The role of vegetarianism, gender, and food choice motivations on vegetable intake among university students.

Objective: This study investigated collegians' (N = 466) vegetable consumption as a function of their food choice motivations, gender, and dietary habits. Method: Vegetarians and vegans (veg*ns, n = 94, 60% women), occasional meat eaters (n = 90, 66% women), and omnivores (n = 282, 43% women) completed the Food Choice Questionnaire and reported frequency of vegetable consumption. Results: Veg*ns consumed vegetables more frequently than omnivores and occasional meat eaters. Veg*ns' and occasional meat eaters' food choices were more motivated by natural content, health, and ethics, and less motivated by familiarity compared to omnivores. Women were more motivated than men by weight control. Health concerns predicted vegetable consumption for all dietary groups. Additionally, familiarity predicted veg*ns vegetable consumption, whereas mood, natural content, and convenience predicted omnivores' vegetable consumption. Conclusions: Individual differences in dietary habits and food choice motivations should be considered when designing strategies to promote healthful diets for university students.

Spontaneous verbal descriptions of vegans, non-vegan vegetarians, and omnivores and relationships between these descriptions and perceivers' diets.

Participants, 672 US collegians, listed four words/terms that first came to mind when thinking of vegans, non-vegan vegetarians, and omnivores. Participants generated 1264 unique descriptors, which two sets of raters, who were blind to the source of the descriptors, rated on 10 dimensions that included the valence of the descriptors (i.e., positive, negative). A series of multilevel models in which descriptors were nested within persons, found that descriptors referring to environmental issues and health were used more frequently when describing both vegans and vegetarians than when describing omnivores. Descriptors referring to deviance, lifestyle, and politics were used more frequently when describing both vegans and vegetarians than when describing omnivores. Overall, vegans were viewed more negatively than vegetarians who were viewed more negatively than omnivores. These differences were moderated by the extent to which participants restricted meat from their diet. Those who restricted meat from their diets to a greater extent had more negative perceptions and fewer positive perceptions of omnivores, whereas they had more positive perceptions of vegans and vegetarians, and fewer positive perceptions of omnivores. The present study is the first to use spontaneous verbal reports to examine attitudes and perceptions of people based on their eating habits. The results suggest that dietary habits can serve as a basis for social identity, which in turn affects perceptions of others.