At a time when obesity is a skyrocketing problem in the United States, some experts are seeing a backlash of eating disorders. Orthorexia, which is considered a type of anorexia, involves an obsessive fixation with eating only healthy foods. Orthorexia is a term coined by Dr. Steven Bratman to describe this condition; however, orthorexia is not an officially recognized clinical eating disorder.
Orthorexics gradually eliminate more and more types of foods from their diets and generally begin to fixate on a very limited diet. In some extreme cases, orthorexics become full-blown anorexics because they can't find food "clean" enough or "healthy" enough to satisfy their compulsion, and so their caloric intake becomes severely limited.
According to some experts, the connection between anorexia and orthorexia is a deep-seated fear of food. Anorexics fear food because they think it will make them fat, while orthorexics fear food because they think it will make them sick.
Ellen Astrachan-Fletcher, a clinical psychologist and director of the eating disorders clinic at the University of Illinois at Chicago, commented: "While orthorexia begins with a desire to achieve better health, it's very connected to an underlying fear of food. If I believe the food will make me sick, I become afraid of it, and I avoid it and, bit by bit, continue to avoid more and more food types."
Orthorexics typically become so obsessed with consuming the "right" foods that other activities in their lives begin to suffer, such as their studies, careers and family life. This is the point where a lifestyle choice may cross the line into a mental health issue.
Linda Van Horn, a clinical nutrition epidemiologist at the Feinberg School of Medicine at Northwestern University, stated: "The fundamental issue [with orthorexia] is the obsessive-compulsive nature of food intake. Anything too extreme can be unhealthy."
(Source: news.medill.northwestern.edu)
Labels: anorexia, diet, orthorexia
Posted By: Eating Disorders Blog