Eating and health behaviors in vegans compared to omnivores: Dispelling common myths

Prevalence and psychopathology of vegetarians and vegans – Results from a representative survey in Germany

“…Adherence to a vegetarian diet has been hypothesized to be a factor in the development and maintenance of disordered eating 5 as the restrictive nature of the diet may be used as a socially acceptable way to refrain from eating specific foods 3 . The majority of studies [36][37][38][39] suggest that vegetarians exhibit greater levels of disordered eating than omnivores; however, two recent studies suggest that this may not always be the case 40,41 . Indeed, in one study by Timko et al 5 , semi-vegetarians, defined as those who exclude red meat from their diet, were found to have the highest level of eating pathology, while true vegetarians and vegans appeared healthiest in regards to eating and body weight.…”

Confirmatory factor analysis of the Eating Disorder Examination‐Questionnaire: A comparison of five factor solutions across vegan and omnivore participants

“…To date, no studies have examined fit of any of these proposed EDE‐Q models specifically in vegans, compared to omnivores, yet generalizability is implicitly assumed. Vegan eating is substantially different from omnivorous eating behaviors, but—as demonstrated by past studies—vegan status does not necessarily signal the presence of eating disorder pathology (Heiss et al, ). Questions on the EDE‐Q are designed to quantify pathological eating behavior, but some items may be inappropriate or misleading specifically to vegans.…”

“…It has been hypothesized that meat avoidance is associated with an elevation of eating disorder symptomology, though past research has produced largely inconclusive or conflicting findings (for a review, see Heiss, Hormes & Timko, ). This is likely due in part to (a) a failure to differentiate between different subgroups of vegetarians, with research on dietary vegans (i.e., those restricting all animal products from the diet) still in its infancy, and (b) usage of measures of eating disorder symptoms not yet validated in these specific subgroups of eaters (Heiss et al, ).…”

“…All scales measure slightly different aspects of eating disorders and disordered eating behaviors, though the EDE‐Q is the only questionnaire to provide a clinical cutoff to identify respondents who may be suffering from an eating disorder (Mond, Hay, Rodgers, Owen, & Beumont, ). To the best of our knowledge, at present, four published studies have utilized the EDE‐Q in vegetarian samples (Bardone‐Cone et al, ; Heiss et al, ; Timko et al, ; Zuromski et al, ).…”

“…Recent work has revealed this to be problematic, as subgroups of vegetarians seem to differ in meaningful ways, especially when it comes to eating disorder symptoms. Specifically, semi-vegetarians appear to be the most pathological in comparison to all other eaters, whereas vegans present as slightly less disordered compared to omnivores (Timko, Hormes, & Chubski, 2012;Heiss, Coffino, & Hormes, 2017). Additionally, past studies of eating disorders in vegetarians have generally failed to SH and JMH designed the study, SH collected the data; all authors contributed to the analyses and writing of the manuscript, and approve of the manuscript in its current form.…”