Vegetarians More Likely To Have Eating Disorders? no surprises I guess...

[cangor 0]

http://forums.xisto.com/no_longer_exists/

Basically, this articles describes how a study was published in this months JAMA that found that teens on a vegetarian diet are more than twice as likely to use unhealthy dieting practices as those on a diet including meats. Additionally, binge eating and loss of control over eating habits was reported by 21 percent of current and 16 percent of former vegetarians but only 4 percent of those who'd never followed a vegetarian diet. This shows new concerns about a vegetarian diet, which many people were already skeptical about. I personally dont think I could follow a vegetarian diet because I like meat too much and I think itd be ridiculously hard to get enough protein, even if I did eat significant amounts of beans, rice, dairy, and eggs. Its even harder to meet your nutritional needs with a vegan diet, especially as a teen when you need increased intake of Calcium, Vitamin B12, and Iron, three things that most people get primarily from meet. On the other hand, a properly managed vegetarian diet can be very healthy, though I think a properly managed diet with meat can be just as healthy. I didnt see any specific studies on this, but I think that the reason many vegetarians are healthier than those who eat lots of meat is because they watch their diet more closely. (They kinda have to.)
About 2-3% of Americans are vegetarian and approximately another 1% are vegan, and a lot of other people go on a vegetarian diet during their lifetime for health reasons, so this is actually a really interesting and important issue, plus talking about it also raises nutritional awareness of meat eaters. My parents, probably the most protein-crazy people I know, even ate vegetarian for a portion of their life, and they said that in some ways it was really good nutritionally.
Something interesting I found in my research is that vegans actually had the highest mortality rate out of any diet type. While I realize a lot of people are vegan for ethical reasons, I dont think that its healthy or really the way humans were intended to eat if we cant get proper nutrients without strictly planned meals and supplementation. If someone really believes in it though, I think its kinda a interesting and cool choice to make, and I think even with a diet as restricted as veganism someone can be healthy with proper dietary management.
I always thought it was really weird though and this sort of thing kinda reinforces to me that it isn't natural for humans to avoid meat. I guess this article could also be posted in the health section, but I just find it really fascinating. I have several vegetarian friends and it seems to work out well for some of them but really poorly for others...I suppose it has a lot to do with how you manage your diet.

[harrison858 0]

Hmm... I think that if you eat plenty of vegetables to replace the meat, then you should be fine. If you are forcing yourself to eat vegetables and avoid meat though, that could be a problem. Never force yourself to eat vegetables only if you aren't used to it. Try replacing some meat each day with vegatables slowly until you get used to it, and until your body gets used to it.Your brain, I guess, has some control over this I guess. If you put your mind to it... anything could happen. You could have a successful diet or a forced diet.

[frozen.fish 0]

IMHO God made us omnivore to eat meat as well as plants, so just live with it..

[Spyda 0]

That's why I will never become a vegetarian :PKidding of course. This is quite an interesting study to say the least. I have always really believed that being a vegetarian had to have some sort of trade-off, besides of course not being able to eat all that great meat out there. My friend is a vegetarian so I am about to show them this article

[networker 0]

That's really interesting.You would think Vegetarians had fewer dietaryproblems and a lower mortality rate.Maybe they should also do a self righteousness check too.I mean how many times do you hear it from vegetarians thateating meat is just plain wrong?Too many times to count.

[rpgsearcherz 5]

The issue with eating just plants is there is no protein(that I know of), there is less energy being transferred, and there are many other nutrients that meat gives to us.Obviously there are negative factors as well, such as fat, but when you really look at it...We're going to die from *something* anyways. Whether it be heart failure, clogged arteries, a car wreck, or anything else.With what I've been reading lately the "fat" in meats isn't even as bad as people claim it is. Of course it leads to the clogged arteries situation, but you can actually get fat just eating fruits as well. It's all about your calorie intake vs. how much you are burning up.

[truefusion 3]

I would say most of the problem comes from those who are "hardcore" vegans: that is, they avoid all animal products, like eggs, milk, et cetera. These animals products, which doesn't hurt or kill the animal, is where most of the proteins in the vegan's diet would come from. Exclude them, and you'll have very little choices for sources of protein, mostly limited to beans—which cannot provide you with all the essential proteins. The next problem may be the amount of calorie intake, as it is bound to not be much. I haven't done much research on the fats found in vegetables, on whether or not they help produce cholesterol, but cholesterol could be another problem, since a lot of the functions of the body rely on cholesterol, to even the functions of the brain.

 

The higher chance of death for vegetarians i already knew about, but you wouldn't expect to hear about it from vegetarians, at least not from the "hardcore" ones. Nevertheless, any bad health choices can lead to early death—and it doesn't even have to involve food.

[sheepdog 10]

Very interesting, I enjoyed reading your post. Some things there I had not heard, I certainly didn't know vegans had a shorter life span. Maybe because the meat eaters bonk them over the head when they go into public schools and try to preach being vegan??? I certainly believe that they would have more eating disorders, since eating disorders are mental problems and you would have to be crazy not to eat something as healthy and fantastic tasting as meat is. And most hard core vegans are also animal rights activists, and we all know those people are insane. When you think a pig and a rat and a boy should all be equal, you have to be nuts.

[darasen 0]

In my experience people who go the vegetarian or vegan route often have some underlying emotional or social dysfunction to begin with. To find that this carries over to eating disorders of form or another is no surprise. The vast majority of the teens (all female) I have seen who decide that they are suddenly vegetarian or vegan (amoung other things) are simply insecure and seeking some way of identifying themselves.

[ORene 0]

Of course they have more eating disorders, they don't eat healthy at all.There are some nutrients, proteins, vitamins, minerals that we need to get from plants, meat, animal related products, FRUITS.We can't just eat one kind of food, we are omnivores. I TOTALLY agree to darasen's post, all these female girls in the school that are vegetarians, in my opinion are just trying to get some attention. They are just trying to get an identity by trying to be unique or differentI laughed out loud at sheepdog's post

[kagerioshu 0]

I don't really think the vegetarian diet itself can be blamed in this case. Rather, it's that veggies are included as a measure these individuals take when pursuing their drastic methods for maintaining a certain body image. They look at it as a means of limiting calories rather than gaining proper vitamins, which is what harms them in the long run.A vegetarian diet is viable I believe, but there are problems with it if you omit sources of protein. Even things like nuts and beans that have protein aren't optimal as a single source of the amino acid due to limited absorption. If your focus is on being healthy rather than being "thin", then you'll know that a proper balance of vegetables and meat provide the vitamins and protein we need to survive and stay fit and sharp.