Just posting this link. I do not agree or disagree with the information
just thought it was worth a look and maybe a discussion

http://www.salon.com/2015/01/30/wer...ting_disorders/

I must add that it bugs the heck out of me is that my recent experience in restaurants that they seem to be catering to gluten free but nobody has any interest in sugar free and low carb. I believe that diabetes is far more wide spread than celiac.

Damned if you do, damned if you don't.

I'm sure many (most) of us would love to eat whatever we want, whatever is offered to us, and remain eternally slim and eternally healthy. Unfortunately much of what is "normal food" in our culture does not lead us to optimal weight and health.

So we can eat junk and be labeled slobs who don't take care of ourselves, and who are a "burden" on society. Or we can be vigilant about what we eat, and risk being labeled orthorexic. I'll pick the latter, thanks.

The article says psychiatrists are coming across this as more people are learning about where their food comes from and how it is processed. Well....duh.

Makes me wonder if this new made-up word 'orthorexic' has been coined by a PR guy for the processed food industry and if that same industry is the one lobbying to have it sanctioned as a 'disease'. It must be terrifying for them that so many people have stopped buying their propaganda and their garbage frankenfood.

Have to admit I did not even know what ortho means:
Ortho is a Greek prefix meaning “straight,” “upright,” “right,” or “correct”.

rexia is Greek for hunger or appetite.

I have to say after I completely read the article I have to take back my comment that I do not agree or disagree with it.....

from the article:


Excuse me disordered mentality? Although I have been low carb for only 4 months, I have been fructose intolerant for 6 years. I have insulted more than one chef by asking if the whipped cream in a dessert is cool whip which is High fructose corn syrup. You would be amazed at the number of seemingly high end places that use CW. I also have to ask to read ingredient lists or labels on all kinds of products before ordering it in fast food or restaurants. HFCS is everywhere and if I eat it by mistake, I am in serious trouble.

Yes indeed. I like making my own soups from scratch but yesterday, on impulse, picked up one of those microwave soups in a can (Cambell's, I think) for a quick lunch on the go. Just before heating it I read the label. Better late than never. This simple can of tomato soup was full of HFCS and had 58 grams of carbs. I gave it to a co-worker. If that means I'm suffering from an eating disorder, then I'm proud of it.

The part that upsets me is that there are real orthorexics, and "making good choices for yourself" isn't it. Orthorexia and other EDs - actually, a lot of mental illnesses - are defined by the stress, anxiety, suffering and/or reduction in quality of life that it causes you. Orthorexia, to me, could be summed up as anorexia without the starvation. Body image can be a part of it, but not necessarily. Something that, minus the physical deterioration, is almost as devastating to one's quality of life.

It might be comparable to people with OCD who wash their hands 200 times a day and are plagued with the thought of germs on their hands. That person you know who washes their hands a little more than normal probably doesn't have OCD any more than those of us low-carb/gluten-free/paleo/whatever-people have orthorexia.

Comparing 'careful attention to diet to improve your health' to orthorexia is like comparing grief over a loved one's death to depression. One is normal. The other is not.

Yes, orthorexia should be a good thing that we all strive for, not a bad thing (disorder). "Orthorexia" as a disorder was probably invented by processed foods companies because all of us keto, LC, grain-free and paleo people are cutting into their profits. They react by telling us we are mentally ill, just following a fad, and that we are imagining all of our health improvements.

Here is the original article, published in Yoga Journal in 1997, where Dr. Steven Bratman coined the term "orthorexia": http://www.orthorexia.com/original-orthorexia-essay/

It's a good read. Here is its main point, I think: "Orthorexia eventually reaches a point where the sufferer spends most of his time planning, purchasing and eating meals. The orthorexic’s inner life becomes dominated by efforts to resist temptation, self-condemnation for lapses, self-praise for success at complying with the self-chosen regime, and feelings of superiority over others less pure in their dietary habits.

It is this transference of all life’s value into the act of eating which makes orthorexia a true disorder. In this essential characteristic, orthorexia bears many similarities to the two named eating disorders: anorexia and bulemia. Whereas the bulimic and anorexic focus on the quantity of food, the orthorexic fixates on its quality. All three give to food a vastly excessive place in the scheme of life."

I guess I was close to being an orthorexic when I was following Pritikin & McDougall (before a "troll" on the McDougall forum suggested I look at Protein Power, which was the best advice ever). Eating more fat and eliminating healthywholegrains and other high carb foods & dairy cured my orthorexia because I am rarely hungry, no longer obsessed with food 24/7 and do not need willpower to resist eating or temptations.

i think like many things - you have a problem when you experience problems. Part individual part society.... i personally live in a medicalised society - if i can be a coeliac and have an allergy - i have societal permission to avoid food, as a low carber I'm a fussy fad dieter....likewise i can be a vegetarian but not a low carber... It about having a socially acknowledged "disorder" that gives you permission to deviate.
For me i think i take too much responsibility for my diet not fitting into prescribed menus - I hate the social pressure of making a fuss though and the rigmarole of either lying (coz its easier / quicker to claim to be vegetarian / coeliac etc if that menu suits) or justifying my needs - which i find intrusive and quite frankly how many hours do you have dear waitress? - just swap the fries for salad.. And yes they are needs - in the society i live in being fat is also frowned upon its is very much not a good thing, yet asking to be catered for eating out is considered completely mental unless its low calorie.

