Discussion

Nearly 14 % of the Canadian youth and young adults in our sample reported following a vegetarian, pescatarian or vegan diet. These results are slightly higher than estimates from a 2018 survey of 1027 Canadian adults^{(Reference Charlebois, Somogyi and Music21)}, which found that 5·6 % of respondents described their dietary choices as vegetarian (3·3 %), pescatarian (1·2 %) or vegan (1·1 %). This may be a reflection of the fact that our sample consisted entirely of youth and young adults – who may be more likely to follow these eating trends^{(Reference Allès, Baudry and Méjean22,Reference Bedford and Barr23)} – and was largely urban. The 2018 survey also found that 63 % of vegans were under 38 years of age, suggesting that diets with fewer animal-based foods are more prevalent among younger Canadians^{(Reference Charlebois, Somogyi and Music21)}. In the present study, 20 % of respondents reported having made efforts to consume less meat (all types) in the preceding year, and 29 % reported trying to reduce their intake of red meat, which is similar to the proportion in the 2018 survey that indicated 32 % of Canadians were considering reducing their meat intake in the next 6 months^{(Reference Charlebois, Somogyi and Music21)}. Overall, these results suggest that a considerable portion of this sample of youth and young adults in major Canadian cities were making efforts to reduce their consumption of animal-based foods.

Vegetarian diets are typically adopted for reasons related to health, animal welfare, environmental sustainability, food cost, and religion or culture^{(Reference Leitzmann24,Reference Craig and Mangels25)} . Although the Canada Food Study survey did not assess respondents’ personal reasons for limiting animal product consumption, some of our results are suggestive of potential motivations. For example, frequent NFt use was strongly correlated with following a vegan or vegetarian diet. This finding is consistent with those of other studies^{(Reference Bedford and Barr23,Reference Hoek, Luning and Stafleu26,Reference Heiss, Coffino and Hormes27)} which suggest potential health-related motives for limiting animal product consumption and that people with these diets may be more likely to be attuned to nutrition. Vegans and vegetarians may also consult the NFt when selecting foods to help ensure adequate intakes of certain nutrients that are commonly sourced from animal products (e.g. protein, calcium, iron).

The current study also found that respondents reporting a vegan, vegetarian or pescatarian diet were more likely to be concerned about food attributes that may relate to environmental sustainability, compared with respondents without these vegetarian dietary practices. In particular, a greater proportion of respondents following these diets reported making efforts to consume more organic, locally produced and ethically sourced/sustainably sourced/fair trade foods, and fewer GMO. Foods that are organic, non-GMO, locally produced and/or ethically sourced/sustainably sourced/fair trade are also commonly perceived to be healthier by the public^{(Reference Robinson-O’Brien, Larson and Neumark-Sztainer28,Reference Hughner, McDonagh and Prothero29)} , despite no strong evidence of an association between the presence of these food attributes and the nutritional quality of that food^{(Reference Smith-Spangler, Brandeau and Hunter30,Reference Edwards-Jones31)} . Research has found that positive attitudes towards organic, local and sustainable foods were associated with greater daily servings of fruits and vegetables, higher intakes of dietary fibre, and lower consumption of added sugars and fat among American young adults, suggesting that preferences for foods with these characteristics may be predictive of a healthier diet^{(Reference Pelletier, Laska and Neumark-Sztainer32)}. These findings provide evidence that behaviours which are (or are perceived to be) markers of a healthy and sustainable diet often co-occur among young adults. It is, however, not possible to conclude that health or environmental concerns motivated the eating practices reported in the present study, which may have also been influenced by other factors.

Vegetarian diets were more prevalent among some ethnicities than others. South Asian respondents were the most likely to follow this dietary practice. This finding is not unexpected as many South Asian faiths and cultures are known for customarily practising vegetarian diets^{(Reference Caplan33,Reference Jin, Kanaya and Kandula34)} . Previous studies have also shown vegetarian and vegan diets to be associated with a lower BMI and lower rates of obesity among adults and children^{(Reference Bedford and Barr23,Reference Colombet, Allès and Si Hassen35,Reference Sabaté and Wien36)} . It has therefore been proposed that some people may adopt these diets with the aim of losing or managing weight^{(Reference Heiss, Coffino and Hormes27,Reference Dyett, Sabaté and Haddad37)} . The present study, however, did not find that BMI was associated with having vegetarian dietary practices. Research has also shown that vegetarians and vegans are more likely to report low incomes^{(Reference Allès, Baudry and Méjean22,Reference Bedford and Barr23,Reference Neff, Edwards and Palmer38)} . The lack of association between perceived income adequacy and vegetarian dietary practices observed in our study indicates that financial constraints were less likely to be a primary reason for consuming fewer animal-based foods among this sample of Canadian youth and young adults in major cities.

