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?
This is really interesting Katie! I used to have flat out semi-anorexic tendencies. I wasn’t so much worried about what foods I was consuming, but how much of them and how often. I would find myself having to force myself to eat the cheese on my sandwich because I was just so hungry. Then again, at the same time I was working 35+ hours a week and taking a full load in school of pretty advanced college courses. Food was always on the back burner. Needless to say I dropped down to 135 (which is pretty thin for my 5’7″ medium boned frame) and I looked awesome =P
I definitely want to keep losing weight since I’ve gained a ton since then, but at least overall I’m eating very healthy and getting all of the nutrients I need. I think it’s awesome you’re helping spread awareness of this. There are tons of different eating disorders out there, people need to realize just because you don’t starve yourself or throw up your food doesn’t mean you might not have eating issues.
A lovely friend of mine is extremely well-known in the Raw Food Community and as a consequence gets a lot of emails and letters from people about their own Raw Food ventures. Some of the things she has told me are just plain scary-lots of raw women who host raw food for weightloss programmes but are admittedly anorexic. One well known raw fitness expert who is in crisis as they are having daily seizures from lack of protein (self-confessed) but will only tell other well known raw food figures about it. Many promoters of this diet are on medication due to the damage that has been done to their bodies-but will only admit this within select circles due to fear of their fame and income being taken away
If you are on this path and things are not going as well as you’d hoped they would-please do me a favor-bear in mind that all is not always what it seems in the lives of those whose teachings you are following. Don’t follow a way of eating because you have read so much you are scared to do otherwise, trust your own wisdom. Cooked food is not poison, it is a myth.
xxxxx
I don’t get the “orthorexia” vibe from your blog AT ALL. I had an eating disorder throughout high school and college and my radar for that type of thing is pretty good;)
I loved reading some of the comments…it can be a fine line between being conscientious and being obsessive. I think moderation in all things is a good way to go – but at the same time, if you believe something is poison – why put in your body ever?
What frustrates me is when other people project that type of idea on someone else’s habits… i.e. “You don’t eat xyz so you must be orthorexic, anorexic, high maintainance, etc, etc.” We have never taken our children to McDonalds. We do eat in restaurants occasionally (though not fast food) but generally eat simple, healthy foods prepared from scratch at home. I actually had a mom tell me that I was “depriving” my kids by not taking them to fast food restaurants or feeding them Pop tarts or similar garbage!
I agree with the poster who said cooked food is not a poison…I think the standard western diet doesn’t include ENOUGH raw food, but it would be easy to go too far too.
What you said about 90% of the time is right on – I did a post about this & new year’s resolutions. I eat nourishing, life-affirming foods 90% of the time, so if every once in awhile I eat something less than perfect…it just means I’m a human being:)
I am a dietitian, and I can identify with the struggle you *think* you might have. It is definitely a good caution to all the ‘healthy lifestyle’ advocates out there. If being healthy is taking up too much of your focus and time, causes you to feel ‘better than’ others, and impacts your ability to be normal (ie. can’t eat at normal restaurants or panics about what food will be served at a party)…you likely have an issue. Eating disorders are identified by the thoughts more than the specific behaviors. Any time food and weight or even health is taking up the majority of your thoughts, it is an issue.
I used to be a health nut, with healthy eating and exercise. It is only now that I treat patients for eating disorders that it is obvious I had one. But I wouldn’t have known it because I ate *enough* cals to not be anorexic and I wasn’t throwing up. Little did I know my exercise was definitely a form of purging. And I thought about food all day long–how much have I had, what will I have later? I would put huge pressure on myself to exercise, feeling I would be so fat if I didn’t.
Now I use and advocate Intuitive Eating, or a non-diet approach to eating that uses hunger and fullness cues, legalizing all foods, etc. It is awesome to see how my body just stays the same without me having to give it a single thought. Now I can focus on my life. I can guarantee I am healthier now than I ever was when I was trying to be so healthy.
What a great post! As someone who struggles with bingeing (and therefore obsessive tendencies with food), but who also works as a weight loss counselor, is going to school for nutrition, and writes a food blog, I can definitely see myself falling into some of those categories. I definitely get a little too obsessed with how I eat sometimes and have to take a step back and relax about it!
