Understanding Orthorexia: When the Pursuit of Health Turns Dangerous
In today’s wellness-driven culture, the quest for a healthier lifestyle is ubiquitous.While adopting healthy eating habits is generally beneficial, there exists a potential pitfall: orthorexia.
In today’s wellness-driven culture, the quest for a healthier lifestyle is ubiquitous. Social media is saturated with influencers promoting clean eating, and dietary fads emphasizing organic, unprocessed foods are more popular than ever. While adopting healthy eating habits is generally beneficial, there exists a potential pitfall: orthorexia. This lesser-known eating disorder centers around an unhealthy obsession with healthy eating, where the pursuit of dietary purity can lead to significant physical and psychological harm.
What is Orthorexia?
Orthorexia nervosa, coined by Dr. Steven Bratman in 1997, refers to an obsessive focus on eating foods one considers healthy or pure, to the detriment of overall well-being. Unlike other eating disorders that focus on quantity of food intake, orthorexia is concerned with food quality with a specific aim to only put pure foods into one’s body. It involves compulsive behavior and severe anxiety and distress related to maintaining strict dietary standards, leading to nutritional imbalances. This fixation can lead to ritualistic behaviors, a rigid avoidance of certain foods, and significant emotional distress if dietary rules are broken, ultimately impairing one's quality of life.
Recognizing the Signs
Identifying orthorexia can be challenging as it often begins with positive intentions. However, when the pursuit of health becomes compulsive, it can indicate a problem. Key signs include:
Obsessive Focus on Food Quality: Spending an inordinate amount of time planning, purchasing, and preparing meals that adhere to strict dietary rules.
Dietary Restrictions: Gradual elimination of entire food groups, leading to nutritional deficiencies.
Emotional Distress: Experiencing significant anxiety, guilt, or fear when deviating from self-imposed dietary guidelines.
Social Isolation: Avoiding social situations involving food, which can lead to loneliness and social withdrawal.
Physical Symptoms: Weight loss, malnutrition, and related health issues.
Research and Insights
Research into orthorexia is growing, providing a deeper understanding of its impact and prevalence. A study published in Eating and Weight Disorders highlighted that orthorexia often overlaps with other mental health conditions, such as anorexia nervosa and obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) . Another study from Appetite revealed that social media could exacerbate orthorexic tendencies by perpetuating unrealistic standards of healthy eating and body image.
Frontiers in Psychology examined the psychological profile of individuals with orthorexia, finding a significant correlation between orthorexic behaviors and perfectionism, anxiety, and the need for control. These findings suggest that orthorexia is not merely a dietary issue but a complex mental health condition.
When Health Turns Harmful
The transition from healthy eating to orthorexia can be subtle. It’s crucial to discern when beneficial habits become harmful:
Rigid Rules: Healthy eating should be flexible. While eating healthfully is an important goal for overall physical health and disease prevention, avoiding foods or becoming rigid with food often yields negative mental health outcomes.
Disease Prevention and Longevity: Eating foods with balance and moderation supports longevity and disease prevention. When dietary rules become rigid and unyielding, it may not be worth the fight. In fact, longevity and disease prevention research posits that mental and spiritual wellbeing are some of the biggest influencers on our overall health. Shortchanging our mental health in order to meet specific nutrition rules can have more deleterious effects on our overall health.
Nutritional Imbalance: A balanced diet includes a variety of nutrients. Over-restricting foods can lead to deficiencies and health issues, causing malnutrition and other medical complications.
Emotional Response to Food: Healthy eating should not cause distress. Persistent negative emotions related to food choices is an indication that something is off. As humans, we’re biologically wired to find pleasure in food and pushing down this biological need can create a negative feedback loop of guilt and shame. Instead, honor our body’s drive for pleasure in food and expand variety in choices.
Life Impact: When dietary habits interfere with daily life, relationships, and overall happiness, they are no longer healthy. Health should be holistic, focusing on the person’s physical, mental, and spiritual health.
While the pursuit of a healthy diet is admirable, it is vital to maintain balance and flexibility. Orthorexia serves as a reminder that even positive intentions can have negative consequences when taken to extremes. By recognizing the signs and seeking appropriate help, individuals can reclaim a healthy relationship with food and overall well-being.
If you or someone you know is struggling with orthorexia, reach out to a healthcare professional. Remember, true wellness encompasses physical, mental, and spiritual well-being.
If you are seeking eating disorder treatment or mental health therapy for you or your adolescent, Cypress Wellness Collective can help. Cypress Wellness Collective is located in the San Francisco Bay Area where they specialize in Family Based Treatment (FBT), therapy, and nutrition counseling for teens, adults, and families going through eating disorder recovery. They offer in person and virtual appointments throughout all of California. Call today for your free consultation to see if Cypress Wellness Collective is right for you!
References
Bratman, S., & Knight, D. (2000). Health food junkies: Overcoming the obsession with healthful eating. New York, NY: Broadway Books.
Varga, M., Thege, B. K., Dukay-Szabó, S., Túry, F., & van Furth, E. F. (2014). When eating healthy is not healthy: Orthorexia nervosa and its measurement with the ORTO-15 in Hungary. Eating and Weight Disorders - Studies on Anorexia, Bulimia and Obesity, 19(3), 287-293. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40519-014-0027-7
Turner, P. G., & Lefevre, C. E. (2017). Instagram use is linked to increased symptoms of orthorexia nervosa. Appetite, 108, 306-310. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.appet.2016.10.021
Oberle, C. D., Samaghabadi, R. O., & Hughes, E. M. (2020). Orthorexia nervosa: Assessment and correlates with gender, BMI, and personality. Frontiers in Psychology, 11, 353. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.00353