A healthy breakfast. Photo courtesy Jeffrey Deng
In the age of over-processed snacks and fast food on every corner, we could all probably stand to eat a little healthier, right? But there can be a point where healthy eating ticks over into unhealthy behavior and becomes an obsession where you stop eating with friends because your habits are so restrictive, or you start to suffer physically because you’re not getting certain nutrients.
That’s called orthorexia, and it’s a form of disordered eating that’s been getting a lot of attention lately. According to the National Eating Disorders Association, it’s defined as a fixation on righteous eating. “Orthorexia starts out as an innocent attempt to eat more healthfully, but orthorexics become fixated on food quality and purity,” they say. “They become consumed with what and how much to eat.”
Dr. Steven Bratman coined the term “orthorexia” in 1997. He had seen cases of it and drew the line between healthy eating and an unhealthy obsession with healthy eating.
You can always eat more veggies, right? Photo courtesy Monstruro Estudio
It’s been getting more attention lately, partly because restrictive food diets, like gluten-free and paleo, have been on the rise, and partly because social media can amplify the focus on your eating habits.
Last summer, vegan food blogger Jordan Younger put a spotlight on orthorexia when she announced that she’s been suffering from it. She said that she couldn’t go into a grocery store without panicking because she put so much pressure on what she was eating; everything had to be pure.
Younger said that social media and the constant exposure to other people’s eating habits aggravated her orthorexia. And in certain fitness and health communities that focus on specific eating patterns (CrossFit, for instance, where the paleo diet is part of the deal), it can run particularly rampant because of the competitiveness associated with those activities.
Orthorexia is tricky to both diagnose and treat because it is so closely aligned with healthy eating. For the vast majority of people, it’s not a bad idea to cut back on sugar or to try to eat more greens, and people who struggle with it can easily claim that they’re just trying to eat right. The line of compulsion is hard to pin down.
So when should you start to worry about it? Nutrition therapist Sondra Kronberg says that it becomes a problem when it starts to interfere with your happiness. So if you, or someone you know, gets stressed out at the grocery store, or has stopped going out to eat because food restriction is more important than socializing, that’s when orthorexia becomes an issue.
More from GrindTV
Are mean girls bullying outdoor athletes?
6 easy, cheap, at-home workout recovery tips
Fuel your day with this green smoothie recipe
There are currently no comments for "Orthorexia, an obsession with healthy eating, is on the rise"
Post a Comment