“No thanks, I don’t eat meat.” This simple sentence can prompt very different reactions, but the question that often follows is: “Why?”

The answer may reflect concern for animals, the environment, religion or personal health. Families and healthcare professionals may also wonder whether giving up meat offers a socially acceptable way to restrict food.

Yet our new systematic review and meta-analysis found no clear overall difference in eating disorder symptoms between people following strict vegetarian or vegan diets and people who ate meat.

A systematic review uses a structured process to identify and assess the available evidence. A meta-analysis combines the numerical results of comparable studies to estimate the overall pattern.

Eating disorders can involve distressing thoughts and behaviour around food, weight or body shape. These may include severe restriction, binge eating, vomiting or excessive exercise. Removing categories of food can therefore cause concern. However, people adopt vegetarian and vegan diets for varied reasons, including animal welfare, religion, health and environmental concerns. The meaning of the restriction is important.

Read more: Go vegan because of mass exploitation of animals, not because eating them is wrong

Our review combined 24........

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