Pollotarian Diet

Pollotarianism (also called pollo-vegetarianism) is a neologism to denote a dietary choice, in which a person does not consume mammalian meat such as beef, pork, and lamb, but does consume chicken. As with lacto-ovo vegetarianism, there are usually no restrictions on non-flesh animal products such as dairy and eggs.

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. As such, the term pollo-vegetarian (which is sometimes used to describe the diet) is a misnomer because vegetarians do not eat any animal meat; the term pollotarian is accurate.

The word pollo is derived from the Latin for chicken. "Pesce-pollotarianism" (or chickifishitarian) is a pejorative 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. One 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. [1] [2]

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 either "I have to eat some kind of meat" (see complete protein) or "chickens are less intelligent than other animals".

Some believe that the treatment (specifically the caging) of mass market meat mammals is unethical, and only eat free-range chickens that are not caged.


References
^ E Giovannucci, EB Rimm, MJ Stampfer, GA Colditz, A Ascherio and WC Willett, "Intake of fat, meat, and fiber in relation to risk of colon cancer in men"., Cancer Research 54, 2390-2397, (May 1, 1994)
^ Frank B. Hu, MD, PhD, JoAnn E. Manson, MD, DrPh and Walter C. Willett, MD, DrPh, "Types of Dietary Fat and Risk of Coronary Heart Disease: A Critical Review"., Journal of the American College of Nutrition, Vol. 20, No. 1, 5-19 (2001)