Veganism and Eating Disorders: A chat with an anthropologist

In this podcast I talk to Karen Korn. Karen is the mother of a sufferer of Anorexia, and has spent the last couple of years helping her daughter battle this deadly disease. Karen is also an anthropologist, and has some ideas about veganism and eating disorders that I think are interesting. She’s got more of a tactful and thoughtful message than I have I think, as I just tend to bulldoze in with my “nobody who has had an eating disorder can be a vegan” approach, so her ideas might go over better for those of you who bristle at my own. Anthropology is the study of humans. It’s also the study of human culture, and food is often a large part of our culture, isn’t it?. Regardless of religion or race, there is always a food-orientated holiday somewhere on the calendar. We go through phases as a culture over time too, not so long ago the main phase in Western culture was low fat. You all know how I feel about that one, I only dedicated my book’s title to it “Love Fat.” While we seem to be making positive shifts towards understanding once again that fat is an important nutrient, we’ve moved on to a new phase or trend in food. All this “Clean eating” and speciality diets. Yes, veganism. It’s an interesting discussion, we begin by talking about Karens own daughter’s experience of Anorexia and how she went about noticing the problem, to making the first steps around getting treatment. I asked Karen to shoot me some resources to do with ethical eating, vegainsim etc. Well there is a whole huge long list from her — don’t miss the “solutions” at the bottom— enjoy! Links http://www.beyondveg.com/index.shtml http://naturalhygienesociety.org/diet3.html#4 http://tabithafarrar.com/2016/06/back-veganism-eating-disorders-conversation/ = LOL You’ve been in my Bookmarks for a while now http://www.livescience.com/26278-risks-raw-vegan-diet.html http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2012/04/17/is-veganism-good-for-everyone/meat-is-brain-food http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2012/04/17/is-veganism-good-for-everyone http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2012/04/17/is-veganism-good-for-everyone/a-choice-with-definite-risks http://www.mdpi.com/2075-4698/4/2/127 Which diet is best? Vegan, Vegetarian, Paleo, WAPF, Low-Carb….? http://www.onegreenplanet.org/lifestyle/understanding-neocarnism/ http://www.science20.com/news_articles/vegetarians_found_to_have_more_cancer_allergies_and_mental_health_disorders-133332 https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/evolutionary-psychiatry/201211/youre-vegetarian-have-you-lost-your-mind https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/real-healing/201211/vegetarianism-and-eating-disorders http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3466124/ https://ijbnpa.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1479-5868-9-67 http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0195666311006271Study: Vegetarians Less Healthy, Lower Quality Of Life Than Meat-Eaters http://www.naturalhealthprotocol.com/vegetarianism-and-body-chemistry.html than-meat-lovers/#sthash.25dQeQQH.jnh7BGCi.dpbs Why I Stopped Being Vegetarian http://www.scientific-alliance.org/scientific-alliance-newsletter/can-vegetarians-save-world http://www.palgrave.com/us/book/9781137554888#reviews https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/food/vegetarian-or-omnivore-the-environmental-implications-of-diet/2014/03/10/648fdbe8-a495-11e3-a5fa-55f0c77bf39c_story.html http://www.motherjones.com/environment/2010/07/is-vegetarian-diet-green Why vegetarianism will not save the world What if the whole world went vegan? http://www.telegraph.co.uk/foodanddrink/foodanddrinknews/8012205/Eat-meat-and-save-the-planet-says-eco-warrior-and-former-vegetarian.html Solutions: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Permaculture https://permacultureprinciples.com/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aquaponics http://sift.ncat.org/small_scale.php http://sustainablefoodtrust.org/articles/small-scale-farming/ http://sustainableagriculture.net/publications/grassrootsguide/local-food-systems-rural-development/ http://asi.ucd