an article that really bugged me
http://www.newsday.com/services/newspaper/printedition/tuesday/health/ny-hsspd5658412apr22,0,1822249,full.story
An article from my local paper today. The premise: Can a person be too concerned about eating right? Well, yes, if their devotion to a healthy diet consumes an extreme amount of their energy and alienates friends and family, says one doctor who sees an emerging eating disorder he calls "orthorexia nervosa." ...and then mentions veganism within the next paragraph.
It really bothered me, to be honest. =/
*note: I'm from Long Island and this article was published in Newsday, a Long Island newspaper...but I guess the writer is from the Chicago Tribune? Weird.*
The RIGHTEOUS EATER
A disorder that has its roots in a super-healthy diet
BY JULIE DEARDORFF | Chicago Tribune
April 22, 2008
Article tools
E-mail Share
Digg Del.icio.us Facebook Fark Google Newsvine Reddit Yahoo Print Normal page view Reprints Post comment Text size: Can a person be too concerned about eating right? Well, yes, if their devotion to a healthy diet consumes an extreme amount of their energy and alienates friends and family, says one doctor who sees an emerging eating disorder he calls "orthorexia nervosa."
People suffering from the "addiction" - usually those righteous raw foodists, vegetarians and vegans - obsessively check labels, avoid junk food, plan menus and 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 tend to be unconcerned about their weight, though they sometimes drop pounds because of their rigid diets. And those diets may make them feel virtuous. The term uses "ortho," meaning straight, correct and true, to modify "anorexia nervosa." Orthorexia nervosa refers to a pathological fixation on eating properly.
Treatment is tricky, 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.
"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 people could learn a thing or two from orthorexics, who used to be dismissed as "health-food nuts" but now apparently need to be rehabilitated.
Today's typical 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 people's health.
Nourishing yourself healthfully, then, often requires a conscientious approach that, in a culture where some people consider Diet Coke a staple, 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.
"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.
In general, people whose lives are consumed by the thought of "healthy" food 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.
Orthowhat?
From the Web site of Dr. Stephen Bratman, who coined the term orthorexia nervosa:
The defining feature of orthorexia is obsession with eating healthy food and avoiding unhealthy food. The definition of healthy and unhealthy food varies widely depending on which dietary beliefs the patient has adopted.
The usual immediate source of orthorexia is a health food theory, such as raw foodism, macrobiotics, nondairy vegetarianism, Dean Ornish-style very-low-fat diet, or food allergies. Note that, in most cases, the underlying diet is itself reasonably healthy (if unreasonably specific). It's in the obsessive approach to diet taken by an orthorexic that the disorder lies.
An issue of major concern for people with orthorexia is that when they seek help from eating disorder specialists they are misunderstood. The typical frustrating interaction goes something like this:
Patient: I'm trying to eat a healthy diet.
Physician: That's what you think, but underlying it is a desire to be thin.
Patient: No. I don't want to be thin. I want to be pure (or perfectly healthy, or "in balance.")
Physician: What you're saying is just a form of denial.
Patient: You're not listening to me, etc. etc.
Unlike people with anorexia, patients with orthorexia are generally unconcerned about their weight, and do not feel fat. For raw foodists, vegans and fruitarians, what matters most is feeling pure. In such cases, there are often spiritual overtones, a yogic-like desire to be not of this world.
Check yourself
Questions to ask yourself if you think - you may have orthorexia:
1. Do you wish that occasionally you could just eat, and not think about whether it's good for you?
2. Has your diet made you socially isolated?
3. Is it impossible to imagine going through a whole day without paying attention to your diet, and just living and loving?
4. Does it sound beyond your ability to eat a meal prepared with love by your mother - one single meal - and not try to control what she serves you?
5. Do you have trouble remembering that love and joy and play and creativity are more important than food?
6. Have you gotten your weight so low that people think you may have anorexia?
From "Health Food Junkies" by Dr. Steven Bratman and David Knight, published by Broadway Books, a division of Random House. Reprinted with permission.
Personally, I know that I'm not always consumed with eating healthily- namely when I'm scarfing down Newman-O's or So Delicious ice cream....or homemade cupcakes. Yeah...
