BACKGROUND:

Vegetarian diets exclude all animal flesh and are being widely adopted by an increasing number of people; however, effects on blood lipid concentrations remain unclear. This meta-analysis aimed to quantitatively assess the overall effects of vegetarian diets on blood lipids.

Reducing meat consumption is central to many of the scientific debate on healthy, sustainable diets because of the high environmental impact of meat production. Missing from this debate, however, is the public perspectives about eating less meat and consideration of cultural and social values associated with meat. The aim of this study was to explore public awareness of the environmental impact of food and their willingness to reduce meat consumption.

There is ample evidence to suggest that a significant part of daily eating behaviours consists of habits. In line with this, the concept of habit is increasingly incorporated into studies investigating the behavioural and psychosocial determinants of food choice, yielding evidence that habit is one of the most powerful predictors of eating behaviour.