Yahoo! is reporting on a “Dark Side of Vegetarianism” that points to young adults and teens that either are or were vegetarians may have had used other unhealthy ways to control weight. The conclusion of the study claims there may be eating disorders hidden behind the vegetarian diet. At the same time it points out that those that are or were vegetarian are in better health than those who were omnivores.
“The majority of adolescents and young adults today would benefit from improvements in dietary intake,” she said. The study found, for instance, that the vegetarians among the participants generally were less likely to be overweight or obese.
I think the study is missing the point. Many of us have grown up being told we were imperfect and had to lose weight. We grew up being told we should super-size our meals and thus learned to binge eat. Yet as we grew older, we realized we needed to change and take control of our lives. I have no doubt that many healthy and unhealthy ways to take this control back were tried. I tried “metabolism boosters” as I am sure many others did.
Then I learned, as the subjects of the study did, of a healthy way to lower my cholesterol, blood pressure and weight. Instead of claiming the vegetarian diet hid an eating disorder, couldn’t it be that the vegetarian diet was the dieter conquering previous eating beliefs and doing what was right and healthy?