I got the following comment on a post, and I woke up this morning realizing that by trying to be too kind in my response. I had done this women, her daughter, and any other readers an injustice.
Here was the original question:
My daughter is a vegan who is receiving treatment in an Eating Disorders facility. So far, I haven’t found one that will accept my 21 year old daughter into a program. They will not work with her vegan diet, yet strangely said they would if she were vegetarian (also a restrictive diet.) Tabitha, you mostly mention vegans with ED who obviously were not in it for truly ethical reasons, but who used it as a nice mask for their ED. I am sure you will agree that there are indeed those who truly have a moral objection to animal products. My daughter most certainly falls into that category. I actually do understand how a restrictive mindset can send some down the rabbit hole of ED. But to tell an ethical vegan she has to eat animal products is basically like telling her that she needs to sprout wings and fly. Ain’t gonna happen. To me, it seems ironic that most eating disorders clinic would rather turn away a person potentially close to death, rather than try to work with her diet. (Note: I even offered to step in and prepare healthy, “non-starvation” vegan food for her program, but they would not allow that.) One more thought: before my daughter and I became vegan, I most certainly felt that vegetarian and vegan diets were ridiculously restrictive — as do most, if not all, omnivores. But when you are on the other side, eating so much delicious food, you will never think of it as restrictive. I eat more variety now than I did as a SAD [standard American diet] eater. Tabitha: can you give me any direction re: how I can help my daughter if an eating disorders program is not available for her? Maybe a vegan nutritionist?
Here is my full answer to that question:
(I have removed the original comment from the blog it was on in order to protect this person’s identity)
I am going to assume that you love your daughter very much. I also have compassion for you and the fact that this illness will likely challenge your own ethical and moral standpoints. Please read every word here in the knowledge that all I ever want is to help people get into full recovery from Anorexia. I have no other agenda here. I have no personal objection to people being vegan if they do not have a mental illness that means that they should not. I want your daughter to be well and I want to help you get her there.
Okay so first off I will address the treatment facility part. It is no wonder that no treatment facility will accept a vegan and I am actually glad that this is the case for the sake of every other patient in there. A vegan diet is a restrictive diet if done for ethical reasons or otherwise. It could potentially damage patients who are struggling to eat to see one person allowed to be vegan. If that was an option for one, why not all?
I have thought hard about this and I can hand on heart say I do not know anyone who has reached full recovery and is vegan. Full recovery means spontaneously being able to stop and eat at Wendy’s without having a freak out. Full recovery is being relaxed about eating anywhere, anything, at any time. Full recovery is allowing other people to make food for you without worrying about what is in it. Full recovery is eating without rules. All these things are possible on a vegetarian diet for sure, but not on a vegan diet. Hence it doesn’t surprise me that I do not know a vegan who has made a full recovery from an eating disorder.
Anorexia never “goes away.” It is a mental illness and you daughter will always have it. Reaching full recovery only ever really means remission. Those of us who sustain full recovery do so by practicing non-restriction actively. Relapse thrives on complacency. As a fully recovered adult there is not a day that passes when I do not actively check myself. This is a part of my life as much as insulin is for someone with Type One Diabetes.
I have met people who have recovered “enough” but not all the way on a vegan diet. I was one myself for a short while. I wrote a post on what living semi recovered is like here. A half like is a special sort of purgatory. It is not what either of us want for your daughter.
Maybe the knowledge that recovery while on a vegan diet is not realistic is another reason why no treatment facility will accept her? Not only could doing so damage others, but they know that all will happen is that they will weight restore her and she will relapse as soon as she is out as the mental restriction will not have been touched. IP is only a first step in recovery, but if she cannot let go of her vegan diet when her life is at risk, when can she?
Another side to this is that if she is very underweight, your daughter’s body needs saturated fats. There is no amount of vegetables in the world that is going to help her body rebuild in the same way saturated animal fats will. Her poor tiny stomach needs food that it can digest very fast and easy and it can use to rebuild the damage that has been done by starvation. The professionals likely know this is the case. Hence another reason it would not be right for them to accept her.
Secondly I will address the assumption that my posts on vegans and eating disorders were about people who were not really ethical vegans. This is wrong. I actually assume that anyone — eating disorder or not — is vegan for ethical reasons. It makes no difference. If you have an eating disorder you cannot do it. It is a serious mental illness that feeds off food restriction. Additionally, I think that due to the manipulative nature of Anorexia and other eating disorders, nobody can ever truly know. Not the sufferer, and certainly not an outsider. Who am I or anyone else to judge a person’s motivations for being vegan? I’m not so I don’t try. And it doesn’t matter. An eating disorder can kill a person for being vegan regardless of the intention behind it.
