Orthorexia: A new eating disorder?

[Blood]

Orthorexia suddenly is an emerging eating disorder marked by extreme devotion to healthy food.
People suffering from the addiction—usually those righteous raw foodists, vegetarians and vegans—obsessively check labels, avoid junk food, plan menus and often eat a healthy diet so they can feel "pure." Some even make fun of McDonald's customers.

It gets worse. While an anorexic tries to severely limit calories, an orthorexic might shun foods with artificial ingredients, trans fats or high-fructose corn syrup. Orthorexics also are generally unconcerned about their weight and do not feel fat. Their diet may make them feel virtuous.
Treatment is tricky, however, because orthorexics “will consider drugs such as antidepressants to be 'impure' and unnatural,” wrote Dr. Steven Bratman, who is credited with coining the term in the 1990s but no longer maintains orthorexia.com.

"The same goes for weight-gain aids such as Ensure, because they contain verboten substances such as sugar, artificial colors and artificial flavors,” Bratman wrote in "Health Food Junkies" (Broadway, $22).

This is a problem?
Frankly, most of us could learn a thing or two from orthorexics, who used to be dismissed as “health-food nuts” but now apparently need to be rehabilitated into society.
Today's “normal" diet consists primarily of highly processed, non-nutritive, industrially produced food. That’s because the best decisions for the food conglomerates often are the worst ones for our health.

Nourishing yourself healthfully, then, is not the default; it’s the exception. And it often requires a conscientious approach that, in a culture where Diet Coke is considered a health food, might be called "extreme."
Orthorexics, for example, "tend to dwell on upcoming menus," Bratman wrote. “If you get a thrill of pleasure from contemplating a healthy menu the day after tomorrow, something is wrong with your focus."

Actually, planning meals is one of the skills a person needs to maintain a healthy body weight. The alternative—eating at restaurants—is a sure way to gain weight because “every time we eat out the calories are far higher than we intuitively imagine,” said Yoni Freedhoff, medical director of the Bariatric Medical Institute in Ottawa.
Although eating at home rather than in a restaurant can be better for your health, the rigid orthorexic diet leads to social isolation, warned Bratman, co-author of "Health Food Junkies" (Broadway, $22).

"A common strategy is to bring your own food in separate containers and chew it slowly, looking virtuous or soulful while everyone else gulps down garbage," Bratman wrote in a 10-question orthorexia quiz. “Or, like a solitary alcoholic, you can decline the invitation and dine in the loneliness and comfort of your own home.”

But perhaps it's the restaurants that need to change by putting nutritional information on menus, educating the wait staff and using more locally grown or organic ingredients. This wouldn’t just help so-called orthorexics. Millions of people with food allergies and other dietary restrictions have to avoid restaurants to stay healthy.
Everyone has an addiction; some just take it further than others. I’m sure there really are people whose lives are consumed by the thought of “healthy” food and who need serious help. But according to the National Association of Anorexia Nervosa and Associated Eating Disorders, this problem already has a name: anorexia.

Orthorexia, more often than not, is a non-medical term popularized by people who feel guilty that they aren’t eating better and need a name to call people who try harder.
It’s really OK to like green beans better than french fries, to avoid chemical-laden drinks such as Ensure (which contains more than 40 artificial ingredients) and to wonder why ketchup and peanut butter have added high-fructose corn syrup.
As a friend who borders on "orthorexia and tries not to think ill of people who don’t eat healthfully told me, "It's normal society that is off-target, not I."


--------------------------------------------------------------
I found this article after someone called me a "orthorexic" earlier today...I don't know about you guys, but this cracks me the fuck up.

[Josie]

I read that while crunching on a big, fat, sweet carrot... that I thoroughly enjoyed. It's insane that eating a healthful diet can even jokingly be categorized as a disorder.

That said... I sometimes eat wendy's or mickey d's :(

....among other bad things.

[Blood]

Actually a lot of people are taking it pretty seriously, if you check out other articles online and read the comments, most people really believe that it's a serious eating disorder!

I just liked this article because the person's take on the whole thing was pretty funny.

[Scarlet]

"Obsessions about food, or anything for that matter, accomplish two destructive goals: First and foremost they impede individuals from getting what they really need from life. Fundamental human strivings are subverted or complicated by devotion to the overarching dictates of the dietary madness. Secondly, obsessions undermine potentially good times as the individual ruminates about his demons and thus is not emotionally available to enjoy or promote life. In the case of the orthorexic, how vexingly ironic that the pursuit of pureness can produce such a tainted existence."

“Many of the most unbalanced people I have ever met are those who have devoted themselves to healthy eating.”

http://images.google.co.nz/imgres?im...a%3DN%26um%3D1

Hmmm, I'll stick to my regular diet which includes chocolate and fries...in moderation.

[Blood]

Hogwarsh!
I think people can be just as obsessed about food without eating healthy. Hell that's one of the main reasons why most folks get obese in the first place.

Whoever said that all healthy food tasted bad? After a while of eating good food your body actually start to crave it over the crap that people call food these days.

I've never understood why actually taking responsibility for what goes in your body is so frowned upon.
Whatever happened to self control and self discipline being desirable traits? Now a days most folks think anyone trying to better themselves to the best of their ability are uppity weirdos with emotional problems. haha

I swear, there is something really wrong with the the direction the human race is heading, this 'everybody's doing it' mentality is gone way to far...

[Negativecool]

Some even make fun of McDonald's customers.

I think I need to see my doctor to tell him I suspect I have O-r-t-h-o-r-e-x-i-a err whatever it's called.