Risk of eating disorders among vegan diet followers is low, study suggests

Motivated by a desire to control their weight or live a healthier life, large numbers of people display behavior, thoughts or feelings about food and the body referred to by specialists as"dysfunctional dietary behavior" or"disordered eating attitudes," a risk factor for the development of eating disorders. They include people who start a restrictive diet on impulse, fast for long periods, indulge in binge eating or feel guilty when they eat certain foods.

A group of researchers at the University of São Paulo in Brazil set out to investigate the prevalence of dysfunctional dietary behavior among practitioners of vegan diets, which have become popular in this sustainability-conscious age., they identified"disordered eating attitudes" among only 0.6% of almost 1,000 participants, or less than a tenth of the estimated proportion of the Brazilian population .

The authors explain that they wanted to understand the motivations behind adhering to a vegan diet, and to identify any disordered eating attitudes among individuals who do so. A hypothesis raised in the literature is that veganism could be used to legitimize rejection of certain foods and social situations that involve eating. In this sense, it may mask dysfunctional dietary behavior and even eating disorders by facilitating restriction.

"However, the results of the study absolve veganism of blame by showing that the presence of dysfunctional dietary behavior is mainly associated with the reasons for dieting, rather than the type of diet," said Hamilton Roschel, a professor at the Medical School and head of the Applied Physiology and Nutrition Research Group.

According to Roschel, the fact that 62% of the participants said their motivation for following a vegan diet was"ethics and

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