Differences between health and ethical vegetarians. Strength of conviction, nutrition knowledge, dietary restriction, and duration of adherence

► Compared health and ethical vegetarians. ► Found small differences in conviction, dietary restriction, and years vegetarian. ► Found no differences in nutrition knowledge. ► Young, ethical vegetarians can be recruited quickly and easily through Facebook. Little research has been published concerni...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Appetite 2013-06, Vol.65, p.139-144
Main Authors: Hoffman, Sarah R., Stallings, Sarah F., Bessinger, Raymond C., Brooks, Gary T.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adolescent
Adult
Aged
animal products
Conviction
Culture
Diet - ethics
Diet Surveys
Diet, Vegetarian
Dietary restriction
Ethical vegetarian
ethics
Feeding Behavior - ethics
Female
Health Behavior
Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice
Health vegetarian
Humans
Male
Middle Aged
Motivation
Nutrition knowledge
surveys
Veganism
vegetarian diet
Vegetarianism
Young Adult
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Summary:► Compared health and ethical vegetarians. ► Found small differences in conviction, dietary restriction, and years vegetarian. ► Found no differences in nutrition knowledge. ► Young, ethical vegetarians can be recruited quickly and easily through Facebook. Little research has been published concerning the differences between health oriented and ethically oriented vegetarians. The present study compared differences in conviction, nutrition knowledge, dietary restriction, and duration of adherence to vegetarianism between the two groups. Subjects completed an online survey and were grouped by original reason for becoming vegetarian (n=292, 58 health, 234 ethical), and current reason for remaining vegetarian (n=281, 49 health, 232 ethical). Whether grouped by current or original motivation, ethical vegetarians scored higher on the conviction instrument than health vegetarians and exhibited somewhat greater dietary restriction (significant when grouped by current motivation) and had been vegetarian for longer (significant when grouped by original motivation). Nutrition knowledge did not differ between the two groups. The results suggest that ethical vegetarians could experience stronger feelings of conviction and consume fewer animal products than health vegetarians, and may remain vegetarian longer. More research is necessary to understand how vegetarians’ eating behaviors are influenced by their motivational profiles.
ISSN:0195-6663
1095-8304
DOI:10.1016/j.appet.2013.02.009