How a healthy lifestyle is killing its fans

Orthorexia began to be called a separate disease by Dr. Stephen Bratman 20 years ago. In all respects, it is similar to eating disorders such as anorexia or bulimia, only the patient's attention is focused not on losing weight or overeating, but on ensuring that all food is as healthy as possible (according to the patient). And this desire to eat only healthy foods takes a perverted form and does not allow a person to live normally.

How orthorexia disguises itself as a healthy diet

It all starts with good intentions: you need to take care of yourself, eat right and generally take care of your health. This is correct and fashionable. We calculate calorie intake, BZHU. Everyone is so used to this that there is no need to decipher what this abbreviation is.

At first, everything is fun and enjoyable, because it's cool to be healthy. Various rituals are tightened, a blog is started. The social network is full of healthy breakfasts and even more healthy dinners with exactly the same protein content that is supposed to be after an interval training.

Then it turns out that sometimes you have to eat something unhealthy. You need to somehow deal with these breakdowns, otherwise it's a shame somehow. It seems that you keep a food diary, and all the studies on diets have been read, and suddenly such an embarrassment is pizza in a restaurant with friends. It's not made from whole grain flour!

I started to take care of my health. I read a ton of research and decided that carbohydrates are bad, sugar is poison. As a result, I stopped enjoying the taste of products and thought only about how not to gain excess weight. But as soon as I reached for snacks, I was unstoppable.

A Quora user about his orthorexia experience

When you eat right inside and out, it's a victory. For a month now, my nose has not smelled flavors identical to natural ones. There is pride, because the body is saturated with extremely healthy products, not a single preservative has slipped through.

No one should know how they have to suffer because yesterday's cutlet was not steamed, but simply from a frying pan. This is terrible. It was better not to eat it or just go to the toilet and stick two fingers in my mouth.

Orthorexia patients look like this:

They are afraid to eat something unhealthy, even to the point of panic.
Punish themselves for deviating from the diet, ashamed themselves for the "wrong" food.
Can't think about anything except the diet, which is getting stricter.
Diet becomes more important than work, relationships, friendship.

Food begins to rule life. The schedule is made in such a way as to eat right, bring their portion in a container to a meeting in a cafe, cannot sleep due to disturbing thoughts and even fall into severe depression.

Why healthy eating is a nightmare

Why go crazy about extra calories, imbalance of proteins and carbohydrates by a whole gram? Around the same time, why do people voluntarily die of exhaustion from anorexia or kill the stomach, having fun with bulimia.

Eating disorders are not about food at all or about a healthy lifestyle. Food is just an object that a person gets stuck on when they can't cope with a real problem.

What is this problem - everyone has their own answer. These are complexes, psychological trauma, and various disorders. Healthy eating turns into religious fanaticism for various reasons that the therapist must deal with.

It seems that this is some kind of indistinct suffering, all due to the fact that someone has nothing to do or there are few real problems. According to some reports, 4.5% of the population in the United States suffers from eating disorders. It's a lot.

And the fact that we don't have the States here does not mean that there is no danger. Eating disorders reflect fashion. Twenty years ago, anorexia was bundled with vegetarianism; today, they bother more because of environmental friendliness of products and harm to health. For example, they avoid gluten-free foods even though they don't suffer from celiac disease (gluten intolerance).

How to know if you are already sick

Orthorexia is more dangerous than other eating disorders because it has a great cover. It is clear that being too thin (as in anorexia) or persistent overeating is unhealthy behavior. But how to suspect a problem in a person who does everything for the sake of health? Rather, I really want to admire his willpower and envy his perseverance.

Orthorexia has no clear diagnostic criteria. You need to check yourself using the Stephen Bratman questionnaire:

I devote so much time to choosing and preparing healthy foods that it interferes with my work, socializing with friends and family, and studying.
If I have to eat unhealthy food, I feel anxious and feel ashamed and guilty. It's hard to even watch other people eat the wrong foods.
My mood, calmness and happiness depend on how well I eat.
Sometimes I want to relax my diet, for example, at the festive table, but I cannot do this (this point does not apply to people with diseases, because of which you always have to keep a strict diet).
I constantly discard foods that don't seem healthy enough, tighten up my diet, and come up with complex nutritional rules.
I eat what I think is right, but I lose weight too much and I see signs of a lack of nutrients: hair falls out, my skin has become problematic, I feel weak, my menstrual cycle is out of order.

If you agree with at least one statement, then it's time to slow down. Your healthy eating has become an obsession. Think about what you are hiding from behind the illusion of proper nutrition, and if you cannot figure out yourself, contact a psychotherapist.