Alida Iacobellis RD MHSc
Vegetarian eating patterns are commonly promoted for weight loss purposes. Animal foods like meat and dairy are naturally a lot more energy dense than plant foods, so if you cut them out you are also cutting calories. For this reason, a vegetarian diet can quickly become a more socially acceptable way of legitimizing restricted eating and food avoidance that are hallmarks of disordered eating.
I think it’s possible to find a middle path and strike a balance when it comes to honouring your health and respecting animals and the environment while maintaining some flexibility with eating.
The Overlap Between Vegetarian Diets and Disordered Eating
Research suggests that 52% of individuals with a history of disordered eating have also been vegetarian at some point in their lifetime compared to only 12% of those who do not have a history of disordered eating. Similarly, 24% of people with an active eating disorder are vegetarian compared to 6% of the general population.
While these statistics show a relationship between vegetarian eating and disordered eating, this does not mean that vegetarian diets cause eating disorders. You can absolutely follow a vegetarian diet and have a perfectly healthy relationship with food and your body!
Adopting a Vegetarian Diet to Improve Body Image
A desire for weight loss and negative body image tend to go hand in hand, so it would make sense that anyone struggling with negative body image might turn to a vegetarian diet to help them lose weight in hopes that their body image might improve. Unfortunately, body image rarely improves when we change the way we look, it improves when we change the way we think about our bodies and our self-worth.
Going down the path of pursuing a vegetarian diet for weight loss to improve body image can quickly become a slippery slope. You may start out with a modest weight loss goal only to find that it’s not enough once you achieve it. So you move the goal post further and cut out more foods to help you get there and before you know it you’re deep into an eating disorder.
Instead of turning your attention to your diet and/or your body, refocus your energy on editing and re-writing your body image story.
What are the origins of your story? Maybe growing up you had friends who always had dates while you went to every school dance single. Oh, and they also happened to be thinner than you. Of course you put two and two together. It’s not usually productive to go down the path of questioning whether the story is true.
Ask yourself these 2 things instead:
1. Is the story I’m telling myself helpful- Is it helpful to keep telling yourself that you won’t be worthy of love until you lose weight? How does your story make you feel, and what kind of behaviours do those feelings lead to?
2. What is the function of the story- Believing you will only be lovable if you are thin might be protecting you from anxiety and fear of rejection that naturally comes with putting yourself out there (ie. dating). A bit of a self-fulfilling prophecy. This will help you be compassionate towards yourself AND better understand how the story you are telling yourself is unhelpful and ultimately keeping you stuck.
Can You Recover from an Eating Disorder While Being Vegetarian?
The short answer… yes! It’s possible to recover from an eating disorder while following a vegetarian diet.
If you are struggling with disordered eating and following a vegetarian diet, it’s important to be honest with yourself about your motivation for removing animal foods from your diet. If your choice to be vegetarian is largely health motivated, your vegetarian diet is more likely to get in the way of you recovering from your eating disorder. If you are more motivated by ethics, maintaining a vegetarian diet tends to interfere less with recovery.
Nutrient deficiencies are a common health concern in those with disordered eating. Following a vegetarian diet puts you at increased risk for developing deficiencies, especially protein, iron and B12. There are lots of different variations of a vegetarian diet that include some combination of seafood, dairy and/or eggs. Ultimately, the greater variety of foods you include in your diet, the less likely you are to have nutrient deficiencies, so if you are able and willing to include at least one of either dairy, eggs, or seafood it will be easier to maintain health. A combination of a varied diet, strategies to maximize absorption of key nutrients, and supplementation can all be used to optimize health while eating vegetarian.
Going Vegetarian After Recovering from and Eating Disorder
If you have a history of disordered eating, you will want to be cautious about following any pattern of eating that is rule-based or that puts any foods off limits as this will be triggering and may lead you back down a path of disordered eating. If vegetarian eating is something you want to explore and you have a history of disordered eating, I would highly recommend working with a Registered Dietitian who can help you assess the potential risks and benefits. If you do decide to go ahead with a vegetarian diet, an RD can also help make sure you are meeting all your nutrient needs by eating a varied and balanced diet.
Image
Gold, D. (2017). Veggies. UnSplash. https://unsplash.com/photos/4_jhDO54BYg.