Last week in Dr. Nolan’s class we talked about eating disorders. He mentioned something called Orthorexia. Immediately I remembered it from when I saw an article about it from CNN. Orthorexia nervosa is basically an eating disorder in which a person eats too healthy and in turn causes malnutrition.
The CNN article I found follows Ashley Bailey who fell victim to Orthorexia nervosa. At first she just decided to cut dairy from her life because she was having irritability and bloating problems. When that solved the issue she was intrigued to go further. Within a year she cut out grains, gluten, meat, starchy vegetables and most fruits. What first started off as a quest to stop her slight discomforts turned into an obsession.
Mental health experts are now increasingly worried about people who take healthy eating to an extreme. They believe that Orthorexia nervosa is a new eating disorder that coincides with today’s obsession of eating natural, “raw” food. What can first be a new diet can turn into a lifestyle where a person will avoid going out with friends just to avoid other food.
The end message of the article is that too much “good” food can in fact be bad for you.