File:Kind of Food Map.png

English: What kind of food a person chooses to eat is a result of their value system. Those whose concern includes not supporting the slaughter of animals (red region indicates consumption of sentient animals) choose at least a vegetarian diet (blue & green areas as well as yellow, with blue indicating animal products, green indicating plants, and yellow showing non-sentient animals like bivalves). Those who refuse to support the use, and often abuse, of animals choose the more restrictive diet of veganism (green only). Those who refuse to support the killing of plants as well (even though such life is not sentient) choose the even more restrictive diet of being fruitarian (light green, subset within plants).

Other major factors in the kind of food that a person chooses to consume includes how such a diet will impact their health. For example, there are some who start a vegan diet for animal welfare reasons, but then return to the consumption of animal proteins for the purpose of improving their health.

But the terminology of vegetarian, vegan and fruitarian are not specific enough to distinguish between food sources that are free from cruelty versus sources that include certain aspects that are deemed to be cruel, yet unnecessary. To fix this lack of distinction, the terms "ethical vegetarian"/"ethical vegan"/"ethical fruitarian" are used (alternatively, the modifier "moral ..." is used as well). A less cumbersome term has been coined to encompass all such ethically sourced food types:

"Veegatarian" (enclosed by the dark blue rectangle).

The concept of being veegatarian expands on the common ground between vegetarian and vegan, while taking care to ensure that all food sources used are ethical, free from cruelty.

The x-axis of this diagram reflects some measure of cruelty inflicted due to sourcing methods of various food types. Kindness and respect increases on the right side, with the first encounter of the dark blue line indicating the threshold where cruelty-free sources are obtained. The y-axis is used to indicate variety of food types found at a similar level of kindness (or lack thereof).

Carnism, the practice of having animals killed to consume meat, has an interesting characteristic of having strong "cultural compartmentalization". That is to say that within certain cultures, the practice of eating, say, cow meat, is considered to be perfectly normal while the exact same meat within another culture is viewed to be an abomination (or taboo). Examples of compartmentalized animals are depicted on the far left side of this map.

A debate could be had over whether it is proper to categorize the consumption of non-sentient animals under the umbrella of vegetarianism. The word 'vegetarian' has obvious connotations of vegetables, and clams are clearly not vegetables. But neither are eggs, milk or cheese, yet dairy is ubiquitously accepted to be well within the parameters of what it means to have a vegetarian diet. By that reasoning, the word 'Vegetarian' in this diagram is written in green, blue and yellow colors as indication that it includes all of these non-sentient food sources. This mapping is not presented as definitive. It serves as one categorization that has been arrived at by way of a consistent application of reasoning. And its primary purpose is to address the major shortcoming found within the use of long-established terminology. Veganism has often been used as by-definition meaning cruelty-free. But upon closer investigation, there are clear cases of foods that are vegan yet sourced via methods lacking in kindness. And has been long known, there are many practices within vegetarianism that are filled with cruelty. And the term 'vegetarian' is lacking in distinction between methods that are, and methods that are not.

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Not addressed in this chart is freeganism, the practice of living off of food that has been discarded and would otherwise go to waste. Some regard this to be more ethical than all choices presented on the map even when consuming meat that has been thrown out, because in theory this approach has the least negative impact on all sourcing of food. After being abandoned, it becomes a "free source". Whatever cruelty that may have happened up to that point is not supported, because selecting discarded items does not promote flow in the sourcing chain. That chain has effectively been cut off upon the action of the item being discarded. An added benefit is that tapping into this new free source is a way to reduce waste. See linked article for full info, to include the many risks of such a practice.

This chart also does not address breatharianism. Subsisting solely off of prana energy is typically viewed as pseudoscience, though believers see this to be a legitimate power some can attain in order to live "detached from The Matrix", so to speak. One variation is to consume only water, with no food. Another would be with no water nor food. And the most extreme would be a liberation from any need to breathe air (although this version would not logically be referred to as breatharianism any more). See linked article for full info, to include life threatening risks.

One other major aspect of lifestyle choices that go along with food choices is not addressed in this diagram. And that is cruelty in the sourcing of non-food products such as clothing. Silk, for example, is attained by boiling sentient worms. So vegetarians and vegans who refuse to support the killing of sentient animals will therefore refuse to wear silk. Leather from factory farmed cattle is a much more common clothing choice issue. Vegetarians and vegans will typically avoid support of non-food items that were responsible for causing unnecessary harm to animals or people.