In one of my kinesiology classes, we watched a short interview/clip on Orthorexia. The video didn't go into much detail but it left me very curious. They described it as "extreme healthy eating". You would think that eating very healthy would be a good thing, but in fact it can be very damaging to your body. It shared a story of a woman who became obsessed with eating healthy, that her body was withering away to almost nothing. She stated how she wasn't really concerned with her weight, she just wanted to put pure foods into her body. Turns out her body wasn't getting all the nutrients she needed. How is this possible? We are surrounded by people telling us how to eat healthier and check the food labels and that is exactly what she did. I guess she just went a little overboard and to the extreme.
In the video it said that this new disease may be a type of anorexia. How is it a possible type of anorexia if she was actually eating and not starving herself. Where do you draw the line of healthy eating and extreme healthy eating? Is this becoming one of the main eating disorders along with anorexia and bulimia? Others said it may be a form of anxiety or OCD.
This is really interesting. I've never heard of the term "orthorexia" before but I can see how it would be a dangerous problem. I have wondered about friends who may have this problem (although I did not know the name). One is a vegan and the other is an extreme body builder. Throughout my friendship with these two individuals, I have often seen signs of unhealthiness (such as odd skin color that was not previously there or extreme fatigue) and wondered if there was a problem with their diets and work out routines. I would definitely be interested to find out more about orthorexia.
ReplyDeleteNot to be repetitive but this really is very interesting. I have a couple family members that were vegetarians for awhile and actually felt weak and like they were not getting the nutrients they needed after awhile and began to eat meat again. I am very interested in health and healthy eating though and like to read up on all the newest stuff so I am interested to learn more about this and hope our guest speaker brings it up. Thanks for the post!
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