Let's Read A Paper: What Makes People Stop Being Veg*n?

It's about health!

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:

1. Steak (10.3%)

2. Cheese (9.5%)

3. Burgers (8.8%)

4. Bacon (5.5%)

5. Cold cuts and cured meats like bologna (3.8%)

6. Pizza (3.7%)

7. Fried chicken (3.6%)

8. Salmon (3.3%)

9. Baked goods (2.3%)

10. Shrimp (2.3%)

11. Ribs (2%)

12. Mexican food (2%)

13. 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.