Orthorexia - do you have it?

carpar1

Oh great. Now my family is going to accuse me of having this disorder.

Ditto!

KombuchaCat

Interesting...I am a healthnut but not to the extreme. I'm vegetarian (almost totally vegan) and eat as close to 100% organic as I can but am not progressing to eating virtually nothing. This sounds almost like an OCD type thing.

HealthFreak1967

i think i may, but i have recurrent binges, the worse of which i do consume things i render 'bad' 'unhealthy' or 'off limits', and i used to make myself purge because I want to be pure and cleansed, but now I made myself stop b/c of all the side effects

bcattoes

Interesting...I am a healthnut but not to the extreme. I'm vegetarian (almost totally vegan) and eat as close to 100% organic as I can but am not progressing to eating virtually nothing. This sounds almost like an OCD type thing.

Yes, I read about it on a few other Medical sites and the obsessive nature is what defines the condition (there is still debate an whether to make it a recognized disease). And often those with it feel virtuous about their eating habits.

This is from webmd:
http://www.webmd.com/mental-health/anorexia-nervosa/news/20001117/orthorexia-good-diets-gone-bad

So what constitutes orthorexia?

--Are you spending more than three hours a day thinking about healthy food?
--Are you planning tomorrow's menu today?
--Is the virtue you feel about what you eat more important than the pleasure you receive from eating it?
--Has the quality of your life decreased as the quality of your diet increased?
--Have you become stricter with yourself?
--Does your self-esteem get a boost from eating healthy? Do you look down on others who don't eat this way?
--Do you skip foods you once enjoyed in order to eat the "right" foods?
--Does your diet make it difficult for you to eat anywhere but at home, distancing you from friends and family.
--Do you feel guilt or self-loathing when you stray from your diet?
--When you eat the way you're supposed to, do you feel in total control?

cameralinds

There is healthy eating, organic eating, veganism, whatever label you put on something and then there is Orthorexia. Orthorexia is connected with underlying issues that create the behavior in the first place. While someone can be a mostly organic eater who is also vegan, they won't necessarily be using it as a "coping mechanism" or as something they can "control." I hate using the word control because that's what eating disorders are mostly about, but it's also not about control at all to a degree. I'm digressing. Anyway, my point, healthy eating is sometimes just healthy eating. Healthy eating can sometimes be Orthorexia, but it's more than likely, if someone has it, they know. (Based on overwhelming anxiety for eating something not on their meal plan. They just might not know the name for it.)

NCchar130

I have a close relative who I think has this. I think it's sad when it starts as a desire to take really good care of yourself, implying that all diseases are 100% preventable through diet. Diet is a big factor in many diseases but it's not the only one.

Related to this, I think is also the supplement takers. A TV show (I'm looking at you Dr Oz) says that such and such supplement prevents X disease, then a magazine says some other supplement prevents Y disease but then these tv shows and magazines have to stay in business so they have to come up with something new on a daily or weekly basis in order to keep their membership up. Then you have people taking so many supplements that really don't matter for the most part.

I remember watching a Dr G Medical Examiner episode where a woman mysteriously died and was totally into health and nutrition. She had a huge shelf of supplements she took every day and it was actually the reactions between the supplements that killed her.

Yes I agree with you! I knew a woman like this who eventually died of cancer. When she finally sought treatment (since she was very anti-Western medicine) she was at stage 4, it had spread all over her body. It was really sad.

My close relative has gone through several supplement 'phases' and is truly insulted if she gets so much as a head cold because it seems to her that she should not get sick at all, based on her diet and vitamin intake.

ipag

Judging by the parameters given, pretty much everyone on MFP has some form of Orthorexia.

bcattoes

Judging by the parameters given, pretty much everyone on MFP has some form of Orthorexia.

I thought the same thing. The webmd article sited above also states:

"If you answered yes to two or three of these questions, you may have a mild case of orthorexia. Four or more means that you need to relax more when it comes to food. If all these items apply to you, you have become obsessed with food."

