Tags

Type your tag names separated by a space and hit enter

Characteristics and clinical implications of the relationship between veganism and pathological eating behaviours.
Eat Weight Disord. 2022 Jun; 27(5):1881-1886.EW

Abstract

OBJECTIVE

Veganism may serve as a socially acceptable means to restrict food intake and disguise pathological eating behaviours. Studies that include vegan participants typically group them with other meat avoiders (e.g., vegetarians), potentially masking risk factors unique to veganism.

METHOD

We addressed this issue by recruiting two Amazon Mechanical Turk samples of 110 vegan and 118 omnivore participants, with comparable gender composition. We aimed to examine whether vegans showed higher disordered eating than omnivores, and if motives for pursuing a vegan diet impacted disordered eating. We assessed disordered eating using the Eating Attitudes Test, the Eating Disorder Examination-Questionnaire, and the Eating Pathology Symptom Inventory.

RESULTS

Vegans displayed more pathological eating behaviours than omnivores, which was significantly predicted by cognitive restraint. However, body dissatisfaction levels were higher in omnivores than vegans. Diet motives did not influence vegans' disordered eating.

CONCLUSION

We propose vegans have high levels of cognitive restraint, possibly due to their intention to avoid animal products. In turn, cognitive restraint subscales in eating disorder measures might be over-pathologising rates of eating disorders in vegans. Future research should monitor the progression of people's eating-related attitudes and behaviours before and after they transition to veganism to establish whether veganism increases the risk of disordered eating, or vice versa.

LEVEL OF EVIDENCE

IV, cross-sectional study.

Links

Publisher Full Text (DOI)

Authors+Show Affiliations

McLean CP
Monash Alfred Psychiatry Research Centre, Monash University, Level 4, 607 St Kilda Rd, Melbourne, VIC, 3004, Australia. Courtney.mclean@monash.edu.
Moeck EK
Melbourne School of Psychological Sciences, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia.
Sharp G
Monash Alfred Psychiatry Research Centre, Monash University, Level 4, 607 St Kilda Rd, Melbourne, VIC, 3004, Australia.
Thomas NA
Flinders University, Adelaide, Australia.

MeSH

AnimalsCross-Sectional StudiesDiet, VeganDiet, VegetarianFeeding BehaviorHumansVegansVegetarians

Pub Type(s)

Journal Article

Language

eng

PubMed ID

34786670

Citation

McLean, Courtney P., et al. "Characteristics and Clinical Implications of the Relationship Between Veganism and Pathological Eating Behaviours." Eating and Weight Disorders : EWD, vol. 27, no. 5, 2022, pp. 1881-1886.
McLean CP, Moeck EK, Sharp G, et al. Characteristics and clinical implications of the relationship between veganism and pathological eating behaviours. Eat Weight Disord. 2022;27(5):1881-1886.
McLean, C. P., Moeck, E. K., Sharp, G., & Thomas, N. A. (2022). Characteristics and clinical implications of the relationship between veganism and pathological eating behaviours. Eating and Weight Disorders : EWD, 27(5), 1881-1886. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40519-021-01330-1
McLean CP, et al. Characteristics and Clinical Implications of the Relationship Between Veganism and Pathological Eating Behaviours. Eat Weight Disord. 2022;27(5):1881-1886. PubMed PMID: 34786670.
* Article titles in AMA citation format should be in sentence-case
TY - JOUR T1 - Characteristics and clinical implications of the relationship between veganism and pathological eating behaviours. AU - McLean,Courtney P, AU - Moeck,Ella K, AU - Sharp,Gemma, AU - Thomas,Nicole A, Y1 - 2021/11/16/ PY - 2021/08/04/received PY - 2021/10/29/accepted PY - 2021/11/18/pubmed PY - 2022/5/25/medline PY - 2021/11/17/entrez KW - Cognitive restraint KW - Diet motivations KW - Disordered eating KW - Eating disorder KW - Vegan SP - 1881 EP - 1886 JF - Eating and weight disorders : EWD JO - Eat Weight Disord VL - 27 IS - 5 N2 - OBJECTIVE: Veganism may serve as a socially acceptable means to restrict food intake and disguise pathological eating behaviours. Studies that include vegan participants typically group them with other meat avoiders (e.g., vegetarians), potentially masking risk factors unique to veganism. METHOD: We addressed this issue by recruiting two Amazon Mechanical Turk samples of 110 vegan and 118 omnivore participants, with comparable gender composition. We aimed to examine whether vegans showed higher disordered eating than omnivores, and if motives for pursuing a vegan diet impacted disordered eating. We assessed disordered eating using the Eating Attitudes Test, the Eating Disorder Examination-Questionnaire, and the Eating Pathology Symptom Inventory. RESULTS: Vegans displayed more pathological eating behaviours than omnivores, which was significantly predicted by cognitive restraint. However, body dissatisfaction levels were higher in omnivores than vegans. Diet motives did not influence vegans' disordered eating. CONCLUSION: We propose vegans have high levels of cognitive restraint, possibly due to their intention to avoid animal products. In turn, cognitive restraint subscales in eating disorder measures might be over-pathologising rates of eating disorders in vegans. Future research should monitor the progression of people's eating-related attitudes and behaviours before and after they transition to veganism to establish whether veganism increases the risk of disordered eating, or vice versa. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: IV, cross-sectional study. SN - 1590-1262 UR - https://www.unboundmedicine.com/medline/citation/34786670/Characteristics_and_clinical_implications_of_the_relationship_between_veganism_and_pathological_eating_behaviours_ DB - PRIME DP - Unbound Medicine ER -