Diet and Consumer Behavior in U.S. Vegetarians: A National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) Data Report

Maximilian Andreas Storz, Alexander Müller and Mauro Lombardo
Additional contact information
Maximilian Andreas Storz: Department of Internal Medicine II, Center for Complementary Medicine, Freiburg University Hospital, Faculty of Medicine, University of Freiburg, 79106 Freiburg, Germany
Alexander Müller: Department of Internal Medicine II, Center for Complementary Medicine, Freiburg University Hospital, Faculty of Medicine, University of Freiburg, 79106 Freiburg, Germany
Mauro Lombardo: Department of Human Sciences and Promotion of the Quality of Life, San Raffaele Roma Open University, 00166 Rome, Italy

IJERPH, 2021, vol. 19, issue 1, 1-13

Abstract: An increasing number of individuals adopt plant-based diets for their potential health benefits. Understanding vegetarians’ dietary behavior in the context of their socioeconomic background is essential for pro-vegetarian messaging and to influence public beliefs about plant food consumption. Thus, this study sought to investigate diet and consumer behaviors in U.S. vegetarians. This is a cross-sectional, population-based study with data from the Nutrition and Health Examination Surveys (2007–2010). Selected items from three modules (diet and nutrition behavior, consumer behavior, and food security) were compared between vegetarians ( n = 352) and the general population ( n = 14,328). U.S. vegetarians consumed significantly fewer calories and less cholesterol but more fiber than their omnivorous counterparts. Moreover, vegetarians had significantly fewer soft drinks and salty snacks available at home. We also observed significant intergroup differences with regard to the availability of fruit and dark green vegetables. Vegetarians spent less money on eating out and indicated a lower number of not-home-prepared meals and ready-to-eat foods. We found no differences regarding money spent at supermarkets or grocery stores. Our study contributes to a better understanding of dietary and consumer behaviors in vegetarians. We shed a new light on the economic feasibility of vegetarian diets, highlighting that these diets are not necessarily more expensive than an omnivorous diet.

Keywords: vegetarian; plant-based diet; nutrition; consumer behavior; food security (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/1/67/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/1/67/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:19:y:2021:i:1:p:67-:d:708392

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().