Now let us look back at the original documentation we have for Anorexia: Anorexia Mirabilis.
Anorexia Mirabilis was the term used to describe the women in the middle ages who starved themselves to death in the name of god. Now, ask any one of these woman about their intentions? I think that their intentions were 100 percent solidly Christian in their minds. But they still died.
So when a person has Anorexia, intentions need not be considered too heavily. The outcome would be the same if your daughter was vegan due to “true moral objections” or otherwise. Not worth taking the risk, is it? We can argue about you daughter’s intentions until the cows come home, but this illness could kill her in the meantime. Let’s focus on what is best for her — and that is not going to be the same as what she thinks is best for her right now.
Now the part where you say that eating vegan is not as restrictive as eating the Standard American Diet. It interests me that many vegan people refer to the SAD as if it is a binary question. One either eats the SAD or one eats vegan. It is not. No matter what you buy, how creatively you cook, or where you live, it is not possible that by cutting out all products made with animal products that you have more choice then if you were able to eat a diet made with animal products as well as plant-based. Not possible. That is math.
All foods = 100%
All foods minus foods made from animal products = < 100%
There are ethical ways to eat animal products. When I made the decision to start eating eggs again I gave up my yard and turned it into a home for my free range chickens. I love their eggs, they are happy as clowns.
Not being vegan doesn’t mean that you HAVE to eat burgers from McDonalds every mealtime. But it might mean that you do it every now and then. It means that you have not closed your mind down to eating meat and animal products; and here is where the importance of not being vegan lies for a person with an eating disorder. In the mind.
Finally: I was vegan (and believe me, it was for ethical reasons,) but I realized that it was something I could not do due to the mental illness — Anorexia — that I have. I cannot imagine being able to come to that conclusion for myself if my family had been vegan. Nope. It would have been too hard.
I would never have been able to do it even when I knew that coming off my vegan diet was my only shot at full recovery. Luckily for me, I was married to a man who supported my decision to eat meat with him and encouraged it. Fighting my eating disorder’s attempts to tell me that what I was doing was wrong was hard enough. I would not have been able to get there if I had been surrounded with friends and family who were vegan too. That would have been like trying to overcome alcoholism while living in a pub.
I want finish with this simple truth: “What is more important to you?”
My intention here is not to question that you love your daughter. I know you love your daughter. I am trying to be as kind as I know how to be whilst still getting across the importance of this. I do not believe that your daughter can make a full recovery on a vegan diet. In order to get there, she will need as much help as she can get — and mostly yours.
Won’t you consider not being vegan along with her as she makes the recovery journey?
Surely, that would be the most powerful thing that you could do as her mother right now. Take the journey with her every step of the way. Eat her into health together.
So what can you do? I would suggest coming away from the vegan diet now. Getting her into IP and backing the treatment team there up when they ask her to eat meat. Then, when she comes home, continue her care with family-based treatment at home. Eat non-vegan foods with her. Share this recovery journey with her.
With love, Tabs
New Online (Global) Meal Support Service
I am excited to announce that this week we launched Active Eating Disorder Recovery for Adults (AEDRA) Meal Support Service.
This is a worldwide service where any person can receive support at a mealtime to help overcome anxiety. We also have post meal support slots available for people who struggle with purging and post-meal anxiety. Binge Eating Disorder is also supported!
You can find out more about AEDRA here, and in the video below:
I appreciate your honesty, Tabitha, and thank you for such a detailed response. I was going to respond to each of your points, but I realize that ultimately all that matters is this: my daughter will NOT voluntarily eat animal products. My eating them will not persuade her, but would infuriate and disappoint her. I did find a facility in CT that will work with vegans — Silver Hill in New Canaan, CT. She has resisted going into a residential program, but we may have to force her — by getting conservatorship if need be. Animal lives matter, but my daughter’s life matters, too. If I felt eating animal products would save her life, I would try to encourage her (though it would be in vain.) So we will take this first step and go from there. Thank you again. You have given me much to think about.
Although i was not vegetarian while struggling with my eating disorder, there were some concerns that came up when I made the switch due to ethical reasons. I don’t view this as a restrictive way of your daughter coping with her eating disorder but as something both you and her have decided is best for the environment.
The misconception that people are unable to gain weight back or to recover while eating a vegan diet is absurd. I personally gained weight easier while not eating meat for the simple fact that by not eating meat that has added growth hormones among other different hormones, your body easily digests it. If she were forced to eat animal by-products this could create even more issues within her recovery.
