February 11, 2015
Gluten free. Organic. Farm fresh.
Walk the aisles of the grocery store and you'll see a number of signs for healthier food choices. But how much is too much?
Of course, caring about what you put into your body is a good thing. You are what you eat, right? However, as with anything else, you can overdo it.
When you think of eating disorders, you probably think of anorexia or bulimia, where the focus is on calorie intake and weight. Similar to those is a more newly recognized type of "disordered eating" known as orthorexia nervosa, a term which literally means “fixation on righteous eating.”
What may start out as an innocent attempt to eat more healthfully can quickly become a fixation on food quality and purity.
According to the National Eating Disorder Association (NEDA), the diet of orthorexics can actually be unhealthy.
Orthorexics may be socially isolated, often because they plan their life around food. They may have little room in life for anything other than thinking about and planning food intake. Orthorexics lose the ability to eat intuitively – to know when they are hungry, how much they need, and when they are full.
So before you start obsessing about every little thing you eat, read more from the NEDA.