Unsurprisingly, our study found that a greater proportion of respondents who reported a vegan, vegetarian or pescatarian diet also reported efforts to reduce their overall meat and/or dairy consumption, compared with respondents without these vegetarian dietary practices. Efforts to consume less meat (all types) were significantly more common among respondents with reported vegan, vegetarian or pescatarian diets than those without these dietary practices. Vegans and vegetarians were also more likely to report recent efforts to reduce their dairy consumption. These findings may indicate that some respondents had included dairy and/or meat products in their diets in the year that preceded the survey, and had perhaps only recently adopted these vegetarian dietary practices. Alternatively, some respondents may have reported an aspired dietary practice – rather than one that they had already adopted – which may explain why many respondents with self-reported vegetarian dietary practices also reported recent efforts to consume less meat and/or dairy. While efforts to consume less red meat were not significantly more prevalent among vegans and vegetarians (than among respondents without these dietary practices), some vegans and vegetarians may have reported no recent efforts to limit their intake of red meat if it had already been excluded from their diet for more than 1 year prior to the survey. These observations highlight some limitations to the scope of the survey questions in terms of assessing vegetarian dietary practices and other eating practices. Respondents were not asked to state how long they had been adhering to the reported vegetarian dietary practice. Additionally, the survey did not include an option for respondents to indicate if they were already excluding certain foods (including some or all animal products) from their diets prior to the past year and therefore may not have been making any recent efforts to further alter their consumption of these foods.

The majority of Canadian youth and young adults in this sample reported making efforts to increase or reduce their consumption of a variety of nutrients, food groups and foods with particular attributes. Reductions in sugar intake and increases in protein consumption were commonly targeted eating practices, which may reflect the attention that these nutrients have recently been receiving from public health authorities and the media^{(Reference Elliott-Green, Hyseni and Lloyd-Williams39–41)}. In addition, approximately two-thirds of the sample reported making an effort to consume more fruits and vegetables, which is encouraging given that as of 2015, nearly 70 % of Canadians (aged 12+ years) failed to consume fruits and vegetables at least five times daily⁽¹⁾. In terms of food attributes, the results showed that more than half of the overall sample reported having made an effort to reduce their consumption of processed foods. This result is also promising as, on average, approximately half of the daily energy intake of Canadian adults is derived from ultra-processed foods, such as pre-prepared meals, snack foods and sugar-sweetened beverages^{(Reference Nardocci, Leclerc and Louzada6)}. These reported eating practices collectively align with Canada’s recently released Food Guide, which recommends regular consumption of vegetables, fruit, whole grains and protein foods, with plant-based protein foods being consumed more often⁽⁵⁾. Canada’s Food Guide also encourages lower intakes of processed and pre-prepared foods as they can contribute excess sodium, free sugars and saturated fats⁽⁵⁾. The eating practices reported by most young Canadians in our sample are also consistent with global targets recently established by the EAT–Lancet Commission, which include shifting towards greater consumption of fruits and vegetables, nuts and legumes, and reducing intakes of highly processed foods, added sugars, red meat and other animal-source foods^{(Reference Willett, Rockström and Loken15)}. Future work will help to assess whether or not these efforts translate into meaningful dietary and environmental outcomes.

To our knowledge, the present study is among the first to assess eating practices among Canadian youth and young adults, including following dietary practices that limit their consumption of animal products. Strengths of the study included a large sample size and analysis that adjusted for sociodemographic characteristics and health behaviours likely to be associated with reporting vegetarian dietary practices. Despite these strengths, this work is not without limitations. First, the Canada Food Study did not recruit participants using probability-based sampling and recruited participants from five major Canadian cities only, thereby limiting the generalizability of our results. For example, youth and young adults living in rural Canada may have been under-represented in our sample, whose diet quality and eating practices may differ from those of young Canadians residing in urban areas. Compared with national estimates, the present study participants were somewhat more likely to report food insecurity and to be students; however, the prevalences of overweight and obesity in our sample were similar to national estimates^{(Reference Hammond, White and Reid18)}. In addition, because the Canada Food Study survey did not provide definitions of the different vegetarian dietary practices examined in the current study, some respondents may have inadvertently misreported their diet type; for example, if a respondent included seafood (but not meat) in their diet and identified as ‘vegetarian’ rather than ‘pescatarian’. Responses to the survey questions may have also been affected by a social desirability reporting bias, particularly in answering questions about their efforts to consume more or less of particular nutrients, food groups or food attributes that are generally perceived by the public as either healthy or less healthy; however, the use of an online survey may decrease reporting bias for health-sensitive issues compared with in-person interviews. Similarly, the accuracy of respondents’ answers to these types of survey questions may have been limited by poor recall or confusing an intent with an action.