"I felt I was making too strict demands on myself." Is Generation Z going back to eating meat?
Polina and I have known each other for almost six years. When we first met, we were both vegetarians. We can't say that about each other today. I myself became a vegetarian when I was 16. I've never eaten much meat and I wasn't particularly drawn to it. Switching to a plant-based diet was not something wild in my environment, on the contrary, it fit in with the environment I was in. Meatless food was common, shared and taken for granted.
I had been a vegetarian for seven years. It wasn't about strict rules or a sense of renunciation, but rather a natural way of eating that fit my values and daily functioning. But in the last few months, I began to notice a subtle yet significant change. In restaurants where plant-based meals used to be commonplace, the choice is now often absent. The menu is shrinking, sometimes disappearing altogether, sometimes leaving only one option that feels more like a must-have item than a real alternative. So I gradually decided to start eating meat again occasionally.
Recently, it has become increasingly apparent that people who used to eat mostly plants are starting to reintroduce meat into their diets. Similar shifts are also visible on the internet, where narratives of a "return to normal" and a loosening of dietary rules are increasingly common. These trends do not seem to be limited to the Czech Republic, but are spreading across Western countries. This raises the question of whether plant-based eating was just a strong trend of recent years that is now over, or whether we are more likely in a period of re-evaluation and a search for new, more realistic pathways to more sustainable diets?
Supply is disappearing, interest remains
At first glance, it may seem that the world is slowly turning away from meat-free eating. Not only in the Czech Republic, but also in Austria, the fast food chain McDonald's is removing its plant-based offer without offering any alternative. Nestlé's plant, which was responsible for the production of Garden Gourmet meat substitutes, is laying off almost a quarter of its staff due to a reduction in European demand for these products. Last year was full of changes regarding vegetarian diets.
While the business side of the situation looks desperate, the results of an Ipsos survey on trends in vegan products show that interest in meat-free diets has not gone anywhere.
The number of vegetarians and vegans in the Czech Republic is not changing much. Interestingly, however, according to Ipsos data, the number of so-called flexitarians - people who eat a plant-based diet most of the time and only occasionally include meat - is growing. This is also confirmed by Eva Hemmerová from ProVeg, an organisation that works to transform the food system and raise awareness of more sustainable ways of eating. In addition, there are an increasing number of Czech men and women who do not subscribe to either of these streams, but who are reducing the amount of meat in their diets anyway.
Fatigue with restriction
There are many reasons why people give up meat and why they return to it later, but they are based on different motivations. The most common reasons why people stop eating meat include the ethical and environmental aspects of the meat industry. The food industry, together with agriculture, accounts for around a third of global greenhouse gas emissions, and livestock production is the largest source of these within the food system. Moreover, the appalling conditions in which animals are kept are no secret to many.
This is why twenty-three-year-old Sophie stopped eating meat. She was thirteen years old and made the decision to cut meat out of her diet after learning about the treatment animals receive in the livestock industry. "I stopped eating meat because I felt sorry for the animals. I saw videos about how meat is produced and my inner moral compass told me I couldn't support that," says Sophie. She also cut back on dairy products for a time.
After ten years, however, she returned to meat and dairy products, mainly because she started living on her own and did not have the capacity, taste or money to restrict her eating habits further. "I wanted to have a frozen cheese pizza and I felt like I'd been holding out for too long and I just stopped enjoying it. I felt like I was putting too strict a ban on myself. I started eating meat for the same reason - I wanted to see what the comeback would do to my body and my health." Still, she continues to eat a plant-based diet most of the time, and admits that there have only been a few times when she's had meat that she really liked.
Sophie isn't the only one for whom lack of time or money has been one of the reasons for returning to meat. Adele started thinking about reintroducing meat back into her diet when she was living on her own at university and started playing sport regularly: 'I found that I couldn't put together a diet so that, simply put, I wasn't hungry. The constant repetition of legumes and soy products disgusted me, I was losing a lot of weight and was always tired. I guess it was mostly because I lived alone for a few years and didn't have the finances or time to keep my diet balanced with frequent sports and the stress of school."
Even though she now eats meat more or less regularly, she initially blamed herself. For a long time, vegetarianism was part of her identity - something she resonated with and would like to return to in the future.
When the body decides
Regardless of the fact that both respondents returned to meat for personal reasons, this decision is not always entirely voluntary. Polina was a vegetarian for five years and tried veganism, but quickly gave it up due to the lack of quality dairy alternatives in her hometown. Like Sophie, she stopped eating meat for ethical reasons.
During the meat-free period, her blood iron levels dropped to critically low levels, and she developed hormonal problems as well as deficiencies in other vitamins, particularly B and vitamin D. She tried for some time to raise her iron levels by following a meat-free diet, but the process was complicated by worsening back pain caused by a prolapsed disc. So in 2023, on the advice of her doctors, she started eating meat again. Today, she admits that it was the best possible decision for her. After returning to meat, her problems eased and her vitamin levels finally returned to normal.
