Posts Tagged ‘anorexia’

Relative Newcomer Orthorexia Battles Other Eating Disorders To The Death

Wednesday, March 31st, 2010

We’ve all heard of anorexia, bulimia and binge eating, but in the battle between image, eating disorders and their victims, the most dangerous of them all may be a new and generally unknown addition to this family.

Hiding behind the guise of health, this sneaky disorder may not only trick its host into collaborating, but also hide well enough to dupe observers into overlooking its existence.

Published last week, a New York Daily News article on Orthorexia brings to light the disorder’s good intentions gone wrong.

A form of OCD (obsessive-compulsive disorder) and believed by many to be a kind of anorexia, orthorexia sees people refusing to eat food they view as “bad” while skewing their view of what “healthy” really means.

According to the article, warning signs include:

• Compulsive worrying or developing a phobia over eating certain foods
• Continuing to eat the same foods prepared in the same way
• Exorbitantly spending time reading food labels
• Social isolation due to fear of eating out or being forced to consume “bad” foods
• Laboring over what to eat for extended periods of time

One reason Orthorexia seems to be on the rise is its lack of official recognition in the medical sphere. The disorder is not yet included in the DSM (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders), though it will in the manual’s next edition. As a result, schools and universities may also have little knowledge of its existence, and so the disorder flies under the education radar for prevention or recognition.

Another possible reason for the rise might be the increase in new dietary ways of living. With many people translating “living green” into the ways they eat, vegetarianism, veganism and the relatively new raw foods diet are all becoming commonplace.

Combine these factors with the ever-present general fear of obesity and the prevalent thin media images many fight against, the plastic representations of body on page and screen meld with world activism and public persona to create a new breed of disorder—one less obvious to many, but every bit as deadly, and perhaps even more so.

By creating a public fear of fat and foods, we may be feeding the flames of the disorder. Innovations in recognizing the benefits and drawbacks of certain foods may be helping some, but for many, this creates an irrational conception of what is good for you, what is bad for you and what the body needs.

Tags: addictive eating, anorexia, bulimia, eating disorder, eating disorders, orthorexia
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