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  #1   ^
Old Sat, Apr-27-02, 16:49
sailfish's Avatar
sailfish sailfish is offline
Senior Member
Posts: 106
 
Plan: modified atkins
Stats: 145/120/125
BF:
Progress: 125%
Location: Maryland
Default "a new type of anorexia"

Hi all - first, let me tell you that as I write this I am eating my dinner .... aspargus sauted in butter and garlic, and tuna melt (can of tuna, onion, relish, hardboiled egg, lots of mayo, covered in cheese and baked). Just didn't want to be judged :-)

My mom called the other night- she had just seen a special on the news about a "new type of anorexia" where people think they are eating right and good but are really starvign themselves and the specifically called out low-carb, sugar-free, white-free diets.

Of course she automatically thought - my goodness, my daughter just lost 20 pounds in six months - she MUST be suffering from this....

I can't believe it! Just becuase I would rather NOT have bread or pasta, becuase i would rather munch on some macadamia nuts then potato chips - becuase I think that empty carbohydrates are silly to eat and they make me feel bad ....

Anyway - just wanted to vent - thanks for listening!
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  #2   ^
Old Sat, Apr-27-02, 17:47
lauralynn lauralynn is offline
New Member
Posts: 19
 
Plan: protein power
Stats: 149/142/132
BF:
Progress: 41%
Location: Greenville,SC
Default hi sailfish

Hi sailfish! Sometimes it really helps to vent! It is annoying how so many mis-understand the low carb way of eating. I am a RN, and I honestly feel that the medical/scientific community needs to wake up and realize that many things about the traditional "food pryamid" are wrong! It will probably take another 40 or 50 years. "ALL GREAT TRUTH BEGINS AS BLASPHEMY." I work on a cardiac unit and many of the patients are also diabetic, have hypertension, high cholesterol, etc - and of course, the low fat/high carb type of diet is promoted - we are just killing these patients faster and making their symptoms worse! Some doctors are realizing the facts and are encouraging low carb...but they are a minority. Anyhow, I have said enough!! Now I have vented too!!!!
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  #3   ^
Old Sat, Apr-27-02, 17:50
Karen's Avatar
Karen Karen is offline
Forum Founder
Posts: 12,775
 
Plan: Ketogenic
Stats: -/-/- Female 5 feet 4 inches
BF:
Progress: 100%
Location: Vancouver
Default

This totally cracks me up!

What is a low calorie, low fat starvation "diet" called then? Normal?

Karen
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  #4   ^
Old Sun, Apr-28-02, 16:49
Ava's Avatar
Ava Ava is offline
Registered Member
Posts: 53
 
Plan: Protein Power
Stats: 180/160/160 Male 5.7
BF:
Progress: 100%
Location: Oberlin, OH
Exclamation A low-car WOE Is NOT Orthorexic

"sugar-free, white-free diets?" Let's see, what diet could that be? Oh, I've got it! No white flour, no white sugar, no oils... They must be talking of the Ornish diet! Call yopur mom at once to reassure her you're not on Ornish! More seriously, what she heard about must have been "Orthorexia Nervosa" a disorder that affects what we commonly dub "health foodies", you know, those who think meat is poison, eating meat is not "spiritual," etc. This sort of attitude can rapidly degenerate into a schizophrenic state of mind regarding what and what not to eat. I am not surprised that the media attempted to link Orthorexia nervosa specifically to low-carb though. A few days ago, a study came out from Sweden warning that carbohydrates heated to a high temperatures yielded alarmingly high quantities of acrylamide, a carcinogenic substance. Among the foods mentioned were "bread, biscuits, cookies and wafers, breakfast cereals and potatoes (baked as well as fried)". The media quickly spread the story as "French fries contain alarmingly high quantities of acrylamide." No mention was made that a baked potato had exactly the same problem. The segment I saw on TV said, "If you are uncertain as to what to do about this until further studies are conducted, stay away from fried foods." To shift the focus from the foodstuff to the method of cooking to exonerate carbohydrates and lay the blame on fats is, in my opinion, a form of orthorexia too! Anyway, if you want to learn more about "Orthorexia Nervosa", read the Health Food Junkie page and, if your mother still needs reassurance, you can take The Orthorexia Quiz and give her a copy of the results.
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  #5   ^
Old Sun, Apr-28-02, 17:31
Lisa N's Avatar
Lisa N Lisa N is offline
Posts: 12,028
 
Plan: Bernstein Diabetes Soluti
Stats: 260/-/145 Female 5' 3"
BF:
Progress: 63%
Location: Michigan
Default

How silly! I eat close to 2,000 calories a day which includes protein, healthy fats and lots of veggies and some misinformed person thinks I'm anorexic? Maybe they're confusing malnourished with anorexia (and I'm not that, either...my blood work looks great) and you can definitely get malnourised eating lots of high carb, high processed foods that are severely lacking in nutrients (why do you think they have to add all those vitamins and minerals to stuff?). Maybe they're under the misconception that you must have grains and starches in your diet for proper nutrition. Another dietary myth...you can get all the vitamins and minerals that you need from protein, fats and veggies. One more thing...what nutrition exactly does sugar provide us that makes it so bad to cut out? Answer: NONE!
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  #6   ^
Old Mon, Apr-29-02, 01:39
Ava's Avatar
Ava Ava is offline
Registered Member
Posts: 53
 
Plan: Protein Power
Stats: 180/160/160 Male 5.7
BF:
Progress: 100%
Location: Oberlin, OH
Lightbulb Veggies are just for variety!

