Orthorexia: An Obsession With Healthy Food
“Orthorexia
is an obsession with eating healthy food — to such an extent that the
person may restrict their diet very severely and limit their functioning, such
as not socializing in situations where there is ‘unhealthy’ food,” says Sheela
Raja, PhD, an assistant professor and clinical psychologist in the Colleges of
Medicine and Dentistry at the University of Illinois at Chicago. There has been
no research into eating disorder statistics to know how widespread orthorexia
is, but in general the idea of “good” and “bad” foods is relatively common in people
with eating disorders.
The
advent of so many fad diets hasn’t helped matters either. No carbs, only raw
food, macrobiotics — diets with such strict food rules can certainly
lead to confusion about what really is healthy and what isn’t, and in turn can
contribute to orthorexia.
Warning
signs can range from negative feelings about “impure” foods to trouble dealing
with stress. Avoiding social situations or bringing your own food to
restaurants or get-togethers can be another red flag, as can insisting that
good health is totally dependent on the quality of the food you eat. It can
also be more common in people who have obsessive or black-and-white thinking
that a food is either all good or all bad.
Orthorexia
is not an official psychiatric diagnosis, given that the symptoms overlap
significantly with diagnoses of other eating disorders. “No classic treatment
plan is available, but I work with people to normalize food and take away
magical thinking about the ‘right/perfect’ foods,” says Esther Kane, MSW, a
registered clinical counselor in private practice in Courtenay, British
Columbia, Canada, and author of It’s Not About the Food: A Woman’s
Guide to Making Peace with Food and Our Bodies.
Nutritional
education and finding other ways to deal with stress and negative moods are
important steps. Raja, for example, suggests participating in an activity
unrelated to eating, such as going for a walk or taking a bath, when feeling
stressed. Focusing on moderation is also key, as is emphasizing the idea that
no food should be excluded from the diet.
James Goodman on 12 Apr 13"Perhaps when we're able to realize that as a human race and society we have become estranged from one another, when we're able to see this fragmented world for what it is, when we accept the pain of the world as our own pain and see our hearts in the hearts of others, when we're able to recognize that every one of us is essentially floating in the same boat, when we're able to walk down the street and feel our own footsteps resounding from other peoples feet, then, perhaps, we will begin to learn the value, the reality, and the necessity of compassion as the essential human capacity that will heal us from the temporary state of fragmentation into which we have fallen."
