Meat avoidance and body weight concerns: nutritional implications for teenage girls.

In a report on vegetarianism recently published by the British Nutrition Foundation (1995) it was noted that, between 1988 and 1994 there was a threefold rise in the proportion of women, aged between 16 and 64 years who avoided eating meat. This dramatic increase in the popularity of meat avoidance has raised many concerns about the adequacy of a meatless diet, in particular for teenage girls because of their high nutritional requirements. The present paper briefly addresses the reasons why teenage girls choose to avoid eating meat and investigates the effects of meat avoidance on Fe status during the teenage years.