Any fish on the menu?

I consider myself a foodie. I love food. I mean really love food. But I have made the choice to purposely limit my food choices as of January 1st 2013 to the more fishy variety. I am a pescatarian. Yes, this word is in the dictionary. If you bothered to look it up, you will find, I live on a diet of fish. Not just fish, but mainly fish.

I must admit, I must have scared myself after watching several documentaries on the food industry highlighting the horrific going-ons at slaughter houses and such. Needless to say, it put me off meat.

As a foodie, going out to eat is a regular activity for me, usually accompanied by a non pescatarian. But I have noticed pescatarian options are very few and far between in restaurants here in London. And as a pescatarian newbie, I have always wondered why.

Johnnie Jackson, the CEO and founder of the Pescatarian Society, believes the word is yet to be mainstreamed, which may suggest the lack of fish on restaurant menus.

“The word "vegetarian" is so common nowadays. But with the rise of healthy eating naturally and hopefully people will begin to investigate other healthy options for them and stumble upon pescetarianism,” he said.

He believes fish options should be labelled ‘pescatarian’.

The pescatarian movement, Jackson explains, is based on similar health and ethical reasons, similar to both the vegan and vegetarian movement. Vegan and vegetarianism diets they have found to be too extreme, especially for working class individuals, whom their society focuses on.

“People don't want to eat junk food and other land animals like themselves.”

Jackson founded the Pescatarian Society in 2015 after the United Nations World Health Organisation published a study stating red meats especially bacon and processed meats cause cancer.

“We don’t want to be part of the meat industry,” he explains. “Dog meat is on a global meat level. We believe it is evil how animals are mass produced and killed. We don’t want to be part of that.”

Overall, Jackson wishes to promote this alternative diet to society, as a healthier and more viable option to vegan and vegetarianism and one that is a natural human diet.

His top tips for eating out as a pescatrian?

“Order with confidence, check the menu before you turn up. Do not order crab or lobster if they have been boiled alive the old way which some unethical chefs are still doing.”