What is Orthorexia?

Orthorexia is considered a psychiatric disorder classified as obsessive-compulsive for eating healthy. The goal is to be as healthy as possible, restricting eating habits to endangering your life.

Suffering from this pathology, food becomes the center of their existence, leading to social isolation. In the effort to improve their quality of life, healthy eating becomes an obsession, what should or should not be eaten, and what is prohibited.

SYMPTOMS OF ORTHOREXIA

According to the European Medical Institute of Obesity (IMEO) in Madrid, people who currently suffer from it do their best to avoid dyes, preservatives, pesticides, genetically modified ingredients, saturated fats, salt, or sugars in their healthy diet. They also avoid eating meat, eggs, and fish. They consistently choose to eat natural and ecological dishes.

HOW DO YOU KNOW IF YOU HAVE ORTHOREXIA?

According to the academic article, Steven Bratman, an American physician who coined the term Orthorexia in 1997, established a series of guidelines to identify unhealthy eating behaviors, elaborating a diagnostic questionnaire. What do you know about Orthorexia? Published in the Mexican Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences of the Electronic Library of Science and Technology.

DIAGNOSTIC QUESTIONNAIRE:

Do you spend more than three hours a day thinking about your diet?
Do you consider that the nutritional value is more important than the pleasure it brings?
Has the quality of your life decreased as the quality of your diet increased?
Have you improved your self-esteem by eating healthy?
Have you given up eating foods you liked to eat “good” nutrition?
Is your diet a problem when eating outdistancing you from your family and friends?
Do you feel guilty when you skip your regime?
Do you feel at peace with yourself and believe that everything is under control when you eat healthily and predictably?

According to Bratman, if the person answers yes to 4 or 5 questions, it is unnecessary to worry because he does not suffer from this pathology. On the other hand, if you answer yes to all the questions, it means that you suffer from an obsession with eating healthy and should seek help from a professional to treat this behavior.

HEALTH EFFECTS

Although it may seem healthy, people diagnosed with Orthorexia can suffer from serious nutritional problems that are not usually evident at first. In addition, social issues are often undeniable, isolated, and only make plans around healthy eating.

TREATMENT FOR ORTHOREXIA

It is required to consult and ask for guidance from medical professionals, psychologists, and nutritionists, who will identify if the diagnosis is correct to know the severity of the patient because this disorder can act differently in each person and, depending on the case, can be in different stages.

Taking care of your health through food is vital, but we should not do it to extremes without advice from professionals to help us do things correctly. Ah! And don’t forget that when it comes to wellness,