Orthorexia – All about Healthy Eating Disorder

The proliferation of media has given rise to many cases of Anorexia – the unhealthy obsession with the perfect body weight. However, there is also the lesser known eating disorder, Orthorexia. So, what exactly is Orthorexia and how does it differs from Anorexia?

Orthorexia is the obsession of a healthy diet. Instead of begin fixated on unrealistic beauty standards as in the cases of Anorexia, Orthorexia focuses on an excessive ‘healthy’ diet. Orthorexia sufferers tend to be extremely selective about the food they consume, only taking in healthy, organic food. This effort to go ‘clean’ then leads to the negligence of the body’s intake requirement, and eventually causing the deterioration of the physical and mental health.

Orthorexia Nervosa, termed by Dr Steven Bratman in 1997, is described as ‘a disease disguised as a virtue’. The symptoms usually start mild – a simple desire for consumption of healthy food that spirals into the obsession of only eating ‘clean’. One may begin on a self-imposed diet restriction and then the selective consumption of food that he deems healthy. Contempt for food not within the acceptable list will pervade thoughts while one’s appetite grows small and smaller.

The severity of Orthorexia is often not recognized and undermined. While the unbridled reach of social media platforms has advocated unrealistic beauty standards, these platforms also have influencers (accounts with large followings) advocating excessive healthy eating with no real expert knowledge. The affected has to understand that there is a fine line between healthy eating and the pernicious fixation over healthy food. Healthy eating most definitely will not cause excessive weight loss, malnutrition, and lethargy.

Orthorexia will endanger one’s life in the long run. It is important to consult a nutritionist or an expert before embarking on a diet. However healthy eating is beneficial for the body, it is always necessary to consume food in adequate amounts – be it dairy, organic or vegan. It is pertinent to listen when your body speaks – especially when you begin to feel an inexplicable state of unhappiness – then perhaps it’s time to change your lifestyle.