For decades, the media has espoused vegetarianism as a dieting regime. A recent example is the publication of the book collection by Kim Barnouin and Rory Freedman titled Skinny Bitch (Running Press, Inc.). Using an obnoxious, foul-mouth tone, the authors advocate a natural vegan diet to make you happy, healthy and, you guessed it, skinny.
But any true vegetarian knows that their eating pattern isn’t for the calorie-obsessed. They understand the importance of eating healthy portions of food that include a variety of high-energy items like nuts and seeds, legumes, whole grains, and in some cases high-fat dairy products.
Being a vegetarian, especially a vegan, requires making a serious commitment; meals eaten at home and away need to provide enough protein, vitamins B12 and D, calcium, zinc, omega-3 fats and iron.
A low iron intake -- and the subsequent fatigue and “brain fog”-- is one of the biggest reasons a vegetarian lifestyle is abandoned. According to the professional association, Dietitians of Canada, vegetarian male and female adolescents, pregnant women and female endurance athletes are at the greatest risk of iron deficiency. This explains why the Recommended Daily Allowance (RDA) for iron for vegetarians is 1.8 times that of non-vegetarians.
When carefully planned, vegetarianism can be a safe lifestyle choice for even nutritionally high-risk groups such as pregnant and breast-feeding women, babies, children, teens and seniors.
However, the true motivations for being vegetarian may speak volumes about the quality of the diet and the state of one’s health. If the real intent of going veggie is about rigid weight control and not about animal rights, environmental sustainability, or the non-weight-related health benefits of vegetarianism, a dysfunctional relationship with food and body may be lurking.
Recently, the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics published a study that interviewed a small sample of vegetarian women who struggled (or once struggled) with an eating disorder. The researchers found that 68 per cent of the group perceived that their vegetarianism was related to their eating disorder, which emerged after the onset of their illness.
As a clinician who has worked in the area of eating disorders, this study finding makes sense to me: at the onset of the illness a person can begin by dieting and avoiding fat, progress to excluding foods containing fat (such as meat and dairy products), and before long declare themselves a vegetarian.
Vegetarianism doesn’t cause an eating disorder; many different factors come into play to kickstart the mental illness. But the vegetarian way of life may help to disguise and maintain the disorder because it’s a socially-acceptable way to restrict food.
Many vegetarians aren’t dealing with a latent eating disorder. Yet, when it comes to population groups who tend to be extremely weight and shape-focused, such as male and female teenagers and endurance athletes, vegetarianism may be a signal to parents, teachers, coaches and health care providers that these individuals are struggling with disordered eating, if not a full-blown eating disorder.
