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Accepted manuscript

Diet quality, diet motives, and nutrition literacy of vegans, vegetarians, and semi-vegetarians

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 June 2024

Sapna Peruvemba ,
John Gieng ,
Susan Chen  and
Giselle Adriana Pereira Pignotti Open the ORCID record for Giselle Adriana Pereira Pignotti [Opens in a new window]
Sapna Peruvemba
Affiliation:
Department of Nutrition, Food Science, and Packaging. San Jose State University. One Washington Square, San Jose, CA 95192-0058
John Gieng
Affiliation:
Department of Nutrition, Food Science, and Packaging. San Jose State University. One Washington Square, San Jose, CA 95192-0058
Susan Chen
Affiliation:
Department of Nutrition, Food Science, and Packaging. San Jose State University. One Washington Square, San Jose, CA 95192-0058
Giselle Adriana Pereira Pignotti*
Affiliation:
Department of Nutrition, Food Science, and Packaging. San Jose State University. One Washington Square, San Jose, CA 95192-0058
*
Corresponding author: Giselle Adriana Pereira Pignotti. Department of Nutrition, Food Science, and Packaging. San Jose State University. One Washington Square, San Jose, CA 95192-0058. Ph: (408) 924-3108. Fax: (408) 924-3114. giselle.pignotti@sjsu.edu ORCID: 0000-0002-1413-7062
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Abstract

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Objective:

Limited research is available on how motivations to adopt plant-based diets and nutrition literacy influence diet quality. This study assessed diet quality, diet motives and nutrition literacy in vegans, vegetarians, and semi-vegetarians, and investigated predictors of dietary quality.

Design:

Cross-sectional study, participants completed an online survey about diet-related motives and nutrition literacy. Dietary intake was assessed with the Diet History Questionnaire III and diet quality was calculated with the Healthy Eating Index (HEI)-2015. A one-way ANCOVA was used to compare diet quality, nutrition literacy, and diet motives among diets. Hierarchical regression analysis was performed to identify significant predictors of diet quality.

Setting:

Online survey, participants were recruited through paid targeted social media (Facebook/Instagram) advertising.

Participants:

Adults following a plant-based diet, including 117 (52.5%) vegans, 51 (22.9%) vegetarians, and 55 (24.6%) semi-vegetarians.

Results:

Vegans had higher HEI-2015 scores (80.8±6.5, p<0.001) compared to vegetarians (75.1±9.1), and semi-vegetarians (76.8±7.5). Most participants (74%) had good nutrition literacy scores. Total nutrition literacy did not differ between groups, but vegans had higher vegetarian nutrition literacy than vegetarians and semi-vegetarians (p<0.001). Ecological welfare, health, and sensory appeal were highly important to all participants. Motives accounted for 12.8% of the variance in diet quality scores. HEI-2015 scores were positively associated with motives of health and natural content, but negatively associated with weight control motivation (all p<0.05).

Conclusions:

Individuals following plant-based dietary patterns have high diet quality and nutrition literacy. Messages valuing intrinsic over extrinsic factors may facilitate healthier dietary adherence in this population.

Keywords

plant-based dietdietary intakehealth literacymotivation
Type
Research Paper
Information
Public Health Nutrition , Accepted manuscript , pp. 1 - 19
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BY
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution and reproduction, provided the original article is properly cited.
Copyright
© The Authors 2024