Medidas promotoras de uma alimentação de base vegetal em contexto universitário: grau de apoio e seus preditores

Current food consumption patterns in Western industrial societies, characterized by insufficient consumption of plant-based products and excessive consumption of animal products, have raised concerns within the scope of health, animal welfare and environmental sustainability. To activate transitions to healthier and more sustainable diets, it will be necessary to implement measures that promote the reduction of meat consumption and the increase of plant-based products. The present study aimed to assess the support for measures that promote a higher plant-based diet and to explore the role of sociodemographic, consumption, ideological and dispositional variables as predictors of this support. The data were collected through an online questionnaire, with a final sample of 295 university students. The results revealed that the support for measures to increase the consumption of plant-based meals is higher than for measures to reduce the consumption of meat meals and that the participants tend to agree with incentive measures, but partly disagree with restriction measures. Associations were found between: support for general measures and sociodemographic (gender), consumption (dependence towards meat, moral beliefs and attitudes) and ideological variables (pro-environmental ideology); support for incentive measures and sociodemographic (gender), consumption (dependence towards meat, moral beliefs, justifications and attitudes), ideological (pro-environmental ideology) and dispositional variables (consideration of future consequences and promotional orientation); support for restriction measures and sociodemographic (age) and consumption variables (dependence towards meat and attitudes). Results can help to inform the planning of interventions that promote higher plant-based diets in university settings.