Eating disorder charities are reporting a rise in the number of people suffering from a serious psychological condition characterised by an obsession with healthy eating.
The condition, orthorexia nervosa, affects equal numbers of men and women, but sufferers tend to be aged over 30, middle-class and well-educated.
The condition was named by a Californian doctor, Steven Bratman, in 1997, and is described as a “fixation on righteous eating”. Until a few years ago, there were so few sufferers that doctors usually included them under the catch-all label of “Ednos” – eating disorders not otherwise recognised. Now, experts say, orthorexics take up such a significant proportion of the Ednos group that they should be treated separately.
“I am definitely seeing significantly more orthorexics than just a few years ago,” said Ursula Philpot, chair of the British Dietetic Association’s mental health group. “Other eating disorders focus on quantity of food but orthorexics can be overweight or look normal. They are solely concerned with the quality of the food they put in their bodies, refining and restricting their diets according to their personal understanding of which foods are truly ‘pure’.”
Orthorexics commonly have rigid rules around eating. Refusing to touch sugar, salt, caffeine, alcohol, wheat, gluten, yeast, soya, corn and dairy foods is just the start of their diet restrictions. Any foods that have come into contact with pesticides, herbicides or contain artificial additives are also out.
Quick, we need a vaccine!
#19. A good life is about quality, not quantity.
#20 McCullough. I agree.
Agreed on quality, not quantity.
But–”quality” is a slippery word that can head toward madness. Read “Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance” to get an idea how hard quality is to pin down.
Orthorexics may be just as nutty as anorexics.
Since when is common sense a disease?
What the F is wrong with this concept. People wanting to eat “food that doesn’t kill them”.
Yes I choose not to eat food that is genetically modified or sprayed with pesticides or processed in a way that makes it impossible for the digestive system to handle. I try to eat the same things that my great grandfather ate. Vegetables that are grown in my own garden and meat that is raised on my own land.
Get rid of the corporate giants that don’t give a shit about your health. Buy your food from the local farmers market or better yet dig up your lawn and plant something that you can eat.
It tastes great. It’s good for you.
end of sermon
When I was a youngster we called this kind of person Euell Gibbons.
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#24: A backyard garden is a nice hobby, and may save you a bit of money.
“I try to eat the same things that my great grandfather ate” is just nuts. What if your great grandfather loved to eat fresh tripe? Would you eat it?