Why Do Pescatarians Eat Fish But Not Meat?

October 7, 2025 •

3 min read

According to a 2018 survey, 87% of pescatarians, vegetarians, and vegans cite ideological factors—like ethical or environmental concerns—as influencing their food choices. These principles are key to understanding why do pescatarians eat fish but not meat, a diet that balances plant-based eating with seafood consumption for a variety of reasons that are both complex and personal.

Quick Summary

A pescatarian diet combines vegetarian principles with seafood. Motivations for this choice include health benefits like heart-healthy omega-3s, environmental considerations, and ethical reasons related to animal welfare. This diet provides dietary flexibility while avoiding the concerns associated with red meat and poultry production.

Key Points

Ethical Distinction: Many pescatarians feel fish are less sentient and therefore more ethical to consume than land mammals and poultry, often motivated by opposition to factory farming practices.
Environmental Impact: Choosing fish over red meat and poultry reduces the dietary carbon footprint, land use, and greenhouse gas emissions associated with large-scale livestock farming.
Health Benefits: A pescatarian diet can lower the risk of heart disease, certain cancers, and provide excellent sources of lean protein and essential omega-3 fatty acids.
Nutritional Completeness: Adding fish to a plant-based diet provides critical nutrients like vitamin B12, zinc, and DHA/EPA, which can be harder to obtain from vegetarian and vegan diets alone.
Dietary Flexibility: For some, pescetarianism is a step toward reducing animal product consumption, offering a middle ground that balances ethical goals with personal nutritional needs and preferences.
Cultural and Religious Reasons: Historic precedent, such as in certain religious practices like those of some Christian and Jewish traditions, has long made distinctions between land and aquatic animal consumption.

Exploring the Ethical and Environmental Motives

The practice of pescetarianism is far from a simple culinary preference; it is a multifaceted lifestyle choice with roots in ethical, environmental, and health concerns. The motivations can be highly personal, but they often coalesce around a few key themes that distinguish the consumption of fish from that of land animals.

Animal Welfare: The Moral Compass

One of the most debated reasons is the perception of animal sentience. Many pescatarians draw a distinction between fish and warm-blooded land animals like cows, pigs, and chickens. This perspective often assumes that fish and shellfish are less capable of experiencing fear, pain, and suffering compared to mammals and birds, though this remains a point of scientific debate. The factory farming industry for land animals, with its often inhumane conditions, is a major ethical concern for many, leading them to opt for seafood instead. Fishing, particularly for wild-caught species, may be seen as a more humane alternative, even if not without its own ethical complexities. This difference in perceived suffering and the rejection of factory farming practices is a significant driver behind the pescatarian choice.

Environmental Impact and Sustainability

The ecological footprint of livestock farming is another crucial factor. Raising land animals for food is resource-intensive, requiring vast amounts of land, water, and feed, and is a major contributor to greenhouse gas emissions. By contrast, many pescatarians view the production of fish and seafood as having a lesser environmental impact, particularly when sourced sustainably.

Reasons for pescatarians' environmental focus:

Reduced Carbon Footprint: Studies have shown that diets emphasizing seafood and plant-based foods result in significantly lower greenhouse gas emissions compared to omnivorous diets.
Lower Land and Water Use: Fish farming and harvesting typically require less land and freshwater resources than raising livestock.
Avoiding Factory Farming: Supporting fishing over industrial land animal farming helps mitigate issues like deforestation and pollution associated with large-scale livestock operations.
Concerns over Waste: Switching from an omnivorous diet to a pescatarian one can reduce food waste at various levels, as fish and shellfish contribute less to waste than red meat and poultry.

The Health-Based Rationale

For many, the decision is primarily driven by health benefits. A pescatarian diet, rich in fish and plant-based foods, is often seen as a healthier alternative to diets heavy in red and processed meats.

A comparative look at protein sources:


Feature	Red Meat & Poultry	Fish & Seafood	Key Benefits for Pescatarians
Saturated Fat	High, linked to cardiovascular disease	Generally lower, especially in fatty fish	Reduced risk of heart disease
Omega-3s	Minimal to none	Excellent source (EPA and DHA)	Improved heart, brain, and eye health
Protein Quality	Excellent	Excellent, lean protein source	Easily meets protein requirements without high fat
Nutrients	Iron, B vitamins	Vitamin B12, vitamin D, iodine, selenium, zinc	Fills nutritional gaps that can occur on a strict vegetarian diet
Digestibility	Can be difficult for some to digest	Often considered lighter and easier to digest	Greater comfort and fewer digestive issues
Associated Health Risks	Higher rates of heart disease, diabetes, and cancer	Lowered risk of heart disease and some cancers	Supports long-term health and vitality

Nutritional and Personal Factors

Beyond ethics and the environment, practical and personal reasons contribute to the choice to be pescatarian. Some individuals find that a purely vegetarian or vegan diet leaves them lacking in certain nutrients like vitamin B12, iron, and specific types of omega-3s (EPA and DHA). Incorporating fish into their diet provides a straightforward and bioavailable source of these essential nutrients. For others, a pescatarian diet simply offers more dietary flexibility, taste preferences, or serves as a transitional step toward a more plant-based diet.

Conclusion

In summary, the decision to be a pescatarian is a complex blend of multiple factors. It is not simply about what is or isn't considered "meat," but rather about a series of conscious choices. These choices are informed by a person's individual health goals, their moral and ethical stance on animal welfare and factory farming, and their desire to minimize their environmental impact. By consuming seafood, pescatarians can enjoy key nutritional benefits while largely adhering to the principles of a plant-based diet, avoiding the ethical and environmental dilemmas associated with land animal farming. While not a compromise that satisfies all perspectives, it represents a deliberate path chosen by many seeking a balanced and conscientious eating lifestyle.

For more information on making sustainable seafood choices, consider visiting the Monterey Bay Aquarium's Seafood Watch website: https://www.seafoodwatch.org/.

Frequently Asked Questions

A vegetarian typically avoids all meat, poultry, and fish. A pescatarian follows a vegetarian-style diet but includes fish and other seafood. The term 'pesce' is Italian for fish, indicating this distinction.

For many, yes. By avoiding red meat, pescatarians reduce their intake of saturated fats, which are linked to heart disease. Fish provides heart-healthy omega-3 fatty acids and other important nutrients not found in high quantities in red meat.

Typically, yes. Most pescatarians eat dairy products and eggs. However, like other dietary choices, individual variations exist, and some might also avoid eggs or dairy.

A pescatarian diet generally has a lower environmental impact than a diet that includes land animals, primarily because fish production often requires less land and generates fewer greenhouse gases than livestock farming.

Many argue that factory farming of land animals is unethical due to inhumane conditions. Some also believe that fish are less sentient than mammals and birds, though this is a point of scientific debate.

While a pescatarian diet shares many characteristics with a Mediterranean diet, they are not identical. A pescatarian diet is defined by its exclusion of land meat. The Mediterranean diet includes fish as a primary protein source but may also include limited amounts of poultry and red meat.

Potential risks include exposure to mercury and other toxins, particularly from larger, longer-lived fish. The FDA provides guidelines on which fish to limit, and it is recommended to choose sustainably sourced options to minimize both environmental and health risks.