Who would have thought that in a society crippled by the increasing prevalence of chronic lifestyle diseases healthy eating could be at the root of some of those ailments?
When most people think of lifestyle diseases, ailments such as cardiovascular disease, obesity, hypertension, and chronic lung disease come to mind. Few people think of mental and social disruptions when they think of what impacts health. Rather recently, in 1997, Steven Bratman defined the term “orthorexia nervosa”. Simply put, orthorexia is an obsessive fixation on the need to consume only foods that are deemed “pure” and “healthy”, in an attempt to achieve the highest level of health. What stems from an honest quest to pursue a healthy and toxic-free lifestyle can turn into a pathological and ritualistic obsessive existence.
When asked what comes to mind when they hear the term “eating disorder”, most people say anorexia and bulimia nervosa. Being a rather new term on the medical and scientific scene, and a new thought in the minds of professionals only recently has the term made its way onto the public forefront. Sadly most people will not know what orthorexia is unless they have had experience with it. What sets orthorexia apart from anorexia and bulimia is that those affected have an unhealthy fixation on the quality of food rather than the quantity of food being consumed. Interestingly, it is not only the quality of the food being consumed (usually there is an obsessive need to eat only non-GMO or organic foods) that is of concern but also how food is prepared and stored. Intense fear may be involved during the preparation period for fear that food will lose valuable nutrients to heat or the environment. Anxiety may be present around food storage due to a fear of carcinogens and other plastic-derived toxins that may be present in food storage containers.
Those affected by anorexia tend to be unnecessarily obsessed with weight and have fears of becoming “fat”. Starvation, excess fasting and extreme sessions of exercise are common with anorexia. Bulimia is marked by binge eating and a continuous lack of control over eating during those periods. Uncontrollable eating is usually followed up with the use of a laxative or self-imposed gagging to induce vomiting, to “cleanse” the body and stay at the desired weight. While there are several differences between orthorexia and the other two disorders, they all share two awful similarities: shame and guilt.
Living in a technologically controlled world where we are regularly being bombarded with messages about desirability and perfection, it can be hard to feel adequate. What starts as a desire to eat “clean” and “healthy” can turn into an obsessive need to control all aspects of our “food life”. There have been many instances where orthorexia has transformed into a type of combined disorder with co-occurrence of one or more of the above eating disorders, or obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). Orthorexia and anorexia nervosa share several similarities, including, an extreme need to have and exert control, perfectionism, and retaining faithfulness to values. Deviation from “perfection” is more often than not seen as a failure and a lack of self-discipline.
There are many tendencies and “symptoms” that may be present with orthorexia, including, but not limited to, obsessive and invasive thoughts about food/health, disruption of normal routines and social life due to a severe devotion to specific eating patterns, preoccupation with nutrition labels and ingredient lists, disconnection from those that do not adhere to the same “eating plan”, and the complete cutting out or adding in of food groups from and to the diet. Due to the strict patterns of eating, orthorexic individuals are placed at a high risk of experiencing nutritional deficiencies and many other complications; anemia, bradycardia (a low heart – 60-100 bpm), testosterone deficiency, low blood sodium counts, and metabolic acidosis are a few. The likelihood also exists that orthorexia may be indicative of other underlying psychopathologies.
As someone who has struggled immensely in the past, and still somewhat today, with orthorexic and anorexic tendencies, I can say that it is not something to turn a blind eye to. It can take a turn very rapidly, and become all-consuming and very detrimental to one’s well-being. For me, it started as irritable bowl syndrome (IBS) and the constant need to be on the lookout for “triggering” ingredients and food groups. Eventually, it turned into the perpetual want and need to eat only “healthy foods” – whatever that meant. Bloating from gastrointestinal upset led to decreased mental states and increased feelings of disgust with my body. I would find myself labeling foods as “good” or “bad”, and would face extreme anxiety and self-loathing in situations where “good” foods were not present. Family dining events and meals out became circumstances of angst and things to avoid. When forced to deviate from the “plan” I was fearful that I was putting “garbage” in my body and that anything other than acceptable foods would make me “fat”. Looking back, the saddest and worst part is that I was always more concerned with what other people would think of me if they saw me eating “poorly” or if I gained weight. I was never concerned with how I felt or what I was doing to myself. While I am still a label reader and meal planner, I like to think that it comes for a place of curiosity and a genuine want to be health-conscious. Deprived, undernourished and underweight it had finally hit that I was “that girl”. The girl that I always wanted to help. I would constantly see girls on social media that looked sickly and talked about their struggles with disordered eating, and I always thought about how horrible it must be to have such a negative relationship with your body and food, and I never realized that I was looking at myself.
It is so important in today’s world to remember to focus on YOU. Self-love and self-care are hot topics, but people tend to forget that those include more than a trip to the spa or a coffee to “treat yo self”.
Intuitive Health & Living 