Is vegetarianism an eating disorder?
No. But Time Magazine certainly likes shocking article titles.
What this Time article covers is a study performed in Minnesota back in 2008. Researchers at the University of Minnesota and the University of Texas observed that young vegetarians are at increased risk for binge eating and unhealthy weight control behaviors. Ick.
Using the results of Project EAT-II: Eating Among Teens, researchers analyzed the diets, weight status, weight control behaviors, and drug and alcohol use of 2,516 adolescents and young adults between the ages of 15 and 23. Participants were identified as current (4.3%), former (10.8%), and never (84.9%) vegetarians. Subjects were divided into two cohorts, an adolescent (15-18) group and a young adult (19-23) group. They were questioned about binge eating and whether they felt a loss of control of their eating habits.
In the younger cohort, no statistically significant difference was observed with vegetarianism and weight status. Among young adults, however, current vegetarians had a lower average BMI. They were less likely to be obese than never vegetarians. Off the top of my head, I would guess that this has to do with discipline and more sincere adherence to the vegetarian diet. Many who convert to vegetarianism in young adulthood do so during “enlightenment” at university. I suspect that a lot of vegetarians in high schools, on the other hand, lack the moral steadfastness, supportive community, and resources of university students. In fact, a 2001 study in the Journal of Adolescent Health revealed that the most common reason teens gave for vegetarianism was to lose weight or keep from gaining it.
Among the younger cohort, vegetarians engaged both in more extreme unhealthy weight control behaviors and in bingeing behavior when compared to never vegetarians. Among the older cohort, a higher percentage of former vegetarians engaged in the same disordered eating habits. This seems to indicate that adolescents who practice vegetarianism are at greater risk of all types of disordered eating throughout their lives.
Young vegetarians and those who have practiced vegetarianism in their youths experience an increased risk for disordered eating. This points to something pretty obvious. Vegetarianism serves as a means, if a poor one, at losing weight (recall that there’s no statistically significant BMI difference) for young adults. Those who battle body image and self esteem turn to vegetarianism to help them. It is a means to weight loss. But it is also a mode of restriction. Whether or not this indicates life-long disordered eating and restriction patterns, or whether it indicates that this behavior in high school encourages lasting feelings of deprivation and restriction is unclear. What is clear is that vegetarianism masquerades as a healthy option for young adults, and helps them restrict without broadcasting to those around them that they may in fact be in trouble. I do not like this, friends. Not one bit.
Writing in the article, Ramona Robinson-O’Brien, Assistant Professor, Nutrition Department, College of Saint Benedict and Saint John’s University of the University of Minnesota states, “Study results indicate that it would be beneficial for clinicians to ask adolescents and young adults about their current and former vegetarian status when assessing risk for disordered eating behaviors. Furthermore, when guiding adolescent and young adult vegetarians in proper nutrition and meal planning, it may also be important to investigate an individual’s motives for choosing a vegetarian diet.” Yes. Word! Furthermore, stop promoting deprivation-inducing eating plans as healthful. Ack!
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I actually wrote a post about this recently: http://bit.ly/dFoVok. When I went vegetarian in high school, it quickly became a really convenient way to turn down food without being bugged about it. I would say I had an eating disorder before becoming a vegetarian, but it’s a lot easier to say “Oh, I’m a vegetarian” than to try to come up with some other legitimate excuse why you’re not eating. What bugs me is when people call paleo or real food eating a disorder because, seriously, if I wanted to starve myself, I’ve just go back to saying I was a vegetarian. I get too much crap about what I eat to successfully use paleo to enable an eating disorder.
But which came first, the disordered eating or the vegetarianism? I became a vegetarian at 13 because I loved animals and I thought it was the right thing to do. Period. My eating was already pretty disordered – I was well over 200 pounds by then and already knew I was powerless over ice cream
I had my first bout of anorexia at 14 and as part of that I “did Atkins” for the first time, which for me meant living on canned tuna, eggs, butter and the occasional guilty hamburger. I was the only time I would eat meat until I was in my mid-30s. And believe me, it is VERY EASY to be an obese vegetarian! Cheese pizza, bagels with cream cheese, pretzels and hummus and Ben & Jerry’s are all vegetarian! It took me almost 20 years to figure out that I was a sugar and carb addict and needed to get more protein in my diet. I know very well that being a vegetarian was a bad idea for me, but I’m not convinced that it can’t be done intelligently by other. My copy of The Vegetarian Myth is waiting for me at the library so maybe I will change my mind! Anyway, I just wanted to post about this and THANK YOU for the blog. You have such a unique take on paleo eating and I feel like in many ways, your story is my own.
While it is not an ED per say (as in the DSMIV)it is absolutly a perfect hiding place for teen and adult disordered eating. I have had the joy of moving many a ED veggie to a healthy meat-eater for many years. I LOVE seeing their life and zest come back once they decide to eat meat again and join the living.
This is such a place of restriction and manipulation that many get away with for years while the real culprit -their eating disorder- goes untreated. Thanks for posting and bringing more awareness to another dark corner of the veggie propaganda.
I was vegetarian from the age of 16 and vegan since I was 19…until recently at 32 when I decided I was done damaging my body. Looking back, I had HORRIBLY disordered eating patterns. I ate in secret, binged and gained weight. My highest weight was 240-ish and I am only 5’5″!!! I obsessed over food and ate copious amounts of vegan sweets and pastas. I recently started eating an omnivorous diet and I feel RELIEVED because my food obsessions are gone. It’s amazing. I am so sad I wasted my 20′s hating my body and being tired! I am hoping that this switch from processed vegan foods to high quality omnivorous foods will bring a glimmer of health back into my life.
Christina, wow. Congratulations. I am very happy for your that your food obsessions have decreased, and that you are eliminating processed foods. These are super important for your heatlh, surely, but also super important for your psychological well-being and happiness, too. If you want to discuss more detailed aspects of your diet, or of life post-veganism post-disordered eating, please feel free to email me @ pepper@paleopepper.com or send something in on the comment form. I find that while my food obsessions are no longer so biologically driven, I still wrestle with conditioned psychological factors as well as self-esteem issues and what not. If you ever feel like you’re starting to (or continuing to) struggle with those, please give me a shout. I’m SO excited for you and I hope I get to hear more about your paleo journey