McLean Courtney P, de Boer Kathleen, Bray Megan
Department of Psychology, Counselling, and Therapy, La Trobe University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.
School of Psychological Science, Monash University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.
Int J Eat Disord. 2025 Sep;58(9):1723-1731. doi: 10.1002/eat.24475. Epub 2025 May 23.
Changes in eating patterns and/or food exclusion strategies, including the uptake of vegetarianism and veganism, may reflect disordered behaviors and attitudes in people with eating disorders. For this reason, health professionals often attempt to assess whether a client's vegetarianism or veganism is tied to, or driven by, their eating disorder. Yet this may be difficult considering a lack of formally recognized guidelines for the treatment of vegetarians and vegans with an eating disorder, meaning that often a one-size-fits-all approach to treating these groups is employed. This study aimed to integrate lived eating disorder perspectives to qualitatively inform indicators of potential pathological vegetarian or vegan adherence in people with an eating disorder.
Seventeen participants (aged 19-48, 76% [n = 13] female, 47.06% [n = 8] vegetarian) with a history of receiving eating disorder treatment were recruited.
Five themes were identified: (1) Timing matters, (2) Explore motivations for dietary adherence, (3) Fear reaction causes for concern, (4) Flexibility within vegetarianism or veganism, and (5) Hold space for eating disorder deception.
Our findings demonstrate several key indicators that may be useful areas of discussion in clinical practice when working with vegetarian and vegan clients. Being able to potentially quantify genuine vegetarian or vegan adherence from eating disorder-driven behaviors and attitudes provides a valuable stepping stone to the future development of clinical guidelines for the treatment of people adhering to these dietary groups.
饮食模式的改变和/或食物排除策略，包括素食主义和纯素食主义的采用，可能反映出饮食失调者的紊乱行为和态度。因此，健康专业人员常常试图评估客户的素食主义或纯素食主义是否与他们的饮食失调有关，或者是否由饮食失调所驱动。然而，考虑到缺乏针对患有饮食失调的素食者和纯素食者的正式认可的治疗指南，这可能会很困难，这意味着通常采用一刀切的方法来治疗这些群体。本研究旨在整合饮食失调的实际观点，以定性地为饮食失调者潜在的病理性素食或纯素食坚持的指标提供信息。
招募了17名有饮食失调治疗史的参与者（年龄在19 - 48岁之间，76%[n = 13]为女性，47.06%[n = 8]为素食者）。
确定了五个主题：（1）时间很重要，（2）探究饮食坚持的动机，（3）恐惧反应令人担忧，（4）素食主义或纯素食主义中的灵活性，以及（5）为饮食失调欺骗留出空间。
我们的研究结果表明了几个关键指标，在与素食和纯素食客户合作时，这些指标可能是临床实践中有用的讨论领域。能够从饮食失调驱动的行为和态度中潜在地量化真正的素食或纯素食坚持，为未来制定针对坚持这些饮食群体的人的临床治疗指南提供了宝贵的垫脚石。
