Alternative Health Blog

People choose to become vegetarians for various reasons—to eat a more healthful diet, and to refuse to participate in the killing of animals. But for many teenagers, a new study suggests, swearing off meat might actually be motivated by an eating disorder.

A University of Minnesota study of 2,500 teens found that about 25 percent of the kids who say they’re vegetarians engage in bulimia—binge-eating and vomiting—or extreme weight-loss strategies such as gobbling diet pills and laxatives. That’s more than twice the rate of eating disorders found among meat-eating kids.

Some teens who tell their parents that they want to abstain from eating animals, the study says, may be using vegetarianism as a ploy to justify eating less and losing lots of weight. As seen in The Week, researchers say there’s nothing unhealthful about a vegetarian diet that includes appropriate amounts of calories, protein, iron, and other key nutrients. “Parents should talk to their child about the motivations for embarking on a vegetarian diet,” Dr. Ramona Robinson-O’Brien tells MSNBC.com. If thinness is the real goal, she says, it may be time for a professional psychological intervention. Please take care of your family and bless yourself with the gift of good health.