Food Diets

Flexitarian Diet

A mostly-plant eating pattern with occasional meat, reviewed in the peer-reviewed journal Frontiers in Nutrition.

The flexitarian diet — "flexible vegetarian" — is a mostly plant-based eating pattern that still includes meat and animal products occasionally, without fixed rules on how often. It is usually described as an emphasis rather than a strict exclusion: more legumes, vegetables, fruit and whole grains, less (but not zero) meat.

What published research reports

A 2017 review of the evidence-based literature by Derbyshire, published in Frontiers in Nutrition, examined the studies available on semi-vegetarian and flexitarian eating. It reported that the emerging literature associates flexitarian-style eating with benefits for body weight, markers of metabolic health, blood pressure and reduced risk of type 2 diabetes in the populations studied, while stating that the number of studies using a formal flexitarian definition is small and that more research — particularly randomised trials — is needed. The review describes the pattern as potentially easier to adopt than fully vegetarian diets for people who do not wish to give up meat entirely, as reported in the behavioural studies it covers.