According to a recent poll (1) of 1000 people, one in five Britons have considered going vegan, which is 20% of the population.
But how many of these people have a genuine intention of going vegan? Possibly not that many…..
Firstly, if someone’s asking you questions about veganism, there is going to be a degree of social pressure to state that ‘you have thought about going vegan’…. so social desirability is going to come into play here!
Secondly, vague questioning doesn’t help… the ‘I’ve considered going vegan’ response covers everything from ‘I’m definitely going Vegan in January’ to ‘I thought about it once, but really I’ve got no serious intention of giving up meat’.
Finally, there’s the problem that 1/3rd of the general population seem confused as to what veganism entails…. 27% think vegans can’t eat fruit (God knows what they think a vegan diet consists of!), while 6% think it’s OK to eat fish if you’re a vegan.
Fish: those vegetables what swim in the sea?
However, apparently 3.5 million people in the UK are now Vegan, which suggests enough of a ‘base-line’ figure to make 20% of the population ‘thinking’ about going vegan not seem completly unrealistic.
Then there’s the fact that 100K people signed up for Veganuary 2018, and probably more this year, meaning that veganism is in the news a lot more than it used to be, even a couple of years ago.
Having said that, veganism may be on the increase, but apparently 15% of them think it’s OK to eat Dairy and eggs.
Sources
It does seem odd. They must think it’s some variety of low carb/ atkins style diet? I imagine that more people associated diet with weight loss and body image than ethics.
Although TBH veganism does seem to be a good way of staying trim. There aren’t that many fat vegans. in fact that Sri Lankan comedian is the only one i can think of!
That’s hilarious that more people think vegans can’t eat fruit that think they can eat fish.
That means that it’s very likely there are a number of people who think a vegan is someone who can eat fish but can’t eat fruit by my reckoning, which is surely the strangest logic for a diet I think I’ve ever heard of?
God help us!