Thoughts?
An article from my local paper today. The premise: Can a person be too concerned about eating right? Well, yes, if their devotion to a healthy diet consumes an extreme amount of their energy and alienates friends and family, says one doctor who sees an emerging eating disorder he calls "orthorexia nervosa." ...and then mentions veganism within the next paragraph.
It really bothered me, to be honest. =/
*note: I'm from Long Island and this article was published in Newsday, a Long Island newspaper...but I guess the writer is from the Chicago Tribune? Weird.*
The RIGHTEOUS EATER
A disorder that has its roots in a super-healthy diet
BY JULIE DEARDORFF | Chicago Tribune
April 22, 2008
Article tools
E-mail Share
Digg Del.icio.us Facebook Fark Google Newsvine Reddit Yahoo Print Normal page view Reprints Post comment Text size: Can a person be too concerned about eating right? Well, yes, if their devotion to a healthy diet consumes an extreme amount of their energy and alienates friends and family, says one doctor who sees an emerging eating disorder he calls "orthorexia nervosa."
People suffering from the "addiction" - usually those righteous raw foodists, vegetarians and vegans - obsessively check labels, avoid junk food, plan menus and 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 tend to be unconcerned about their weight, though they sometimes drop pounds because of their rigid diets. And those diets may make them feel virtuous. The term uses "ortho," meaning straight, correct and true, to modify "anorexia nervosa." Orthorexia nervosa refers to a pathological fixation on eating properly.
Treatment is tricky, 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.
"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 people could learn a thing or two from orthorexics, who used to be dismissed as "health-food nuts" but now apparently need to be rehabilitated.
Today's typical 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 people's health.
Nourishing yourself healthfully, then, often requires a conscientious approach that, in a culture where some people consider Diet Coke a staple, 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.
"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.
In general, people whose lives are consumed by the thought of "healthy" food 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.
Orthowhat?
From the Web site of Dr. Stephen Bratman, who coined the term orthorexia nervosa:
The defining feature of orthorexia is obsession with eating healthy food and avoiding unhealthy food. The definition of healthy and unhealthy food varies widely depending on which dietary beliefs the patient has adopted.
The usual immediate source of orthorexia is a health food theory, such as raw foodism, macrobiotics, nondairy vegetarianism, Dean Ornish-style very-low-fat diet, or food allergies. Note that, in most cases, the underlying diet is itself reasonably healthy (if unreasonably specific). It's in the obsessive approach to diet taken by an orthorexic that the disorder lies.
An issue of major concern for people with orthorexia is that when they seek help from eating disorder specialists they are misunderstood. The typical frustrating interaction goes something like this:
Patient: I'm trying to eat a healthy diet.
Physician: That's what you think, but underlying it is a desire to be thin.
Patient: No. I don't want to be thin. I want to be pure (or perfectly healthy, or "in balance.")
Physician: What you're saying is just a form of denial.
Patient: You're not listening to me, etc. etc.
Unlike people with anorexia, patients with orthorexia are generally unconcerned about their weight, and do not feel fat. For raw foodists, vegans and fruitarians, what matters most is feeling pure. In such cases, there are often spiritual overtones, a yogic-like desire to be not of this world.
Check yourself
Questions to ask yourself if you think - you may have orthorexia:
1. Do you wish that occasionally you could just eat, and not think about whether it's good for you?
2. Has your diet made you socially isolated?
3. Is it impossible to imagine going through a whole day without paying attention to your diet, and just living and loving?
4. Does it sound beyond your ability to eat a meal prepared with love by your mother - one single meal - and not try to control what she serves you?
5. Do you have trouble remembering that love and joy and play and creativity are more important than food?
6. Have you gotten your weight so low that people think you may have anorexia?
From "Health Food Junkies" by Dr. Steven Bratman and David Knight, published by Broadway Books, a division of Random House. Reprinted with permission.
Personally, I know that I'm not always consumed with eating healthily- namely when I'm scarfing down Newman-O's or So Delicious ice cream....or homemade cupcakes. Yeah...
Thoughts?