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Climate change and related issues associated with the interaction of humans with the environment are of great importance in today's context. More and more research is focusing on understanding what...

There is a growing shift towards meat reducing diets, especially in Western nations, in the last decade. Whilst research has examined the potential motivations in adopting meat reducing diets, there are a limited number of studies which directly compare diet-related motivations across dietary groups, especially comparing meat reducing diet groups to omnivores. As such, it is unclear whether these dietary groups have distinctly different motivations for adopting their diets. This study aimed to examine the motivations that underlie people's dietary choices, and to compare these across three dietary groups; vegan, vegetarian, omnivore. A sample of 701 participants participated in the study (Mage = 30.09, SDage = 10.91). Participants were asked to self-describe the diet they follow and provide a written response as to why they choose to follow this diet. A content analysis indicated that the participants' motivations were similar across the three dietary groups. Similar reasons included health and environment, with the health reason common across all three groups. For vegan and vegetarians the most common was animal welfare. However, taste and enjoyment for diet was most common for omnivores. The overlap in responses across the dietary groups suggests that dietary motivations are similar across these three groups. Therefore, rather than simply employing motivations to encourage reduced meat diets, it may be better to develop more personalised interventions to achieve this.

Veganism is an increasingly popular identity within Western societies, including Australia. However, there appears to be a positivist approach to defining veganism in the literature. This has implications for measurement and coherence of the research literature. This exploratory study assessed preference rankings for definitions of veganism used by vegan advocacy groups across an Australian convenience sample of three dietary groups (vegan = 230, omnivore = 117, vegetarian = 43). Participants were also asked to explain their ranking order in an open-ended question. Most vegans selected the UK definition as their first preference, omnivores underwent five rounds of preference reallocation before the Irish definition was selected, and vegetarians underwent four rounds before the UK definition was selected. A reflexive thematic analysis of participant explanations for their rankings identified four themes: (1) Diet vs. lifestyle, (2) Absolutism, (3) Social justice, and (4) Animal justice. These four themes represent how participants had differing perceptions of veganism according to their personal experience and understanding of the term. It appears participants took less of an absolutist approach to the definition and how individuals conceptualise veganism may be more dynamic than first expected. This will be important when researchers consider how veganism is defined in future studies to maintain consistency in the field.

Introduction: Healthy preconception and antenatal diet and physical activity behaviours are crucial to prevent adverse maternal and offspring outcomes. These behaviours are thought to be linked to pregnancy intentions. The aim of this study was to conduct a systematic review and meta-analysis to determine the association between women’s pregnancy intentions and diet or physical activity behaviours in the preconception and antenatal periods. Methods: Medline Complete, PsycINFO, CINAHL Complete, Global Health, Embase, and INFORMIT: Health Subset were searched in September 2018 for studies that evaluated relationships between pregnancy intentions and dietary and physical activity behaviours. Risk of bias was assessed and random effects meta-analyses were conducted for dietary (food groups; energy and macronutrients; diet quality; and caffeine, iodine and folate intake) and physical activity outcomes.Results: Of 2623 screened records, 19 eligible studies were identified. Overall risk of bias was moderate to high. Twelve studies measured diet/physical activity behaviours during preconception, 5 during pregnancy, and 2 across both periods. Eleven studies measured pregnancy intention retrospectively, and 8 prospectively measured pregnancy intention. The number of studies available for meta-analyses of individual dietary and physical activity outcomes ranged from 2 to 5. Pregnancy intentions were not associated with preconception fruit, vegetable, or caffeine intake or physical activity. Antenatally, women with intended pregnancies were more likely to report healthier diets, lower caffeine intake and higher physical activity. Insufficient studies were available to conduct subgroup comparisons for prospective/retrospective assessment.Discussion: Pregnancy intentions were not associated with preconception diet or physical activity behaviours. In contrast, antenatally, women with intended pregnancies demonstrated better diet and physical activity behaviours. Given the small number of studies available for meta-analyses, further research is needed to consolidate our findings. Meanwhile, health professionals can assess women’s pregnancy intentions during preconception and pregnancy and encourage a healthy lifestyle.PROSPERO registration number CRD42018107854.

Veganism is an increasingly popular lifestyle within Western societies. However, there is no consistent definition of veganism across published research or used by vegan advocacy groups. This has implications for measurement and coherence of the research literature, and adds to public confusion of what veganism entails. This exploratory study used a community sample across three dietary groups (vegan = 309, omnivore = 216, vegetarian = 95) to assess ranked preferences for definitions of veganism used by vegan advocacy groups. Participants were also asked to explain their ranking order in an open-ended question. Across all three dietary groups, the United Kingdom (UK) Vegan Society definition was preferred. The majority of vegans selected the UK definition as their first preference, omnivores underwent five rounds of preference reallocation before the UK definition was selected, and vegetarians underwent four rounds before the UK definition was selected. A reflexive thematic analysis participants’ explanation of their rankings identified four themes: (1) Diet vs. lifestyle, (2) Absolutism, (3) Social justice, and (4) Animal justice. There was community consensus regarding the definition of veganism, qualitatively the reasons for this preference best align conceptually with the UK definition. Future research should consider using the UK definition of veganism to increase coherence within the field, and that strict definitions of veganism may exclude people from the label.