Teens Hide Eating Disorders With Vegetarianism: Study

A butcher, hunter, and rancher discuss the ethics of eating animals

(NEWSER) - For long stretches of their lives, Nicolette Niman, Tovar Cerulli and Joshua Applestone were all vegetarians or vegans. Now, they’re a rancher, a hunter, and a butcher, respectively, who “firmly believe food from animals can be healthful, environmentally appropriate, and ethical,” they write in the Atlantic . Their stories:

• Nicolette: She became vegan “after hearing that beef was deforesting the Amazon,” but eventually “learned that animals were essential to sustainable farms.” They increase soil fertility and convert otherwise inedible vegetation and uncultivated land into food.
• Tovar: He became a vegan after listening to Buddhist teachings, but eventually “realized that all food has its costs. From habitat destruction to combines that inadvertently mince rabbits … crop production is far from harmless.” What matters, he decided, “wasn’t what we ate, but how that food came to our plates.”
• Joshua: He was a vegetarian until he met his wife and opened a meat company. “Once I saw how the meat we were selling had been raised, and met the farmers who were striving to raise animals sustainably … I realized I didn’t have a problem with meat. I had a problem with the inhumane practices of the commercial meat industry."

It's no metaphor, just his new 'personal challenge'

(NEWSER) - Mark Zuckerberg says he's almost a vegetarian these days—but he’ll eat meat if the animal died at his own hands, Fortune reports. It’s just his latest challenge: Every year, the Facebook boss takes on some new hurdle in his time away from the website. Last year, it was learning Chinese. “This year, my personal challenge is around being thankful for the food I have to eat,” he writes in an email to the magazine. As part of that: "The only meat I'm eating is from animals I've killed myself." More»

3% of teens affected by binge-eating, bulimia, or anorexia

(NEWSER) - An eating disorder study being billed as the largest analysis of US teens ever is returning some depressingly large numbers: More than half a million have had an eating disorder, according to government research. Binge-eating was the most common disorder, found in 1.5% of teens studied, followed by bulimia (1%) and anorexia (0.3%); another 3% had bothersome symptoms, but not a full-fledged disorder. While the percentages may seem low, they're actually slightly higher than what have been observed in other studies, reports the AP . More»

Study: The more time teen girls spend on network, greater their chances

(NEWSER) - The eating-disorder blame game has a new player: Facebook. A study has found that the more time teen girls spend on the social network, the greater their risk of developing anorexia or bulimia. The researchers asked 248 girls, ages 12 to 19, about their Internet and TV habits, and eating thoughts and behavior. The researchers found that the more time girls spent on Facebook, the more likely they were to suffer from a laundry list of eating issues, from disorders to an increased urge to keep to a strict diet, reports the Daily Mail . More»

These adults are not being 'willful and bratty,' says researcher

(NEWSER) - Not a fan of sushi, brussels sprouts, or any type of bread that's not white? You may not be just a picky eater—you may have an actual disorder, LiveScience reports. Researchers studying finicky adult eaters have identified a condition called "selective eating disorder," and they think people like 63-year-old Bob Krause may suffer from it. "If I could snap my fingers and change, I would," says Krause, who eats little other than peanut butter, crackers, grilled cheese sandwiches, and chocolate milk. More»