William Atkins
Thursday, 02 April 2009 21:56
Science -
Health
Page 1 of 3
According to U.S. researchers who studied adolescent and young adult vegetarians and non-vegetarians, vegans have healthy diets and weight control, but they are at increased risk for unhealthy eating behaviors.
The U.S. research team of Ramona Robinson-O'Brien, Cheryl L. Perry, Melanie M. Wall, Mary Story, and Dianne Neumark-Sztainer wrote up the conclusions of their study in the
Journal of the American Dietetic Association. They are associated with the College of Saint Benedict and Saint John's University, the University of Minnesota, and the University of Texas, Austin.
Their April 2009 article is entitled
Adolescent and Young Adult Vegetarianism: Better Dietary Intake and Weight Outcomes but Increased Risk of Disordered Eating Behaviors (2009; volume 109, issue 4, pages 648-655, DOI: 10.1016/j.jada.2008.12.014)
The purpose of their study was to determine the relationship between vegetarianism and their behaviors with respect to weight, dietary intake, and weight-control.
Vegetarianism is the practice of some people (called vegans) that exclude meat, fish, poultry, eggs, dairy products, and honey from their diets. The practice is usually done as a healthier way to eat and to abstain from eating animals or to use animals for any cruel purposes (such as for leather, fur, etc.)
The researchers used data from a population-based study undertaken at the University of Minnesota called the
Project EAT-II Eating Among Teens study, commonly called Project EAT.
They analyzed the diet, weight, weight control behavior, and drug and alcohol use of 2,516 adolescents and young adults, both males and females, between the ages of 15 and 23 years. They were divided into two groups: adolescent (15-18 years) group and a young adult (19-23 years) group.
The researchers also sent out a survey through the mail in 2004 that contained questions about the frequency of the food they ate and their eating-related behaviors, such as binge eating, diet pills, induced vomiting, laxatives, and diuretics.
The researchers removed any external biases from the data that might corrupt it and corrected for participants being “current vegetarians”, “former vegetarians,” or “never vegetarians.”
Page two shows the conclusions of the vegan study.
