Orthorexia: When Eating Well Becomes Obsession

orthorexia: when eating well becomes obsessionOrthorexia is the pathological obsession to consume only healthy food.
This obsession can become transformed into illness if not eaten meat, fish or other necessary food and nutritional deficiencies occur.

Origin of Orthorexia

The word derives from the Greek orthos orthorexia, which means fair. This disease has been investigated by a doctor who practices alternative medicine, Steven Bratman, who published the book Health food junkies, and become a best seller. Bratman ventured some diagnostic criteria by questions like “Is your way of eating in isolation from the others?”, “Do you feel guilty when you eat something not allowed by their dietary beliefs,” or “Do you worry more about quality of the food we eat for pleasure?”.

Anyone who has responded positively, at least one of the issues can be considered a candidate for healthy food addiction, a new eating disorder born of the contemporary ecological culture and defined, just over a year, by the physician Steven Bratman .

“For many patients spend my office asking how they can prevent or treat disease through diet,” says the author of the book in a short introduction. His experience helped lay the groundwork for this disorder that are not classified as a disease not requiring psychiatric treatment.

All we care about eating healthy foods, but when the normal behavior then turns into an obsession that involves health risks and qualify as orthorexia passes.

This new disease, increasingly evident in Western societies is unprecedented obsession with diets, body worship and fear of food treated with artificial products.

They were defined as not many years ago the signs and symptoms typical of anorexia and bulimia, the doctors and researchers are beginning to consider evidence other food-related disorder, has been called orthorexia.

The difference between anorexia and orthorexia is that the former is related to the amount of food eaten and the second refers to the quality of the foods that are eaten.

Orthorexia is defined as a pathological obsession to consume only food of some kind, organic, vegetable, no preservatives, no fat, no meat or fruit only, or only raw foods. The cooking – vegetables cut in a certain way – and materials – only ceramic or wood only, etc .- are also part of the obsessive ritual.

Orthorexic people walk for miles to buy the food they want paying for them up to ten times higher than for the ordinary-a kilo of pears safe from pesticides than six euros, “if not found or doubt of her immaculate home, prefer fast ; fleeing the restaurant and refuse invitations to lunch at a friend’s house not knowing what they are offering. Renege on their purposes, they filled with a sense of guilt that leads to strict diets or fasting.

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