Abstract

Previous plant-based diet (PBD) adoption strategies have primarily focused on health rather than environmental rationale and meat reduction rather than plant-based protein promotion. In this study, we explored the effect of a theory-informed text-message intervention on dietary intentions and behaviors in young adult omnivores and the potential explanatory role of PBD beliefs, subjective norm, self-efficacy, moral norm, and health and environmental values. Participants completed baseline questionnaires and reported dietary intake before being randomly assigned to receive 2–3 health- or environment-focused text messages per week for eight weeks and then repeated baseline assessments. Although we did not see significant changes in meat or plant protein intake, we did observe a marked decrease in intentions to consume animal protein and a marginal increase in fruit and vegetable consumption intention. We identified subjective norms, self-efficacy, and moral satisfaction as the strongest predictors of changes in intention to consume animal or plant protein. Although few group differences were observed, those receiving environment-focused text messages experienced a greater change in values and were more likely to increase vegetable intake. Messages that improve sustainability awareness and provide practical adoption strategies may be part of an effective strategy to influence PBD intake among young adults.

Highlights

  • Published: 19 December 2021Adoption of plant-based diets (PBD) improves both health and environmental outcomes and aligns with recommendations stated in the Dietary Guidelines for Americans (DGA) [1,2]

  • Greater emphasis is given to significant results and/or consistent trends that were marginally significant across multiple variables

  • Following the text message intervention, we observed a significant increase in moral satisfaction and perceived benefits of PBD and a marginally significant increase in perceived susceptibility and self-efficacy

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Summary

Introduction

Adoption of plant-based diets (PBD) improves both health and environmental outcomes and aligns with recommendations stated in the Dietary Guidelines for Americans (DGA) [1,2]. Many populations continue to fall short of dietary targets despite introduction of the DGA in 1980 [1,2,7,8]. This relatively static state of diet quality suggests that health-focused strategies alone may be insufficient to stimulate meaningful changes. Considering the rising interest in environmental sustainability [9,10], environment-focused messaging may represent a novel strategy to complement existing efforts to improve diet quality

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