There are a variety of different naturalpathic doctors as well as nutritionists that will be able to aid in helping with a vegan diet. I personally was never put into a specific program. I spoke to different doctors such as therapists and nutritionists separately. I also did this while I was switching to a vegetarian diet.
if you are knowledge enough to make meals that follow a nutritionists plan for what she needs in order to recover, there should be no issue with her following her vegan lifestyle.
(Note; I am not anti-vegan or anything, just anti-restriction for anyone with Anorexia!)
I agree that you can gain weight and physically get better from Anorexia while eating vegan foods, but I think that is not really what Tabitha is trying to say- Anorexia doesn’t go away with weight restoration if you do not eat completely unrestrictedly.
Any sort of restriction keeps the Anorexia alive. And you can’t really say that vegan diets aren’t restrictive, because no matter how many vegan versions of a recipe you will find, you will never be able to- like Tabitha said- stop for a feed at Wendy’s spontaneously. You will never be able to eat food withuot first considering what is in it. That is not eating unrestrictedly, and it is this that keeps the Anorexia active, regardless of what weight and physical shape you are in. It is all in the brain.
I understand the whole ethical reasons behind veganism- I used to be vegan, because I couldn’t bear to make animals suffer- but, even though I was gaining weight, first of all, it wasn’t the food my body needed (all I wanted to eat was ice cream and anything slathered in butter), and the restriction was keeping my Anorexia active. When I was so desperately craving a piece of toast with butter, and I didn’t sleep all night because I was thinking about the bread and butter in my kitchen, I knew I needed to eat it, but when I tried to eat it, I couldn’t. I had a panic attack right there, in the middle of the night, because I couldn’t make myself eat the butter. Because my Anorexia wouldn’t let me.
It has nothing, really, to do with the weight gain. You can certainly gain weight on a vegan diet! But, with even the slightest sort of food restriction keeps the Anorexia alive and active, no matter how much weight you gain.
You will NEVER fully recover from Anorexia if you restrict food. Veganism is food restriction.
Besides, let’s face it- who doesn’t want to eat those buttered potatoes?
Well, Wendy’s fries are vegan, and having ethical restrictions is completely different than having restrictions for fear of gaining weight. Should a recovering anorexic have no qualms with eating dog or human meat/secretions? And what say you about people with food allergies? Can they not make a full recovery? As long as you eat enough calories (there are plenty of high calorie and even unhealthy vegan foods) and are not concerned with them or weight gain, it shouldn’t matter.
There’s vegan butter too btw
I just wanted to add onto this comment and respond to the blog post, because I, too, do not completely agree with it. Yes, it is more challenging (for some) to overcome an eating disorder when on a vegan diet. However, it is not impossible. In fact, I’d be bold enough to say that FULL RECOVERY (not just remission) is possible. Even on a vegan diet.
Sadly, for many people, following a vegan (or any other type of) diet can be a reason for restriction and a way to justify not eating certain food products or for checking food labels. For others, however, it really is for ethical and environmental reasons. Important to note also is that there is a vegan version of everything — vegan food can be just as healthy or unhealthy as food on any other diet, and there is nothing you’d have to miss out on.
Personally, I recovered from an eating disorder and became vegan afterward, partly because my boyfriend is vegan and his family vegetarian, but mainly for the environmental impact that this makes. Not to restrict. Transitioning has been by no means triggering, and I have in fact gained some weight! (without freaking out over it, of course ;)). Moreover, I consider myself 100% recovered. It is worth mentioning that for me, I felt it was important to focus on recovery first and only then transition (but again, I am not saying that this is what will work for everyone — some may never be able to become vegan without damaging their mindset, whereas others might be able to do so well before reaching full recovery).
Good on you. I fervently disagree with tabitha, you can certainly recover on a vegan diet and successfully gain weight – I have to say animal proteins/ fats are harder on the body to digest anyway and plant proteins and fats easier. I think it’s disgusting her suggestion that you should forgo your moral/ ethical stance to encourage your daughter to do the same? Tbh I also think it would do the opposite and would be more likely to be traumatic for the both of you – worsening her situation! I’m thankful you found somewhere that would accomodate her vegan diet in the end – after a big struggle with my treatment team last year, they finally respected my ethical stance and allowed me to be given a vegan meal plan. I wish you both all the best. Anorexia is a horrific disease 🙁
Same, A. It is entirely possible to recover on a vegan diet. It makes me sick to see that some people automatically label it as “restrictive,” when that is not correct. Anyone can follow a restrictive diet. It doesn’t matter whether they eat meat or not. It was annoying to read that basically, if you have an eating disorder, you’re not really vegan for ethical reasons. I have struggled with eating disorders when I ate meat, when I was a pescatarian, vegetarian and vegan. I am vegan for ethical reasons, and will not give that up. I am working on being happier and healthier, without consuming animal flesh.
