Pollotarianism

Pollotarianism (or pollo-vegetarianism) is a semi-vegetarian diet in which a person only eats vegetables, fruits, and poultry meat (particularly chicken), but does not consume meat from fish or mammals. Pollotarians tend to include non-flesh animal products such as dairy and eggs in their diet, as well.

Terminology

Terms for this diet arose in response to growing numbers of people (particularly in the United States) who have restricted diets that do not meet the definition of more restrictive diets such as vegetarianism or veganism.

Some people consider the term pollo-vegetarian (which is sometimes used to describe the diet) to be a misnomer, because they read the term as indicating a specific kind of vegetarian, whereas the central tenet of vegetarianism is abstinence from eating any animal flesh (except, perhaps, fish). Other people consider the term pollo-vegetarian to be accurate, because they read the term as describing people who eat both poultry and vegetables.

The word pollo is derived from the Latin for chicken. Pesco-pollo-vegetarianism is a neologism that means one who includes both chicken and fish in their diets as well as non-meats (see flexitarianism), but pescetarianism and pollotarianism are separate entities.

Rationale

There are many rationales for maintaining a pollo-vegetarian diet.

Health

Based on findings that red meat is detrimental to health in many cases due to non-lean red meats containing high amounts of saturated fats.

Ethical

For some the rationale is ethics: believing that either the treatment, or simply the killing and eating, of mass market "meat" mammals is unethical. The rationalization for eating chickens in this case is usually to include consumption of some sort of a complete protein in their diet. Some believe that the treatment (specifically the caging) of mass market meat mammals is unethical, and only eat free-range (and sometimes only organic) chickens that are not caged.

Many communities and societies may have religious and/or cultural taboos against eating red meat from one or more animals.