Attitudes Towards Healthy Eating and Diet Satisfaction of Vegetarians: A Cross-sectional Study in Turkey

Abstract

Aims: The aim of this study was to evaluate the attitudes of individuals who prefer a vegetarian diet about adequate and balanced nutrition, their dietary satisfaction and the problems they experience. Material and Methods: Participants were administered an online questionnaire including the attitude scale about adequate and balanced nutrition, diet satisfaction scale and questions about the problems they experienced while maintaining a vegetarian diet through Google forms. Results: According to the results of the study, it was determined that vegetarian individuals had high attitudes about adequate and balanced. In detailed analysis, it was found that females had higher attitudes towards adequate and balanced nutrition than males, high school and university graduates had higher attitudes than primary school graduates, and individuals with normal BMI had higher attitudes towards adequate and balanced nutrition than overweight and obese individuals (p<0.05). While the diet satisfaction of the participants was high, university graduates had lower diet satisfaction than high school graduates (p<0.05). The most common problem experienced by vegetarian individuals while maintaining their diets is that vegetarian products are expensive and difficult to find in the market. Conclusion: In this study, it can be stated that among the vegetarian individuals, those with female gender, higher education level and normal BMI were better in terms of their attitudes towards adequate and balanced nutrition. It has been determined that individuals experience various problems while following vegetarian diets. Therefore, there is a need to support vegetarian diets in Turkey in terms of both health and sustainability.

Keywords

• Vegetarian diet
• healthy eating
• diet satisfaction
• sustainability

Ethical Statement

Ethics Committee Approval dated 10/01/2022 and decision number 01/03 was obtained from Ankara University Ethics Committee for the study

Attitudes Towards Healthy Eating and Diet Satisfaction of Vegetarians: A Cross-sectional Study in Turkey

Abstract

Amaç: Bu çalışmada vejeteryan beslenmeyi tercih eden bireylerin yeterli ve dengeli beslenme hakkındaki tutumları ve diyet memnuniyetlerini ve yaşadıkları sorunları değerlendirmek amaçlanmıştır. Gereç ve Yöntemler: Katılımcılara yeterli ve dengeli beslenme hakkında tutum ölçeği, diyet memnuniyet ölçeği ve vejetaryen beslenmeyi sürdürürken yaşadıkları problemleri içeren sorular Google formlar aracılığı ile oluşturulan online anket formu ile uygulanmıştır. Bulgular: Çalışma sonuçlarına göre vejetaryen bireylerin yeterli ve dengeli beslenme hakkında tutumlarının yüksek olduğu tespit edilmiştir. Kadınların erkeklere, lise ve üniversite mezunu olanların ilköğretim mezunlarına ve normal BMI’ye sahip olanların hafif şişman ve obez bireylere göre yeterli ve dengeli beslenme hakkındaki tutum puanları daha yüksek bulunmuştur (p<0,05). Katılımcıların diyet memnuniyetlerinin yüksek olduğu görülürken üniversite mezunlarının lise mezunlarına göre diyet memnuniyetleri daha düşüktür (p<0,05). Vejetaryen bireylerin diyetlerini sürdürürken en sık yaşadıkları problem vejetaryen ürünlerin pahalı olması ve markette zor bulunması olarak belirlenmiştir. Sonuç: Bu çalışmada vejetaryen beslenen bireyler içinde kadın cinsiyet, yüksek eğitim düzeyi ve normal BMI özelliklerine sahip olanların yeterli ve dengeli beslenme hakkındaki tutumları açısından daha iyi durumda olduğu ifade edilebilir. Bireylerin vejetaryen diyetleri uygularken çeşitli sorunlarla karşılaştığı belirlenmiştir. Bu nedenle Türkiye’de vejetaryen diyetlerin hem sağlık hem de sürdürülebilirlik açısından desteklenmesine ihtiyaç bulunmaktadır.

Keywords

• Vejetaryen diyet
• sağlıklı beslenme
• diyet memnuniyeti
• sürdürülebilirlik

Ethical Statement

Araştırma için Ankara Üniversitesi Etik Kurulundan 10/01/2022 tarih ve 01/03 karar numaralı Etik Kurul Onayı alındı.

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