced is not natural, these eggs don’t go and become chicken
- Pesco – vegetarians (eat fish, no other meat), Pollo – vegetarians (eat no beef, but do eat poultry.) and all the possible combinations and permutations of above four might add up to… may be ten different food habits. However I don’t consider these as categories, since they are not backed by any strong arguments or ethics. Its just taste and allergies made them have those combinations. They are simply NOT vegetarians
- Religious – NON – Vegetarians: these people give religious reasons to “not ” to eat some particular kind of meat. (Beef for Hindus, pig in Islam). However as an atheist, this concept does not make any since to me.
- Non – vegetarians – anyone who dint restrict themselves to eat anything. Nice concept, but please spare Tom and Jerry.
- Cannibals – You know them, yes Tax collectors.
Now if you ask me personally, I was mostly Lacto vegetarians and couple of years as Lacto ovo vegetarians. And I am trying to be a Vegan.
The Bach 
I didn’t realize Brhamin’s didn’t eat onions. As a vegetarian who had considered founding an anti-onion religion (http://blueathena.wordpress.com/2007/01/13/garlic-good-onions-bad/) this is initially interesting too me, although I’m not sure argument will quite work as strongly as I need. I also am familiar with some of the ideas against eating spicy foods, so that might also be a problem for me (no…before anyone asks…I’m not really serious about picking a religion based on the diet. Founding one is another matter.)
Great list, by the way–should be very useful to the non-vegetarians.
Be very careful with your B12 if trying to be vegan. There is a good deal of misinformation out there about the need for this vitamin.
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I also want to add to the comment that yes, there are quite a few fruitarians here in the US. I suspect their duration in this category is not, on average, very long, but they do exist. Or did you just mean that the particular mentioned monks did not exist?
As for raw food dieters, here in the US it is not mostly done at the advice of a doctor, but through joining to groups trhough the internet where one is persuaded towards this belief.
I think another category, or categories, is needed: Non-Brahmin religious vegetarians. This is because some other religious groups also have special rules, such as eating roadkill or meat when required for other ends (some mongolian buddhists, for instance). Or just generally as a catch-category because I think some other things are probably left out. I think this group is different than “Religious – NON – Vegetarians” because they are basically vegetarian (also see Seventh Day Adventists).
Religious – NON – Vegetarians…I might call these “Religious selective meat eaters” to avoid use of definition by negation.
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Harish naik,
Thank you.
Blue Athena,
Brahmins don’t eat onions. Yes they give different reasons why they can’t eat what they don’t like to eat.
And thanks for the suggestion. By the pace at which I adopt things, it will take decades to me to be a vegan. Taste buds usually have higher influence over the mind cells ;-).
Thanks for the suggestions in your second comment. Yes they are informative and value addition (and correction too). My post is pretty old and is migrated one too. So I am thinking lets not modify the post. People will read post and follow your comment too. Wot say? Thanks.
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One recent definition I read recently maps very correctly to my food habits – at the same time I don’t have to explain why I have no problem with milk products.
“I don’t eat anything that had a face or a mother” 🙂
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good story
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Hmm What about the new fad – mock meat? chickenless chicken strips?!
I am a lacto – vegeterian but i tried one of the mock meat entrees recently well i am not sure if i liked it!
My friends who are hardcore carnivorous (lol) commented that it does taste like chicken/fish whatever it was called supposed to mock…any comments?
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u absolute twat, brahmins dont eat onions because of religious reasons with involve spirtual and medical reasons….not because they dnt believe in fertilisers!!!
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