VEG in press Study indicates veg people too skinny

[RAINRA]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/hsn/20090401/hl_hsn/thedarksideofvegetarianism

 

more bad press

[robert]

I haven't read the link but in all honestly, most vegetarians, vegans, raw foodists are meet are "too" skinny. I don't care if I take heat for statements like that...it's just my observation of the people I have met over the past 13 years I've been vegan and involved in the vegan community. That is one of the reasons I decided to promote Vegan Bodybuilding almost a decade ago, to change that thought process, change perceptions people have of vegans, and to get people to think differently.

 

As I tour all over the country within the vegan movement/communities year after year I see more vegetarians in person than most people will meet in their lifetime, and based on the title of the thread, I'd have to agree......without reading the article, which I haven't read.

 

I probably fall into that category as well, but I work hard to build my body which fits my sports interests, so I don't fall into that category in the future.

 

I'm a firm believer in focusing on the positive and the positive examples that oppose this suggestion, but I'm also a firm believer in honesty and reality and those are precisely the key words to elicit positive change....honesty and reality and then implementing changes to have an impact on the true reality of the situation.

 

.....

 

Time to get SWOL to give people something else to take notice of and talk about........

[chrisjs]

BodhiDave85 posted this earlier viewtopic.php?f=16&t=17193 . I didn't read it as saying veg people are too skinny, rather vegetarians were more likely to use "unhealthy means" to control their weight. The author of the study correctly pointed it out it was people with looking for extreme ways to lose weight turning to veg*nism rather than veg*ns necessarily being unhealthy.

 

Robert, you definitely have more exposure than I have, but the fellow vegetarians and vegans I've met aren't always skinny, they're usually too skinny or overweight and they don't care. I haven't knowingly met any other fitness-minded vegetarians in person and that sucks.

[Marcina]

As a vegan, I don't believe I'm too skinny. I think everyone else is too fat.

 

 

 

Btw, that article had some pretty good things to say about vegetarianism.. But the title makes people think it's bad press until they actually read it.

 

 

Vegetarianism, for some people with eating disorders, is an excuse for them to avoid the most fattening foods around. It helps them in social situations too so that if they are at a picnic for example, and there's fried chicken.. It's easier for them to say "Oh I'm a vegetarian" rather than "I'm watching my calories". People are often extremely secretive about their eating disorders.

 

That being said, I'll admit I've had one. I didn't go vegan to control my weight, however. I did it for several reasons, including improving my health, which it has.

[DCNINJA]

The article did have some good things to say, but it is still junk logic. Just because more former vegetarians use laxatives to control their weight does not mean that vegetarian diets cause laxative use. 100% of drug addicts drank milk as a baby. Drinking milk therefore must cause drug addiction. Silly huh?

[Marcina]

The article did have some good things to say, but it is still junk logic. Just because more former vegetarians use laxatives to control their weight does not mean that vegetarian diets cause laxative use. 100% of drug addicts drank milk as a baby. Drinking milk therefore must cause drug addiction. Silly huh?

 

Yeah there's no cause and effect correlation there.

 

But people love to bash vegetarians.

[tuc]

The title of the article is bad, otherwise I would not count it as "anti-veg".

 

"Adolescent vegetarians [in the study] were more prone to disordered eating and outright eating disorders," Katz said. "This is not due to vegetarianism but the other way around: Adolescents struggling to control their diets and weight might opt for vegetarianism among other, less-healthful efforts."

 

It clearly states that vegetarianism isn't the problem, it is one of the symptoms for such people. Most veggies do not have such issues.

[RAINRA]

I think the title in it self scare people. Like being very underweight. That is the main problem people will see a headline and say yeah vegetarians are unhealthy. Now the is generalizing. Eating disorders are not uncommon no matter what diet you choose. I am vegan and I am not sick or skinny and many out there who are not. I do think that I do see a lot of teh ooposite as well people who are vegan and overweight. Do to the high sugar consumption. Why is it addressed to vegetarians could it not just say people out there have eating disorders.

[Vegan Joe]

Yeah I know:

We're to skinny and they're to fat.

Oh the shame of it.

[thendanisays]

i posted this under BohdiDave's thread about the dark side of vegenism article, but i'll post it again here because i feel like it is an important point. sorry for being redundant but i feel strongly about this one:

 

As someone who undertsands the eating disordered all too well--I will say that this article holds a LOT of merit. A large majority of the eating dosordered have been or are vegetarians or vegans. and i will explain why-these are people obssesed with achieving whatever their idea of perfection is. Veganism is in fact an easy way to lose weight-so there's reason number 1. Number 2 is that as an adolescent it is a far more acceptable excuse to not eat what has been cooked for dinner without getting in trouble with the rents. Number 3-people who are pre-occupied with food tend to study and research everything up the wazoo and know how healthy a vegan diet is. 4-it has been shown that people with eating disorders are generally of a higher iq than average--as are vegetarians.