The theory that we need meat for health and proper development is not new. I had heard it from my parents since I was a child, especially when I started eating plant-based myself. And with the popularization of diet culture, I see that view even when scrolling through social media. According to many fitness influencers, meat is the only "proper" source of protein and plant-based diets are "toxic" and "unhealthy." But science has a different opinion.
According to Harvard primatologist Richard Wrangham, meat consumption has had more influence on the development of human behaviour than nutrition itself. Humans had to gather and cooperate to be able to hunt large animals, which probably brought them closer together. "The biggest change in human nutrition occurred the moment we learned to cook," says the expert.
At the same time, it is important to mention that according to nutritionists, a properly planned vegan diet can contain enough protein and be suitable for people who play sports intensively or are professional athletes. "Variety is key - it's not enough to just cut out meat and stick to side dishes, but to include legumes, nuts and seeds alongside grains. Tofu and tempeh are also worth mentioning as good sources of protein. It is also very important to ensure sufficient energy intake," explains Veronika Bat'ova, nutritionist at ProVeg Czech Republic.
So why is misinformation about plant-based diets spreading on the internet, especially on the right-wing part of the internet?
From plate to ideology
In 2018, Canadian professor, psychologist and youtuber Jordan Peterson confessed that he had been eating only beef, salt and water for several months. He stated this during The Joe Rogan Experience podcast, which is known for providing a platform for various right-wing influencers. The podcast's target audience is men who support alt-right or right-wing ideologies. Peterson decided to change his eating habits after his daughter's lifelong arthritis was helped by this way of eating. According to Peterson, the change in diet also had a positive effect on his own health: the new diet eased his depression and anxiety, making him feel like he had regained his masculinity. "Saving masculinity" has become one of the main goals of American conservatives in recent years, and eating meat is one way to achieve this.
But we must remember that food is not just a matter of nutrition, but also a powerful political tool. It can be part of a political statement as well as a propaganda tool. When the current US President, Donald Trump, repeatedly claims that the implementation of the Green Deal or any laws aimed at promoting environmental measures will lead to the elimination of cow farming, he is provoking hatred among his supporters not only towards the opposition Democratic Party, which is trying to introduce these laws, but also towards people who are promoting a plant-based diet as one way of slowing down global warming. Such statements deepen social divisions and make veganism the subject of a culture war.
The demonisation of plant-based diets can discourage people from making any move towards more sustainable eating habits. "A number of factors influence interest in plant-based diets - not just politics, but also the supply of products and their price. The fact that sustainable eating sometimes becomes part of the culture wars is not conducive to constructive debate. Yet any move towards a more plant-based diet - whatever the motivation - has a positive impact. So instead of ideologising, the key is accessibility, education and support for anyone who wants to eat differently. This is what we are trying to do with the Veggie Challenge," explains Eva Hemmerová, Communications Manager at ProVeg Czech Republic.
In addition, the EU's ban on the use of names traditionally associated with meat products (such as "burger", "sausage" or "schnitzel") for plant-based products, which was approved last year, complicates the standardisation of plant-based diets across society. Unfortunately, the regulation of plant food names makes it harder for people to navigate the choices of plant products and foods in their daily lives.
Lucia Milec, who works as a public affairs specialist at ProVeg Czech Republic, says that the goal of food policy is to create an environment in which healthier and more sustainable choices are easy and accessible for most people.
"Names like 'soy sausage' or 'cauliflower steak' describe the form, preparation and use of the food, so people can quickly navigate the menu and choose their preferred option without further thought. When these established names are banned and replaced by unfamiliar or technical terms, a practical barrier to food choice is created - people are unsure what the product actually represents. This slows down the mainstream inclusion of plant-based foods in diets across the population and hinders the goal of expanding the range to make plant-based diets common, understandable and easily accessible to everyone," he adds.
Thus, the real enemy of conservative politicians and their ideologies is not the plant-based diet itself, but what it represents. Meatless eating has long been associated with supporters of liberal or left-wing politics, environmental activists, animal rights advocates, feminists and men who reject toxic masculinity.
Between guilt and compromise
Today, plant-based eating does not feel like a clear social direction, but rather a space of compromise. Returns to meat, therefore, may not mean the end of the drive for more sustainable diets, but rather a transformation of it. The experience of the respondents shows that it is not only a matter of personal will, but also of food availability, health limits, economic conditions and a political climate in which food often becomes a symbol of identity.
It is the sense of failure and guilt that recurs repeatedly in these stories. Sophie describes how returning to meat was not easy for her: "For a very long time I saw meat as something unhealthy and disgusting. I kept thinking about where the meat came from and feeling bad that I chose to ignore it and eat it again. Adéla speaks in a similar vein: "It took me a while to get used to the fact that I was no longer living up to some of my own ideals and that I was now someone I used to criticize a lot."
Even when a purely plant-based diet seems unsustainable in the long term, there is still room for meaningful compromises. Limiting meat consumption, skipping certain animal products - like cheese or eggs - or choosing plant-based meals for at least part of the week has a real impact on our health and the environment around us.
