Faunalytics did a study of 222 people who had begun transitioning to veganism or vegetarianism in the past two months. They followed up their participants six months later. (Disclaimer: I volunteer for Faunalytics.)
When weighted for representativeness, 9% of participants abandoned their diet within the first six months. I care a lot about veg*n retention, so this study obviously interested me a lot. What caused people to abandon their diets? (I know this is a boring kind of post to read, so as a reward if you read through to the end you will find out which food new veg*ns crave the most.)
Faunalytics tracked three outcome measures: whether the participant identified as veg*n; how many animal products the participant ate; and whether the participant felt that their diet was successful. 222 is not a great sample size, so do take the findings with a grain of salt; the study is underpowered to detect any but the largest effects. Lack of association in this study doesn’t mean that a factor doesn’t matter. All findings were corrected for multiple comparisons.
Here’s the list of things associated with lower success as a veg*n (“significant” means p < .05, “marginal” means p < .1):
Feeling unhealthy on the diet (significant association with diet abandonment, marginal association with animal product consumption)
Not identifying strongly as a veg*n (significant association with feeling unsuccessful, marginal association with diet abandonment)
Difficulty finding or preparing vegan food (significant association with feeling unsuccessful, marginal association with animal product consumption)
Not being a perfectionist about your diet (significant association with animal product consumption)
Thinking that your culture makes it harder to follow your diet (significant association with animal product consumption)
Thinking that your friends and family don’t support your decision to be veg*n (significant association with animal product consumption)
Not having strong habits so that you choose vegan food automatically without having to think about it (significant association with animal product consumption)
Thinking that veg*nism is expensive (significant association with animal product consumption)
Not having much personal control over what you eat (significant association with not feeling successful in your diet)
People also used various strategies to help them eat fewer animal products. The ones that had a statistically significant effect on animal product consumption included:
Seeing unpleasant or graphic images of farmed animals
Learning more about world hunger or social justice reasons to follow the diet
Learning more about animals used for food
Participating in an online community for veg*n people
Researching how to be healthy on the diet
Researching low-cost veg*n products
Researching products that fit a veg*n diet
Trying to meet new people with similar diets
Asking family or friends to be supportive of your diet
Avoiding unsupportive people
Changing to restaurants that have better veg*n options
Planning strategies to deal with temptation to eat animal products
Planning meals in advance
Avoiding tempting situations
Distracting yourself from your cravings
Changing the way you’re thinking about a craving
Using a greater number of strategies is associated with lower animal product consumption, no matter what those strategies are.
So what’s our take-home here?
I’m not sure that identification as veg*n matters much: people who identify strongly as veg*n being more likely to keep identifying as veg*n sounds like one of those classic reverse causality situations. I’d also set aside perfectionism as a strategy: I’m worried that, while perfectionism decreases animal product consumption in the short term, perfectionists will fail with abandon when they actually eat meat.
Feeling unsuccessful in your veg*nism seems to be associated with lack of autonomy as much as with your actual behavior. If someone else makes all the food you eat, and you have a hard time finding veg*n food, you’ll feel like a failure—whether or not you’re actually reducing your animal product consumption.
The animal-product consumers who identify as veg*n seem to have a couple of problems. First, instead of automatically choosing veg*n food, they have to make a decision every time, relying on their willpower—which means they eat more animal products. Second, they experience pressure from friends, family, and their culture to eat animal products (“I know you’re a vegan but if you refuse Grandma’s turkey on Thanksgiving you’ll break her heart!”). Third, veg*n food might be expensive, so they eat meat to save money.
And, of course, the most important factor for vegan retention is health. People aren’t going to keep resisting temptation and social pressure if veg*nism also makes them feel sick.
Most of the most serious concerns about a veg*n diet, such as deficiencies in vitamin B12, wouldn’t show up after less than six months of a veg*n diet. I suspect a lot of the participants’ concerns were short-term issues that are quite fixable. For example, participants might have ended up eating a lower-calorie or lower-protein diet and having less energy. Participants might also have experienced the normal gastrointestinal distress that happens when you switch from the low-fiber American diet to a high-fiber veg*n diet. I think future researchers should look into what health issues people specifically faced, so that we can tailor recommendations to the most common issues.
What are the implications for those of us who are trying to convince their friends to be vegan?
Social support is crucial. If you know someone who’s going veg*n, encourage them, listen to them talk about their problems, introduce them to your other veg*n friends, and maybe deliver a care package of delicious vegan cake. Omnivores who support animal welfare can support new veg*ns too! You can make sure to choose restaurants that have food for everyone. You can stand up to Grandma about whether your veg*n brother needs to eat her turkey, or to someone who’s making fun of your veg*n friend for being veg*n. You can frown at them when they are looking with longing at the chicken fingers.