YESYESYES! ♥
Hi Susan, I realize that this post is about a year old now but I just wanted to tell you this: Veganism actually HELPED me to recover from anorexia. I was only able to gain weight once I went vegan. It helped me start eating more food than I ever could have on a standard diet. I am still vegan five years later and FULLY 100% recovered. For me, (although I didn’t see it this way at the time), anorexia was a form of protest against what I saw as a heartless world. Veganism granted me the ability to stand fully by my values of nonviolence, it gifted me an outstandingly compassionate community and exposed me to a variety of vibrant foods and a deeper understanding of what it means to actually NOURISH my body. For all of these reasons, veganism actually helped me to recover. Veganism gave me strength, a sense of individuality that I was missing, a purpose and a way to feel good about myself. I am an extremely sensitive person. I cry when someone kills a bug in front of me. For me, eating animal products would be like eating the suffering of human babies. It would make me so so so sad and would not help my recovery at all. It would have made me feel even more frustrated at the world, even more invisible and even more alone.
I now coach people through their eating disorder recovery, and while I would never recommend that someone go vegan who has an eating disorder, I do coach people who are already vegan and have found that it actually serves as a support structure for them. If you’d like for me to talk to your daughter and share my experience, I’d be happy to. You can email me at brandilyn.tebo@gmail.com
I am an ethical vegan. As an abuse survivor of a parent with a mental illness, animals have provided me some of the most consistent behavior I’ve experienced in life. When I am nice, they are nice. Much of the joy I feel in life is from spending time with animals. I don’t desire to eat them and I’ve watched too many documentaries on farming and health.
I also find the diet not-restricting. I eat more types of foods than most people I know. For me and my family, it is very easy to see if I am having a problem with anorexia. When I’m healthy, I eat “regular” types of food: lentil shepards pie, large bowls of nice cream, smooothies, veggie burritos, cocounut ice cream, etc. I laugh more often, listen better, sleep better, call friends more often, am more flexible, and am generally more present. When I am deep in anorexia, there are many warning signs. I go from enjoying a smoothie to being terrified of a piece of fruit. I act anxious. I start missing meals. I isolate. I’m spacey. I weigh myself often. Eating a healthy vegan diet isn’t bad – it can really help with excess brain/body inflammation (present in trauma survivors), mood, general wellness, and a sense of purpose (who doesn’t want to help animals?). Just keep an eye out for changes in behavior, especially during stressful times.
Emily Program (multiple states and are levels) will work with a vegan diet and so will Center for Hope of the Sierras (NV).
All of what she said is utter bullshit except it being a type of restrictive diet because let’s be honest it technically is. On the topic of restrictive diets so is eating only kosher food, or not pig, or no cows due to religious reasons and if you were to ever tell someone they have to eat anything that goes against that would be the biggest fuck you. It is absolutely absurd to tell humans that believe killing another being just for food that they should contribute more to the gruesome things animals are forced to endure purely for being alive. Meat and animal products can entirely ruin your body and lead to plenty diseases, even though I acknowledge they can help in certain ways the negatives far out way it. If you truly believe anorexia recovery is simply about eating whatever you want then you should be outraged at not just mainstream company’s for not at least offering these options but yourself for restricting and forcing someone to consume something they are morally and so wholeheartedly against.
“ It is absolutely absurd to tell humans that believe killing another being just for food that they should contribute more to the gruesome things animals are forced to endure purely for being alive. Meat and animal products can entirely ruin your body and lead to plenty diseases, even though I acknowledge they can help in certain ways the negatives far out way it”.
