FLEXITARIAN

Where have I been since 2003 when this new? word was voted most useful word of year by the American Dialect Society.

"There’s so many reasons that people are Vegetarians ... I find that nobody ever gives me a hard time when I say I usually eat Vegetarian. But I really like sausage,” Pugh said.
In recent years the market for Vegetarian friendly foods has exploded, with items such as soy milk and veggie burgers showing up in mainstream groceries and fast food restaurants.
But even the diet’s activists say that growth can’t be attributed to committed Vegetarians, who are estimated at about 3 percent of the adult U.S. population, or about 5.7 million people never eating meat, poultry or seafood.
Charles Stahler, co-director of the Baltimore-based Vegetarian Resource Group, credits the growth to flexitarians — Vegetarians who dabble in meat and carnivores who seek out Vegetarian meals.
“This is why Burger King has a veggie burger. It’s not because of us,” he said. “The true vegetarians wouldn’t rush to Burger King anyway. It’s because of those people in the middle. They are the driving audience.”
Though flexitarian headcounts are imprecise, Stahler estimates roughly 30 percent to 40 percent of the population at least occasionally seeks out Vegetarian meals.
Room for flexibility.
Suzanne Havala Hobbs, a nutrition professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, credits the growth of flexitarianism to the nation’s better understanding of the diet-disease connection.
“Whether you make a commitment to eating strictly vegetarian or not, cutting back your dependence on meat is something most people acknowledge they know they should do,” she said."
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thanks to MSNBC.com