Among eating disorder treatment specialists, ‘vegan’ is a dirty word. I’ve seen many clients suffering from anorexia nervosa over my 20+ years in practice. Without exception, all were told by their doctors, dietitians and psychologists that veganism was part and parcel of their eating disorder and they could not recover from it unless they went back to eating meat, or at the very least, dairy products and eggs.
Likewise, many of my clients have been told that they have orthorexia because they choose a wholefood plant-based diet free of oil and refined sugar, for health reasons. (See my article Are you health-minded or orthorexic?)
On the flip side, I’ve seen clients who adopted a plant-based diet because of a YouTuber who claimed that doing so cured her eating disorder.
So where does the truth lie, in this morass of claim and counter-claim? Does veganism cause eating disorders, or do eating disorders cause veganism? And does a plant-based diet help or hinder recovery from eating disorders?
In my experience, the answer to the first question is fairly straightforward. Of the clients I’ve seen who suffered with anorexia, bulimia and compulsive overeating, disordered eating behaviour always preceded the decision to adopt a vegan diet.
The foundation-stone of all eating disorders is food restriction. Disordered eaters have a mindset that food restriction – restricting calories, restricting portion sizes, restricting fat, restricting carbohydrates – allows them to exercise control over themselves, which (temporarily at least) helps to quell the anxious, self-deprecating thinking that constantly plagues them.
Once a person has begun restricting food intake in general, restricting animal foods is a natural segue. After all, animal foods are generally more energy-dense and fat-rich than plant foods, so multiple forms of restriction can be practised simultaneously by cutting them out of the diet. In many cases, disordered eaters conceal the restrictive mindset that underlies their behaviour by telling those around them that they’re avoiding certain foods because they’ve gone vegan, when the truth is that they’re avoiding those foods because they violate the set of internal rules that they’ve established in order to maintain a sense of control.
But it’s not always that simple. I have seen many girls and young women who suffer from anorexia, but also have a genuine philosophical commitment to veganism. In fact, in my observation, the highly sensitive temperament that predisposes a person to an eating disorder, also predisposes them to becoming vegan.
Psychologist Elaine Aron characterises the highly sensitive temperament as follows:
- Greater depth of processing – that is, thinking about everything more deeply, including things that other people take for granted and never think about at all.
- A tendency to become stressed by overstimulation, including sensory and social stimulation.
- Heightened emotional reactivity – that is, experiencing both ‘positive’ and ‘negative’ emotions more strongly – and empathy.
- Heightened awareness of subtleties, including nonverbal communication by others.
The greater depth of processing makes highly sensitive people more prone to ruminating over their own actions and the feedback of those around them (which they’re more likely to notice, thanks to their awareness of subtle cues), in turn driving them to try to ‘better themselves’ through restricting food; but it also renders them more likely to question cultural assumptions that animal product consumption is normal, natural and necessary.
The intensity of their own emotions can be so frightening that it causes highly sensitive people to engage in restrictive behaviours in order to impose control over what they perceive as their ‘too-much-ness’, but the flip side of this is their heightened empathy, which allows them to awaken to the plight of animals used for food while those around them never spare a thought for the once-living being on their plate.
All in all, the characteristics of highly sensitive people create the ‘perfect storm’ for the development of both eating disorders and vegan consciousness.
So what’s the answer to the second question – does a plant-based diet help or hinder recovery from eating disorders? Well… it depends! (How’s that for a completely unsatisfactory answer?) I’ve seen many clients make a complete recovery from anorexia, bulimia and binge eating disorder while adhering to a 100% plant-based diet. In fact, I would argue that a well-planned, diverse, wholefood plant-based diet, carefully tailored to the macro- and micronutrient needs of the person in recovery, may facilitate recovery because:
- It has higher nutritional quality than vegetarian, semi-vegetarian, pesco-vegetarian and omnivorous diets, providing all the nutrients needed for both physical and mental health;
- It restores a healthy gut microbiome, which plays a critical role in reduction of anxiety and depression;
- It allows healthy weight regain without the fear of ‘rebounding’ into overweight and obesity (an all-too-common fate for anorexics who are treated conventionally, due to ‘recovery’ being defined as being able to eat junk food without restraint).
On the other hand, many versions of a plant-based diet that are touted by bloggers and YouTubers play into the food restriction that underlies eating disorders, feeding the eating disorder ‘beast’ and delaying or preventing recovery, by, for example,
- Overemphasising particular food groups (such as fruit) at the expense of more energy-dense foods such as whole grains and legumes. Without energy-dense foods, you feel hungry all the time. That’s an unpleasant feeling for anyone, but for an eating disorder sufferer it’s particularly terrible – if you’re anorexic, it will feed into the sense of power that’s gained by denying yourself food, while for the bulimic or compulsive overeater, it drives obsessive thinking about food which leads to guilt and self-disgust, which are major triggers for bingeing.
- Preaching the virtues of an all-raw diet (which makes anorexics unable to regain weight and drives bingeing in bulimics and compulsive overeaters).
- Imposing rules about what times of day certain foods can and can’t be eaten (nirvana for the rule-driven eating disordered brain).
A critical shift in mindset is required in order to recover from eating disorders and thrive on a plant-based diet: In essence, the decision to eschew animal products (as well as unhealthy, overprocessed plant foods) needs to be divorced from the notion of food restriction as a form of self-control. Instead, making conscious choices about food becomes an expression of self-respect and healthy self-love.
I can tell when a client has made that shift, because they express joy and excitement at all the wonderful, healthy plant foods that are now available for them to enjoy and nourish themselves with, coupled with a deep sense of peace that their food choices are now aligned with their values of compassion for other beings, and commitment to nurturing their own health in order to maximise their ability to contribute to a better world.
That last point is important, because most of my clients who have recovered from eating disorders express a strong desire to help others who are still locked in mortal combat with the eating disorder ‘beast’, as well as to help animals used for food by demonstrating to others that it’s possible to thrive on a vegan diet.
I don’t mean to imply that escaping the clutches of an eating disorder is easy – just change your mindset, and hey presto, you’re cured! It’s a long and challenging process that requires serious commitment and plain hard work. My favourite tool for facilitating that work is Emotional Freedom Techniques, or EFT.
I teach clients with eating disorders how to use EFT to handle their difficult emotions, obsessive and intrusive thoughts, and compulsive behaviours around food, with outstanding success. Clients report EFT to be far more effective than traditional approaches such as cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT), because EFT provides them with an effective management strategy for powerful emotions that would otherwise overwhelm their capacity for rational thinking, on which CBT depends.
To learn more about my comprehensive approach to overcoming eating disorders, apply for a Roadmap to Optimal Health Consultation today.
"I had struggled for over 15 years with disordered eating. Everything from anorexia and bulimia to just disordered eating patterns that don’t necessarily have a name or label for it.
When I came to see Robyn I was technically a ‘healthy weight’ (I was actually on the high end of the recommended BMI scale) but I was definitely not recovered in the true sense of the word, as food issues were still something I really struggled with."
Read Sandy's story of recovery from eating disorder, and watch my interview with her.
Sandy
Central Coast, NSW
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