Vegan
est. 1949
Vegetarianism can be traced to the Indus Valley civilization in 3300–1300 BCE in the Indian subcontinent, particularly in northern and western ancient India. Early vegetarians included Indian philosophers such as Parshavnatha, Mahavira, and Valluvar; the Indian emperors Chandragupta Maurya and Ashoka; Greek philosophers such as Empedocles and Porphyry; and the Roman poet Ovid. The Greek sage Pythagoras may have advocated an early form of strict vegetarianism but his life is so obscure that it is disputed whether he ever advocated any form of vegetarianism. He almost certainly prohibited his followers from eating beans and wearing woolen garments. Vegetarianism established itself as a significant movement in 19th-century Britain and the United States. A minority of vegetarians avoided animal food entirely.
Non-vegetarian
est. 1883
According to archeological finds, the Indus Valley civilization dominated the meat diet of animals such as cattle, buffalo, goat, pigs, and chickens. Remnants of dairy products were also discovered. According to Akshyeta Suryanarayan et al., available evidence indicates culinary practices to be common over the region; food-constituents were dairy products (in low proportion), ruminant carcass meat, and either non-ruminant adipose fats, plants, or mixtures of these products. The dietary pattern remained the same throughout the decline.
Paleo
est. late 1970s
Adrienne Rose Johnson writes that the idea that the primitive diet was superior to current dietary habits dates back to the 1890s with such writers as Emmet Densmore and John Harvey Kellogg. Densmore proclaimed that "bread is the staff of death", while Kellogg supported a diet of starchy and grain-based foods in accord with "the ways and likings of our primitive ancestors". Arnold DeVries advocated an early version of the Paleolithic diet in his 1952 book, Primitive Man and His Food. In 1958, Richard Mackarness authored Eat Fat and Grow Slim, which proposed a low-carbohydrate "Stone Age" diet. In his 1975 book The Stone Age Diet, gastroenterologist Walter L. Voegtlin advocated a meat-based diet, with low proportions of vegetables and starchy foods, based on his declaration that humans were "exclusively flesh-eaters" until 10,000 years ago.
Fact Source: Wikipedia