Orhorexia Nervosa A New Eating Disorder
A guy at work suffers from orthorexia nervosa. I have to admit I didn’t know what it was, I should be embarrassed, but I take is as a matter of pride, as it means that in spite of my long battle to lose weight I still love food.
Anyway, orthorexia nervosa disorder is the maniac obsession for healthy foods. It is a relatively new term, and less popular than other eating disorders like bulimia and anorexia.
Orthorexics would starve rather than eating foods that they deem bad for their health, if not completely contaminated.
Orthorexia nervosa was first described as a social problem by an ex-orthorexic, dietician Steven Bratman. In many cases this disorder is light and transitory, perhaps caused by social alarms related to food, like the one cause by the “mad cow disease” a few years back.
In the most serious cases orthorexics change their lifestyle a little at the time, isolating themselves from other people, who don’t see the “dangers” of the foods they eat and sneer at them. Orthorexics live in a permanent state of danger, which they overcome with their belief that their choices are absolutely right.
For orthorexic subjects, official science is something demoniac, and the only possible conclusion is that everything depends on food.
Socially, the typical orthorexic subject is an educated male over 30. Unlike the bulimic or anorexic subjects, sufferers of orthorexia nervosa are completely normal physically. In my own experience I have to say that my co-worker fits this profile completely.
Orthorexia symptoms are sneaky and subtle. The initial stage is the refusal to eat foods treated with pesticides or any other artificial additive then, little by little the criteria to be admitted to the orthorexics table become stricter. Generally orthorexics end up eating alone and suffering from malnutrition. Crudists and vegan usually are the best candidates to orthorexia nervosa.
What lies behind Orthorexia nervosa and any other eating disorder are of course psychological problems. As there is no officially recognized orthorexia treatment.
Eating healthy is very important, but it will not alone make you leave forever.
Food will not cure illnesses, the best that a correct diet can do is to prevent common and serious illnesses, let alone obesity. And that’s a great success, let’s leave the rest to science.