Vegan Diet: A New Lifestyle?

– Preksha Porwal

Vegan Diet: A New Lifestyle?

Submitted By:

Preksha Porwal – 153 Fifth Year iMBA

Table of Contents

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 Vegan Diet: A New Lifestyle? – Preksha Porwal

Abstract.................................................................................................................................................3
Introduction...........................................................................................................................................3
Research Question.................................................................................................................................6
Objectives..............................................................................................................................................6
Study Design..........................................................................................................................................6
Research scope......................................................................................................................................7
Sampling Design....................................................................................................................................7
References.............................................................................................................................................8

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 Vegan Diet: A New Lifestyle? – Preksha Porwal

Abstract

A diet generally consist fruits, vegetable, whole grains, dairy products and animal based products.
People who consume animal based products like meat, sausages are considered Non Vegetarians.
People who don’t consume animal based products and sometimes includes eggs in their diet are
known as Vegetarians. Vegans are extreme Vegetarians that do not even include dairy products and
eggs in their diet. Warsaw is considered to be the third best city in the world according to the data of
Happy Cow for the people who follow Vegan diet. In this project we researched about the opinion of
certain Vegan restaurant owners and their employees towards consumer attitudes, business
opportunities that beholds in Warsaw for Vegan diet, factors motivating people to shift to vegan diet
and if the trend of healthy diet is here to stay or is it just a fad. A qualitative research approach was
used whereby the semi-interviews were conducted with the seven vegan food business in Warsaw
Poland. We also supported our research by conducting the Secondary Research taking help of
various research papers, news articles and online government data.

Introduction

Vegetarians consume their food from plants which may include or exclude dairy products,
eggs, fish or poultry. People consuming only plant foods and no animal product including
dairy products or poultry are one of the most extreme types of vegetarians, these people are
called Vegans. Their diet is basically composed of grains and vegetables. (Dwyer, 1994) A
lifestyle philosophy was built in 1980s, which was derived from the punk movement called
Straight Edge. It calls attention to animal liberalization, freedom from drugs and
vegetarianism. (Larsson & Johansson, 1997)

A research from 2010 calculated that there are 1,450 million vegetarians of necessity and
another 75 million of choice, which make 21.8% approximately of the world’s population.
Out of which, 8% of the respondents of that survey were vegetarian, and 7% identified
themselves as Vegans. Warsaw, capital city of Poland was considered to be the top 3 Vegan
Cities in the world. This research focuses on attitude of people living in Warsaw towards
vegan food and different factors and variables that play their role in favor or against them in
choosing a vegan diet or not. The main objective of this research is to understand consumer
preference towards vegan/ vegetarian or non vegetarian food and reasons for their shift. It
also focuses on a number of variables and impact of each and every variable on their decision
making on choosing their diet. (Revolvy, 2018 Revolvy, L., 2018)

The process of individual conversion to veganism is most often a very personal one, shaped
by that person’s unique biography and experiences (Beardsworth & Keil, 1991). It can be
illustrated as a continuous process stimulated and inhibited by positive and negative reasons

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 Vegan Diet: A New Lifestyle? – Preksha Porwal

and perceived consequences. The perceived causes in the process of influencing for
becoming a vegan were internal reasons and external reasons. The internal reasons that were
identified in the process were ethical, health, distaste for meat, and their preference for vegan
food. One of the main reasons was a moral concern regarding the treatment of animals
followed by the process of disliking the taste of meat. In one of the research papers we found
that there was an informant who described his first memory of stepping into the diet of vegan
was because he was chewing a piece of meat and he could not swallow it. The external
reasons that were perceived are mainly friends, family, school, agents of media or music. A
lot of people described their process of becoming vegan were due to their friends. Also,
family members initiated the process in their childhood. Parents used to give vegan food for
their children who suffered from rheumatic arthritis. Another reason that was perceived to be
a significant initiating reason in the process was their school lunch. People have changed
their diets to an extent to avoid the usage of animal products, and its importance is increasing
gradually (Weinstein & de Man, 1982) Almost 7% population of U.K, that is around four
million people have converted themselves into vegetarians, as per our survey (The Vegetarian
Society, 2000). Vegetarians who are youth, almost 12% of the populations in U.K is
approximately same to the youth in Australia who are vegetarians (The Vegetarian Society,
2000) (Worsley & Skrzypiec, 1998). Around 41% of the people in U.K are opting for
minimal meat in their diets, as per our survey. (The Vegetarian Society, 2000). People opting
for vegetarianism, are doing their best to avoid the animal products, depending on their
choice from red meat to meat, fish, eggs, etc. There are groups who eat meat, there are groups
avoids meat, and then comes vegetarians who do not eat meat and fish and lastly their comes
vegans who avoids eating any product coming from animal. Having or utilization of any
animal products, vegans purely avoid that.