You are a one hypocrite human being. Killing is a natural process of staying alive to reproduce. You don’t see vegans in food deprived countries. If you truly believe that killing animals are unethical, then you wouldn’t drive cars, live in your home or anything that you have in your possessions that us humans drove the animals away from their habitats. Even the internet you used to leave this ridiculous claim about the harmful animal diets, at some point, we drove animals away and killed them because we had to mine the field that destroyed trees to dig deep before extracting minerals necessary to power your electricity. How cute do animals have to be before you care about their well beings? How about snakes or grasshoppers? Do you care about them as much as cows or pigs?
hi just popping in after a long time to say I don’t know if you understand how damaging it is to say that an ethical vegan can never truly recover from their anorexia. you stuck a fucking nail in the coffin in terms of me trying to look for anything inkling of hope knowing that I don’t want to slaughter animals and consume their corpses and I also want to live a happy life free of food stress. I don’t view animals as food nor do any other ethical vegans at this point. We see it as the corpses of tortured bodies that never wanted to die. So the force us to eat that or suggest that we have to eat that in order to promote any sense of a full recovery is absurd and 10 times more restrictive than any vegan diet could ever be. You should be ashamed of yourself if you honestly think that comments like this are helpful to those seeking recovery. There’s a difference between harsh truth and close minded uneducated dumb ass responses like yours
As a mother of an adult sufferer who claims to be vegan for ethical reasons, I absolutely love this! You cannot fully recover on a vegan diet. She is currently staying with me, and I am enjoying my meat, eggs and dairy in front of her with total abandon (I used to be vegetarian … for ethical reasons!). I adore eggs – they are my comfort food! Poached eggs on toast at lunchtime … yum! So after a few months of my adult daughter staying with me and watching me eat “everything in moderation” (my mantra), today we discussed how she never did like eggs in their naked form, because of the risk of “jelly” bits. You know, that part of the white that may never quite solidify. But she used to LOVE my quiches! And she remembered that today. Ohhhh …. the day I can get her to eat some quiche will be the day I dance naked in Leicester Square! Well, for the sake of everyone else, I may just dance fully clothed. But I’ll dance. In Leicester Square. In front of complete and utter strangers.
Saturated fats. Really?
There is a ton of saturated fat in vegetable oils (oreos anyone? think of palm oil), so it is not a real excuse. And in my experience animal proteins are SO HARD to digest! I tried, I wanted to eat animal product in refeeding, because I thought this is the right thing for me to do, but actually my stomach felt horrible. Not because of refeeding in itself but because I have eaten almost only animal products, some rice, nuts and oils. And it was weird. My hormons were messed up even more, while I was eating bacon and cheese and eggs and butter and yogurt all the time…… And even on top of it, I didn’t gain weight. No matter how much animal products I have eaten, even if I was over the recommendations, I didn’t gain weight. Only after I give it up – because it made me miserable and I was leaning down even more – and started to eat all of natures carb godness did it happen. Because I was not starved of “fat” only but carbohydrate. And our bodies need quick energy in recovery and what is quicker and most effective than processed carbs which turn into sugar in minutes in your mouth? Animal protein and fat require far more energy from the body to use it up, even if it is higher in calories. But you can find other fatty energy sources in plant based food on the market. Especially in processed food which I think is the heaven of quick energy fix and most easier to digest in a currently suppressed metabolism.
After I take back on animal products and increase vegan options in my meals did my health improve and I was healing for sure. But it took me a whole year to understand that I was restricting carbs due to the overload of meat,milk stuff and eggs so my body was working on digesting these hard energy forms desperately all the time, which made me feel sick, tired (even more,yeaay) and awful because I thought it was not helping.
After a few years I decided to go vegan and my body responded to all the carbohydrates with MASSIVE WATER RETENTION because it was clearly so starved without it! I was craving fruits, dried fruits and all starches, baked good for half of a year it is crazy. I was eating carbs before as well, but after I decided to give into my real fear of carbs (which was holding me back of following a plant based lifestyle actually) and the majority (70-80% for a while) of my intake came from carbohydrates did my body started to heal the damage and put on mass, fat and healed my nervous system as well. I felt so energized after years and years of struggling I wouldn’t aim back for animal products again! I wanted to skip animals out of options when I first heared a pig crying under slaughter from our neighbourhood. It was my biggest desire to not be forced to eat animals, but I was used to it in our society and I didn’t know yet vegetarianism is even an option. It sucks.
Just so you know. I respect your view and opinion on veganism related to ED, but I know people, who have reached full remission as a vegan, because it gave them hope and unconditional permission to eat. And you can live without animal fat, but you cannot live without letting ed fears go away for good and have faith that this gonna make you thrive. And there are people out there who does still much better on the vegan diet, and even stay healthy and feel amazing than they did before as an omnivore. And it is all mental, I’m sure.
