Thanks to many of your blog posts, I learned that last week was National Eating Disorder Awareness Week. You had some great, insightful posts on intuitive eating and on celebrating our bodies for the amazing things they enable us to do.
When one thinks of eating disorders, anorexia, bulimia, and compulsive overeating come to mind. But in this post, I want to highlight another eating disorder, because I feel it’s the one to which we healthy-living bloggers and readers can probably most relate:
Orthorexia Nervosa
Orthorexia Nervosa is characterized by an excessive focus on eating healthy foods. Basically, its sufferers start out with a simple desire to live a healthy lifestyle, but they become so preoccupied with eating healthily that it becomes an unhealthy obsession.
Unlike with anorexia, orthorexics don’t necessarily think they’re fat. Their underlying motivation, therefore, is not to be thin or lose weight, but to be “pure.” However, with such restrictive diets, they can become just as malnourished as anorexics. People suffering might avoid certain foods, such as non-organic foods, cooked foods, or processed foods. (Feel free to click over to the following post for more about my thoughts on processed foods.)
This doesn’t mean that every vegan, raw foodist, or person who strives to eat a healthy diet has orthorexia. It’s only when the healthy diet becomes an obsession; when a person spends hours planning out his/her “perfect” diet, calculating nutrients, preparing everything in a very specific way (and not letting anyone else prepare his/her food), that one can be seen to have a problem.
People suffering from orthorexia may display some of the following signs:
- Feeling virtuous about what they eat, but not enjoying their food much
- Continually cutting foods from their diet
- Experiencing a reduced quality of life or social isolation because their diet makes it difficult for them to eat anywhere but at home
- Feeling critical of, or superior to, others who do not eat as healthily they do
- Skipping foods they once enjoyed in order to eat the “right” foods
- Choosing to eat foods based solely on nutritional value, instead of eating what they’re craving
- Feeling guilt or self-loathing when they stray from their diet
- Feeling in total control when they eat the “correct” diet
I can definitely see myself, if not careful, displaying some of the other orthorexic tendencies, like feeling critical or looking down on certain foods, such as white bread, white pasta, and white rice, deeming them “valueless.” Does having one of the characteristics mean I have orthorexia?
No, of course not.
But I do have to remind myself that just because it’s white bread does not mean it’s worthless. After all, a food is so much more than its numerical nutritional value. The French have been eating white bread for years, the Japanese eat white rice, the Italians enjoy white pasta… and so on.
Sure, it’s great to eat a healthy diet 90% of the time, mostly choosing whole-grains over white ones. But honestly, a little nutritionally valueless piece of white-flour-white-sugar cake every now and then is not going to hurt you. It’s not something you should feel guilty about, but something to be enjoyed! And the enjoyment you can get out of eating it will boost your mental (and thus physical) health! My great-grandma ate processed foods, drank coffee, and—as an Italian—loved her daily servings of white pasta. But one thing my great-grandma did NOT invite into her life was stress. She lived well into her 90s.
There’s a lesson to be learned here: Stress and guilt are much more detrimental to one’s health than eating a few refined grains every now and then. In the end, “Orthorexia Nervosa” is just a label. Whether you fit that label or not, we can all probably benefit from the reminder that food is only one component to a healthy life. Eat what your body truly craves, exercise (but not excessively), feed your soul, and–above all–try to stress as little as possible. Such is the way to a healthy life. (Sounds like something Confucius would say!)
What are your thoughts on all of this?
Great post! I’ve seen some disordered tendencies in myself as well, but I also enjoy food way too much to ever treat it in this way. Sure, most of the food I eat is for fuel, but I always make sure it’s something I at least like if not love! And you can pry my potatoes and rice noodles away from my cold dead hands.
This is an awesome post! I am so “starring” this in my reader.
In the past I’ve kind of dismissed orthorexia as just another label. But as your post outlines, I think the problem isn’t so much with eating healthy food, vegan food, organic food, or less-processed food…but the problem is with obsessive behaviors. NOTHING is good if it’s done to the extreme or becomes a compulsion. Food is meant to be enjoyable, and life is to short to stress over everything. I love how you point out that health isn’t just about food and fitness. It is so easy for me to forget that it also has a lot to do with our minds and our thoughts–which can sometimes be more difficult to change than our food or exercise choices.
Well, I think you already know how superior I think a vegan diet is! I wouldn’t be doing it if I didn’t think it was the best diet for me, the animals, and our planet! So heck yes, check me off for feeling superior.
BUT, my diet is way too complex and varied for me to fit into any of the categories. Do I love having a green smoothie for breakfast? Yes. But do I look down on people who have sugar puffs? As long as it is vegan, no. Because I typically follow up my breakfast with a big slice of my latest dessert!
Food does NOT equate goodness or anything like that. I eat healthy 90% of the time because I want to feel GREAT, not because I want to feel better than everyone else. Life is too short to say no to delicious food, even if it isn’t organic and contains more than a little sugar.
The reason I exclude veganism is because I’m an ethical vegan. It doesn’t have to do with health, it has to do with not murdering animals. That definitely will change my view of a person.
