Mag. Martina Seewann

Four years ago, I decided to give up eating meat due to my great love for animals. This made it impossible for me to continue to make myself guilty of participating in the suffering animals are subjected to. Not once during these four years did I feel a desire to eat meat again. Therefore, while studying psychology at the Karl-Franzens-University in Graz, Austria, it seemed only natural for me to choose vegetarianism as a subject for my master’s thesis.

I was particularly interested in possible differences in psychological variables between vegetarians and non-vegetarians. To be precise, I studied the health-related habits, the eating habits and the personality traits of vegetarians and non-vegetarians.

Based on the literature available to me, I assumed that vegetarians generally have a considerably healthy lifestyle with regard to nutrition, consumption of medication, alcohol and nicotine as well as physical activity and general well-being. I also suspected differences in the attitude towards healthy eating habits, orality (tendencies directed towards the stimulation of the mouth) and the personality traits of extraversion and neuroticism.

20% Veg. belonged to a church

In order to test these hypotheses, I carried out a questionnaire survey among 156 persons (85 vegetarians and 71 non-vegetarians) between 16 and 85 in Austria, Germany and Switzerland.

Parts of the following questionnaires were used for the survey: The questionnaire on health-related habits (Dlugosch and Krieger, 1995), the Food-Preference-Inventory (Wolowitz, 1964), the inventory on eating disorders and weight problems (Diehl and Staufenbiel, 1994), the eating disorder inventory (Diehl and Staufenbiel, 1994), the Eysenck-Personality-Questionnaire (Eysenck and Eysenck, 1975). Also, some questions of the author were added with regard to demographic variables. As in the research done by Freeland-Graves et al. (1986) and Thefeld et al. (1986), the largest group of those surveyed was made up of lacto- or ovo-lacto-vegetarians. As expected, vegans made up the smallest group represented in this study (8).

I was surprised to learn that the vegetarians questioned were single more often than the non-vegetarians. The percentage of persons of a Christian religion (catholic and protestant) is significantly lower among vegetarians while the percentage of persons not part of a religious group was higher among vegetarians. In their study, Freland-Graves et al. (1986) found that only half as many vegetarians are part of a traditional type of denomination as non-vegetarians. Only 20% of vegetarians and 29% of non-vegetarians belonged to a church. In my survey, the amount of vegetarians whose highest level of education is the Matura (~A-levels) was significantly higher than among non-vegetarians, however, among those persons with a university education, there is no difference between vegetarians and non-vegetarians.

Women’s eating habits healthier

As in other studies, this survey showed that vegetarians generally have a lower BMI (body mass index) than non-vegetarians. This may be due to vegetarians eating fewer calories and fat.

The hypothesis that vegetarians and non-vegetarians have different nutritional habits was confirmed by the results of the survey.

The nutritional habits of non-vegetarians were riskier than those of vegetarians. Among non-vegetarians, women generally had healthier eating habits than men.

The younger the persons questioned were, the riskier their diet was. Persons with a higher BMI tended to eat diet foods. In the study done by Rolls et al. (1991), boys were shown to consume more fat, salt and sugar whereas girls ate more vegetables at a very early age.

This tendency remains at an adult age. Women’s behavior is generally healthier. One reason for this could be that women are more open towards activities and measures which have a positive effect on health and tend to accept new health-related ideas more easily. A survey carried out in 1993 showed that women with a higher education in particular tended to limit their intake of meat and meat products (Leitzmann & Hahn, 1996).

Since very little medication was consumed overall, the only difference between vegetarians and non-vegetarians was in the consumption of painkillers - non-vegetarians consumed more painkillers than vegetarians.

Vegans consume less alcohol and nicotine

Younger persons with a higher BMI had a greater tendency to use stimulating medication whereas older persons consume increased quantities of calming medication.

The amount of alcohol and nicotine consumed by vegetarians is lower than the amounts consumed by non-vegetarians. In a Berlin survey of vegetarians by Thefeld et al. (1986) vegetarians were already shown to drink less alcohol than non-vegetarians. If one compares the different groups of vegetarians, vegans generally consume less of these substances than other vegetarians.

Men physically more active

With regard to the amount of physical activity, no difference was discovered between vegetarians and non-vegetarians, however, men were shown to be more active than women.

With regard to the amount of sleep, the only difference appears to be that vegetarian women seem to sleep more than non-vegetarian women. As to the occurrence of extraversion and neuroticism, there was no difference between vegetarians and non-vegetarians. Once again, the study confirmed that women are generally more neurotic than men.

With regard to orality, no difference was found between vegetarians and non-vegetarians, i.e. neither vegetarians nor non-vegetarians have an increased tendency towards oral stimulation.

No differences were found in the amount and type of eating disorders, i.e. vegetarians do not have an increased tendency towards anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa or obesity. However, the study did show that younger, well-educated persons had a greater tendency to have problems with food intake, weight and figure.

Conclusion

As a conclusion, one can say that differences were found regarding diet, intake of alcohol and nicotine and the attitude towards a healthy diet. No differences between vegetarians and non-vegetarians were found with regard to physical activity, neuroticism and eating disorders, however, differences were found between men and women (women tend to have more problems with their figures and their weight).

For additional studies on vegetarianism, it could be of interest to take the step-by-step development towards vegetarians into account and to differentiate within the group of non-vegetarians as well (between those who consume only red meat, only white meat or both).

My study on vegetarianism was met with great interest in the persons interviewed. Meat-eaters viewed vegetarians either as interesting or as totally crazy, but did not generally think about the subject personally.

Whether long-standing habits or health arguments make giving up meat impossible for these people, the spreading of vegetarianism is very important to me. For this reason, I will continue to try to convince those around me that a healthy, balanced diet is possible without slaughtering animals.

Mag. Martina Seewann, Strassgangerstrasse 58, A-8052 Graz

• Health and Nutrition - from the Articles Index