http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22079892?dopt=AbstractTo eat or not to eat red meat. A closer look at the relationship between restrained eating and vegetarianism in college females.Forestell CA, Spaeth AM, Kane SA.
Psychology Department, The College of William & Mary, P.O. Box 8795, Williamsburg, VA 23185-8795, USA.
Appetite. 2011 Nov 2. [Epub ahead of print]
Previous research has suggested that vegetarianism may serve as a mask for restrained eating.
The purpose of this study was to compare the dietary habits and lifestyle behaviors of vegetarians (n=55), pesco-vegetarians (n=28), semi-vegetarians (n=29), and flexitarians (n=37), to omnivores (n=91), who do not restrict animal products from their diets. A convenience sample of college-age females completed questionnaires about their eating habits, food choice motivations, and personality characteristics.
Results indicated that while vegetarians and pesco-vegetarians were more open to new experiences and less food neophobic, they were not more restrained than omnivores. Rather semi-vegetarians; those who restricted only red meat from their diet, and flexitarians; those who occasionally eat red meat, were significantly more restrained than omnivores.
Whereas food choices of semi-vegetarians and flexitarians were motivated by weight control, vegetarians and pesco-vegetarians' food choices were motivated by ethical concerns. By focusing specifically on semi-vegetarian and flexitarian subgroups, more effective approaches can be developed to ensure that their concerns about weight loss do not lead to unhealthful or disordered eating patterns.
Copyright © 2011. Published by Elsevier Ltd