Vegetarianism at MU: Prevailing Rational for Various Types of Vegetarians

This topic submitted by Emily Brown, Bill Dasso, Zach Joyce, Allison Plavecski, Brittany Ranyak ( browneb1@muohio.edu, dassowj@muohio.edu, joycezj@muohio.edu, plavecad@muohio.edu, ranyakbs@muohio.ed ) on 12/14/03 .

Natural Systems 1 Syllabus---Western Program---Miami University

Abstract

Vegetarianism is considered an alternative lifestyle; therefore, this study was implemented to determine the prevailing reason why Miami University students choose to become vegetarian. Because there are several types of vegetarianism, four major categories were focused on and six reasons for becoming vegetarian were developed from prior studies and extensive research on vegetarianism. Students were surveyed on campus during a two-month period. Most students surveyed were non-vegetarians and the largest number of surveyed vegetarians was partial vegetarians. The prevailing reason among all surveyed vegetarians was for ethical concerns. Few students surveyed considered themselves vegetarian due to religious reasons, and the least common type of vegetarian was pescetarian. It was ascertained that many vegetarians educate themselves on the effects of the meat industry and as a result become vegetarians for ethical and environmental reasons.

Research Question

Why do students at Miami University decide to become vegetarian? How many students at Miami consider themselves vegetarian, and which type of vegetarianism is most widespread among this population? Is there a prevailing reason that students of the same type of vegetarianism chose their respective diet?

Introduction

The intent of this study is to decipher the particular reasons a Miami University student has chosen to become a vegetarian. Their decision may have been influenced by any of the following: environmental concerns, ethical concerns, health concerns, or religious beliefs (Hartung 1999). Traditionally, the vegetarian lifestyle has been seen as a healthy alternative. Vegetarians have a lower risk of obesity, coronary heart disease, high blood pressure, and some forms of cancers when compared with non-vegetarians (www.americanheart.org). Several types of vegetarians exist. For the purpose of this study, the more obscure diets, such as fruitarian (those who eat only raw fruit, grains, and nuts) and sproutarian (those who eat mostly sprouted seeds and grains), were not options on the survey. The types of vegetarians that were included were partial, pescetarian, ovo-lacto, and vegan. A partial vegetarian is someone who eats no red or white meat, although they will eat fowl and fish. A pescetarian vegetarian diet excludes meat and fowl, but includes fish. An ovo-lacto vegetarian does not eat meat of any kind, but does eat eggs and dairy products. A vegan eats only plant foods Ð no animal products, no eggs, and no dairy products. By utilizing these types of vegetarians, we hope to discover the primary reason Miami students have chosen to become vegetarians and ascertain which reason is predominantly associated with each type of vegetarianism.

We believe we will find that most students surveyed will be non-vegetarians because a vegetarian diet is not the standard in North America. We expect partial vegetarians to be the largest population of vegetarians while veganism will be the least common type of vegetarianism. We believe we will find most partial and ovo-lacto vegetarians maintain their diet due to health concerns, since they exclude red meat and all meat respectively and those foods tend to be high in fat and calorie content (www.diet-data.com). We believe ovo-lacto and pescetarian vegetarians will also have chosen their diet due to environmental reasons, because animal farms pollute local water with tons of defecation and destroy forestland in order to grow crops (www.themeatrix.com). And lastly, ethics and the environment will be the concerns of most vegans.

Relevance

We plan to compare our data with that from previous experiments, such as a study by Laura Hartung (1999) called ÒGoing Vegetarian for a Day.Ó Six hundred college students and staff were surveyed to learn whether they were vegetarian, what type of vegetarian they identified themselves as, and what were their motivation was for being a vegetarian. Nine percent of those surveyed were vegetarian, and ovo-lacto vegetarians were the most common. The reasons included in the study as motivations for being a vegetarian are identical to ours: environmental, ethical, health related, religious, and all reasons. The results from the surveys were as follows: 50% health, 10% ethical, 9.2% environmental, 11.5% religious, and 20% for all reasons. The study found that a higher percentage of vegetarians were concerned about healthy eating (95% vegetarians versus 88% non-vegetarian) and considered their diet healthy (92% vegetarian versus 63% non-vegetarian). Ninety-two of all those surveyed attested that a diet high in animal fat increases the chances for disease.

