For anybody who cares about how the media and doctors are tr

No. I'm sorry but this is being blown way out of proportion. A psychologist would only find fault with fixation on healthy eating if it was disrupting a patient's life. If you were so fixated on healthy eating it was impeding your normal activities, YES, that would be a disorder, eh?

once again that intrepid bastion of British journalism charges boldly into the fray:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2009/aug/16/orthorexia-mental-health-eating-disorder

i would find it amusing except that this has been percolating since 1997 and the food industry has a vested interest in promoting it...not to mention the medical establishment who gains by treating associated health disorders.

must have been a really slow news day...

I was so annoyed I couldn't even finish reading this article. There are people that fixate so much on healthy eating that they die of manutrition. That is what orthorexia nervosa is. This article was writen by someone just trying to stir the pot instead of taking 30 seconds to google the disorder and figure out it really meant.

Doctors are not trying to label people that eat healthy as mentally ill. They are labeling people who take "healthy" eating to such an extreme that they are actually hurting their bodies.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orthorexia_nervosa

Attempting to avoid chemicals, dairy, soy and sugar now makes you a mental health patient? Yep. According to these experts. If you actually take special care to avoid pesticides, herbicides and genetically modified ingredients like soy and sugar, there's something wrong with you.

:noway:

No... If you get OCD about everything that goes in your mouth to the point that you starve to death there is something wrong with you.

This seems to be the difference between myself who washes her hands often, to my friend who HAS to go back 3x to wash again and again.

Anyone with OCD could get caught up in over complicating the ingestion of their food.

I do not doubt there are people out there who are starving to death because they are obsessed with eating clean foods.

Interesting the doctors have a name for it...........

I agree.

This same article has a thread on Marks Daily Apple forums and I tend to agree with the posters that stated this "mental illness" should not be in its own category, but applied to being part of the OCD family............

If you are that paranoid about what you put in your body, you have OCD.

This seems to be the difference between myself who washes her hands often, to my friend who HAS to go back 3x to wash again and again.

Anyone with OCD could get caught up in over complicating the ingestion of their food.

I do not doubt there are people out there who are starving to death because they are obsessed with eating clean foods.

Interesting the doctors have a name for it...........

I agree.

This same article has a thread on Marks Daily Apple forums and I tend to agree with the posters that stated this "mental illness" should not be in its own category, but applied to being part of the OCD family............

If you are that paranoid about what you put in your body, you have OCD.

True. I was in a work related, group situation a few years back and the young lady that was with me was freaking out because there was no healthy food to eat. I pointed out there was salad and grilled chicken.......she exclaimed "You have NO idea whether is was washed right or if it has additives"

She did not eat ANYthing for lunch.

I did not give it much thought because at the time I was loading my plate with mac/cheese, potato salad/macaroni salad, BBQ ribs and a cheeseburger (old Jeannie )

But I can now see how she would fit into this category. I remember she also would ONLY sit in the seat behind the driver in the van.

I'm sure this is an extreme way of looking at it and I did not read the original article - yet. But.......this could also be taken to extreme by doctors. When I read this post I looked at it as a warning.......just be careful. Anything taken too far can be a problem...but eliminating fake sugars and only eating organic...and being constantly suspicious of the media and it's portrayals of 'what is ok' based on big pharm...is ok and healthy. You should never just take what someone says as right (even a doc) without questioning and researching. A md is just a person who went to school for a long time...they are not god. They do make mistakes....just keep that in mind

Dr. Terry Larson, DPT

I don't think anybody is saying not to question doctors or diagnosis or whatever. But maybe when somebody comes off sounding very extreme we should question them too before jumping on the bandwagon. This type of eating disorder cannot even be clinically diagnosed as it is not in the DSM - but is it part of the lesser known eating disorders and can be deadly.

This seems to be the difference between myself who washes her hands often, to my friend who HAS to go back 3x to wash again and again.

Anyone with OCD could get caught up in over complicating the ingestion of their food.

I do not doubt there are people out there who are starving to death because they are obsessed with eating clean foods.

Interesting the doctors have a name for it...........

I agree.

This same article has a thread on Marks Daily Apple forums and I tend to agree with the posters that stated this "mental illness" should not be in its own category, but applied to being part of the OCD family............

If you are that paranoid about what you put in your body, you have OCD.

True. I was in a work related, group situation a few years back and the young lady that was with me was freaking out because there was no healthy food to eat. I pointed out there was salad and grilled chicken.......she exclaimed "You have NO idea whether is was washed right or if it has additives"

She did not eat ANYthing for lunch.

I did not give it much thought because at the time I was loading my plate with mac/cheese, potato salad/macaroni salad, BBQ ribs and a cheeseburger (old Jeannie )

But I can now see how she would fit into this category. I remember she also would ONLY sit in the seat behind the driver in the van.

LOL, yes..........This fits her to a T. Those are the people they are talking about in that article..........

I am trying to not let myself get to that point. KWIM? I find myself not wanting to eat veggies, meats and fruits unless they are from local resources, such as my CSA offerings and my sisters inlaws is where I get raw milk, meat and eggs from now........

At what point do you cross the time and become obsessive with it?

We have started making our own cleaning supplies, soaps, shampoos and lotions................

Cora,

I personally think (and this is my opinion, nothing evidence based) that there is nothing wrong with being conscious of what you put into your body. I think obsession about food could perhaps be assessed by what your response would be if you were given a situation where you were out of your comfort zone with food. For example, I remember a while back some burger king patties that were in mentioned in the threads from your diary and as you said at the time, this was an unusual event and you chose that because you thought it was closest to what you followed at home. Now, of course being at Burger King there was not an option that would fit with your 'buy things straight from the local farmers, no processing' kind of strategy but you still chose to improvise and eat something - I think obsession would be if you refused to eat anything at all even though you were hungry because all of the criteria you had set for yourself had not been met.

That's just an example of course but I think that is where the final line is drawn (although perhaps there are degress of this obsessiveness that occur before that?), where you are so affected mentally by any dietary restrictions you may set that you refuse to compromise even in extreme situations.

That is a very extreme way of looking at the original study, article whatever. I read the original article. This guy is really going to the extreme with his paranoia. In my humble opinion!

The original article did talk about that particular "mental illness" but it was much more than just watching what you eat and being careful. Much more then trying to avoid additives and chemicals. It wasn't saying people who try to eat healthy have a mental illness. It was saying that people that control their eating and what they eat to the point that they starve them selves and reach anorexic levels of thinness have issues that need professional treatment. I don't have time right now, but if I do and I can find the original article, I'll post the link. This illness, like anorexia, isn't about the food. It's about control.

You have gotten the gist of the original article. The internet rant posted by the OP in this thread is just the all-too-typical reflexive reaction to someone whose pet issue was questioned and either didn't bother to read the original article or lacked the critical thinking capacity to understand it.

The original article does not criticize people who are interested in "eating healthy". It addressed a particular type of obsessive behavior that manifests itself in this general area. The fact that it was so harshly criticized on a website name "Natural News" is not surprising. There has always been a subset of people within the larger group of people who are interested in "eating healthy" who have turned their food beliefs into more of a cult than an eating program.

And given that many/most people do NOT "eat healthy", it is common to see articles such as this publicized in the mass media with a "frame' that tries to ridicule everyone who has taken steps to eat better and improve their health--a theme of "see! we TOLD those people were "crazy"--have another twinkie!".