If being honest, I'd reply yes to one of those questions, and sometimes to three others. But I'm thinking the "sometimes" would save me from a diagnosis.

SkinnyChemicals

I eat empty calories everyday. Yummy empty calories..so no.

ipag

I think these questions are kind of BS but these are the questions I answered yes to.

--Are you planning tomorrow's menu today?
Yes, because I prefer not to go shopping everyday. I usually plan my meals a week at a time plus it helps with my budget.

--Have you become stricter with yourself?
Yes, that's how you lose weight, right?

--Do you skip foods you once enjoyed in order to eat the "right" foods?
Yes, I used to eat pasta everyday, can't do that anymore, and I still would if I didn't become morbidly obese.

By these standards I have a mild case of orthorexia.

bcattoes

I think these questions are kind of BS but these are the questions I answered yes to.

--Are you planning tomorrow's menu today?
Yes, because I prefer not to go shopping everyday. I usually plan my meals a week at a time plus it helps with my budget.

--Have you become stricter with yourself?
Yes, that's how you lose weight, right?

--Do you skip foods you once enjoyed in order to eat the "right" foods?
Yes, I used to eat pasta everyday, can't do that anymore, and I still would if I didn't become morbidly obese.

By these standards I have a mild case of orthorexia.

You "could" have a mild case. But you have to think about the questions in the context they would be asked.

If you haven't cut pasta from your diet totally, then the answer to #3 would be "sometimes" because you don't always skip it. You are limiting that food, not eliminating it. Also, I don't think cutting calories would count in becoming stricter with yourself in this case. The disease has to do with cutting certain foods that are known to be healthy from your diet because you think they are unhealthy. For example, saying 'I'm going to eat less pasta because it's preventing me from maintaining a healthy weight' is unlikely to be a symptom, but saying 'I'm never going to eat pasta because it's made from wheat or is a processed food and that makes it unhealthy' might be a symptom.

wyodawn

My ex-boyfriend was this way and had me on the same road. It totally was a mental thing with him, and also a control thing. He insisted I eat that same way. I would occasionally sneak off and inhale a grilled cheese, which felt like major rebellion at the time. As a former anorexic, it was not a healthy path for me to be on, as it felt just like the excessive restrictions I had placed on myself before. I am still vegetarian, and have been healthily so for 22 years, but I felt very unhealthy and became underweight when I restricted my diet in so many ways.

SoDamnHungry

Thanks! I know someone with this an I had forgotten the term.

Prahasaurus

It's a major problem, and I'm sure you'll all be hearing about it more and more. It actually impacted - severely - someone quite close to me. She started by eating mainly organic foods, then became an avid alternative medicine proponent for any illness. It all came down to diet in her mind, anyway. It gradually progressed to having various pains, nausea, etc. when not eating "proper" foods. In the end, her diet consisted of organic broccoli, cauliflower, and onions. She weighed 34 kilos (75 lbs), and was close to death. Of course she refused psychological help, since "western science" was a sham, in cahoots with whomever to hide the truth about the poisonous food we're all consuming.

Only tough love saved her. Her family and friends finally just said that if she wants to die, she can go ahead and die. We all stopped enabling her mental illness. We told her we're just going to wait until she goes into a coma, and then put her on proper IV's in the hospital. But she was on her own to feed herself, etc. until she went into the coma. We were not going to do anything for her any longer. In her weakened state, this was not trivial. She slowly snapped out of it - decided she wanted to live - and began to discover grilled chicken breast would not kill her, rice was not the devil, sugar was not a global conspiracy, etc...

She's far from 100%, but her diet is now more or less borderline sane. She's gained back a lot of weight. And she recently started working again.

This is the short version. There was so much more hell along the way. A terrible, terrible, mental illness. Be very careful.

--P

wyodawn

That's a very sad story. I'm glad to hear she trying to recover. It's hard to dish out that kind of tough love.