Vegan Friend Worries Me?

Question

I have a friend who is a vegan but she told me before that she suffered from an eating disorder

I am extremely worried about her because it seems like her hair is thinning, she's pale, and she has some other medical problems

i dont want to make her angry but i just wished she would eat a little fish every once in a while along with fruit and veggies

all i see her eating is candy and crackers

what should i tell her??

Answer 1

Being vegan is not an eating disorder.  If she has one..she needs professional help.

Answer 2

Fish will do nothing for the hair.

Hair is made up of protein, vitamins and minerals. Not just protein. Hair loss and paleness are signs of iron deficiency. Iron is not a problem in a balanced vegan diet; nuts and beans are great sources of iron.

Tell her to see a doctor to rule out any serious health issues. Not that I think this situation is genuine at all, but anyway.

Answer 3

tell her to stop lying to herself. She is not vegan if she is eating candy and **** like that......most vegan diets are not that healthy...usually too much fat. Usually the same amount as usual unhealthy normal amercian diet.  Plus cooking anything is unhealthy.  Stay away from any grains in any form. Tell her to consume only Fresh RAW fruits and veggies for optimal health.  Say goodbye to being sick at all eating this way!!! If you eat one whole avacado, you have already exceeded a healthy amount of fat for one day.

Answer 4

hmm well it sounds like shes just using that as an excuse not to eat food. candy and crackers definitely aren't what vegans eat haha.

if you want you could try to help her maintain a healthy vegan diet, if she really wants to be vegan. i think she needs to go see a therapist or something. eating disorders ravage the body, and have lifelong consequences after just 6 months of anorexic behavior, some can never be recovered from.

http://www.webmd.com/a-to-z-guides/featu...

http://www.something-fishy.org/

these are some good articles i think

offering her food isnt going to help if she has an eating disorder. a lot of people have no concept of ED's and think people will just snap out of it if they see something tasty. this isnt true at all. if she has an ED she really needs to go to sessions for recovery or she will die early from the complications caused by anorexia

Answer 5

Yes, this is a little worrying. If your friend has suffered from an eating disorder, this is isn't actually related to veganism, in and of itself. It's about the inability, and/or unwillingness, to eat types and amounts of food that are sufficient to nourish your body, and can be related to mental health problems and difficulty coping psychologically. This is true whether you're a meat eater, veggie or whatever.

Candy and crackers, as people have said, is not really a vegan diet - it's just a bad diet, period. I suspect your friend might need professional help to address her emotional issues, which are coming out in her dietary practices. This isn't really a vegan issue.

Give her support, but let her know that you're concerned, and that she may need help for the difficulties you're seeing. But don't nag her - she can only want to seek out help herself in the end, however tough it may be to see her doing what she's doing.

Answer 6

If your friend has an eating disorder, a little fish will not make a whit of difference.  She needs professional help.  If you're in school, see if you can talk to a school counselor in confidence about your worries for your friend.  Encourage her to get help.

As someone pointed out, candy and crackers is not a vegan diet.  Veganism is not the problem here, though she may be using it as a mask to try to cover up her problem.  Some people with EDs claim to be veg*n because it gives them a socially acceptable way to refuse foods in public.  She's already admitted to you that she has a problem; as a friend you need to do whatever you can to support her while she finds a solution.  Harping on her to eat fish isn't going to help, though.

Answer 7

You should approch her in private and calmly. Tell her that you are worried about her. Tell her that it isn't healthy to just eat candy and crackers. Also, call your doctor and ask him/her for advice. Also, show her all the different things she could still eat such as soycheese, soymilk and other soy products. It is good that you are worried about her. YOu are a good friend.

Answer 8

I mean you could tell her to try to switch to be a semi vegetarian in which she would eat poultry fish and veggies.

Did she just start to become a vegan becuase i have afriend that is a vegan too and it is hard to pull off mainlly becuase you need to get alot of nutrients from difret ranges of food other then just veggies .  She can take possibly vitamin supplements i hope this helps!!!!!

Answer 9

I would get a ton of different vegan recepies off the internet and have a cooking party with her!

she might not realize you're doing it because you're worried, but take it as a fun friend time!

if she says anything, say something along the lines of "i've always wanted to try being vegetarian/vegan but don't know if i could handle it so i wanted you to help me" or "lets try something else instead of always watching movies all the time" or something.

good luck!

Answer 10

Candy and crackers are not a vegan diet.  If you can, find a nutritionist in your area who can help her tailor a diet for her, then give her the information.  A vegan diet can be really good for people, but it has to be done right.  Ask her if she is taking any supplements.  This might be a good intro to the nutritionist conversation.

Answer 11

she is not on no vegan diet shes on a diet diet and its bad for her shes gonna end up anorexic better find someone professional to help her