Go the Whole Nine Yards? How Extent of Meat Restriction Impacts Individual Dietary Experience

Abstract

This study examined three meat-restricted diets (N = 865)-a vegetarian diet, a reduced-meat diet, and a chicken-free diet-with a focus on the differences in lived dietary experiences operationalized using measures such as satisfaction with food-related life and the theory of planned behavior. The data comes from an online survey of a census-balanced sample of 30,000+ U.S. residents. The findings showed that meat reducers are a larger group than suspected and that there was a statistically significant difference in dietary experiences with vegetarians reporting better experiences with their diet. This research speaks to how the type of meat restriction impacts lived experiences.

Keywords: Vegetarian; chicken avoidance; dietary experiences; meat reduction; sociology of food.