According to a study completed by psychologist Hal Herzog and quoted in Diabetes Insider, veganism and vegetarianism are “usually just passing fads.”
The study says the proportion of “true vegetarians and vegans in the US is surprisingly (not to me) small.” Only 2% of respondents did not consume any meat, with 1.5% calling themselves “vegetarians” and the remainder “vegans.”
Herzog says those findings were “roughly consistent with other studies,” and that based on his study, 5 out of every 6 people who give up on meat eventually come back to it again. That’s 86% of “vegetarians” and about 70% of “vegans.”
When you multiply the 2% by the 1/6, you get approximately 0.33% of the population as “confirmed vegeronimos.” (my term)
When asked why they gave up eating meat, study participants cited “taste, concern for animals, feelings of disgust, social justice and religious beliefs.” “Because it’s better for you” didn’t make the list of reasons.
We don’t know what happened to change those peoples’ stated reasons for giving up meat, but we would like to. We suspect bacon.
Image courtesy of Witthaya Phonsawat at FreeDigitalPhotos.net.
