The poor vegans face another attack on their lifestyle choice in a piece on The Daily Beast exploring the connection between eating disorders and veganism. The Beast finds that a vegan diet often “creates a ‘ruse’ that loved ones can’t see through” — basically a good excuse for never being able to eat. Also, those Skinny Bitch books and celebrities like Jessica Simpson going vegan to lose weight aren’t helping.
They cite a 2009 study in the Journal of the American Dietetic Association that found young adults between the ages of 15 and 23 who reported being vegan or vegetarian were more likely to have been bulimic or anorexic at some point. And they quote Dr. Angela Guarda, director of the Johns Hopkins Eating Disorders Program:
…many vegans (and vegetarians) who enter her treatment center initially deny an underlying problem—only to later confess that their efforts to avoid animal products were really an effort to avoid food in general. “In most of our patients, the vegetarianism is in the service of the eating disorder,” she said.
And then there’s the notion that being hyper about what you can and can’t eat becomes, for many, a slippery slope to a disorder. “As with alcohol or cigarettes,” the Beast writes, “exposure combined with biological predisposition can lead to abuse.”
Way to take this right into twelve-step territory, Daily Beast. Don’t the vegans have it hard enough as it is with all that cashew cheese?
When Veganism Is An Eating Disorder [Daily Beast]
Earlier: Chron Says It’s Cool to Be Vegan Now [Grub Street]
Chefs Fed Up With All Your Special Requests [Grub Street]
