OBSESSING OVER
HEALTHY EATING CAN
BECOME UNHEALTHYBy Richard Battista, Healthy Living Expert
In today’s society, advertisements
and advice on how to eat healthy
cannot be avoided. Healthy eating
choices are beyond encouraged;
they are nearly required, as
advertisements push for a surge in
pure and organic products in diets.
As a result of this dedication from
popular culture, a new eating
disorder has developed, according
to an article recently completed by
The Times.
At the start of orthorexia nervosa, a
change in eating habits is pursued.
An individual sees the pressure to
eat healthier and vows to veer
towards pure and organic foods.
At first, this is a healthy choice, as
a healthier diet is always a good
thing. However, with time, this
choice can develop into an
obsession and a disorder, as the
sufferer stops to think obsessively
on the ingredients of every meal
prior to consumption.
With time, the sufferer will start to
eat less and less, as they amend
their requirements for foods to
become even stricter and find
fewer foods that meet said
requirements; essentially,
eventually all foods that are not
deemed pure enough are purged
from the diet.
What started as a healthy choice
becomes an unhealthy obsession
with eating healthy.
The danger of the disorder,
according to psychologist Karin
Kratina, is when the food choices
become so restrictive in variety
and calories that the health of the
sufferer starts to suffer.
The condition is relatively new, but
gaining attention; popular food
blogger Jordan Young brought the
disorder to the attention of the
public, as she spoke of her own
obsession with eating healthy.
Young spoke of the obsession’s role
in going from a healthy eater to
unhealthy in physique.
While little is known about the
condition thus far, the United
States’ Eating Disorder Association
does acknowledge some possible
causes for the condition.
It is believed that orthorexia stems
from any combination of the
following factors—a compulsion for
complete control, a need to escape
one’s fears, a desire to be thin, a
pursuit to improve self-esteem, a
search for spirituality through food
or the inclination to use food as a
means of creating an identity.