A similar study was done at Bowling Green State University entitled ÒVegetarianism and Supplement Usage Among College StudentsÓ (Kim 1997). They were pooled randomly, putting factors of race, major, and age aside, as we did in our study. Approximately two thousand students were asked to identify their meat-eating status as vegetarian, red-meat abstainer, or non-vegetarian. Students were also asked what for what reason they are a vegetarian. Eighty-three percent of non-vegetarians claimed taste was the most important reason, compared to 31% of red-meat abstainers and 14% of vegetarians. Health was a more important issue for vegetarians: 36% for vegetarians and 60% for red-meat abstainers.

Other factors came into play besides health in a study done by Cheryl Perry and her colleagues at the University of Minnesota (Perry 2001). The study linked vegetarianism in middle school and high school students to race, weight, and personal factors. Vegetarians were found more likely than non-vegetarians to be female, not black, have a poor body image, and attempt to control their weight. They were also more likely to have an eating disorder and to have attempted suicide. Male vegetarians were found to be at an even higher risk than females to practice unhealthy weight control methods. The study claims, ÒAdolescent vegetarians are at a higher risk than others for involvement in unhealthy and extreme weight control behaviorsÓ and Òmay therefore be a signal for preventive intervention.Ó

As one can see, our study relates to many questions about how vegetarianism can reflect gender, race, ethics, religion, and self-esteem. Through our study, we hope to increase awareness about why people choose to become vegetarians and what the implications are concerning their decisions.

Materials and Methods

We plan to survey 1000 students from a variety of locations all over campus, such as all the dining halls, King Library, the Recreation Center, Shriver, and bus stops. In order to eliminate bias in our data, we included surveyed locations from each quad so that the diversity of Miami campus would be represented. King Library and Shriver attract people of varying ages and interests, allowing for a more diversified sampling. The survey we used for this study is as follows:

1) Do you consider yourself a vegetarian?

Yes (proceed to next question)
No (end survey)

2) What type of vegetarian would describe your diet best?

Partial Ð excludes red or white meat, but includes fish and fowl
Pescetarian Ð excludes meat and fowl, but includes fish
Ovo-lacto Ð excludes meat of any kind, but includes eggs and dairy products
Vegan Ð excludes meat or any animal products (i.e. no dairy products)

3) For what reason did you chose to become a vegetarian?

Environmental
Ethical
Health
Religion
Taste
All reasons

The data collected from this survey was statistically sound as the students were surveyed on their personal motivation for certain dietary decisions and therefore they have no understandable reason to be untruthful. Each student surveyed was asked the same questions to ensure consistency. After we collected our data, we used Microsoft Excel to create pie graphs that analyze the percentages of our data and allowed for easy comparisons between the many aspects of vegetarianism and reasoning.

Research Timeline

October 6 Ð 10: turn in proposal, analyze methods for experimentation, and create data sheets
October 13 Ð 16: decide who will survey which areas (i.e. quad, library, etc.)
October 20 Ð 24: turn in lab packets
October 28 Ð November 10: survey the areas described in Methods
November 17 Ð 25: compile and analyze survey data
December 1 Ð 5: statistical analysis using collected data, write results, conclusions

Results

We chose to use charts and graphs created on Microsoft Excel to convey our data. We chose pie charts to represent percentages of the entire given population. We did not use Statview because we were not comparing two specific items, but rather several different factors. The peer science tutors and our teaching assistant Rob advised us that we would not be able to obtain a P-value based on our results. The following chart lists the numbers obtained from the surveyed students.

Data Chart

Partial Pescetarian Ovo-Lacto Vegan Reason Total Reason
30 4 4 2 40 Environmental
6 10 16 6 38 Health
0 0 2 2 4 Religion
6 4 14 26 50 Ethical
10 2 6 0 18 Taste
0 0 6 2 8 All reasons
52 20 48 38 158 Total

Non-vegetarians: 842 Vegetarians: 158

The graphs representing our findings follow. The first shows the composition of the vegetarian population from the surveyed students. The populations of each type of vegetarianism were analyzed separately, as were the percentages representing the number of vegetarians who identified that reason as the main factor to alter their diet. Each of the next four graphs demonstrates the percentage of each reason within the population of each type of vegetarian.

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