Review - Is Vegetarianism a Teen Eating Disorder?

I agree to the author's statement that 'Parents tend to overlook seemingly mild, earnest teen pursuits like joining the Sierra Club, but a new study in the Journal of the American Dietetic Association suggests that another common teen fad, vegetarianism, isn't always healthy. Instead, it seems that a significant number of kids experiment with a vegetarian diet as a way to mask an eating disorder, since it's a socially acceptable way to avoid eating many foods and one that parents tend not to oppose.' and also, 'parents and doctors should be extra vigilant when teens suddenly become vegetarians.'

The teenage fad of being slim is going on rise recently. The mass media has successfully portrayed perfomring artistes' beautiful and slim figure and thus, causing teenagers to be over-infatuated with them. The strong desire of sliming down has resulted to any means teenagers could take. Most importantly, these teenagers are not aware of some harms that may be imposed by their actions, vegetarianism. Parents may be ignorant to their children's condition due to their mindset that vegetarianism is healthy. The common eating disorder we are aware of are Anorexia & Bulimia. However, vegetarianism is commonly deemed as healthy and perhaps, a compassionate habit. Hence, I do agree with the author that vegetarianism may be a mask of an eating disorder. With that, a sudden change to vegetarian seems wierd. Thus, parents should be more particular to such sudden change of behaviour. This should be done before problems of vegetariansim on teenagers start to occur. Thus, I do agree that parents should be vigilant to such matters.

Back in Singapore, this teenage fad is likewise as well. The usual habits to slim down will be skipping meals or having their meal portions reduced. The number of Singapore teenagers taking a v egetarian diets has been increasing as well. Websites such as, http://www.streetdirectory.com/travel_guide/25126/e_diet/dietary_patterns_for_teen_weight_loss.html, does encourage vegetarianism . Websites easily visited through Google search do recommend vegetarianism to slim down. Well, this is a bad sign. Moreover, all these wrong information can be obtained just a click away. Inaccurate teachings from the Internet should not be followed. However, being naive and dying to cut down fats, Singapore teenagers are willing to these advices and execute them. Thus, undesirable outcomes such as weak immune system may take place.
To improve these situations, school talks to beware of such sites and always source for reliable sites. Encourage more exercises to be taken since it is the most healthiest and effective way to slim down.

All in all, this common teen fad vegetarianism isn't always healthy as it seems to be.