There are generally three core categories of types of vegan diet: Conformed Vegans,
Organized Vegans and Individualistic Vegans (Glaser and Strauss, 1971).

Conformed Vegans socialize majorly with other vegetarians often in groups and wished to
share the main attitudes and behaviours of the group. They follow and imitate the ideas of
others. They were not convinced in their veganism and the informers. They are consistent in
their vegan diet like Organized or Individualistic Vegans. (Glaser and Strauss, 1971)

Organized vegans were assured in their diet of veganism and were attached with the
ideology. They were known for animal ethics, equality, solidarity, and non parliamentary
political points of view. For them, animals are equal to humans and thus, they protested
against the exploitation of animals. They try to develop their identity in the society and
include more like minded people to their community and take parts in the revolt with the
society that don’t believe in their belief or are against it. The international contact with the
Europeans groups of vegetarians became an inspiration from them. Some of them were
involved in the illegal activities like destroying the meat factories or releasing animals. These
are called “Militant Vegans” by the society and media. (Glaser and Strauss, 1971)

Individualistic Vegans are also very strong in the decision about being vegans, but they don’t
associate themselves with other vegans like the Organized Vegans. They don’t relate

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 Vegan Diet: A New Lifestyle? – Preksha Porwal

themselves from the trends and don’t want to be known with that kind of veganism. They
respected other society’s decisions and wanted the same in return, which is the reason they
never tried to convince other people with the benefits of the vegan diet. They saw themselves
as other society people only, where the only difference was of their preference and not any
community. For them, this diet was a part of their life which they would like to continue with
for their entire life. (Glaser and Strauss, 1971)

There were certain consequences of being a vegan that it was thought that vegetarianism was
not healthy and was difficult to cook had limited choices and the alternate options were very
less, so it is right to kill animals for meat. This thought led youth not to change to
vegetarianism. (Worsley & Skrzypiec, 1998).

It is believed that vegetarian diets are healthy, good in taste and texture, more environment
friendly and no killing of animals are included in it. These are some of the prime reason for
people shifting to vegetarian diet, as per Beardsworth and keil (1991).

Due to influence of friends or killing the animals which is so terrible thing to do for food, are
some of the reasons people are not eating meat. The thoughts may vary from person to person
who can be a vegetarian and a person who only avoids meat.(Dwyer, 1991)(Kenyon &
Barker, 1998)(Santos & Booth, 1996).

The type of veganism is not always stable, sometimes; an infant may start as a Conformed
Vegan but in future would turn into an Organized Vegan or an Individualistic Vegan. A study
in Australia showed that people stayed stable in their vegan diet majorly because of the
support of their mothers. As per the same survey, young vegetarians required less support
from fathers or their relatives (Worsley & Skrzypiec, 1998). Youthful inclinations towards
vegetarianism have been regularly suppressed by means of parental opposition, and for a
number of respondents, their vegetarian tendencies had been dormant till they reached an age
that gave them some diploma of independence from parental control (Beardsworth & Keil,
1991). Eating more vegetarian meals after transferring away from home ought to perhaps be a
result of no longer being the standard control of parents and this used to be additionally
discovered by various present day studies (Santos & Booth, 1996). A study conducted in the
UK examined the attitudes toward following a meat, vegetarian or vegan diet and the role of
emotions on these attitudes.

A study was carried out to understand the attitude towards a meat, vegetarianism or vegan
diet and their emotions on these attitudes. The results came out to be like people tend to have
a positive attitude towards the diet that they follow and negative attitude towards the other
diet. (Pribis, P., Pencak, R. C., & Grajales, T. 2010).

Research Question

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 Vegan Diet: A New Lifestyle? – Preksha Porwal

Attitude towards vegan diet- A study of consumer insights and consumption behavior
towards vegan food in warsaw

Aim: the aim of this research project is to understand the attitude, behavior, insights and
consumption of people living in warsaw. We will focus on various factors which affect their
choice of decision making between Non vegetarian, Vegetarian and Vegan food.

