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Cheltenham Ladies’ College offers its vegan students ‘regular blood testing’ due to concerns surrounding eating disorders, The Times reports.
The private school, which says it doesn’t ‘actively encourage’ a plant-based diet, has also never provided a vegan option for its students.
‘Nutritional requirements’
“We… offer medical support and regular blood testing [to] ensure that they remain healthy and that their diet is providing them with all their nutritional requirements,” the school said, according to The Times.
“We are open and honest with girls and parents in explaining the limits of what we can offer in this regard.”
It added that it would not ‘shy away’ from the fact that a ‘small number’ of students will be suffering from an eating disorder which ‘should be handled on an individual basis’.
‘A complex etiology’
Renowned plant-based physician Dr. Greger has tackled the contentious issue of veganism and eating disorders.
“Eating disorders have a complex etiology and prior use of a vegetarian or vegan diet does not appear to increase the risk of an eating disorder, though some with pre-existing disordered eating may choose these diets to aid their limitation of food intake,” he said during a Nutrition Facts video.
Dr. Greger also points to a study that concludes: “Vegans and true vegetarians had significantly lower levels of restraint, external eating, hedonic hunger, and greater levels of acceptance in relation to food in comparison to semi-vegetarians.”
You can watch the full video here
