Orthorexia

veganbaum wrote: »

kshama2001 wrote: »

Orphia wrote: »

@tomatoey a more recent review of studies has shown there is no significant nutritional difference between organically and conventionally grown fruit and vegetables.

http://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/organic-food-no-more-nutritious-than-conventionally-grown-food-201209055264

It's not nutritional differences that drive me to buy organic and grow my own food, but pesticide.

EWG's 2015 Shopper's Guide to Pesticides in Produce

Nearly two-thirds of the 3,015 produce samples tested by the U.S. Department of Agriculture in 2013 contained pesticide residues

...Pesticides persisted on fruits and vegetables tested by USDA, even when they were washed and, in some cases, peeled.

USDA EWG's Shopper's Guide to Pesticides in Produce recognizes that many people who want reduce their exposure to pesticides in produce cannot find or afford an all-organic diet. It helps them seek out conventionally grown fruits and vegetables that tend to test low for pesticide residues. When they want foods whose conventional versions test high for pesticides, they can make an effort to locate organic versions.

Highlights of Dirty Dozen™ 2015

EWG singles out produce with the highest pesticide loads for its Dirty Dozen™ list. This year, it is comprised of apples, peaches, nectarines, strawberries, grapes, celery, spinach, sweet bell peppers, cucumbers, cherry tomatoes, imported snap peas and potatoes.

Each of these foods tested positive a number of different pesticide residues and showed higher concentrations of pesticides than other produce items.

Key findings:

• 99 percent of apple samples, 98 percent of peaches, and 97 percent of nectarines tested positive for at least one pesticide residue.
• The average potato had more pesticides by weight than any other produce. [see next post for more]
• A single grape sample and a sweet bell pepper sample contained 15 pesticides.
• Single samples of cherry tomatoes, nectarines, peaches, imported snap peas and strawberries showed 13 different pesticides apiece.

The Clean Fifteen™

EWG's Clean Fifteen™ list of produce least likely to hold pesticide residues consists of avocados, sweet corn, pineapples, cabbage, frozen sweet peas, onions, asparagus, mangoes, papayas, kiwis, eggplant, grapefruit, cantaloupe, cauliflower and sweet potatoes. Relatively few pesticides were detected on these foods, and tests found low total concentrations of pesticides on them.

Key findings:

• Avocados were the cleanest: only 1 percent of avocado samples showed any detectable pesticides.
• Some 89 percent of pineapples, 82 percent of kiwi, 80 percent of papayas, 88 percent of mango and 61 percent of cantaloupe had no residues.
• No single fruit sample from the Clean Fifteen™ tested positive for more than 4 types of pesticides.
• Multiple pesticide residues are extremely rare on Clean Fifteen™ vegetables. Only 5.5 percent of Clean Fifteen samples had two or more pesticides.

See the full list.

Read more: http://www.ewg.org/foodnews/summary.php

I try to choose organic mainly for that reason. I have used the Dirty Dozen/Clean Fifteen as a guide to choosing when I have to make a choice. I would generally prefer organic, even if it's on the Clean Fifteen list, because I have found that organic produce usually tastes better to me. Conventional tomatoes, unless they are hydroponically grown, are mushy and tasteless to me. Organic, or from my own garden if I have one, are delicious. Conventional bananas are bland. Organic actually taste like, well, a banana. However, I have found that conventional oranges of any type are usually tastier than organic, so I'll buy conventional. Doesn't seem crazy reasoning to me.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Qa6QXBxxWw

eruthe93 wrote: »

I had a diagnosis of OCD for years before I went on a calorie counting diet. As soon as I lost a pound or two I was obsessed with counting and eating healthy. If I ate 3 baby carrots, I would log 3 baby carrots. I stepped on the scale twice a day, would not eat pizza, and exercised excessively. I eventually had to teach myself that a piece of cake would not kill my diet. Now, starting over I know to incorporate dark chocolate, the occasional frozen yogurt ect.