I actually like the idea of this label - & next time i have to assert my needs i'm going to proudly claim I'm Orthorexic - with the definition of correct hunger and demand i'm catered for... sometimes a label can be helpful!
In the majority of places in the uk (and i've been doing this for 15 years on and less off ) If i request low carb resturants tend to translate as demented fat fad dieter - read pain in the arse who won't order pudding ect... = low profit. An unknown label that sounds medical-ese might be really helpful!

Anvia said:

Very good points Anvia. I was on vacation for 10 days in January the first time since I started this woe in August. At Wolfgang Pucks at Down Disney, the waiter asked "do you have any food allergies" I said well I don't eat bread, potatoes and rice. He said, but you don't have any allergies. I was able to find an absolutely delicious low carb entree, but I requested a sugar free dessert and there were no choices. Even the "fresh fruit" had sugar added.

In general I found most places at Disney world were happy to substitute an extra veggie for potatoes or rice. But my pet peeve is still (as I have mentioned several times here) stores and restaurants fall all over themselves if you are gluten free, but sugar free is more of a problem. Yet diabetes is a far more prevalent than celiac.

I appreciate the importance of gluten free for a person with celiac but many gluten free foods are made with all sorts of unhealthy additives and are loaded with carbs. I got a gluten free cookbook and there was nothing in it that I could enjoy because of high carbs and really high caloric value.

I think the problem is that mainstream diabetes doctors and nutritionists tell patients they need to eat 130g carbs a day and can just cover excess carbs with more insulin. So they aren't aiming for very low carbs.

When I was in college there was a young woman who only ate white food: Cauliflower, yogurt, etc. Now that is disordered, but I'd call that more of an OCD thing.

IMHO some group of people who make up psychiatric definitions were peeved by people who have, possibly, legitimate reasons they don't eat certain foods, so got revenge by classifying them as neurotic. ;-)

Notice we don't classify kosher jews, hindus, muslims and such as having disordered eating and yet they can have some very demanding food requirements.


You got the wrong cookbook, girl friend! I've had people give me gluten free cookbooks and they're completely worthless to me. However, that doesn't mean there aren't gluten free/sugar free cookbooks available! There are some great ones on Amazon.com. Not only that, but blogs galore that have great LC/GF recipes.

Perhaps I'm reading this wrong, but it seems like there's resentment about gluten free eating being expressed in this thread. I don't see why. Gluten free and sugar free is something many of us are all about. I personally don't eat gluten alternative breads and desserts, unless I make them myself from the LC things I use.

Agreed!
I read the essay by the man who originally coined the term "orthorexia," he was a serial dieter. Not because he was overweight, but he was always looking for the latest health fad, so after years of that it became an obsession with avoiding certain foods to stay "pure."
Pure is the word that's generally used to characterize orthorexic tendencies, because it becomes an eating disorder when it's obsessive and sort of moralistic rather than just about what you eat to stay healthy.
Orthorexia can come with the starvation if too many foods are eliminated or there's too much of an emphasis on dietary restriction. The way I'd describe it is as anorexia without the anxiety about weight. When the guy (I forget his name) first described it, he mentioned that people with the problem would often be diagnosed as anorexic, but found it frustrating because they knew they were too skinny and weren't afraid of gaining weight, they just couldn't with their severely restricted diets.

My how times have changed. Now you're described as orthorexic if you eliminate gluten or sugar or grains...basically anything except meat because vegetarianism is healthy, but low carb/wheat-free/paleo is just a fad!
I guess anything to discredit those who choose not to eat processed foods.

In using that term to dismiss eating plans that go against conventional wisdom, though, they're doing a disservice to for whom orthorexia is a real problem!
It's like saying that if you don't eat breakfast you're anorexic. Clearly that's ridiculous because some people who skip breakfast may be anorexic, but not everyone who doesn't eat that meal is.

That is SUCH a good way of summing it up.
It's exactly where the attitudes about vegetarian/vegans compared to gluten-free/low carbers come from. I know for a fact that a lot of people who work in food service judge customers who buy gluten-free products, even if they have them on the menu. There's also been a lot of articles about "why you should re-think going gluten-free"
It's all about what society at large thinks of your dietary restrictions.

If you're gluten-free you're just a fussy, trend following hipster. Ditto if you're paleo.
If you're low carb you're just a lazy fatty who wants to eat bacon and butter while deluding yourself into thinking you're healthy.
If you're a vegetarian, though, that's admirable because either you have a lot of compassion for animals or you're a health food nut who, unlike the meat loving paleo and low carb people, actually has the discipline to choke down quinoa and tofu salads everyday to live longer and have a hot bod...good for you!