Being veg*n is hard. It’s easy for experienced veg*ns to go “obviously veg*n food is cheaper than meat” or “obviously you need protein with meals or you’ll feel like crap.” But new veg*ns don’t have those skills. They’re replacing their sausage with Impossible sausage and wondering why their grocery bills are so expensive. They’re having a lunch of a house salad with no nuts or chickpeas or anything and wondering why they’re starving at 2pm. Knowledge is important.
Because veg*nism is hard, new veg*ns shouldn’t just go “I’m veg*n now!” without a plan. What are you going to do when you’re tempted by meat? What are you going to do when someone is unsupportive of veg*nism? What quick meals can you make on a weekday night? What are good veg*n restaurants near you? Consider reading about Trigger-Action Plans, implementation intentions, or the Cope Ahead DBT skill. What strategy you choose is much less important than having a variety of strategies for different circumstances. Different things work for different people—but planning ahead works for everyone.
If you’re writing an article for new veg*ns, consider walking them through developing their own strategies for staying vegan. Familiarizing yourself with the skills I linked above can help you explain them to new veg*ns.
All right, as promised, most common cravings:
Steak (10.3%)
Cheese (9.5%)
Burgers (8.8%)
Bacon (5.5%)
Cold cuts and cured meats like bologna (3.8%)
Pizza (3.7%)
Fried chicken (3.6%)
Salmon (3.3%)
Baked goods (2.3%)
Shrimp (2.3%)
Ribs (2%)
Mexican food (2%)
Chicken wings (1.8%)
I’m baffled by the person who craved Mexican food, to be honest. Do bean burritos not exist in their area? I also love that cheese was the second most common craving in a sample that was only 41% vegans. The experience of most of the vegans I know is confirmed by science.
You say, "I suspect a lot of the participants’ concerns were short-term issues that are quite fixable [...] I think future researchers should look into what health issues people specifically faced, so that we can tailor recommendations to the most common issues." I agree with the second part that I quoted.
Back in early 2019, there were a few mini-scandals when popular vegan lifestyle bloggers were "caught" eating non-vegan products, the one with the most media coverage I remember was "Ravwana" (real name Yovana Mendoza Ayres, apparently). It appears they had been eating a vegan diet for six years, got over 2 million youtube followers preaching the health benefits of veganism - and then ended up with thyroid and gut bacteria and hormone and other problems. Their doctors politely told them where this would lead, they "experimented" with eggs and fish and their health improved, and then the internet blew up around them.
My reading of the situation is that if veganism were generally fine with only "short-term, fixable" health problems, then if anyone could get it to work it would be the kind of person who builds a 2-million following telling people about the health benefits of veganism, presumably has the time to research this properly as they're building their whole lifestyle around it, and who has access to hormone tests and doctors and the like and could probably afford vitamin supplements if that were all it took. But if they can't pull it off, maybe some of the rest of us also have bodies that are simply not compatible with going full vegan?
Miley Cyrus also quit veganism again after several years promoting the lifestyle - claiming her "brain wasn't functioning properly" among other symptoms. She's rich enough that she could presumably have afforded one of the best vegan chefs in the country to make her the most balanced and healthy vegan diet imaginable. If there were an easy way to ensure you can stay vegan and get all the Omega-3s or whatever your body needs, she'd have been in the position to afford it.
(The last paragraph is partly based off https://thebeet.com/celebrities-who-have-stopped-being-vegan/ . If fixing the problems were as easy as said article suggests, one imagines Miley (or her staff) would have managed it somehow.)
If we do honest research into the causes of health problems people report on vegan diets, one possible outcome (that I think is personally the most likely one) is that some people's bodies are just not compatible with such a diet without suffering health problems, and in that case any messaging promoting veganism should be honest about this. Luckily, as far as I know, vegtarianism is generally unproblematic, and you can avoid leather jackets and the like too without any negative health effects.
Re: Isn't it weird that Mexican food is a common craving?
For me at least, there are half a dozen Mexican restaurants within walking distance of my house. The only one that has vegan options that aren't maybe rice and chips is a vegan taqueria. Most Mexican restaurants don't have burritos that don't include sour cream and cheese by default (and once you take that out there's not a lot of calories yet), and there's also no guarantee that refried beans won't be made with lard. And plenty of Mexican restaurants that primarily cater to Mexican immigrants don't even have any vegetarian options (which was something I discovered after visiting Pilsen in Chicago). While it's extremely easy to make vegan Mexican food at home (like, corn tortillas and pinto beans is one of the easiest possible meals), I've not found it easy to get vegan Mexican food at any restaurant that's not either a national chain (like Chipotle or Taco Bell) or specifically vegan-oriented (like the vegan taqueria I mentioned). Maybe that's not the case out on the west coast the way it is in the Midwest? But definitely in my experience Mexican food is one of the hardest cuisines to find vegan options at a restaurant; I generally assume I'm going to end up eating a lot of dairy and pretending that there's no animal fat if I ever am getting food at one