Objectives

-To understand the consumer preference of people in Warsaw towards Vegan Food over
Vegetarian Food/ Non-Vegetarian Food

-Reasons to shift from one food category to another ( if any)

-To understand consumer perception towards vegan food in Warsaw

-Evaluate variables that motivate/restrict them to eat vegan food

-Evaluate the impact of variables on consumer preference towards vegan food

Study Design

Our study design will only focus on both Primary Research as well as secondary research. In
Primary research we will carry out observational study because we are not going to change
the subjects or the environment, we are just going to understand the popularity and
consumption oof the current existing environment in warsaw. Our observational study will be
a combination of both Descriptive method and Analytical method.

In descriptive method, we will focus on survey and the questionnaire which we will form and
the qualitative research where we will carry out interview analysis of restaurant owners and
the respective consumers where we will observe their behavior and have interaction with
them.

In Analytical method, we will carry out two studies ( Cross sectional surveys and case control
studies). Cross sectional survey will help us to focus on prevalence of vegan food and to
compare characteristics like health between people who are vegan, vegetarian and non
vegetarian people. Case control study is a type of study vegan diet people by identifying
people who are on vegan diet and their reasons and preferences over other types of food and
analyze their different perspectives.

Research scope

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 Vegan Diet: A New Lifestyle? – Preksha Porwal

Our research scope is limited to number of restaurants in Warsaw and the residents living
there.

Sampling Design

Our sampling design will follow a specific sampling procedure. We will use non-probability
sampling methods. The two types which we will use are-

a. Convenience Sampling

Convenience sampling selects a sample on the basis of how easy it is to access.

Such samples are extremely easy to organized and based on the convenience.

Because being a new city, it might be difficult for us to access all information and to the
subjects required.

b. Judgmental Sampling:

It is a method in which subjects are chosen to be the part of the samples with specific

purpose in mind. With this method, the researcher believes that some subjects are

more fit for the research compared to other individuals.

This will be a combination of all samples/subjects and having an objective to deduct and
analyse to compare between all the kinds of people who take different types of diet. Also our
primary focus will revolve around vegan diet people and vegan food restaurant owners.

For now, we would like to meet and interview 10 vegan restaurants owners/chefs of Warsaw
and would carry out the survey by meeting and understanding the insights of atleast 20
people who follow vegan diet.

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 Vegan Diet: A New Lifestyle? – Preksha Porwal

References

Beardsworth, A., Bryman, A., Keil, T., Goode, J., Haslam, C., & Lancashire, E. (2002).
Women, men and food: the significance of gender for nutritional attitudes and
choices. British Food Journal, 104(7), 470-491.

Dwyer, J. T. (1994). Vegetarian eating patterns: science, values, and food choices--where do
we go from here?. The American journal of clinical nutrition, 59(5), 1255S-1262S.

Glaser, B., & Strauss, A. (1971). Status passage: A formal theory. Mill Valley.

Hansson, S., Hobbie, J. E., Elmgren, R., Larsson, U., Fry, B., & Johansson, S. (1997). The
stable nitrogen isotope ratio as a marker of food‐web interactions and fish
migration. Ecology, 78(7), 2249-2257.

Larsson, C. L., Rönnlund, U., Johansson, G., & Dahlgren, L. (2003). Veganism as status
passage: The process of becoming a vegan among youths in Sweden. Appetite, 41(1), 61-67.

Mróz, B., & Sadowska, M. (2015). Global consumption trends and consumption of ecological
food in Poland. Konsumpcja i Rozwój, (1 (10)), 17-32.

Povey, R., Wellens, B., & Conner, M. (2001). Attitudes towards following meat, vegetarian
and vegan diets: an examination of the role of ambivalence. Appetite, 37(1), 15-26.

Pribis, P., Pencak, R. C., & Grajales, T. (2010). Beliefs and attitudes toward vegetarian
lifestyle across generations. Nutrients, 2(5), 523-531.

Revolvy, 2018 Revolvy, L. (2018). "Vegetarianism by country" on Revolvy.com.

Retrieved from https://www.revolvy.com/main/index.php?s=Vegetarianism%20by
%20country&sr=150

Santos, M. L. S., & Booth, D. A. (1996). Influences on meat avoidance among British
students. Appetite, 27(3), 197-205.

The Vegetarian society 2000", 2018, The Vegetarian society 2000. (2018). Retrieved from
https://www.vegsoc.org/sslpage.aspx?pid=753

Worsley, A., & Skrzypiec, G. (1998). Teenage vegetarianism: prevalence, social and
cognitive contexts. Appetite, 30(2), 151-170.