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With bathing suit season quickly approaching, many teens and young adults are on a mission to find a way to lose weight and get in shape quickly. Some people may choose to undertake a vegetarian diet, because of its numerous reported healthy benefits. Others may also be drawn to a vegetarian diet, though not for quite so healthy reasons. More and more eating disorder professionals are reporting an increase in the number of patients suffering from eating disorders that are calling themselves vegetarians (2). This brings up a question reminiscent of the classic ‘chicken or egg’ paradox: Which came first, the diet or the eating disorder?
Eating disorders are mental conditions involving a disturbance with food. The two most common eating disorders are anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa (9). Anorexia nervosa involves refusing to maintain a body weight that is at or above the minimum normal weight for height, an intense fear of gaining weight or being fat, a disturbance in the way one sees her body weight or shape, and missing at least three menstrual periods in a row (6). In other words, anorexia involves a severe restriction in the amount (and types) of food you consume, which leads to dramatic weight loss. Five to twenty percent of people suffering from anorexia nervosa will die (5).
Bulimia nervosa is evidenced by a powerful urge to eat which leads to overeating that feels out of control, some sort of compensatory behavior (such as vomiting, using laxatives, or over-exercising) used to counteract the fattening effects of the over eating, and intense fear of being fat (6). Basically, bulimia consists of reoccurring binge and purge cycles. These cycles are extremely stressful on the body and can lead to chemical and electrolyte imbalances, heart failure, gastric rupture, and death (5).
Eating disorders are serious illnesses, so it is important for professionals to discern whether or not vegetarian diets contribute to the development of eating...