We hear it again:A proper diet is import for good health and to keep our fit.But can you imagine becoming all-consumed with eating healthy foods?
Orthorexia,though not an official mental disorder, is what some people call an unhealthy obsession with eating healthy food. While healthful foods are good for our bodies, orthorexics take the concern to an extreme by limiting their diets ,which can lead to nutritional shortage and create spiritual stress from trying to be a “perfect” eater.
“The way that it's different from eating disorders is that an orthorexic focuses on the quality of food,” she ssid.“It's not the calories. It's not about weight loss.It's all about how they feel as a prefect person.”
An orthorexic may spend three to four hours a day obsessively reading food labels, worrying about everything that's in food, cutting out lots of foods, including even healthy ones like produce if they're worried about meat because of the fat, Fernstrom said.
To feel clean and pur, orthorexics may avoid food with man-made coloring or salt and sugar. They may require food to be washed several times and cooked to kill bacteria, and some won't go to restaurants to avoid meals they haven't prepared themselves.
In addition to possibly causing physical and spiritual problems, eating this way can be socially cutting off. “It can be horrible for your quality of life, ”Fernstrom said. “Orthorexics may be depressed, or they may be trying to be perfectionists, (下补充)
get some control over their lives. ”
While everyone has food quirks and there's so much attention paid to healthy living these days, obsessing over eating healthy becomes a problem when it influences your daily life,Fernstrom said. And if parents are eating this way, they should be mindful if their children are too, she said, because it can hurt their growth and development.