Young people who follow a vegetarian diet tend to eat healthier foods and weigh less than their meat-eating peers. However, they are also more likely to engage in dangerous weight control measures such as self-induced vomiting, laxatives, and binge-and-purge habits, according to new research from the College of Saint Benedict and Saint John's University, the University of Minnesota, and the University of Texas, Austin. The researchers surveyed 2500 people ages 15 to 23 about their eating and weight control habits.

"What we would be concerned about ... might be that in some instances a [claim of a] vegetarian diet could conceal an underlying decision to lose weight and restrict food intake," said Dr. David Waller, a clinical professor of psychiatry at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas "This might be, for some teenagers, a more acceptable way of restricting their eating rather than being more overt or explicit about it."

Dr. Waller said there are many benefits to a vegetarian diet, but parents should work with their teenagers to create healthy eating patterns through family-shared meals.

This study appears in the Journal of the American Dietetic Association.

Labels: weight-control, vegetarians

Posted By: Aspen Education Group