Quote:
Originally posted by Lisa N
you can get all the vitamins and minerals that you need from protein, fats and veggies.
And not even that! You can get them just from animal protein and fats alone!
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  #7   ^
Old Mon, Apr-29-02, 10:37
razzle razzle is offline
Senior Member
Posts: 2,193
 
Plan: mostly paleo
Stats: //
BF:also don't care
Progress: 100%
Location: West Coast, USA
Default

I suspect Ava is right--it was a confused half-understanding of orthodoxia nervosa. Any eating plan could become that--including LC--if a person got wildly obsessive, spent hours and hours counting/reading/focusing, and did so in order to ignore more pressing or "real" emotional issues in their lives (as with any addictive behavior). Hysterical talk about any eating plan is a warning symptom of it--including hysterical talk about food pyramid or low-fat eating. Vegetarians are most likely to become orthodoxics, tho, from what I've read.

Ava, thanks for the orthodoxia quiz link--it's great, and I'll quote three of the questions here: Do you care more about the virtue of what you eat than the pleasure you receive from eating it? Do you feel an increased sense of self-esteem when you are eating healthy food? Do you look down on others who don't? "yes" answers are cause for concern.
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  #8   ^
Old Mon, Apr-29-02, 11:31
Ava's Avatar
Ava Ava is offline
Registered Member
Posts: 53
 
Plan: Protein Power
Stats: 180/160/160 Male 5.7
BF:
Progress: 100%
Location: Oberlin, OH
Default The Orthorexia Quiz

Quote:
Originally posted by razzle
I'll quote three of the questions here
Here are all ten:

The Orthorexia Quiz
1. Do you spend more than 3 hours a day thinking about food?
2. Do you plan tomorrow's food today?
3. Do you care more about the virtue of what you eat than the pleasure you receive from eating it?
4. Have you found that as the quality of your diet has increased, the quality of your life has correspondingly diminished?
5. Do you keep getting stricter with yourself?
6. Do you sacrifice experiences you once enjoyed to eat the food you believe is right?
7. Do you feel an increased sense of self-esteem when you are eating healthy food? Do you look down on others who don't?
8. Do you feel guilt or self-loathing when you stray from your diet?
9. Does your diet socially isolate you?
10. When eating the way you are supposed to, do you feel a peaceful sense of total control?

Honestly, only 7 to 10 can be mildly sticky:
7. I'm not going to feel bad for eating good foods, am I? I won't look down on those who don't but, what can I say? If someone tells me "Oh, I could never live without bread" I may think, "Whatever!"
8. Certainly no self-loathing, barely any "guilt." A tad of disappointment maybe? But hey! There's always tomorrow!
10. "Peaceful sense of total control" sounds like some kind of cult thing; I'm just glad I'm doing the right thing, that's all...
9. "Does your diet socially isolate you?" Now here's the sticky one! I don't mind showing off eating a large piece of meat in public triggering horrified looks, but what do you do when you're in a situation like jabs72 just posted about where there's nothing but carbage to eat? Yes, it is socially isolating to be caught amongst people who appear to be exclusive carbage-eaters!
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  #9   ^
Old Wed, May-01-02, 08:49
Kristine's Avatar
Kristine Kristine is offline
Forum Moderator
Posts: 25,581
 
Plan: Primal/P:E
Stats: 171/146/150 Female 5'7"
BF:
Progress: 119%
Location: Southern Ontario, Canada
Default

Jeez; it has gotten incredibly easy to turn anything and everything into a disease. My reaction to some of the questions:

1. Well, I guess if you add up the time I spend on this forum, on fitday, cooking, shopping, and mentally responding to the multitude of food ads on TV, sure I spend 3 hours a day thinking about food. Who doesn't?

2. Hell, yes. I don't want food to spoil and I have to consider schedules. What's wrong with that?

6. If those "experiences" were bad for us, isn't that a good thing to do?

7. I think it's perfectly normal to feel self-esteem from doing something you think is right; and even to look down upon others who make morally "lower" choices than you. Not necessarily right, but human nature.

[soapbox]

Being really "into" anything could be turned into a mental-illness-of-the-week by filling into the blanks of these questions: "Do you think you spend too much time (x)? Do you feel guilty/bad/lonely/etc when you don't (x)? Have you become isolated from your friends because you (x)?" You could fill in the blank with becoming a born-again Christian and going to church, for example. Or playing D&D. Or reading online forums. Does that mean there's something wrong with you?

A flawed analogy, but...

...why can't people be free to have wierd habits, interests and/or beliefs without being labelled as mentally ill? There's a big difference between being more concerned with something than the average person, and being mentally ill - ie incapacitated and unable to function. [/soapbox]
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  #10   ^
Old Wed, May-01-02, 09:08
nsmith4366's Avatar
nsmith4366 nsmith4366 is offline
Senior Member
Posts: 690
 
Plan: Atkins KISS
Stats: //
BF:
Progress:
Default

I agree. Anorexia is not a way of eating, rather - it's what's eating YOU. An anorexic could be anorexic eating ANY type of diet that limits or restricts anything...they just keep eating in
a way that promotes continued weightloss below healthy recommended weight standards and endangers their health.

What would a low carbing person be called, one who could have an anorexic "mentality" - way of thinking / getting to dangerously low weight - but truly be eating tons and tons of low/nocarb food? - One who does not wish to gain weight/and to only keep losing? Is it Atkinsorexia? Lowcarborexia? I think that some low carbers may have just that anorexia mentality - despite reaching goal, they don't feel thin enough and then continue to use the diet to lose weight / not gain an ounce. But then again, they are eating SO MUCH FOOD - I guess so.

I admit I still have my FAT moments, but I wouldn't give up eating eggs, steak, butter and good oils and veggies completely ever or ever temporarily - I got this thin by EATING ---- and I'm sticking with the way of eating because I like being thin. So is that some kind of problem? I'm healthy - really healthy - so I don't think there's a problem.
hmmm...
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