Vegetarianism & Eating Disorders

[Tim Gier]

Vegetarianism & Eating Disorders

from examiner.com

A study published today has found that women with a diagnosed eating disorder are four times more likely to be vegetarian than those who don't. They were even more likely to have tried vegetarianism at some point in their lives, with over half of the women in the eating disorders group having been vegetarian at some point in their lives.

When individuals with a suspected or diagnosed eating disorder adopt a vegetarian diet, health care professionals might worry that this choice could function as a socially acceptable way to legitimize food avoidance. Yet there has only been limited research into vegetarianism in relation to eating disorders.

The current study, published in the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics examined the eating habits, motivations and age at which they chose to be vegetarian, of 93 females who had received care for an eating disorder at some point, alongside 67 control subjects who had never been seen for an eating disorder.

Please click here to read the original examiner.com article.

The study is published here: Source: Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics Volume 112, Issue 8 , Pages 1247-1252, August 2012 The Inter-Relationships between Vegetarianism and Eating Disorders ...