And a question for you: what if someone was raised on a vegetarian diet then the eating disorder happened in his adolescence? Would you treat him in recovery as meat eaters? Would you force him to eat meat even if he has never tasted it? Would you force him anyway even if he hasn’t got the enzyms to break it down in the gut cause he never had to do so? It is the same as if you would treat someone who was raised on an omnivore “diet” and you force them to recover as a vegetarian. You cannot do that. And what happens when someone was raised as a vegan? Should he gave it up because others find it triggering? Does it mean he won’t recieve treatment? Because they’re different? Would you force for examples buddhists or a jewish to eat whatever they were forbidden? Because it is till only ‘ehtical’, right? This is very interesting in my opinion. Brings up a ton of questions about ed recovery treatment and how to handle patients rights.
What a load of absolute bs. As a vegan and A TYPE 1 DIABETIC(thanks for comparing my auto immune disease which could easily kill me in situations that could be completely out of my control to a mental/ physical disorder that a person chooses to continue) and a RECOVERED DIABULIMIC/ BINGE EATER I can say basically everything this lady wrote is inaccurate. My ex anorexic friend beat her ED with my support after I told her my story and with a vegan diet. I DO EAT OUT WITHOUT GUILT and I eat every thing from vegan pizza/ doughnuts to healthy salads. I had to change my relationship with food and my body to recover but being a vegan does not set you back in the slightest. And as far as rapid weight gain for recovering anorexics I suggest they follow a diet similar to many vegan athletes which would be high carb( from whole grains beans starches fruits and veggies), high fat( lots of nuts and seeds plus moderate amounts of plant based oils and tons of avocado), and low in processed foods and added sugars. The above is just a great example of a lady who thinks she knows every thing about everyone talking out of her bum. “There are no fully recovered vegan ED patients” my butt.
I completely agree, Shyann. That is not true at all that there aren’t any fully recovered vegan patients with eating disorders. Also, having an eating disorder when you are vegan or vegetarian, does not mean that those type of diets are always restrictive. People with anorexia are restrictive regardless. Also, having an eating disorder when vegan does not automatically mean you aren’t vegan for ethical reasons. I am appalled to hear that.
People with Anorexia do not ‘choose to continue’ their disorder. We have no more control over our disease than you do over your Diabetes. Literally no more control. We will die if we are not extremely careful if we are not SUPER vigilant to never restrict, just as your Diabetes would kill you if left unchecked.
Please do not say things like that on this type of blog (a recovery blog). You have no idea the damage it can do.
You clearly do not have Anorexia, because if you did, you wouldn’t be saying that we ‘choose to continue’ it. If you do not have Anorexia or another eating disorder, you don’t really have any right to say that it not comparable with a disease like yours. You cannot help that you have Diabetes. We cannot help that we have Anorexia. One is not more deadly than the other. They are both diseases, and they are both things completely out of our control. Mine should not be bashed because people like you are misinformed.
(Just as an example, saying that Anorexia is a simple disorder that one chooses to continue with is like saying that diabetics have their disease because they are all fat, lazy slobs that eat sugar all day long. I’m sure that is not you, and I know that your idea of Anorexia is not me.)
hi iam julie turner and ive constantlyhave food thoughts in my head red meats like bacon burgers steak pie i was vegeterian but i was ill with eating qourn i went to asda bought a chicken ive been eating chicken for 2 months my stomuch feels little better but i feel sick all the time i eat cadburys milk choclote buttons and bars makes me feel better can you help me why iam like this
You may not be eating enough calories. When the body is hungry it starts to focus on food more, especially high-calorie foods like meat and cheese. Quorn has fewer calories than meat so your body wants the “real thing”.
Try focusing on getting in enough nutrients and that will help the cravings. For example, try having some nut butter for calories, greens for salt cravings, and fruit for sugar cravings. Greens are incredibly high in the minerals your body is usually needing when it starts telling you to eat sodium, and fruit is not only sweet enough to help satisfy a sweet tooth but also high in fiber that helps to regulate blood sugar and prevent you from feeling sick to your stomach.
Cravings are usually an indication that something is deficient in the body. Hope this helps!
I am an ethical vegan. As an abuse survivor of a parent with a mental illness, animals have provided me some of the most consistent behavior I’ve experienced in life. When I am nice, they are nice. Much of the joy I feel in life is from spending time with animals. I don’t desire to eat them and I’ve watched too many documentaries on farming and health.
