The fear of eating meat is also known as carnophobia. It is one of the most common of all food fears, but is also commonly misdiagnosed in ARFID sufferers. Remember, there are many reasons why a person might choose not to eat meat outside of any fear and this includes people who incidentally DO suffer from avoidant restrictive food intake disorder.
Why would a person have a fear of eating meat? How would this fear affect the person’s life? Is a healthy fear of meat actually a really good thing to have? These are all questions that I receive often on this website.
This is a topic very close to my heart. Although I did suffer from an extreme case of selective eating disorder for decades and do not eat meat, the 2 attributes were often assumed to be part of the same process. I even considered a connection myself in the past. However, I have come to realize that my ARFID had nothing to do with any fear of eating meat. This decision was a CONSCIOUS CHOICE made at a young age and holds true today long after I have already fully cured my ARFID problems. Therefore, I want to make some important facts known when it comes to being a vegetarian BY CHOICE compared to being carnophobic.
True Fear of Eating Meat
A true carnophobia condition is not demonstrated on the grounds of ethics or empathy for animal suffering. The person is not making a conscious choice to avoid meat on the grounds of a belief in NOT KILLING and EATING another sentient being. Instead, there is some underlying true fear, anxiety or stress associated with eating meat products.
As with most cases of ARFID, the reasons why meat is chosen as a distasteful food are often idiopathic. Many people with extreme food fear do not know why they can eat some food items, but are incapable of eating others. In a minority of cases, the person might have some underlying known reason for their fear, such as an experience choking on meat, a death in their family related to meat or a fear that meat harbors dangerous bacteria and parasites (which is true, by the way…)
No Fear of Meat, but Still Vegetarian
Being vegetarian or vegan does not imply a fear of eating meat, nor does it make a person qualified to be diagnosed with ARFID. Most people who are vegetarians and vegans actually eat a great diversity of foods and do so for health reasons. These are some of the healthiest diets you can maintain according to all accepted medical science.
Therefore if you are worried that being a vegetarian or vegan qualifies you or your child as having an eating disorder, you are not inherently correct. Meat-free diets are awesome and are also going to become more and more common (like it or not), since current meat production practices are both incredibly harmful to our planet and completely unsustainable.
Many, many people choose not to eat meat for health reasons. They might even be hunters and could care less about animal rights, but still are intelligent enough to see the benefits of a meat-free dietary consumption. Others eat with their conscience and simply can not partake of meat after seeing the unbearably cruel plight of food animals in the modern world. It is an unconscionable situation to be sure!
Fear of Eating Meat Experiences
I used to LOVE certain meats as a very young child. I remember eating bologna and hotdogs at the age of 2 and loving them. I had no idea they were made from ANIMALS. I also had selective eating disorder from the youngest age and clearly remember it at the age of 2, as well. I would not eat most foods, including some meats, simply for arbitrary reasons.
At age 4, I became enlightened to he idea that meat WAS animal. This was a huge trauma, as I loved animals. No one in my family was a vegetarian, but I promptly declared that I would NEVER eat meat again. Some people laughed at this, knowing how much I loved bologna and hotdogs, but my mom was worried. She always called me an “old soul” from a very young age and knew how strong of a statement I had made, even as a tiny child.
Doctor visits and lots of worry followed when the promise held good… My avoidant restrictive food intake disorder worsened with time until I literally only ate a very small handful of food items. Every day was the same dietary intake for many, many, MANY years. Eventually, I managed to cure my ARFID and eat normally. I actually love to eat now and consider food an amazing discovery later in life, believe it or not!
However, one thing that never changed was my promise… I never did eat any meat, fish or poultry ever again after that day at age 4 when I said it was wrong. I continue my vegetarian practice to this day and now understand fully that even though the decision was made so young, it was a conscious choice made on the basis of ethics, not part of my food phobia. The food fears are long gone, but the commitment to a vegetarian lifestyle is as strong as ever, even at age 50…
This topic forms a very important part of my book, My Food Fear, and for people who are interested in meat fears versus conscious abstinence from meat, you will really love the memoir! Your support in purchasing and reading it is important to maintaining this site, so if you like the information you have found here and support it, there is no better way then by enjoying the book!