 

i could go on and on and on. it is true that people with e.d. have also tried a million other "diets" most likely- but the reason those diets exist is to lose weight, wheras vegans can have several motives for their diet choice. it can be a cover-up.

 

 

It is sad that this article had to be printed, for a number of reasons. 1 in 10 women are eating disordered one way or another and that is a fucking shame. and also it makes vegans sound as if we are mentally inept. but an article like this was probably written in the hopes of giving someone a heads up that someone they know or love may be in trouble. Unfortuanately an article like this may save someones life. although it may lose an animal anothers. its a double edged sword.

[Marcina]

i posted this under BohdiDave's thread about the dark side of vegenism article, but i'll post it again here because i feel like it is an important point. sorry for being redundant but i feel strongly about this one:

 

As someone who undertsands the eating disordered all too well--I will say that this article holds a LOT of merit. A large majority of the eating dosordered have been or are vegetarians or vegans. and i will explain why-these are people obssesed with achieving whatever their idea of perfection is. Veganism is in fact an easy way to lose weight-so there's reason number 1. Number 2 is that as an adolescent it is a far more acceptable excuse to not eat what has been cooked for dinner without getting in trouble with the rents. Number 3-people who are pre-occupied with food tend to study and research everything up the wazoo and know how healthy a vegan diet is. 4-it has been shown that people with eating disorders are generally of a higher iq than average--as are vegetarians.

 

i could go on and on and on. it is true that people with e.d. have also tried a million other "diets" most likely- but the reason those diets exist is to lose weight, wheras vegans can have several motives for their diet choice. it can be a cover-up.

 

 

It is sad that this article had to be printed, for a number of reasons. 1 in 10 women are eating disordered one way or another and that is a fucking shame. and also it makes vegans sound as if we are mentally inept. but an article like this was probably written in the hopes of giving someone a heads up that someone they know or love may be in trouble. Unfortuanately an article like this may save someones life. although it may lose an animal anothers. its a double edged sword.

 

That was very well said, Dani. It is really sad that 1 in 10 women have an eating disorder of some kind. Ask any woman out there if they're happy with their body and most of them are going to say "no". Society really should be making a better effort to ensure that people are happy with themselves. Unfortunately I don't want to be labelled as someone with an eating disorder just because I'm a vegan either..

[andyclimbs]

iA large majority of the eating dosordered have been or are vegetarians or vegans. and i will explain why-these are people obssesed with achieving whatever their idea of perfection is. Veganism is in fact an easy way to lose weight-so there's reason number 1. Number 2 is that as an adolescent it is a far more acceptable excuse to not eat what has been cooked for dinner without getting in trouble with the rents.

 

.

 

thanks for your comment, Dani, it's very well said.

 

i too have met too many "vegans" and "vegetarians" who are only doing it to lose weight and hide disordered eating. this bothers me a LOT. while i don't _blame_ people with eating disorders as i know a true eating disorderis not something a person CHOOSES, i do find myself annoyed at the abuse of the term "veg*n".

 

i work VERY hard to be as fit as possible, because i want others to see that TRUE veg*ns can be in awesome shape. i eat about 2500-3000 calories each day, work out intensely (both strength training and cardiovascular), have a B.M.I. of 22 and a body fat percentage of 16%. I am very proud of my body and the lifestyle that i live.

 

i suppose, that for me being raised by ethical/environmental vegetarians (we consumed eggs from the free-range chickens a friend raised, and natural honey--ive since become vegan, of course), and not having had an eating disorder, i wouldn't understand the 'other side". but i can't help but be frustrated and feel that using the term is selfish, knowing that there ARE veg*ns out there doing it for the RIGHT reasons, and that our work is undermined by people abusing it for personal reasons.

 

ok I need to go to sleep before i write anything else, it's 2:30 in the morning and usually get up at 4 to work out!

 

-Andy

[nobbi]

Totally bullshit. I am vegan for years and somehow I am not able to get really thin or skinny. I am male, 176cm, 78 kg and my weight should be approx 69-75kg (according to that I am a little bit fat actually). On raw food I had been thin, but never skinny. Having a normal/good weight is still a question of proper calories and good food intake and not just a question of being vegan or being a meateter.

[thendanisays]

i would also like to add that i'm a member of another women's fitness forum (not vegan) and i recently saw a poll there asking whether or not the members had or have an eating disorder. in hundreds of reponses-it looked like this.

 

yes, still struggling 28%

recovered 25%

never have had an eating disorder 31%

no, but i could be considered a "disordered eater" 16%

 

 

those figures shocked even me. this is a very healthy healthy site. but inoticed a tendency even before i saw this poll of people to become preocccupied with numb ers of macros, weight, and ridden with guilt if they slipped up, all typical of ed people. anyway-i just thought i'd point out-that this article could have also been titled "the darker side of fitness", or "athletic people too skinny". so yes, it was a jab at vegetarianisn and veganism, albeit an acurate one.