Great post! I feel like when I began recovering from an ED I had some orthorexic tendencies. I’m fully recovered now and am so happy that I’ve found the perfect balance for me. I eat healthfully but still understand that food is not only fuel but it’s enjoyment and a way to connect with other people too!
I’ll be the first to admit that I have orthorexic tendencies, but I can’t help myself after losing weight. If I don’t stick to whole foods with little sugar 99% of the time, I gain weight super easily, and I never want to be overweight again. So, my fears do keep me from eating many foods that I used to enjoy. However, I feel like I’ve replaced those foods (pizza, ice-cream, candy, soda, etc.) with foods that are good for me that I never ate before, and that I truly enjoy. I had never touched a roasted Brussel sprout or broccoli floret before I lost weight. Now, I can’t imagine life without them. So, I pass up on the Ben & Jerry’s. No big deal…especially since I discovered So Delicious coconut milk ice-cream. 🙂 Healthy foods make me happy and for me, it’s the sugar-laden and processed foods that cause me stress. Therefore, I stay away from them, and my mind, body, and soul are happy. That does not sound disordered to me.
Good post Katie. Very thought provoking.
i definitely have some orthorexia tendencies, but i do enjoy the food that i eat! (so i guess that disqualifies me from about half of the “symptoms”)
i care a lot about the ingredient list on foods (no HFCS, trans fats, or weird chemicals), where my eggs and meat come from, and if my produce is organic or not. i look down on foods that don’t meet my standards, and i think most people should care more about what they eat. however, it is pretty impossible to eat perfectly 100% of the time and no one should freak out if they eat something “wrong.”
but i just realized, when i do indulge, i sometimes have very specific food rules for that, too. i will eat good quality dark chocolate or homemade desserts, but i will judge someone eating a McDonald’s hamburger (why would you even want to eat that? sketchy beef, sad white bun, doesn’t taste that good…). i think that is more being a food snob than orthorexic though 🙂
Hey Katie,
I have been wanting to reply all day and kid is in bed at 1:20am and here I finally am.
Thank you for this post b/c honestly, I am so sick and tired of going to blogs where the author won’t eat this or that b/c it’s not organic, perfectly raw (i.e. uncooked oats are not considered raw b/c they have been heated in the milling process…but to the rest of us mere mortals, uncooked oats are simply “raw” oatmeal…but these types of distinctions drive me insane actually) or blogs where the author scoffs at x,y,z food or sweetener or this or that b/c they personally don’t deem it healthy.
For instance…Many say Sugar is bad, agave is bad, HFCS is bad, Splenda is bad, stevia is bad…every single one of those sweeteners has been criticized, and while I truly believe some are bad, not all are horrid, if used in conscious thought and careful moderation. Point being, people get wayyyyyy tooo caught up and if we don’t at some point let go a bit, and chill out, we will find ourselves either not able to enjoy eating anything or very miserable. I have hung out with too many ultra-holistic people before and their extreme concern, i.e. orthoexia, surrounding food choices is off-putting, frustrating to be around, and frankly, not for me!
Wonderful post and I think I am lucky commenter # 100. Wow.
xoxo
Great post, Katie. I think that it’s important to remember that wishing to put natural and whole foods in our bodies is a fundamentally healthy impulse. I think it’s also important to remember that many people who have suffered from disordered eating have a tricky relationship with consumption, and that eating in such a way that feels ethically sound, nutritionally sound, and environmentally sound can truly help to heal that relationship (this was true for me).
In other words, eating a diet that appears (to some who don’t eat that way) focused on purity can be, in fact, liberating, as long as its is also a diet that is balanced, healthy, calorically adequate, and varied. And we all have to know where we see those distinctions: I feel that a whole foods, plant based diet can be healing and good, but I do feel very uncomfortable with overly restrictive raw diets, such as 80/10/10 or fruitarianism, with excessive fasting, or with any way of thinking that becomes paranoid or nitpicky (along the lines of what Averie just described).
What I think is dangerous is ever getting to a place where food and eating are feared, cause anxiety, or cause one to be socially isolated. Thank you for celebrating the OPPOSITE of those things!
When I first learned about “dieting” as a teenager I displayed some of these tendencies… I had a strict list of foods I would eat and would not eat ones I deemed “unhealthy.” I would have an almost panic attack if my mom cooked a vegetable with a bit of oil and would insist to make my own batch. I would pile my plate high with bare iceberg and a few slices of apples and walnuts but REFUSED to add a couple of raisins because they were sweetened. It was a sad time in my life, but I honestly believe that the experience really taught me about balancing healthy foods with fun foods. All that to say that moderation is the key to so many things in life… in our diets moderation should be practiced in so many ways, inculding allowing us to eat foods that might not be healthy.
I noticed that when I first starting writing my blog I would receive comments like “Oh, you eat Skippy natural peanut butter and not the fresh one from Whole Foods” and other such comments. I took those comments to heart and started to switch, or felt guilty for eating them. I do not anymore. I eat what I eat because I choose to, and I do not let others influence that.
What a great post Katie! I’ve linked back to it on my blog. I especially love the quote: “Eat what your body truly craves, exercise (but not excessively), feed your soul, and–above all–try to stress as little as possible.” I think I need to tattoo that on my forehead for certain moments.
You are so refreshing:)