Peculiarities of the nutrition and motivation of Kaunas city residents who follow vegetarian and vegan diet

Veterinary food safety PECULIARITIES OF THE NUTRITION AND MOTIVATION OF KAUNAS CITY RESIDENTS WHO FOLLOW VEGETARIAN AND VEGAN DIET Gintarė Imenickaitė Academic supervisor prof. dr. Dalia Sekmokienė Lithuanian University of Health Sciences, Veterinary Faculty, Department of Food Safety and Quality. Kaunas, 2019, 56 p. Aim of the study. To find out the peculiarities of the nutrition and motivation of Kaunas city residents who practise vegetarianism and veganism. Methods. The instant survey was conducted in November and December 2018. The questionnaire was created with Microsoft Office Word document then sent electronically and distributed throughout Kaunas city supermarkets to the respondents who does not eat meat. A total of 110 questionnaires were filled out. Chi-square (ᵪ 2) criteria were used to identify communications and differences. Results. The study included more vegetarians than vegans. Vegetarians were 68 %) and vegans 32 %). The majority of respondents were women (72%). This study showed that the main reason why respondents refused meat was the improvement of health (men - 67.2%, women - 50.3%). Some respondents admitted that they had returned to the traditional nutrition, most of them were vegetarians - 28.2 %, vegans - 3.2 %. Based on the results, we can assume that vegetarians were more likely to return to traditional nutrition - 28.2 %) and most of them said that they returned because of health problems. Vegan nutrition is more rigorous, but has been significantly reduced (3.2%) to traditional nutrition. Both - vegetarians (86.5%) and vegans (76.6%) have people in their family or friends who have also refused meat. Conclusions. A well-balanced vegetarian diet and eating habits can provide health benefits