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Beach Runner
 
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usual suspect wrote:

> Bumbling Twit wrote:
>
>>>>>> You don't need to know much nutrition to go veg*n
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> Just like one doesn't need to know much nutrition to go anorexic or
>>>>> bulimic or to go any other eating disorder.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Eating vegetarian is not an eating disorder. That is a lie.
>>>
>>>
>>> Veganism IS an eating disorder. You want a website? Try this one,
>>> numb nuts:
>>>
>>> www.orthorexia.com
>>>
>>> See also:
>>> http://www.compulsiveeating.com/vege...disorder.ht m

>>
>>
>>
>> Anyone who calls vegan an eating disorder

>
>
> It is.
>
>> in the vegan group

>
>
> It's true in the vegan group, it's true outside the vegan group. That's
> the nature of truth, nitwit.
>
>> is like spreading fire in a crowded circus.

>


Here's the liar's site

The CEDRIC Centre. Community eating disorder and related issues
counselling.


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Vegetarianism or Politically Correct Eating Disorder?

Written by Brooke Finnigan for The National Eating Disorder Information
Bulletin

Whether vegetarian for health, religion or for ethics, research exists
about the benefits of a plant based diet. Recent research also shows
that a growing number of people, especially women in their late teens,
are adopting vegetarian and vegan diets in order to lose weight,
maintain low body weight, and mask restrictive eating patterns.

A study from the University of Minnesota found teen vegetarians are more
likely to have eating disorders than non-vegetarians. In this study,
vegetarians were more likely to contemplate and attempt suicide, and
vegetarian males were noted as an especially high risk group for
unhealthy weight control practices. The research indicated that teens
who were already susceptible to emotional difficulties were drawn to
vegetarianism as a means to lose weight and fit in, but that
vegetarianism itself had no correlation with emotional difficulties.

In a nother study, conducted at California State University-Northridge,
researchers found college women who claimed to be vegetarians had a
significantly greater risk of developing eating disorders than their
meat-eating peers. The overlap between eating disorders and
vegetarianism occurs because vegetarianism is a way for men and women to
openly control their food choices, without attracting negative attention
to their behaviour. Also, many believe that restricting meat from a diet
will lead to weight loss, believes Michelle Morand, founder of The
CEDRIC Centre, an eating disorder counselling centre in Victoria, B.C.

"Family, friends, clinicians, and vegetarians themselves, need to know
that the potential exists for vegetarianism and veganism to mask an
eating disorder," Morand said. This doesn't mean vegetarianism is the
cause of an eating disorder, or that people shouldn't adopt a vegetarian
lifestyle, but it may be a way for the individual who is struggling with
food and weight issues to justify her or his restrictive eating behaviours.

Carol Tickner, R.D. Nutrition Therapist with the Eating Disorders
Program in the Capital Region cites two possibilities for the increase
in popularity of vegetarianism. " Vegetarianism has been promoted as a
healthy way of managing weight. With weight being such a focus in our
society, it makes sense to some as a way of managing weight, and health,
at the same time," she says. "For those teenagers who have disordered
eating tendencies, becoming vegetarian can be a way of trying to respond
to a changing body, (weight gain due to puberty), in a healthy way, vs.
dieting like their friends." However, this is just dieting for
weight-loss in another form.

In many ways, beliefs about animal protein in diets versus plant-only
diets are similar to the messages we hear about physical appearance in
North American culture. In both cases, we are given conflicting
messages. In one breath we're admonished not to judge a book by its
cover, and in the next, we can never be too rich or too thin . In a
similar vein, we say one thing about the humane treatment of animals,
and treat our pets as mini-humans, but frequently farm animals for food
under dreadful conditions. This cultural hypocrisy is increasingly in
the media with stories of unsanitary conditions and contamination of
foods. And, at this stage in their lives, young adults are acutely aware
of societal doubletalk.

"Teenagers are searching for meaning and a way of being in the world
that expresses their individuality. This is exactly what they are meant
to do at this stage in development." says Morand. "They're in the
process of individuation, separating from their parents, developing and
testing their own value systems, and learning about who they are. By
choosing a plant-based diet, they're choosing to exist on the planet in
a different way than most of their parents' generation. For many
teenagers, becoming a vegetarian may be the first informed, adult
decision they make."
Why Go Veggie?

Vegeterian diets can r educe risk from certain cancers by up to 40%,
decrease the possibility of heart disease by over 30%, and lower high
blood pressure, and cholesterol levels.

A plant-based diet can also be environmentally friendly. By eating a
diet rich in fruits and vegetables, less packaging and processing is
needed. On the other hand, as popularity for vegetarian diets increases,
more packaged foods are available to supplement and complement the
traditional vegetarian diet, which means more waste from packaging.

Some religions advocate a vegetarian lifestyle. Some people choose a
vegetarian diet over an omnivorous one out of ethical concerns for
animals. Many vegetarians are concerned about the wide spread usage of
factory farming, growth hormones, and abuse of animals designated for
human consumption. It is also cheaper to consume a vegetarian diet than
to include animal products in one's shopping basket.

