Vegetarianism in young women: Another means of weight control?

Objective: To investigate the links between vegetarianism (meat avoidance) and weight control in young women. Methods: Self-reported food habits (indi cating meat avoidance and weight loss dieting) and dietary restraint (using the Dutch Eating Behavior Questionnaire [DEBQ]) were collected from 131 yo ung adult women. Restraint scores and weight loss behavior were compared be tween vegetarians and nonvegetarians. In addition, reasons for meat avoidan ce were identified in the vegetarian subjects. Results: Vegetarianism, broa dly defined, was reported by 34.3% of participants. Vegetarians had signifi cantly higher dietary restraint, but did not differ in current dieting. Dis cussion: The relationship between vegetarianism and weight control is compl ex. Vegetarianism may be best seen as a method for complicating the normali zation of eating rather than a simple risk factor for eating disorders. (C) 1999 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.