Teen Vegetarians more Likely to Have Eating Disorders

Having worked with young adults with eating disorders, we often found that, in an effort to cut down on FOOD, they used vegetarianism as an excuse. They found that parents were less likely to notice that their offspring was eating less than if they carried on with their normal omnivore diet. In fact, many parents were pleased with the amount of salad their children were eating: failing to notice that that was all they were eating - and that their child was not eating a balanced vegetarian diet.

You may also notice that many of the so called vegetarians in the report eat meat in small quantities. Many only stayed on the diet for a short amount of time, perhaps just a month.

Just another anti-vegetarian scare story from the media.

Why am I not surprised by this!? All minors who attempt to become vegetarians should be punished by being fed large portions of feathered bird, cow, and pig.

I definitely sitting down and talking with your child is the responsible thing to do. Find out if it's more geared toward health, or geared toward self image or lack there of.

While I'm not against someone being a vegan, I do believe that a teenager might not have the rescources or understanding of what foods they will need to eat to replace their lack of proteins and keep a healthy balance and caloric intake.

I am *AMAZED* that there are still people who think eating a low fat diet is healthy.

I guess there are still flat-Earthers around so I shouldn't be that shocked but I am.

Both the original article, and the commentary above, seem to miss the point that it's not vegetarians that are likely to have an eating disorder, but people prone to eating disorders who are likely to become vegetarians. A proper vegetarian diet is one of the healthiest out there, so someone who is obsessing about weight and food is likely to gravitate toward it. Obviously, they aren't going to gravitate to the Ben and Jerry's Krispy Kreme diet to lose weight.

Living near a fairly large University, I have the opportunity to run into a large number of what I call salad and french fry vegetarians. It wouldn't be a large leap to call the way they eat a disorder, given their fear of eating something less then philosophically pure, based on what ever is the nutritional theology of the moment. The people who are the most irritated by them are the long term vegetarians, who are generally speaking of the lacto-ovo variety.

I don't know enough about eating disorders but I do know about the pressure to look better & be thin. It is prevalent in our society & it is becoming worse with time. All these reality shows with little kids & beauty contests to name just one. It is known that kids are starting to worry about there weight as young as 7 years old! The pressure in school & bulling is horrible!

So, saying this, some of this talk about kids using a vegetarian diet to hide eating disorders may be correct. BUT, I think parents need to be more involved & more aware. It is tough now with a lot of families having to have both parents work but at least be aware of what your child is doing, if any behaviors are changing drastically, are they withdrawing and more. Parents need to find a way to establish an open communication with their kids from early on so that the child is not afraid to come to them with issues or problems.

From my own personal experience, people with eating disorders do try to find ways to eliminate food from their diet as an excuse not to eat. I know someone who is not only a vegetarian, but claims allergies to many foods (when she has been tested and shown she is NOT allergic) so that she eats very little. She admits to having an eating disorder, so I'm not just making an assumption.

Secondly, I've seen overweight and underweight vegetarians. You can eat Funyuns and Mountain Dew for lunch and be a vegetarian, it doesn't mean you are healthy or fit. I've gained and lost weight on a vegetarian diet myself. It's not a guarantee or fix-all.

I tend to agree with the posters that said that a lot of teenagers try to use vegetarianism as an excuse to not eat whole groups of food so they can lose weight. Vegetarianism/veganism is seen by most of our society as a socially acceptable way of losing weight, but no teenager is going to say "Oh, I can't eat that pork chop, I'm anorexic". Most anorexics aren't going to openly state that they are anorexic because it doesn't always start with people just not eating; many eating disorders stem from overly restrictive dieting behaviors like taking up vegetarianism.

Of course, you can also be overweight and a vegetarian...I knew plenty of vegetarians in college that survived on mac and cheese and salads with lots of salad dressing, croutons, and cheese on them.

I am a vegan, and have been for the last year. I know that I began this diet as a way to set dietary limits for myself. I have since come to terms with my eating disorder, but stopping being a vegan is still a barrier I can't overcome.
Vegetarianism / veganism provides dietary limits (like any diet) for people who love dietary limits--those with eating disorders. It also feels more like a "lifestyle," and so better than binge eating, or what you might otherwise call a "diet."
It is a very real temptation for many people looking to lose weight and maintain this weight loss to cut everything out of their diet they see as 'fatty'. Let's face it: this is meat, dairy (cheese, milk, butter, cream), and includes almost every desert. People such as myself saw the vegan diet as a way to find yourself in a world where you could look around at all the unhealthy things and be prohibited from eating them for a reason OTHER than, they're "unhealthy." They're "not vegan."
Also, if you tell your friends that "you're a vegan," then you have to "save face" in front of them and maintain your vegan-ism. Ergo, weekends out when everyone's eating pizza and ice cream- most of the time you don't have to include yourself in the gluttony.

Hey Mike! I loved the article, you really know how to stir up some trouble ;)

I'm not even sure what to think of this article... I was raised a vegetarian along with my sisters, as was my mother, and my grandparents are vegetarians, too. My niece is a 4th generation vegetarian. None of us have eating disorders. It is just our way of life.

The fact of me being a vegetarian has influenced a lot of my friends and several of them have become vegetarians. I think you are underestimating our generation. Times are changing and I know tons of vegetarians. Our generation is more socially aware and the world around us is different than the world around a lot of other people when they were our age. Society right now is turning a focus towards sustainability, healthy lifestyles, longevity, environmentally friendly life-changes, etc., all of which vegetarianism supports. The vegetarians I know become vegetarians for these reasons. All but one of my friends who became a vegetarian have been so for at least 3 years now and are going strong, living healthy, productive lives.

Yes, some people do it as a way to easily limit the foods they eat and when it comes to limiting to being a vegetarian, a lot of times that means cutting out foods which cause health issues and, yes, more weight. Some people do it with helping their weight as one of their reasons. But is that such a bad thing? So some people want to be lean and thin. I think assuming that anyone who becomes a vegetarian with weight in mind has an eating disorder is crazy. People cut out sugars and carbs from their diets to loose weight - does that mean they have an eating disorder?

I think maybe the people who pile crap into their mouths on a daily basis and are killing themselves slowly with the horrible foods they eat - THEY have eating disorders!