Whole Foods Plant Based

They are centered on whole, unrefined, or minimally refined plants. It’s a diet based on fruits, vegetables, tubers (ex. Potatoes), whole grains, and legumes. It excludes flesh (including crustacean's and fish), dairy products, and eggs, as well as highly refined foods (refined carbohydrates) like bleached flour, refined sugar, and uses very little if any oil. Central to their diet are starchy foods (complex carbohydrates) such as potatoes of any kind, corn, rice, beans, etc. Organic, non-GMO is a big focus for those consuming a whole food plant-based diet.

 

Vegetarian 
They do not eat flesh, such as meat, poultry, game, fish, shellfish, crustacea, or by-products of slaughter, but do eat processed foods, lots of oil, refined flours, and sugars. 

The five most common forms of vegetarianism are:
Lacto-ovo-vegetarian - Eats dairy products and eggs. This is the most common type of vegetarian diet.
Lacto-vegetarian - Eats dairy products but not eggs.
Ovo-vegetarian - Eats eggs but not dairy products.

Pollo-vegetarian - A vegetarian who, on occasion, eats bird flesh.

Vegan 
They do not eat flesh, such as meat, poultry, game, fish, shellfish, crustacea. They do not consume dairy products, eggs, or any other animal product, but do eat processed foods, oil, refined flours, and sugars. Typically vegans do not eat animal products due to avoidance of animal cruelty.

 

Herbivore

A herbivore is a mammal that eats plant material, for example, greens, legumes, grain, for the main component of its diet. As a result of their plant diet, herbivorous mammals typically have mouthparts adapted to grinding.

 

Fruitarian 

Fruitarianism is a diet that consists entirely or primarily of fruits in the botanical sense, and possibly nuts and seeds, without animal products. Fruitarianism is a subset of dietary veganism.

 

Flexitarian

A Flexitarian is one that is primarily a plant-based eater, but on occasion will eat flesh of any kind.

 

Omnivorous 
An omnivorous diet is one in which both animal flesh and vegetable foods are eaten. 

 

Carnivorous 
A carnivorous diet is one that contains any or all animal flesh. From a vegetarian viewpoint, anyone who eats flesh is a carnivore, but truly most people who eat flesh are omnivores. 

 

Macrobiotic Eater

A macrobiotic diet consists of mostly cooked foods. Raw foods are felt to be difficult to digest and too cooling for our system. A minimum of fruits is consumed, less than 5 percent of the diet and most of those should be cooked. Dairy foods and eggs are usually avoided; the only animal flesh consumed are whitefish such as halibut, trout, and sole, and these are also kept to less than 5 percent of the diet. Thus, it is primarily a vegetarian, almost vegan, diet, but it seems to contain more protein and nutrients than the standard vegetarian cuisine.

 

Raw or Living Food Eater

A person who follows this diet eats only raw foods. The concern is that heating foods above 116°F destroy important enzymes that help with digestion. This person also believes that cooking diminishes the vitamin and mineral content of the food.  This diet is usually restricted to plants, but some will include raw flesh.