" There is an increased societal awareness about where our food comes
from and more people taking an interest in how animals are treated. This
was especially brought to the forefront last year with mad cow disease
and the chicken flu," says Tickner.

In addition to eschewing meat and animal by-products in their diets, a
large number of vegetarians purchase animal friendly cosmetics, and
cleaning products that haven't been tested on animals, as well as
alternative sources for leather, silk and wool products.
The Incredible Lightness of Being Vegetarian

Adherents of a vegetarian lifestyle have always touted the health
benefits, and in recent years, as coverage of the obesity crisis
continues to influence public policy, some organizations have linked a
plant based diet with slenderness. Given our cultural preference and
pressure around thinness, (which is seen as an indication of a person's
worthiness in North American culture), it seems inevitable that
vegetarianism would be adopted as yet another tool in the quest for
weight loss.

In his book, The Obesity Myth , author Paul Campos argues that we use
body weight as an indication of "moral fitness". Culturally, we idealize
people who have managed to sublimate their appetites and become, or
remain, slender. In this puritanical atmosphere, fatness isn't just a
body type description, but an alleged indication of how a person really
is: undisciplined, stupid, and unworthy. Fatness is one of the last
socially sanctioned forms of discrimination in our culture, and avoiding
fatness is often used as an added allure to becoming vegetarian.

On vegetarian websites, in magazines and books, weight loss is often
included as a benefit of switching to a plant based diet.

PETA, (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals), in particular,
correlates a vegetarian diet with being thin. Recent advertising
campaigns have included "jokes" about fat passengers needing two airline
seats as a reason to go vegetarian,and equating letting children eat
meat to child abuse.

While PETA is notorious for its overstated style of linking health, body
weight, and vegetarianism, most other groups are subtler. But the
connection between health and weight continues to thrive in the minds of
many people. In fact, for many, health and thinness are synonymous.

The reality is, it's possible to be a healthy, happy person, at any
size, vegetarian or not. And creating false categories for health based
on body size is one way in which the health and weight loss industry
overlap, and, reap sizable profits.

A person's weight will tend to fall into a certain range that the body
is happiest and healthiest at, called our "set point" or "natural"
weight, and will tend to want to return to this weight range despite
strict calorie restriction or excessive exercise. Many other factors
affect a person weight, not only the type of food they eat, but the
quantity of food they eat, the amount of activity they get, and their
genetics.

A healthy vegetarian, Carol Tickner explains, is someone who "t akes the
time to ensure that they are getting all the nutrients their body needs.
This person would be eating vegetarian sources of protein at all meals
and making sure they find alternate sources of protein, which is
required to maintain a healthy metabolism, repair and build new tissue,
and boost immunity, calcium, iron, zinc, and Vitamin D & B12 as well as
omega-3 fatty acids."

Morand adds, "To me, a healthy vegetarian is someone at peace with their
decision to avoid animal products, and is committed to enjoying foods
that nurture their bodies and spirits. A healthy person is someone who
has energy, listens to his or her body, and feeds it accordingly."
Feeding the soul

Morand has worked with many young women over the years who have used
vegetarianism to cloak an eating disorder. "Typically, they don't want
to worry people in their lives, and saying they can't eat something
because of their moral commitment to vegetarianism is a safe way to
avoid conflict or suspicion, especially since many people aren't
educated on the topic."

"Some are in denial about their behavior, or if they have just begun
down the path of disordered eating, they are still in that period where
they believe they are "benefiting" from the behavior. They may be
getting positive attention and reinforcement from their family and peers
for their commitment and/or weight loss." In any case, Morand continues,
"it's important to remember that the eating disorder, whether masked by
vegetarianism or not, is a coping mechanism, and the person struggling
has adopted it to camouflage other, more painful issues in their lives.
They aren't lying or manipulating, they're just trying to cope in the
best way they know how."

It isn't necessary to give up vegetarianism in order to recover from an
eating disorder. However, an honest exploration of the motivations
behind the choice to cut animal products from one's diet is fundamental
to the recovery process. If someone is truly dedicated to a vegan or
vegetarian lifestyle for ethical reasons, then he/she has to be true to
themselves and honor their decision. But, if the original impetus was
weight loss or gaining a sense of control over their relationship with
food, the greatest gift that they can give to themselves is to
authentically explore what may be currently taking place in their lives,
or what may have occurred in the past, to lead them to feel that they
lack control to the extent that they are seeking it in their
relationship with food. Then they are in a position to solve the real
problem, and no longer expend their energy trying to control the symptom.



* Neumark-Sztainer D., et al. Adolescent vegetarians : a behavioral
profile of a school-based population in Minnesota . Archives of
Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine 1997 Aug; 151(8): 833-838.
* Klop, Sheree, et al Self-reported vegetarianism may be a marker
for college women at risk for disordered eating, Archives of Journal of
American Dietetic Association , 2003, June, 103:745-747
* http://www.vegsoc.org/health/

It hardly calls vegetarianism an eating disorder, but can be used to
hide one.
>
> Non sequitur.