Vegan diet: motives, approach and duration

Peer-reviewed | Manuscript received: October 06, 2014 | Revision accepted: March 11, 2015

Initial results of a quantitative sociological study

Introduction

Vegans voluntarily choose to follow a diet that excludes meat and all other animal products. They are an example of a group which differs from the majority of the population in terms of diet. Up until now there has been no reliable data on the evolution in the number of vegans and on their exact proportion of the total population in Germany.

The above-mentioned study on the vegan diet, whose data was gathered as part of the project entitled “Geschlechtsspezifische Aspekte bei der Lebensmittelwahl” [Gender-Specific Aspects in Food Choice]¹ at the University of Hamburg in July and August 2013, is the first quantitative sociological study of its kind in Germany. In previous quantitative research, such as e. g. the “Oxford Vegetarian Study” [1] or the “Gießener Vegetarierstudie” [Gießen Vegetarian Study] [2], vegans have only constituted a sub-group, if any at all, and were e. g. labelled as “strict vegetarians”. In contrast to vegetarians, vegans have only been perceived as an independent group with very strict dietary prescriptions for the last few years [3]; related publications however deal primarily with state of health and nutrient supply [4–8], rather than sociological determinants. The data basis of previous studies with sociological questions comprises qualitative interviews [9, 10], whereby in GRUBE [3] an additional 150 people took part in a written quantitative questionnaire in 1987/88.

Summary

According to various surveys, the proportion of people following a vegan diet, i.e. people foregoing not only meat and fish but all products of animal origin, has increased in Germany in recent years. This article illustrates the initial descriptive results of a German quantitative sociological study, in which only vegans were questioned via an online survey. The three most important motives for following a vegan diet are reports on factory farming, climate protection and health. Most respondents believe that it is now easier to follow a vegan diet than in the past. More than a third of respondents had followed a vegan diet for more than two years.

Keywords: vegan diet, quantitative sociological vegan study, dietary behavior

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