Guest guest Posted December 25, 2000 Report Share Posted December 25, 2000 My niece who lives 3 hours away from me is very interested in vegetarianism. She is on the verge of those difficult years, though, she's going to be 13 in just a few days, and so it's hard to interpret the true motivations behind her interest. I have been vegetarian for 12 years and I have been encouraging her, giving her recipe suggestions and cookbooks, when I can. She never eats beef or pork now. However my sister, her mother, is very worried about her being too skinny and too obsessed with calorie and fat counting. It's true my niece has become very thin and she's got that very fashion-conscious pride about it. My sister has always been a bit negative about vegetarianism because she doesn't like what she sees as " deprivation " , plus from my point of view (her younger sister, very biased), she's selfish, materialistic, and not very compassionate towards animals. I guess what I'm wondering is have you come across teenage girls in your experience who have been attracted to vegetarianism for the wrong reasons, i.e., as some kind of " deprivation diet " or from a " binge and purge " attitude that seems to me a warning sign for anorexia or other consequences of our culture's extreme fashion marketing towards vulnerable young girls. ? Karen Chapel Hill Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted December 26, 2000 Report Share Posted December 26, 2000 Karen, Yes, I was hospitalized with anorexia when I was 13. In order to deal with my food issues and get discharged from the hospital I stopped eating certain foods. 'Vegetarianism' was a way to have some 'control' in my life without killing myself. Since I wasn't eating hardly anything before I was 'veg', I was actually much healthier after going veg than before...just because I was able to have 'control' and still eat. The bottom line is an eating disorder is an eating disorder and it has nothing to do with vegetarianism or veganism. Some of my anorexic friends in the hospital swear off different types of foods, but I chose flesh foods since I never liked the thought of eating them anyway. Just because your niece is interested in vegetarianism and thin doesn't mean she has an eating disorder. In my case vegetarianism probably saved my life. The funny thing is I gained weight when I went vegan several years ago. It didn't bother me, but I thought that was interesting. I am 29 now and have no issues with food and my veganism has very little to do with health and everything to do with compassion. If your sister thinks her daughter may have an eating disorder, she should definately check that out. I wouldn't discourage her from going veg, but I would help her learn more about nutrition. Good luck! Linda At 04:49 PM 12/25/00 -0500, you wrote: >My niece who lives 3 hours away from me is very interested in vegetarianism. >She is on the verge of those difficult years, though, she's going to be 13 >in just a few days, and so it's hard to interpret the true motivations >behind her interest. I have been vegetarian for 12 years and I have been >encouraging her, giving her recipe suggestions and cookbooks, when I can. >She never eats beef or pork now. However my sister, her mother, is very >worried about her being too skinny and too obsessed with calorie and fat >counting. It's true my niece has become very thin and she's got that very >fashion-conscious pride about it. My sister has always been a bit negative >about vegetarianism because she doesn't like what she sees as " deprivation " , >plus from my point of view (her younger sister, very biased), she's selfish, >materialistic, and not very compassionate towards animals. I guess what I'm >wondering is have you come across teenage girls in your experience who have >been attracted to vegetarianism for the wrong reasons, i.e., as some kind of > " deprivation diet " or from a " binge and purge " attitude that seems to me a >warning sign for anorexia or other consequences of our culture's extreme >fashion marketing towards vulnerable young girls. ? > >Karen >Chapel Hill > > > > >For more information about vegetarianism, please visit the VRG website at http://www.vrg.org and for materials especially useful for families go to http://www.vrg.org/family. > > Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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