More eating disorders among young vegetarians
A significant number of adolescents and young adults who say they are vegetarians eating disorders according to a recent U.S. study published in the Journal of the American Dietetic Association.
Previous research has also shown a link between vegetarianism among young people and eating disorders. Some researchers have also found that adolescents with eating disorders can adopt a vegetarian diet as a way to lose weight considered socially acceptable.
Ramona Robinson-O’Brien and colleagues from universities Saint John, Minnesota and Texas, analyzed the results of a survey of 2516 adolescents and young adults, aged 15-23 years, 31 schools in Minnesota in 1998 . A vegetarian diet might mean eating only foods from plant sources, or consume dairy products and eggs, or even a little chicken and fish.
The results show that 20% of the current vegetarians and 21% of those who had been vegetarians use some forms of extreme behavior and unhealthy weight control (such as using products for weight loss, laxatives or induce vomiting ), and 21% and 16% respectively, reported having had bulimic behavior with loss of control. In comparison, 9.4% of those who had never been vegetarian had used unhealthy behaviors to control weight and only 4.4% reported having already lost control or had an eating disorder behavior.
These results can be explained partly by the increased awareness of nutrition in general and in vegetarians and more likely to report bulimic behavior and sense of loss of control. Furthermore, possible triggers bulimic episodes may be restrictions that vegetarians needed or a lower level of satiety related to a lower consumption of protein and fat, the authors note.
Posted in 
Tags: