Seafood
Posted by doubledip0522 on Nov 02, 2006 · Member since Nov 2006 · 1 posts
:)I am trying to do a Daniel Fast and the whole Church is on the Daniel Fast. Is Fish consider Meat. I have a lot of friends that are arguing about this issue. I have 5 friends who say fish is meat and the others say its not.
I need Help.
Thanks alot.
For the purposes of my diet, I consider any flesh from an animal as meat. Fish are animals, therefore their flesh is meat.
That being said, there are a large number of people who consider only the flesh that comes from mammals or birds (and in some cases only mammals) as meat.
I'm a nutrition major in school and we have to take a lot of food and beverage courses including "Purchasing" in which meat is distinct from poultry which is distinct from fish.
Some (relevant) dictionary definitions:
1. the flesh of animals as used for food.
2. the flesh of an animal that is considered edible, especially a mammal or bird
3.animal tissue considered especially as food: a : FLESH 2b; also : flesh of a mammal as opposed to fowl or fish b : FLESH 1a; specifically : flesh of domesticated animals
As you can see, this is an issue that has been debated before and will be debated again. It all depends on your purposes. I'm not familiar with a Daniel Fast, but it appears to be religious in nature. I think the definition of meat is contested in religious circles (there are people that use the Bible to justify vegan diets and people who use it to justify omnivourous diets).
I did a quick google search on a Daniel Fast, and most guidelines simply say to avoid meat, but I did find this Q and A at christ-web.com:
Q. What about fish? Or tuna?
A. Decide for yourself if you want to avoid fish. They are not mentioned in the book. Definitely avoid fried fish.
I know this didn't help :) but I think most vegans here will tell you that fish is meat.
Elizabeth
The answer to your question lies in basic biology: fish are classified in the animal kingdom.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kingdom_(biology)
The answer to your question lies in basic biology: fish are classified in the animal kingdom.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kingdom_(biology)
I don't mean to be confrontational, really, truly I'm a nice, non-confrontational kind of person (and I love your posts, Lezly, as well as your peanut butter cups :) )
I think your point would be relevant if the question was "are fish animals?" But that wasn't the question. The question was "is fish considered meat." By our definition, as vegans, yes fish is meat (because fish are in the animal kingdom). But the fact of the matter is that many, many people all around the world define meat differently, and who is to say our vegetarian definition is the right one? Dictionaries acknowlege that people define words differently, which is why there are multiple definitions for the same word.
Now if someone said to me "fish aren't animals" then I'd be all over them (I have a biology degree). :)
Doubled needs to decide what his/her church's definition of meat is and go from there.
From the religious standpoint, the Daniel Fast would require that you abstain from eating life. Whether considered meat or not, because they breathe, move, and eat, it would nullify the fast to eat it.
if there is a dichotomy here, and i believe that there is (animals/meat and not animals/not meat), then yes, fish is meat. i think a lot of people make a distinction, and there was a time in my life when i ate fish but not red meat or poultry, however i was not technically a vegetarian at that point.
i know some people who only eat things that they are comfortable themselves killing, and therefore eat fish but abstain from other meat. it's a choice each person has to make for him or her self.
From the religious standpoint, the Daniel Fast would require that you abstain from eating life.
if you're going to classify "eating life" as not being vegan, then you're not going to be eating anything at all... everything that has food value to us is alive in some form (plants, animals, bacteria). maybe a nitpicky point, but since we're trying to define a nitpicky issue.
my advice to you on the fasting side would be that religiously, the point of fasting is to abstain from indulgences, and to purify yourself of harmful thoughts and actions. meat, in the context of the biblical time and culture, was always thought of as an indulgence and a feasting/celebratory food since it was very expensive (still is in many parts of the middle east and asia). today, meat is cheap and easy to get, so religious fasts like lent and the Daniel Fast have lost a little of their context. Focus on the purification and abstention from excess, rather than on what will "break the rules" and you'll be fine.