Eating Disorders

"Being a vegetarian, in some causes, may serve as a warning sign that a woman could develop an eating disorder." This quote is from http://www.vegetarian-diet.info/vegetarian-diet-articles-vegetarianism.htm. This website talks about some of the health dangers of being a vegetarian. The author claims that when a female claims to be a vegetarian and is a college aged woman, that woman is more at risk for developing an eating disorder. The authors argument for this is that vegetarians watch what they eat very closely and are extremely careful with their diets and their health. The author did a study to see how young vegetarian women felt about food. "Vegetarians in the study were more likely to say they feel very guilty after eating, report that food controls their life, take laxatives, and turn to intense exercise to burn calories." Also, being a vegetarian is a more accepted lifestyle then having an eating disorder and therefore it is easier to use being a vegetarian as a reason for not eating. The study surveyed women and most of them women said they were only semi-vegetarians because they would consume fish and chicken. Also, the majority of the women's reason for becoming a vegetarian is not for ethical reasons, but to watch their weight.
I never thought that these two issues could be related to one another, but after reading this information I know that this is a correct fact. Unfortunately, I am one of those girls who are semi-vegetarians and have an eating disorder. I never realized it until the end of my high school career. I was always weight conscious and at the age 11 I stopped eating red meat and started watching what I ate claiming that I was a vegetarian. Due to my own experiences I am positive that this research is correct. I'm not staying that all women who are vegetarians have eating disorders, but they are definitely a lot more conscious about their weight and what food they put into their mouths. Also, I had a best friend in fourth grade who was brought up a semi-vegetarian because her mom was one. Now that I am older and understand eating disorders I can say for a fact that this girls mother starves her children and they used being a vegetarian as a mask to hide the truth about their lives. This is really a hard topic to talk about for me, but I just want girls to know that this statistic is real and that you need to be careful.