Pescetarianism
diet that incorporates seafood as the only source of meat in an otherwise vegetarian diet
Pescetarianism ( PESK-ə-TAIR-ee-ə-niz-əm; 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.
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Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 19, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1500138. The Library of Congress control number is sh2017003925. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2017, 2018 and 1980.
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This entry incorporates text from “Pescetarianism” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.