Adherence versus striving to adhere to vegan,vegetarian,or pescatarian diets: Applying a goal-centered,self-regulatory framework

Abstract

Adherence to plant-rich diets remains low despite numerous health benefits accruing to such practices. We sought to distinguish college students who report high adherence to a plant-rich diet (“Sustainers”) from those who are less successful (“Strivers”). Sustainers more strongly endorsed multiple ethical dietary motives and indicated stronger allegiance to their values compared to Strivers, who rated health reasons more highly. Sustainers scored better on seven factors relating to effective dietary goal pursuit. Results underscore the importance of motivational factors in the maintenance of plant-based eating.