I turned vegan to change my waistline, not the planet – and I’m not the only one

Veganism has risen to the top of wellness industry and is dominating the market. Greggs has released a vegan sausage roll, Pizza Hut now offers a jackfruit pizza, and even McDonald’s has launched a plant-based Happy Meal.

However, with 1.6 million people in the UK affected by an eating disorder and the number of admissions to hospitals for eating disorders doubling between 2011 and 2017, veganism is a trend with potentially worrying consequences.

While 10 years ago veganism was considered a fringe movement of hemp-wearing hippies, it’s now one of the biggest food trends around. But with eating disorders on the rise too, some are beginning to worry that veganism may not be the moral movement it claims to be.

In 2016 I was diagnosed with anorexia. I had fallen prey to the restrictive “clean eating” movement and was losing weight at frightening speed. I was driven by a desire to be healthy and only consume “pure” foods, but soon my life was crumbling around me and I’d never been more unwell. While I’m now a healthy weight, my eating disorder has never left me and is still a demon I battle with everyday.

Making the decision to become vegan, despite the pleads of desperation from my wearied parents, provided me with a convenient label to excuse my increasingly restrictive eating habits.

I’ve always loved animals, I have a penchant for the odd charity shop jumper, and I was already boycotting animal-tested products; so, I could be a pious, vintage-wearing, cow-cuddling vegan without anyone batting an eyelid. But while the label fit, my clothes began not to.

Veganism gave me the opportunity to cut more foods out of my diet than I had ever done before. Gone were the days of adding a sprinkling a cheese to a tasteless meal or treating myself to an ice cream on a sunny day out with friends. The small vices I had retrained myself to love were banished to the plant-based prison for foods of an immoral variety.

The more Instagram posts and Facebook articles I read, the less I ate. Every day I found a new vegan alternative with half the calories and half the guilt. I was spiralling out of control and heading back down the restrictive path which I thought I’d left behind.

There are over 72 million posts on Instagram with the tag “vegan” and thousands of social media stars making their fortunes by promoting plant-based lifestyles. While strict veganism may be the choice that suits many best, for people like me who have unhealthy or problematic relationships with food, diets like these can cause more harm than good.

This Veganuary, when veganism is the word on everyone’s lips, many bloggers and experts have taken to social media to promote a more compassionate and flexible approach to plant-based eating.

Tally Rye, personal trainer and Instagram blogger, has recovered from a restrictive relationship with food and despite the industry pressure, refuses to label her diet. Regarding veganism, Rye maintains that “if I can do my bit and reduce where I can, then I will, but I’ll never feel guilty for eating meat or fish or dairy products because of the growing popularity of giving food labels”.

Laura Phelan, Harley Street eating disorder specialist and founder of Phelan Well, commented that “turning vegan naturally leads to a new preoccupation with food and that makes eating-disorder recovery more difficult to manage”.

Adding that “you need to be in a good place with food to embark upon this kind of diet” because of the physiological changes such a seismic diet change can have on your body.

Veganism isn’t a fad diet, or a quick fix to help you lose weight; it shouldn’t be a label through which to conceal a restrictive eating disorder.

Veganism is an ethical lifestyle choice and should only be embarked upon by those with a positive relationship with food and adequate knowledge of how to satisfy new nutritional needs.