Understanding Orthorexia

Orthorexia is one of the ‘new kids on the block’ where eating disorders are concerned. At present, it is not an officially recognised diagnosis in the medical community, but many psychologists and therapists do recognise the behaviour patterns in some of their clients.

They will therefore use the diagnosis in order to tailor their treatment to best meet the needs of those clients.

picture by Pink Sherbet photography flickr.com

The term Orthorexia was coined by an American doctor, Steven Bratman, in the 1990’s. The term describes a pattern of behaviour where someone suffers from a continual obsession with eating the ‘right’ food – whatever that might mean to them. They restrict the food they eat to only include ‘pure’, ‘clean’ or ‘healthy’ foods.  

They may do all they can to avoid any processed, packaged and ready-prepared foods. They may try to cut out all additives, fat, sugar and salt, or avoid anything that may be genetically modified or be seen as being un-natural. All such ‘bad’ foods may be viewed as contaminated, un-pure or dangerous.

On the other hand, the person may only eat foods that can be consumed raw, or only eat organic or vegan food. They might want full control over how all their food is washed and prepared and therefore only eat what they can prepare themselves. Sticking to only eating such ‘good’ foods helps the person with Orthorexia feel pure and cleansed.

Now this might seem a perfectly logical and healthy thing to do, especially as we are so often encouraged to eat organic, preservative free, low sugar, low fat food etc etc!

But in Orthorexia, these concerns are taken to such an extreme that it interferes with the persons quality of life and damages their health.

For instance:

• The person may try to avoid all types of fat. But the body NEEDS fat for many purposes, and cutting it out completely from the diet can lead to malnutrition, emaciation and mood disturbances.
  
  
• Another example can be where the sufferer obsesses about the cleanliness of their food resulting in them avoiding eating out or attending family occasions, thereby finding their social interactions severely limited.

The behaviour and consequences can be similar to Anorexia Nervosa, and in some cases, cutting out anything that can be labelled as ‘unhealthy’ is used as a cover to disguise anorexic thinking – “I cant eat this or that because its unhealthy” being an excuse for cutting down on the amount of calories consumed.

However, one of the main differences with Anorexia and the other eating disorders, is that in those conditions the sufferer generally tries to hide their problem and keep it as secret as possible. In Orthorexia, the reverse is often the case. The individual is happy to discuss their food concerns as they view it as a positive virtue, and they can even take a feeling of self-righteous pride from it.

Another difference is that in Anorexia, the drive is to lose weight in an effort to be as thin as possible. In Orthorexia however, the desired outcome is not thinness (although this may still be the result) but a desire to feel pure, cleansed or natural.

The sufferer will find that they are thinking about, planning, and obsessing about food for much of their time. Control and sticking by their self-imposed rules are crucial issues, and the individual may feel shame, guilt or self-disgust if they break one of those rules.
 
There has been a lot of debate as to whether this is a genuine eating disorder or not, or maybe a variation of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD). What is important is the extent to which the behaviour and thinking patterns negatively impact upon the individuals health and quality of life.

Getting help and support can be problematic therefore, as someone with Orthorexia will not tend to view it as a problem, with treatment often only being sought once serious health complications have occurred.