This post is rediculous. Orthorexia is just a mainstream term for someone who is smart and receptive enough to see that “everything in moderation” is bullshit. Processed foods have no place in the human diet. Period. We have built an entire cultural conciousness around the idea that processed food is acceptable and normal. People say, and blog about, the glory of moderation, and associate with “living well”. No one says “heroin in moderation is fine.” Yet, people freak out when they hear someone proclaiming that sugar is a drug.People turn their heads and disregard because they arent willing to give up something they are emotional attatched to and too socially conditioned to break away from mainstream customs.
These people are often seen as “extreme”, but HELLO!!!! LOOK AT THE WORLD WE LIVE IN and say that it is not extreme. Perhaps extremes are what we need to save our societies and world from collapsing.
You’re a vegan, so youre not completely oblivious.
Orthorexia is just something that allopathic medicine has come up with to account for people who cannot stand the social conditioning around food that many of us are oblivious to.
Anonymous,
You misunderstood my post. Nowhere in the post did I say that people who don’t eat processed foods are, by definition, orthorexic. It is only when someone takes the idea of “being healthy” so far that it consumes his/her life that a person becomes orthorexic. If you wish to never eat processed foods and you still live a happy life, without stressing about–or feeling guilty about–eating healthily all the time, all the more power to you.
However, I think your analogy to heroin was way off. Processed foods are certainly not as dangerous as heroin. Heroin has the power to kill from even just a one-time use. Conversely, there are people (my great-grandma included) who have eaten many processed foods and yet live to be over 100.
Also, as much as I love a good debate and am happy for people to express views that are not the same as mine, there is a way to disagree respectfully, without calling someone (in this case, me) or someone’s post ridiculous and without using profanity. Such put-downs make it hard for others to focus on your actual message. Just something to keep in mind.
:/
Good post and something I needed to read.
I lost a titch over 50lbs last year and have been maintaining for going on 6 months. I’ve never been closer to disordered eating than I currently am. I eat healthy food and I eat a decent amount of calories (1600-1900) but I feel GUILTY for eating more than my BMR. I got so used to seeing that scale number drop that, even though I’m at a very healthy BMI and size, I am struggling to let myself stay put. I went from a tight size 12 to a comfortable 2 and I know, intellectually, that I DO NOT want to get any thinner. But I look in the mirror and I still see only my flaws. Only how I am not perfect.
I’m currently training for a Half Mary in May (I’ve posted before about it and you sent a lovely response, thank you!) and am currently doing P90x Classic to gain muscle and strength. I’m trying to focus on what my body can do but I keep swinging back to being obsessive about calories in and calories burned. I’ve gained a bit doing all the strength and I KNOW it’s muscle (I can see it and my measurements aren’t going up) but the desire to eat less, work out more and get that number back down to 126 instead of 128 is really powerful. I think about food all the time, I plan my meals and I don’t like to have that plan messed with. I DO include treats (did while I was losing, too) and don’t tend to feel guilty about eating specific foods, just about how many calories I eat, total.
I love your blog because I want to get to where you are, mentally. Part of it is just fear – I don’t want to be that heavy, unhappy girl again, ever. Part of it is control – I was in a not-healthy, emotionally abusive marriage when I gained most of the weight, though I’ve always been chubby, and by losing the weight I’ve felt like I wasn’t under anyone’s thumb anymore. I felt strong and capable. It was physical proof that I COULD reach a goal and could stick to my guns. And it was a way to rigidly maintain control after feeling very powerless for six years. I’m trying to use running to keep having that feeling of power and strength – and it works, while I’m moving. I sit still and fear catches up.
I’m doing a ten mile race on Saturday – my first racing that distance – and I’m going to do it while mulling over all the good things you write about and all the excellent posts others have left here. Hopefully I’ll lose the fear around mile 5 and I’ll be too far ahead for it to catch up this time.
Thank you.
You make a difference.
I do struggle with this kind of thinking and know others who do, as well. This was a very good, inspiring post.
this is an old post, but one that makes me incredibly happy because it highlights things that worry me about some of my healthy-eating-minded friends.