They may not be new disorders, but orthorexia and pregorexia are two eating disorders that I hadn’t heard labeled before. One disorder affects people focused on eating only healthy foods. The other affects pregnant women who gain little or no weight when they are pregnant (pregorexia).
Orthorexia is a controversial diagnosis identified by an obsession with totally avoiding foods perceived to be unhealthy. Over the years, we become more and more educated about the way the food that we eat is handled and processed. Those who restrict themselves to 100% whole and organic foods could be labeled.
Kristie Rutzel, a Virginia high school student, learned about healthy eating and stopped eating anything processed, said www.time.com. By the time she was in college she was on a strict raw-foods diet, eating uncooked broccoli and cauliflower almost exclusively. This sounds like she has tremendous will power and conviction. The problem was that at age 27 she weighed only 68 lb. and was diagnosed with anemia and osteopenia, the precursor to osteoporosis because she avoided calcium in her diet. She is labeled orthorexic.
There are lists and lists of foods for us to avoid so that we eat “healthy’. Some frequently publicized foods to avoid include trans fats, high-fructose corn syrup and anything with artificial flavors, colors or preservatives. Not surprisingly, women are more prone to diet restrictions than men because of habits like counting calories, carbs, sodium, etc. and micromanaging the purchase and preparation of food.
The organization, Washington-based Eating Disorders Coalition representing more than 35 eating disorder organizations, thinks labeling this condition as an eating disorder is a mistake. The group feels that orthorexia, this fixation on eating only ‘healthy’, should not have a separate classification in the core identification resource for psychiatric illness, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM).
This breeds discussion among doctors. Is orthorexia an anxiety disorder or an eating disorder?
Is it the label that is important or is it getting the patient the treatment that they need? It is reported that Rutzel eventually found a program of meal plans that challenged her to gradually incorporate foods she had banned from her diet. She is still a slim size two but is now open to varied, sometimes ‘unhealthy’ food choices (like potato chips) once in a while.
Life has got to be a lot more enjoyable now!