British experts are seeing an increase in orthorexia nervosa, an eating disorder in which people become fixated on eating only healthy foods and increasingly restricting their diets. Orthorexics go to extreme measures to avoid foods they see as "unhealthy" - fats, carbohydrates, preservatives, and others.
Deanne Jane, the founder of the National Centre for Eating Disorders in Britain, believes that at some point, society became disconnected from food. She believes that individuals with orthorexic tendencies receive motivation and encouragement from a number of supposedly trustworthy sources:

"It's everywhere, from the people who think it's normal if their friends stop eating entire food groups, to the trainers in the gym who [promote] certain foods to enhance performance, to the proliferation of nutritionists, dieticians and naturopaths. ... This is all grist for the mill to those looking for proof to confirm or encourage their anxieties around food."

As an individual's diet becomes more and more restricted, the risk of rapid and unhealthy weight loss, as well as malnutrition, osteoporosis, and other health complications, increases. In its most extreme form, orthorexia can result in starvation and death.

(Source: pitch.com)

Labels: eating disorder, orthorexia, britian

Posted By: Aspen Education Group