I also find the diet not-restricting. I eat more types of foods than most people I know. For me and my family, it is very easy to see if I am having a problem with anorexia. When I’m healthy, I eat “regular” types of food: lentil shepards pie, large bowls of nice cream, smooothies, veggie burritos, cocounut ice cream, etc. I laugh more often, listen better, sleep better, call friends more often, am more flexible, and am generally more present. When I am deep in anorexia, there are many warning signs. I go from enjoying a smoothie to being terrified of a piece of fruit. I act anxious. I start missing meals. I isolate. I’m spacey. I weigh myself often. Eating a healthy vegan diet isn’t bad – it can really help with excess brain/body inflammation (present in trauma survivors), mood, general wellness, and a sense of purpose (who doesn’t want to help animals?). Just keep an eye out for changes in behavior, especially during stressful times.
Emily Program (multiple states and are levels) will work with a vegan diet and so will Center for Hope of the Sierras (NV).
It annoys me when people say a vegan diet is restricting. That is not true in most cases. People with eating disorders tend to have issues with restricting whether they eat met or not. All of the vegans that I know are not on restrictive diets. This article is pretty one-sided. I’m glad not everyone agrees with it.
YES! ♥
This article is such bull**** Anyone reading this wondering if it’s possible, IT IS. I was 92 pounds as an anorexic. I gained 60 pounds in my recovery. It took me 4 years to recover and I ultimately could, eating a vegan diet. I eat pizza and ice cream, and mac and cheese and lasagna and hamburgers and a lot of other foods I used to be scared of..
Veganism is “restricting” (for lack of better term) the types of food for ethical purposes to preserve and protect the environment, help animals, etc.
An eating disorder is restricting food to cope with life.
Honestly veganism is what saved me, ignore what this article says, you don’t have to give up your morals to recover. You don’t need to go to McDonald’s and order a burger to be healed from your eating disorder. Healed is not allowing the thoughts to control you.
This shouldn’t have been published. Kudos to the mom for standing her ground. I advocate anyone else in the same spot to do the same. I had an eating disorder for 9 years.
Eating disorders are not restricting food to ‘cope with life’. We do not choose to restrict food, and it is a disease, jsut like any other.
And it doesn’t matter the reasons behind restricting certain types of foods in veganism, if you have Anorexia, it is the restriction itself, and not the reasons behind it, that is harmful.
Seriously, though, drop the opinion that eating disorders are a way to ‘cope with life’. That is like saying cancer is a way to ‘cope with life’. People with cancer did not choose to have cancer. People with Anorexia do not choose to have Anorexia.
“you don’t have to give up your morals to recover” LOVE! ♥
recovery is a choice. if your daughter wants to recover truly, she can do this vegan or non vegan. recovery is extremely important, but so is the welfare of animals and their quality of life. the haldon is a unit that accepts vegans, also try and use this information that their is no vegan food in IP, to encourage her to restore her health. anorexia is so incredibly hard, however it does not dismiss the cruelty of the meat and dairy industry. hope this helps.
YES! ♥
Hi Tabitha! I love what you’re doing on this blog! Eating disorders are a very serious problem and need to be addressed as such. I’m very disturbed by this article, however. As someone who has struggled with Anorexia Nervosa relapses off and on my entire life I didn’t go into a genuine state of recovery until I went vegan.
I absolutely recognize that every mind is different and thus every eating disorder is a little different, but I know of many other people who have gone into recovery while eating a healthful plant-based diet. Of course, I can’t know someone else’s intentions but provided that they are genuinely vegan for ethical reasons I see no reason why they cannot recover.
I eat as much as I want, whenever I want, wherever I want, with whoever I want, and made by anyone. I feel physically stronger and healthier than I ever have, I’m at a very healthy weight, and I have less tiredness, headaches, and physical aches than I ever did.
Vegan recovery is ABSOLUTELY possible. Please don’t spread the fear that not eating animal products endorses unhealthy behavior and that recovery is “possible on a vegetarian diet for sure, but not on a vegan diet.” This is simply untrue.
Hello, bu can’t saturated fat be found in coconut oil/milk/cream? Just curious…not a vegan!
My daughter is a vegan for ethical reasons also and we’ve had a tough time trying to find facilities to accommodate her she is 15 and I support her choice. I am a vegetarian and seen the peta videos she watched about the dairy industry. I was tricked into sending her to a facility called Walden and they said they would support her and ended up traumatizing her by restraining her and forcing non vegan supplements in her. She developed ptsd after that. I have found a few facilities that worked with her diet one was a residential in Wisconsin called Aloria Health I really liked that place and another is in pa called Brandywine. Other than them 2 facilities CHOP has accommodated her veganism but I’ve had to go to war over her diet. It is ridiculous and a lot of people are becoming vegan they even sell vegan products in the store that specifically say vegan. It is not restrictive there are a lot of foods u can still eat as a vegan
This was a horrible article to read. I’m not restricted by being vegan (recovered anorexia here). I still eat Mac n’ Cheese, Pizza, Veggie burgers (all vegan substitutes of course). I’ve found most of my vegan food has more calories than the non vegan version.
