‘I was once talking with someone on a dating app and as soon as I told him I was vegan, he unmatched me,’ says Jennifer Jayne, 29 from London. ‘After that I put it in my profile bio to make it clear from the start.’
Jayne is one of the estimated 600,000 people in the UK that are vegan (according to the Vegan Society) and while she’s making a life choice that some believe can only serve to better the lives of others, her dating life has sure suffered for it. And she’s not alone.
According new research, 41% of Brits say they would be less interested in a potential partner if they list themselves as ‘vegan’ on their online dating profile. The YouGov study, commissioned by Sainsburys, found that differing dietary preferences were the second biggest undesirable trait after opposing political views.
Despite the increasing popularity of veganism - the supermarket has seen a 40% year-on-year increase in spending on its plant-based alternatives - it seems that the dating pool for vegans is still smaller than your average meat-eater. But why? Are we really so fickle as to cast aside a chance at love just because we can’t share the same meal?
According to Zoe Pringle, 25, from London, it’s not necessarily the differing dietary requirements that are putting people off dating vegans, but the common misconceptions about vegans as a community. ‘It’s sometimes hard to bring up in conversation,’ she says. ‘You don’t want to live up to the stereotype of “How do you know if someone’s a vegan? They’ll tell you”.’
‘Vegans have such a bad reputation due a handful in the community being not so great people,’ adds Luisa-Christie Walton-Stoven, a 30-year-old vegan from Brighton. ‘[There are] some more aggressive or “militant” vegans that are quite preachy that [people] have had bad experiences talking to.’
You don’t want to live up to the stereotype of “How do you know if someone’s a vegan? They’ll tell you”
Even if a non-vegan date is unphased by their lifestyle choices, however, it's likely a vegan looking for love will face a familiar line of questioning.
‘I've become used to some of the standard questions and have a few set responses,’ says Alex Bee, 26, from Manchester. ‘It's weird how much being vegan opens you up to criticism though, you never hear of anyone being asked why they eat meat.’
It’s certainly a shared feeling within the vegan community that its members face undue criticism -almost everyone Grazia spoke to about their experiences of dating mentioned being stereotyped on dates.
Perhaps then, it’s not so bad that the dating pools are not entirely mixed. Because, not only are meat-eaters less interested in dating vegans, but the same holds vice versa, too. That’s right, carnivores: vegans aren’t too keen on dating you either.
‘For me, it can absolutely be a dating barrier,’ says Carrie Eddins, 44, from Worcestershire. ‘The thought of sitting across from someone eating a bloodied steak is quite honestly a turn off, let alone thinking about things getting intimate afterwards. Even when I was a veggie [vegetarian as opposed to vegan] for years, I found this tricky.’
‘I’m fussier with who I’ll spend time with if it’s something that’s looking like it could be serious,’ agrees Walton-Stoev. ‘I’m pretty open about being vegan and why I choose to do it and also pretty set on finding someone with the same, or similar, ethos and approach as I have is very important if we’re going to be “official” or long term.’
But for those disheartened by the statistics, there is hope on the horizon: Veganuary. Not only is it the month where everyone and their dog seems to be trying out the meat and dairy-free diet, it’s also the month we all date like we’re in heat.
According to research from Hinge, dating app users go on 53% more dates in January and in 2019, downloads of the dating app in the first month of the year grew by 38%. In fact, the app sees such a spike in users in the first week of January they have dubbed the first Sunday after New Year ‘Dating Sunday’ as it becomes the most active day of the entire year.
So, if you spent Sunday hungover swiping and planning more dates for this month than you went on all of 2019, you’re not alone. Maybe you even matched a vegan and didn’t judge. Radical!
Read More:
Thinking About Becoming Vegan? Here's Everything You Need To Know
'Aggressive' Vegans Are Putting Meat Eaters Off Giving Up Meat