People say you are what you eat. But craving to eat healthy food all the time is also a big issue.
Do you know! Thinking about eating healthy all the time is also an eating disorder?
We all make some general effort to be healthy. From forgoing the lift for a flight of stairs, to skipping that final slice of pizza.
We make decisions every day about what we do and don’t put on our plate, and most of us maintain some sort of reasonable balance between healthy and decadent.
However, there’s a lesser known type of eating disorder that can actually stem from having the best interests to be healthy.
Orthorexia nervosa is the name given to those who have an unhealthy obsession towards eating healthily. It isn’t currently recognised as a clinical condition in the DSM-5 (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders), but the US charity National Eating Disorder Association (NEDA) says many people struggle with symptoms associated with the term.
Orthorexia starts as an earnest attempt to eat healthy, but sufferers become fixated on what they eat, often cutting out essential food groups, and will often “punish” themselves for slip-ups, such as stricter eating, fasts or exercise.
NEDA says these questions will help determine if you have the disorder. The more you answer “yes,” the more likely it is you have a problem, and should visit your General Practitioner.