This mother is completely enabling and contributing to her ADULT daughter’s eating disorder and it is unlikely she will ever recover, no matter what she is or isn’t eating, while being so enmeshed with such a codependent parent. Mom could use some personal therapy and spend a little more time focusing on fixing herself.
Most residential and inpatient treatments will accommodate vegetarian diets as they still will/can have dairy products and eggs. Yes, it’s still restrictive but as it allows dairy so if a person is not eating- the calorie shakes, which most contain dairy wouldn’t be an issue as a vegetarian.
While with a vegan diet the high fat foods/higher calorie foods would be nuts (which many ED hospitals/units already try avoiding having any nut options), avocado, soy, and oils are the other high calorie/high fat options- but most aren’t having avocado in meals, or tofu or tempeh, as most don’t even have these foods on hand and wouldn’t make an accommodation for the person eating Vegan based on choice. A very small select few may make accommodations in a residential unit with a proven diagnosis of allergy or intolerance (such as Celiac disease), or conditions such as EGID’s, Crohn’s disease, or Ulcerative Colotis, and it’s in medical documentation of foods you should restrict or avoid due to that condition(s). If you don’t have documentation from a medical stand point of something that can be medically proven then they tend not to believe it in addition to that conditions/issues such as IBS, digestive distress from certain foods with no medical condition or medical cause, are frowned upon by them/don’t believe it.
Although I don’t have an ED I know of many who have had them- including two best friends of mine. One had IBS but was still given dairy, eggs, certain meats, and wheat/gluten which are major trigger foods that cause issues due to the IBS, and also has severe pain from eating these foods- the staff would do nothing as they believe such things are fabricated as an attempt to restrict the food.
I was never “vegan” in the depths of my eating disorder; ate fish regularly and sometimes yogurt as well. In recovery veganism is empowering me to eat and “vote” with my fork. There are vegan foods that absolutely scare me shitless (coconut milk/ ice cream/ yogurt, vegan butter, faux meat, etc). There products are generally more processed and equal/higher in fat than their animal-derived counterparts. Therefore, eating vegan meat for example is much less desirable than regular meat as far as my orthorexia is concerned. However, I make the decisions to eat the vegan versions of food even though I view them as less healthy because in recovery I think that it is important to honor my morals.
Veganism is absolutely possible in recovery and remission. I personally didn’t abstain from all animal products in the begining of recovery so that I could honestly work through the reasons behind this lifestyle choice.
Oof. A controversial topic! I agree that lots of the points are valid – but I also believe that in this day and age, finding vegan replacements for foods is easy. The fears of/need for sat fat can be challenged/met with coconut oil, which is used frequently in vegan replacements (cheese, icecream, burgers), and it is so easy to find versions of bacon/cheeseburgers/whatever you are craving… yes, (all food minus all animal-derived food) is less than 100, but not that much less
yikes. going vegan has helped me a lot with ed, i still enjoy cooking more than eating, but one leads the other (for me). i dont see how a piece of a corpse will help me healing a mental dissorder.
Hi, student dietitian here. I think you had some really valid points and this is no doubt incredibly difficult for the people involved. But I would also like to contribute by saying that it is very clear you do not understand nutrition. One can absolutely gain weight without animal products. Saturated fat is not the only thing this girl needs. A combination of saturated and unsaturated fats would be fine and more beneficial, as well as protein for muscle synthesis. We get and need the majority of our energy from carbohydrates. ALSO, in the case of severe malnutrition it is ESSENTIAL that someone does NOT gain weight too quickly. This can cause something called re-feeding syndrome, which can be fatal. I am glad the mother could find an option her daughter is willing to consider.
I think that you make a lot of good points and I completely understand that a vegan diet can be disordered for many people. Going vegan simply isn’t the right choice for so many people who are suffering/have suffered from disordered eating. However, as someone who has never eaten meat and has been vegan since a very young age for ethical reasons along with many of my ancestors and extended family, I know that this has never been a factor in my restrictive eating disorder simply because I would never crave or restrict eating those animal products, only the vegan alternatives. As long as you and the people you’re closest to truly know that they’re is no restriction associated with your veganism and you don’t feel like you’re not challenging your ed fully, then your recovery is still completely possible <3