"Are Vegetarians at Risk for Eating Disorders?"
At the turn of the century, if you would have asked teens
why they chose to eat vegetarian, most might say they do it
because they don't want to kill animals,
followed by wanting to eat a healthier diet.
More recently, “to help the environment” became a leading reason
among young people, followed by eating healthier and then animals.
A smaller fraction gave weight loss as a reason.
Yeah, they might think it’s healthier and care about animals
and the environment, but they also might be doing it
for weight loss reasons.
Yes, we’re in the midst of an obesity epidemic,
but there’s also been a rise in eating disorders.
Might vegetarianism be a red flag for the presence of an eating disorder?
A survey of adolescent and young adult vegetarians found
they tended to eat better and have healthier body weights,
but those who ate vegetarian were also more likely to report
eating disorder-type behaviors.
“It’s important, however,” commentators were quick to point out,
“not to suggest that vegetarian diets cause eating disorders.”
When people start eating more plant-based their risk
for chronic diseases goes down, not up.
Maybe it’s the children who have not yet adopted a vegetarian diet
who require our special attention, “as they have poorer diets and are
at significantly higher risk for obesity.”
To which the authors responded, yes, they “agree that vegetarianism
does not cause eating disorders”; they’re just saying that one should explore
with them why they’re doing it.
“While it’s important to recognize the potential health benefits,
it is also important to investigate a teen’s motives
for adopting a vegetarian diet.”
See, “studies have shown that adolescents who have symptoms
of eating disorders may [then go on to] adopt a vegetarian diet
as a weight-loss method, as a socially acceptable way of avoiding eating.”
So, rather than an increased prevalence of eating disorders
among those who eat vegetarian, there may be an increased prevalence
of vegetarianism among those with eating disorders.
See, the study was just a snapshot in time;
so, they couldn’t tell which came first.
Might eating vegetarian just be a “way to disguise food restriction
during the early stages of an eating disorder?
Or, does experience with vegetarianism increase vulnerability
for the development of eating disorders in the first place?”
To answer the question, you need to know which came first,
and… in most cases, eating vegetarian came at least a year
after the first eating disorder symptoms.
Similarly, in a series of anorexics,
in fewer than 1 in 10 did meat avoidance predate
the onset of their disease.
It’s this kind of data that led the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics
to conclude that “prior use of a vegetarian or vegan diet
does not appear to increase the risk of an eating disorder.”
In fact, they may have even lower dietary restraint scores.
“Dietary restraint represents the conscious limitation of food intake,”
the perception of constantly having to limit food intake
to prevent weight gain.
Perhaps the reason vegetarian women exhibited less restrained eating
is because they really didn’t need to worry as much,
because plant foods are just calorically less dense.
“This could translate into less concern or stress when it comes to eating,”
which may, in turn, help explain why they saw fewer
ovulatory disturbances among women eating vegetarian.
In fact, maybe that’s one of the reasons vegans report
less stress and anxiety.
Perhaps one of the reasons increasingly restricting animal foods
is associated with better mood is that vegans reported
dieting significantly less, and that’s one of the things
that seems to be stressing women out.
And vegans and true vegetarians didn’t just have significantly
lower levels of restrained eating, but also less emotional eating,
less compulsive eating, and greater levels of acceptance
in relation to food.
“This highlights previously unacknowledged positive aspects
of adhering to a completely meat or animal product free diet”
when it comes to thinking about food.
Though, we don’t know if this actually translates
into protection against developing disordered eating.
“Vegans appear to have the healthiest attitudes towards food,
closely followed by vegetarians.”
But no one had actually taken a large sample
of vegans and just put them through the EDE-Q,
which is one of the most widely used diagnostic tools…until now.
The first large sample of vegans to complete the official
Eating Disorder Examination Questionnaire and…
vegans scored significantly lower, significantly better,
consistent with the data showing vegans tended to diet less frequently.
“Taken together, these findings suggest that vegans and omnivores
don’t differ markedly in reported eating attitudes and behaviors,
and when they do, vegans appear to endorse
overall healthier thoughts and habits.”