Spirituality And ED – Muslim Teens Affected At Higher Rate

Had you asked, I would have thought that given the choice bewteen Christianity and Muslim teens, that Christian teens would be more likely to have an eating disorder.

According to new research, I’d be dead wrong.
The incidence of eating disorders was found to be 2.3 times higher among Muslim adolescents than among their Christian classmates. Body dissatisfaction was 1.8 times higher among the Muslim teens.

As an aside, there may be some who would ask about the month of fasting during Ramadan and my research showed that the difference between Ramadan and total fasting is the timing of the food; during Ramadan, participants basically miss lunch and take an early breakfast and do not eat until dusk.

In doing research on other faith groups, I found articles reporting that eating disorders are a problem among Orthodox Jews, Christians and others. In short, nobody gets a free pass.

Why does this matter?

For parents, teachers, partners, friends – we can’t make assumptions that people we know and care about couldn’t possibly have an eating disorder because of who they are or what they look like or what they believe.

No more excuses for turning a blind eye.