Orthorexia Nervosa || When Healthy Eating Becomes an Eating Disorder

You see, a lot of us love to eat fresh food, some of us are so focused on balanced diet that we do not like to eat food that are tagged not nutritious. As a growing child, I loved to eating Cow Skin (Known as Kpomo in Nigeria). My dad will continually tell me not to get kpomo or eat it because it had no nutritional value. When he wanted to eat, he will tell me to prepare good food for him and not add Kpomo to the soup or Stew. You know, my dad really made my affinity for Kpomo reduce drastically that when I was in senior secondary school, I stopped eating Kpomo naturally. Then I decided to do a little research, and I realize that my dear Kpomo which I have been avoiding for years might not be as nutritious as other part of a cow, but it for sure is healthy (Kpomo nutrient). You see, my case is kind of different, but there are a lot of people who, in the pursuit of eating healthy food, become obsessed and start to have psychological complications and/or even malnutrition in the process. The obsession they have towards healthy food, leads them to focus on it in an unhealthy way. This is known as Orthorexia nervosa.

When Eating Healthy Goes Wrong

Orthorexia nervosa unlike a lot of disorder is still relatively new, as it was described by a physician known as Bratman in a Yoga magazine in 1997. The truth is, Orthorexia nervosa do not always start as a complicated issue, it starts as an innocent act of trying to eat healthy, which then becomes an intensifying pursuit to keep being healthy physically or based on a belief whereas, in reality, they are just hurting themselves and are pathologically eating healthy.

People with Orthorexia nervosa are concerned about the quality of food to quantity. They do not want to eat much, trying to watch the quantity of food they get, so they do not get fat. Some could prefer to eat food from farms rather than eating canned food. When it comes to quality of food, people with Orthorexia nervosa could conclude that they wouldn't eat food from a farm that pesticide has been applied on within the period of 10 years, and so, when food produces are given to them, they check the farm history, check the pesticide history and because pesticide was applied in recent times, they wouldn't eat such food. We know pesticides could stay for long in the soil, but most food produce have in one way or the other had pesticide contact in the process of trying to chase and kill pests. It could look like a good thing in the beginning, but as time goes on, you start to understand that they are doing more harm than good to themselves because they wouldn't be eating well.

Research carried out in 2011 based on self-administered questionnaire, showed that 57.6% of the general population had Orthorexia nervosa. You may start to wonder how a person who aims to eat healthy starts to become unhealthy in the process. Well, the truth remains that it is very possible, and one reason why this happens is due to body dissatisfaction. According to an article published on Biomedcentral.com, people are likely to change their meals when they aren't satisfied with their body shape. Everybody is often not worried about how they look, unless they are told their looks are bad. These comments are usually done by family members, friends, and colleagues, who are close to them. In the process of looking good and trying to have a satisfying body, they start their own food journey. When it comes to obese people, they try to reduce shape by eating less food, not consuming fat and so on. In addition, an article, published on National Library of Medicine showed that ladies in the watch not to get fat start to go on diet, and start to watch their weight amongst other activities that they do such as exercise, and surgery.

Another reason why people could suffer from Orthorexia nervosa is sport. We all know that as a sport athlete, consuming certain food will make the body not be in shape. While people try to keep up with being fit, so they can perform in the sport competition, a lot of them start to eat what they believe is healthy food. Research by Farooq & Bradbury, showed that athletes are at a higher risk of being diagnosed with Orthorexia nervosa, since they are very cautious about what they eat, so they can maximize performance, while in reality, they might not be eating what the body needs to grow and be alive. Being comfortable in an eating routine because it is giving the body shape you want doesn't mean it is healthy.

People with Orthorexia nervosa tend to manifest healthism where they believe that their health is dependent on them and would therefore not seek medical help. Also, cultural and religious based diets could lead to people not having enough nutrient, which could in some cases lead to Orthorexia nervosa where the person gets less nutrient than required.

Identify and Solve

Currently, Orthorexia nervosa can't be diagnosed as it isn't included in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5) thereby it is difficult to assume it is a mental condition, but actually, it is a matter of the mind and the head. Tools such as ORTO-15 which is a self-help 15 question screening material is used to identify people with Orthorexia nervosa

A person confirmed to have Orthorexia Nervosa is recommended to visit multidisciplinary medical practitioners such as doctors, psychologist and registered dietitians (because Orthorexia nervosa is also common amongst regular dietitians).

To Conclude

It is very important to be mindful of whatever goes into our mouth then to our body, but then, there is a fine line between good and healthy eating and straight up eating disorder. Eating disorder like Orthorexia nervosa could just be being excessively careful with eating healthy food, as a result leading to bad diet and disoder.

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