4.5 Article

Diet-Related Attitudes, Beliefs, and Well-Being in Adolescents with a Vegetarian Lifestyle

Journal

HEALTHCARE
Volume 11, Issue 21, Pages -

Publisher

MDPI
DOI: 10.3390/healthcare11212885

Keywords

vegetarian; food choice; public health; adolescents; psychological well-being

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Vegetarianism can fulfill healthy, ethical, or ecological values, but studies indicate that vegetarians may have a higher risk of depression and a lower sense of body satisfaction. The factors influencing adolescent vegetarian choices are mainly related to ethical stances, beliefs, and values, rather than desires to lose weight, body dissatisfaction, or depressive feelings.
Vegetarianism can meet healthy, ethical, or ecological values (such as equality and protection of animals or the environment). At the same time, it can represent a response to the need for self-determination in adolescence. Furthermore, some studies show vegetarians have greater depressive risk and a lower sense of body satisfaction. Considering the spread of non-meat diets in the Western world, researchers have investigated the benefits and risks to physical and psychological health. Despite this, few studies have been conducted on factors influencing adolescent's vegetarian diet-related attitudes. Through self-administered loosely structured interviews, this research investigated factors potentially associated with vegetarian choices in adolescence. It checked (a) gender differences in vegetarian choices; (b) religious, familial, ethical, or health factors implied in vegetarian choices; and (c) indicators of well-being among young vegetarians. The findings suggest that for our sample, non-vegetarians have lower scores on health-related questions than others, while for vegetarian adolescents, the benefits of vegetarianism mainly depend on their ethical stances, beliefs, and values. Conversely, it is unrelated to factors such as the desire to lose weight, dissatisfaction about one's body shape, or depressive feelings.

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