Everything You Need to Know About Seaganism, the New Sort-Of, Kind-Of Vegan Diet

Pretty much exactly what it sounds like—a vegan diet augmented by the occasional piece of seafood. It's distinct from pescetarianism in that it doesn't involve dairy or eggs. So no need to hold the tuna in your tuna salad, but you'll need to swap in Veganaise (or Fabanaise!) for traditional mayo.

Sure! The coinage has been kicking around the internet for years. And without being labeled as such, diets around the world could be considered seagan-proximate—think about the heavy emphasis in Japanese cuisine on fish and vegetables, and the relative scarcity of other meat or dairy products.

But it's probably a new book on the subject, Seagan Eating: The Lure of a Healthy, Sustainable Seafood + Vegan Diet, by Amy Cramer and Lisa McComsey, that will cement the term in the millennial vocabulary. The writers—old friends who met years ago when both worked at People magazine—were finishing up work on a previous book (The Vegan Cheat Sheet) when they started cheating, as they put it, on plants.

Some vegans follow the diet for reasons of animal welfare. Cramer and McComsey were vegan primarily for health reasons, but they came to realize that they were missing out on the kinds of omega-3 fatty acids that only fish can offer. Omega-3s, you might recall from the endless articles that have been written about them, are essential to the human body. As the pair explain in their book, "These mighty little acids are workhorses—you might even call them miracle workers—crucial to healthy cell growth, proper fetal development, and robust immune functions. They're also critical for strong organs—including eyes, heart, and brain—and tissues."

It turns out that the specific variety of omega-3 found in plant sources such as flax seeds, called alpha-linolenic acid, must be converted by the human body into the more useful kinds of omega-3—eicosapentaenoic acid and docosahexaenoic acid—that are just straight-up found in seafood. "It requires all this metabolic work and it doesn’t absorb as efficiently," says McComsey. "Your body does not treat it in the same way as the high-quality omega-3s you get from fish." Plus, fish is just pretty nutritious all around—high in protein, lots of vitamins and minerals, etc. And a piece of rainbow trout is a hell of a lot tastier than a spoonful of cod liver oil.

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It's probably worth noting, as the Washington Post did last week, that "meat, particularly red meat, is just a disaster for the environment." The piece cites a 2014 study that found that greenhouse gas emissions from livestock account for 14.5 percent of the worldwide total. And growing meat requires loads of water—48 times as many liters, in fact, to produce a kilogram of beef than it takes to produce a kilogram of vegetables.

"We only go for fish that are low in toxins, low in mercury, great sources of omega-3, that are sustainably caught," Cramer says. "Atlantic salmon, for instance, is endangered. Atlantic flounder, sole, halibut—all of them are overfished, in addition to loaded with contaminants. Chilean sea bass—I hate to say this, because I know it’s a lot of people’s favorite—but not only is it high in mercury, but the stocks are getting depleted. This fish needs a breather."

In their book—which they don't call a cookbook, given the wealth of other information in it—Cramer and McComsey weigh the pros and cons of various seafood products, assigning them labels of good, bad, and questionable.

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Your options will depend in large part on where you are, of course, and where your fish is from. Gulf of Maine lobster is perfectly fine, the pair point out, while lobster in southern New England is facing population decline. Some domestic shrimp is safe and sustainable, though fairly rare—about 90 percent of shrimp in the U.S. comes from overseas, including Thailand, where it's been linked to slave labor.

Admittedly you're going to face a bit of a challenge coming across, say, fresh oysters. But, as Cramer says, "frozen fishes are brilliant. They're often the freshest of fishes, because they're frozen right on the boat." And they're available pretty much everywhere. And there is always—always—the option to throw a tinned-fish party.

A vegan that eats honey, a food mostly eschewed by strict vegans. Seagans can be beegans, but it probably doesn't work the other way around.