Pescetarianism

Pescetarianism (also spelled pescatarianism) is the practice of following a diet that includes fish or other seafood, but not the flesh of other animals. A pescetarian diet typically shares many of its components with a lacto-ovo vegetarian diet and may include vegetables, fruit, nuts, grains, beans, eggs, dairy, and insect byproducts (such as honey, carmine, or shellac), but a vegetarian diet excludes meat. The Merriam-Webster dictionary dates the origin of the term pescetarian to 1993 and defines it as: "one whose diet includes fish but no other meat."

Etymology
Pescetarian is probably a neologism formed as a blend of the Italian word pesce ("fish") and the English word "vegetarian". The Italian word is pronounced, while the English neologism is commonly , with a sound, thus differing from pronunciations of similar terms in English and Italian.

Pesce in turn derives from the Latin piscis, which has the form pisci- when it serves as a prefix, as it often does in scholarly terms (e.g. "pisciculture" or "piscivore" ). Note that a piscivore, as a type of carnivore, eats a diet primarily of fish, whereas the neologism pescetarian refers to persons who consume plant derivatives as well as fish. A similar term is vegequarian.

Health considerations
One of the most commonly cited reasons is that of 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, choline and carnitine. Eating certain kinds of fish raises HDL levels, and some fish are a convenient source of omega-3 fatty acids, and have numerous health benefits in one food variety. A 1999 meta-analysis of five studies comparing vegetarian and non-vegetarian mortality rates in Western countries found that in comparison with regular meat-eaters, mortality from ischemic heart disease was 34% lower in pescetarians, 34% lower in ovo-lacto vegetarians, 26% lower in vegans and 20% lower in occasional meat-eaters.

Concerns have been raised about consuming some fish varieties containing toxins such as mercury and PCBs, though it is possible to select fish that contain little or no mercury and moderate the consumption of mercury-containing fish.

Ethics
Similarly to vegetarianism, some pescetarians adopt the diet on the basis of ethics, either as a transition to vegetarianism, not treating fish on the same moral level as other animals, or as a compromise to obtain nutrients not found in plants as easily.

Abstinence among Catholics
Adhering to a diet closely resembling pescetarianism as a form of penitence was mandatory for Catholics on Fridays until the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops made the practice optional but recommended. However, it is still mandatory on Ash Wednesday and every Friday during Lent, and some traditionalist Catholics choose to abstain from meat during the entire 40-day Lent period, as was common practice in earlier times.

Comparisons to other diets
Pescetarianism is similar to many traditional diets emphasizing fish as well as fruits, vegetables and grains. Many coastal populations tend to eat this way and these features characterize the traditional Mediterranean diet and the diets of many parts of Asia, Northern Europe, and the Caribbean. These traditional diets tend to also include meat although it is peripheral. In common with some vegetarians, pescetarians often eat eggs and/or dairy products, in addition to fruits, vegetables, nuts, and grains.

Pescetarians are sometimes described as vegetarian or pesco-vegetarian, but vegetarians commonly do not consider the pescetarian diet to be vegetarian. For example, the Vegetarian Society, which initiated popular use of the term vegetarian as early as 1847, does not consider pescetarianism to be a vegetarian diet. The definitions of vegetarian in mainstream dictionaries sometimes include fish in the diet.

List of pescetarians
This is a list of notable people who are or were pescetarians.


 * Nicole Anderson
 * Mira Aroyo
 * Brigitte Bardot
 * Kari Byron
 * Tracy Chapman
 * Parvesh Cheena
 * Common
 * CM Punk
 * Chuck D
 * Ted Danson
 * Alan Davies
 * Sierra Deaton
 * Nick Diaz
 * Wendy van Dijk
 * David Duchovny
 * Susie Essman
 * Grace Anne Helbig
 * Johnny Galecki
 * Ben Gibbard
 * Ariana Grande
 * Lee Hyori
 * Steve Jobs
 * Alex Kinsey
 * Kristin Kreuk
 * Lousewies van der Laan
 * Harvey Levin
 * Wendie Malick
 * Dannii Minogue
 * Mary Tyler Moore
 * Cam Newton
 * Conor Oberst
 * Amanda Palmer
 * A$AP Rocky
 * Anthony Stewart Head
 * Andy Serkis
 * Queen Sofía of Spain
 * Tom Scharpling
 * Hal Sparks
 * Howard Stern
 * Ben Stiller
 * Sonny Strait
 * Hayley Westenra (former)
 * Grigory Rasputin