Fussy, fad, and frustrating?: Stigma toward picky eaters and popular dieters by peers.

Abstract

Individuals commonly tailor their diets for reasons such as weight loss, health promotion, taste preferences, religious purposes, and to accommodate food allergies. Many individuals who adopt dietary changes, however, report experiencing significant social consequences such as stigma. This study explored stigma against various diet types and how one's own dietary patterns influence stigma toward others' eating behaviors. Participants (N = 509) completed an online survey assessing their own dietary patterns and stigma toward others' dietary patterns. On average, participants reported the greatest stigma toward picky eaters and people who follow popular diets. Five mixed analyses of variance (ANOVAs) were conducted to understand differences in stigma toward eating styles held by those who endorsed that eating style and those that did not. Men reported significantly more stigma toward eating styles than women; thus, gender was entered as a covariate for each ANOVA. Compared to non-picky eaters, picky eaters reported significantly lower stigma toward picky eating but significantly higher stigma toward all other eating styles except popular diets. There were no other significant differences in stigma reported between those who did or did not adhere to a given eating style. Future research should utilize more diverse samples and evaluate stigma experienced both by and toward others.

Dietary Intakes of Long-Chain Polyunsaturated Fatty Acids and Impulsivity: Comparing Non-Restricted, Vegetarian, and Vegan Diets

“…However, this is not always the case, mainly when questions of a highly sensitive, intrusive, or morally questionable nature are presented [ 66 , 67 ]. The exclusionary nature of vegan and vegetarian diets often attracts disproportionate scrutiny in health research compared to non-restricted diets and is often labelled as nutrient-deficient and incongruent with mainstream health guidelines [ 37 ]. As such, some degree of defensiveness and or inaccurate reporting is possible due to the perceived bias in health research.…”

“…Although ethical risk was deemed negligible regarding participants following vegan and vegetarian diets, content disclosure was provided regarding questions relating to meat products. This transparency was necessary because many individuals who follow restrictive diets are guided by deeply held morals more than health concerns or perceived benefits [ 37 ]. The option was provided to either skip these questions or discontinue participation.…”

Mushrooms as Functional and Nutritious Food Ingredients for Multiple Applications

“…However, despite the growing interest in plant-based diets, global meat consumption has steadily surged and is expected to increase up to 72% by 2050 . Reducing meat consumption can be challenging due to the difficulty of breaking habits, changing traditional diets that include the well-accepted taste of meat considered to be as of high-protein nutritional value, and the stigma and misinformation about plant-based diets …”

“…14 Reducing meat consumption can be challenging due to the difficulty of breaking habits, 15 changing traditional diets that include the well-accepted taste of meat 16 considered to be as of high-protein nutritional value, 12 and the stigma and misinformation about plant-based diets. 17 This is an opportunity for the food industry to present novel, nutritious, and good tasting plant-based products to this emerging consumer market. For example, the introduction of novel mushroom-based food ingredients in meat-free food formulations is scarce despite its long history of consumption.…”