I remember that was parodied by "Scott Pilgrim vs the World" in 2010 (the vegan character had superpowers thanks to his pure dietary choices).

I wonder if the reaction to the first wave of obnoxious veganism is reflected in the dip between 2010 and 2012.

it can be a religious requirement, but that’s not the only reason to be vegetarian. even if you are making the choice to be vegetarian because of your religion… it’s still a dietary choice? i don’t quite understand how those are mutually exclusive.

i’m vegetarian because i don’t want animals to die unnecessarily (edit: + environmental impact of meat is insane) and i can live quite happily and healthily without eating meat. (also, being vegetarian is not a religious requirement in judaism, but it definitely makes keeping kosher a lot easier!!)

i’m not vegan because i’m chronically ill and in recovery from an eating disorder. for me personally, restricting my food options to that extent would impact my physical and mental health.

"I have decided not to eat meat" is a choice concerning your diet. The reasons for that choice could be widely different. Off the top of my head, the reasons could include: animal welfare, taste preference, cultural or religious reasons, health reasons, etc.

Personal Preference: Lots of people think it's gross to eat a muscle or organ from an animal, but enjoy milk, cheese, and eggs. This may also include moral reasons about the animals.

Health preference: Some believe a vegetarian lifestyle is healthier, since it may reduce carcinogens associated with meat consumption while maintaining more protein options.

Health Limitations: some conditions such as gout, allergies, and tick-borne diseases make it difficult or impossible for some people to maintain their health on a meat diet. But eggs, cheese, and milk may still be an option for them.

Vegetarian atheist here, there are a lot of reasons why people eat vegetarian but not vegan. One of the main ones is realizing that opting completely out of the animal derived foods market means you have next to zero influence on the well-being of livestock animals—we shouldn’t have to rely on dollars spent to equal action on animal welfare, but we live in a late stage capitalist economy where little else matters.

For example, not buying honey from good producers generally means bee keepers looking to nut tree pollination for revenue, which means bees are shipped to California from wherever they are, in incredibly stressful conditions, are doused with antibiotics and other chemicals multiples times, and die in huge numbers annually. Buying honey isn’t going to prevent that, nut tree pollination happens every year—but if honey producers who care for their bee colonies properly and increase local flora diversity by focusing on wildflower honeys don’t have to look to the nut tree industry for revenue, that’s a positive in my book.

Personally, animal welfare and environmental impact (see data on water footprint for eating meat compared to other protein sources) are the two main reasons I eat vegetarian, but there are plenty of other reasons that don’t necessarily lead to eat vegan.

I know a couple people who get indigestion when they eat meat but not eggs or dairy, so they choose vegetarianism.

Some vegetarians also want to limit their environmental impact, but also realize that social eating is limiting and getting enough of certain nutrients is difficult if you're vegan, so their compromise is vegetarianism.