It seems to be a way of exerting control over yourself, similar to the way anorexics control what they eat (or don’t eat). Could choosing not to eat meat, not for all people, but in certain situations, be considered an eating disorder?
I doubt this is the reason in the vast majority of cases, but certainly being obsessive about food intake is indicative of an eating disorder. For example, if someone has it in their head that it’s OK to eat vegetables because they have fewer calories and no fat, and they are compulsive about eating only vegetables, it would be a kind of eating disorder. Other foods being considered taboo and out of control, but vegetables OK, even in large quantities, could be disorder eating.
If you look hard enough you can find almost any compulsive pattern of eating demonstrated by someone somewhere, but I doubt a generalization about vegetarianism could stand.
To be a disorder, I imagine it has to cause you harm. Anorexia and bulemia fit this, vegetarianism doesn’t. So it’s not a disorder.
I tend to think of vegetarianism as more of a Kosher for the 21st century. People do it because they think they should, not because they have to.
Perhaps some of us just plain don’t want to be responsible for the death of a living creature.
Your house is not full of roaches, I hope.
No, thank God. I would probably have a real dilemma on my hands. I even catch spiders with a glass and cardboard to put them out…but roaches…
I believe it to be a healthly lifestyle choice for many sensible people.
It starts to become a disorder when a few over zealous individuals try to force it on non-vegetarians.You know the type, always expounding on the benifits while you are trying to enjoy a steak or pouting over the poor animals while at the cookout.
I echo gigi, in that a lot of teenage girls (I’m speculating, I don’t have cites) may take up the cause of vegetarianism because they know vegetables and fruits are low in fat and calories…but they don’t do the research on what your body needs to survive.
My sister’s friend is a ‘vegetarian’, but she’s sick all the time, and deathly thin, because all she eats is iceberg lettuce, oranges and carrots. Is she teetering on anorexia? I think so, but she uses vegetarianism as an excuse for her disorder, which kind of makes it a disorder in itself.
As a side note, my all time favorite line comes from a vegetarian who hadn’t really thought out her position. I asked her why she became a veggie (because some do it for health reasons and some for moral) and she said,
“Because it’s natural. You don’t see animals eating other animals in nature.”
right!
jarbaby
A friend of mine met somebody once who said he was a vegetarian. “Care about the animals that much?” asked my friend. “Nope. I just really hate plants.”
Vegetarianism is not just an eating disorder, it’s a personality disorder.
I know one person who became vegetarian in the process of developing anorexia. For her, it wasn’t a moral issue; it was a matter of distorted body issues and distorted ideas about food. Once she recovered, she began eating small amounts of fish and poultry, though she has lost the taste for red meat altogether.
However, I know far more vegetarians who eat (at least relatively) healthy diets and don’t obsess about food. If you enjoy what you eat and your eating habits are not detrimental to your physical or mental health, that can’t be an eating disorder!
For the record: I’m an omnivore. Love my veggies, love my chicken.
My sister works with adolescents who suffer eating disorders, she tells me that a lot of the anorexic kids say they are vegetarian, because it’s easier for them to take in less fat that way.
But as to it being an eating disorder in it’s own right, I’d say no; it may arise out of an eating disorder, but considered alone, it’s merely a dietary choice (like deciding you’re not going to eat snails ever again - an easy choice for many people)
It is my personal goal to become the most rotund, well-fed vegetarian in history. To accomplish this, I will eat only cheese, pasta, and peanuts, and drink only whole milk and the heaviest beer I can find.
Eating disorder my ass. 
You know, I never looked at it that way before, but I’m a meat eater anyhow. In some cases, it could be possible, probably falling under Obsessive Compulsive Disorder or a phobia, but most I think are due to personal preference and a small amount might be due to an over active set of guilt and sympathy feelings.
In this day and age of prepackaged meats and world wide access to all forms of information on meat preparation along with information on animal cruelty along with shows where you watch chefs rip living creatures apart to prepare meals, people are not as hardened to slaughter as they used to be. You used to buy your chickens fresh and alive, take them home and slaughter them yourself, then the butcher would let you select a live one and slaughter and clean it for you or sell you one killed and cleaned a few hours earlier.
I’m a meat eater but I don’t want to meet the living animal about to be killed and sliced up to give me my steaks! We raised some chickens and a pig when I was a child and slaughtered them and my mother had to mix the meat up in the freezer and lie to me that our dinner came from the store or else I’d probably not have eater a chicken I knew personally. Vegetarians probably have similar feelings along with the major amount of support information stating that a vegetarian diet is real good for you. Less cholesterol anyhow, lots of good fiber and fresh vitamins.
The way people look and think about things these days is so different from the times of the 40s through the 70s that watching movies made in those times and historical recordings makes them seem somewhat strange and, at times, a little shocking. In the 40s, people were used to violence, fist fights were common and the cops did not bother hauling you in over one, men could beat the crap out of their wives with immunity, and if a man complained about his wife beating him, he was laughed at and considered a wuss. Slaughter houses thought little of sweeping scraps off of the dirty floor, rinsing them, then cooking them into a cheap canned meat product and selling this stuff to people.
Not like that today, is it? Even badly diseased animals are not allowed to be butchered like before. So, I would say that most vegetarians are simply a modern product of vast amounts of information. The little pocket remaining I would think have some mental conditions. OCD and phobias are tremendously powerful conditions.
That’s like anorexia and bulimia are modern diseases, a sign of the times and possibly related to OCD.
Not exactly an answer to OP, but it’s close.
I think I’d like to try eating ONLY meat. Yes sir, no more nasty veggies for me. Hmm, maybe just red meat. I want cow. Bring me some cow with a side of… cow. I want a steak sandwhich between two buns of ground beef.
I don’t think that anyone who follows a healthy diet could be considered to have an eating disorder. A person who eats only lettuce, or only meat-free junk food, probably has an eating disorder, but that would only be incidentally related to the person’s vegetarianism.
What if the person eating that healthy diet is obsessed with eating a healthy diet? What if that person’s every waking moment is spent planning meals? What if that person is unable to eat in social situations because of the restrictions of their healthy diet?
I agree with the doctor in the linked article. Anyone who is totally obsessed with their diet has an eating disorder. Surely not all vegetarians have an eating disorder, but those that let their diet run their lives do have an eating disorder.
Great Debates, anyone?