That sounds like you went through a pretty rough time the first time around. I'm glad you're working it out on a stronger basis this time.

cmcdonald525 wrote: »

I firmly believe that my mom has orthorexia. She has been battling breast cancer and follows a version of "clean eating" that has her cutting out dairy, gluten, sugar, anything from packages, and a long list of things that I just haven't paid attention to enough to remember. It has gotten to the point that she makes everyone miserable every time we try to go out to eat or have a family party because she obsesses over what she can and can't eat. She is firmly convinced that if any of the "unclean" foods touch her lips, her cancer is going to come back. She demonizes food groups, literally cries if she sees my sister or me eating things she thinks are bad, and has let this fear control almost every aspect of her day to day life. I avoid visiting my parents close to mealtimes because it becomes a nightmare.

Focusing on nutrition and properly fueling your body is one thing. I'm all for taking care of yourself. Demonizing and obsessing over food is another.

Wow, my sympathies for your situation. That sounds awful.

Cancer is bad enough, but orthorexia on top is just terrible.

My sister had what I would now call orthorexia about 10 years ago, not eating meat, nor dairy, only organic, no gluten, and so on. She ended up extremely thin and having no periods for years, until after trying everything she realised her diet was too strict.

Now she's not quite so bad. Just a bit annoyingly "crunchy".

I hope your mother has a realisation so she finds more enjoyment in her life. It can't be nice being so obsessed with things. My best wishes to you.

veganbaum wrote: »

I didn't get that they see themselves as superior, but were rather adding to the conversation that some people choose organic for reasons other than thinking the food is superior nutritionally speaking.

If I misinterpreted, I'm sorry.

I didn't see it that way, because others of us (including me) had already noted that there were reasons besides nutrition to choose local or the like. So the poster in question's posts seemed to be intended for some other purpose, especially since I saw the argument, such as it was, as about the nutritional benefits.

I saw their next response about fish and bananas as just a response to mine about how I find the flavor different, which is also a big reason why I choose organic.

I don't think there's a different taste to organic, as it's from all over. (Organic tomatoes carted in from far away taste just as bad as conventional tomatoes from far away, for the same reasons. I strongly suspect that if you compared two local tomatoes you couldn't taste the difference between one that had been certified organic and one that was not.) However, although this is my view, I don't care if someone else disagrees and buys organic or if they think the difference in pesticide vs. not is worth the cost difference when buying from a supermarket. I only think it's orthorexic (the topic) if one is so scared of getting non organic produce that one cannot eat food they didn't prepare themselves and this affects your ability to participate in regular life in some significant way, if there's serious anxiety surrounding it.

Personally, I do think (as I had previously said) that there's a taste reason to prefer some local products, of course, but from a nutrition perspective there is a limit to what's available locally, and I personally don't want to eat vegetables only when I can get them out of my garden. I live in the northern midwest--that would be quite limiting. (I make judgments based on what I think is much better locally and what is not--so like you I don't care to eat peaches out of season and I only eat local, in season corn, fresh tomatoes and strawberries when locally available, etc., but personally I do eat broccoli and spinach and bananas and canned tomatoes all year round.) I make my choices and don't judge those others make, so I find it obnoxious when others seem to be proclaiming their choices as the One True Way in a thread that's about something else.

A lot of times, it does seem others can get judgmental about those who choose organic and immediately jump in with arguments about nutritional differences, which makes it seem like they don't realize there may be many reasons people choose organic.

The specific issue in this thread was about nutrition, though.

And ultimately that relates to the OP because just choosing organic does not mean you have to suddenly be worried about whether you're stepping over into orthorexia.

But of course no one was saying that simply choosing organic makes you orthorexic. I usually eat organic simply because the local suppliers I choose are also organic.

lemurcat12 wrote: »

[snipped for brevity]

I make my choices and don't judge those others make, so I find it obnoxious when others seem to be proclaiming their choices as the One True Way in a thread that's about something else.

I express my thought process around my choices the same way you do, with "I" statements. Should I ever start making "You must" proclamations, do take me to task for One True Way-ism

Thanks