#orthorexies | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

mentalwise · 5 years ago

Text

Orthorexia - Infos

Orthorexia: If Healthy Eating Masks an Eating Disorder

Why healthy eating can mask an eating disorder

One of my readers asked me to write an article about Orthorexia. So I'm starting the new year with my maybe most important text, yet.

Orthorexia, when healthy eating turns into an eating disorder.

It might be a little bit frightening to find out what could happen if you go too far with what´s supposed to be healthy.

Before I go into the topic, I would like to point out that this is not going to be an anti-healthy eating article! “Healthy” eating and an attentive, mindful lifestyle are crucial. I am against antibiotics in animal feasts, and eating fast food every day is definitely not beneficial for our health. It is not a good idea to “indulge” the media instead of actively living your life. Eat balanced, get all nutrients your body and soul need, but: food is food; it´s for nourishing your bodies, not for coping issues. Healthy eating is not only about what we choose to eat. It is also how we think about nutrition and our bodies. An unrestricted attitude towards food means finding a balance that satisfies our physical and emotional needs.

Unrestricted eating means eating consciously and yet, let food be just food.

Those who feel the need to constantly check their intake, because it might contain something that is supposedly "harmful," those who react with unpleasant emotions, fear, evasive reactions, feelings of guilt and with the urge to compensate as soon as something does not comply with the self-imposed rules, should be alert. Then something goes wrong!

Orthorexia nervosa has only been known since 1997. The physician Dr. Steven Bratman, who according to his own words, suffered from this disorder, coined this term. Orthorexic behavior can be the beginning of an eating disorder career. This article is intended to raise awareness of this disorder and is, therefore, important prevention.

🔗 Orthorexia and anorexia have something in common.

The biological reactions, which we can´t control, can also lead to binge eating or bulimia. Orthorexia comes in any sex, size, and age. Children show orthorexic traits as they are forced into their orthorexic parent´s patterns.

The onset of orthorexia is apparently harmless and almost always goes unnoticed. However, the course of the disease steadily worsens and often leads to a long period of physical and psychological suffering.

In our western world, food is always available and we are bombarded with all the different messages about what and what not we should do or eat.

The worst, most harmful and, above all, most false of all proclamations is that we can no longer trust our bodies!

In fact, it's not our bodies that are failing. It is our thoughts and emotions that cause us to subordinate our intuition and knowledge to false beliefs, to messages that manipulate our brains, and hit our biggest fears.

What should nourish our bodies and our souls becomes one of the most significant stress factors, hidden and unnoticed under the mask of an apparently healthy lifestyle.

People with orthorexia always strive for the perfect diet, the absolute way of living, which is controllable and thus defeats all fears and inadequacies. Orthorexia does not focus on appearance or weight, although weight loss and malnutrition are common consequences. The primary goal is to cleanse and keep the self and the body pure.

"Food, no matter how pure, cannot fill the space in your soul that longs for love and spiritual experience. If you are trying to use it for this purpose, you may have gone astray on your journey." S. Bratman

In fact, it is about control. A need for control that attaches itself to food. Later, it usually comes to excessive exercising and other compulsive behaviors. Good is never good enough.

Control leads to obsession, and obsession is cumulative: a little less fat becomes no fat. A little less sugar becomes no sugar. Less coffee becomes no coffee, fewer carbohydrates become no carbohydrates, and eating less from time to time, becomes several days of water fasting.

Exercising a little bit more turns into an obsession with sports, and a healthy lifestyle turns into orthorexia. Obsession with food becomes a masked identity.

These patterns influence not only the lives of those affected, but often also those of their fellow human beings. In contrast to anorexia and other eating disorders, Orthorexia is not a hidden illness. Those affected feel the urge to carry their convictions into the world. All those who do not comply with them get instructed, corrected, and, worst case, excluded. Anyone who does not follow their instructions is perceived as a threat. In the end, they are only around people who live according to the same rigid rules. This is why orthorexia is well camouflaged in groups. Everybody or no one. All or nothing. People in these groups convince each other that symptoms have different reasons than their diet. They prevent each other from leaving this path by addressing the fundamental fear that promotes this disease: Not being good enough. This is why even those who already show apparent symptoms do not notice that something is going incredibly wrong. This makes diagnosis difficult and a cure inaccessible for many.

What people with eating disorders have in common is that they don´t recognize that what they are doing is hurting them. Eating disorders are not logical. They are not accessible to reasonable arguments. So it is, therefore, all the more important that we not only keep an attentive eye on our own thoughts and actions but also on those of our fellow human beings.

How can orthorexia be recognized?

The eating habits of people with orthorexia are beyond reasonable and balanced.

Whole food groups are avoided. Nothing is eaten that is produced in a certain way. There is an official or unofficial list of foods that must not be ingested. All members of the family must adhere to this dogma. The more the disease progresses, the more the food choices are being limited.

Other habits

For example, food may only be prepared in a certain way with certain spices. Eat only warm food. Or it may no longer be eaten in the evening. There must be no more frying. It must not be eaten before noon or only once a day... etc.

Exercising

Exercising moderately slowly becomes an obsession with sport. They must work out a certain number of hours. They have to run x km, stopping before reaching their goals is perceived as a failure. The must workout every on Monday or every day. Even rain, cold, pain, and fatigue are no longer considered reasons to literally slow down.

Other compulsions

Any kind of compulsive behavior can follow orthorexia.

Constantly thinking about nutrition

Orthorexics are occupied with their diet, always looking for the perfect solution. They keep counting micro- and macronutrients until the brain becomes a nutrition table and the subject dominates every conversation.

Fear of eating food prepared by others.

If people with orthorexia can´t control the ingredients of their food, they avoid eating, or they feel guilty or afraid of being poisoned or damaged if avoidance is not possible. They are compensating with for example 🔗cleansing. It gives them the feeling to regain control. Fasting before an event or a meal that is not prepared like they need it to be ready is also quite common.

Criticizing others for their diet and lifestyle

As said, people with orthorexia consider their rules to be generally valid and expect their environment to fit in. Orthorexic people not only control their own intake, but they also try to control their fellow human beings. The others should confirm the correctness of their behavior by doing the same. If they refuse to obey, they are shunned.

Other physical and psychological symptoms:

Frequent or intensified headaches/migraines, brain fog, concentration problems

🔗 The brain needs carbohydrates because it can live almost exclusively on them. Our neuronal functions depend on a stable glucose level. Our brain needs 60% of the body's blood sugar to maintain its functions. If it can´t keep this level because of malnutrition, it first empties the stores in the liver, but they are also limited. Muscle substance is then broken down and at last, the fat stores.

When this happens, the liver converts the body fat into so-called ketones. It is not yet clear what ketones do in the long term in the brain and body. We know from studies with anorexia patients that a brain in a state of hunger, i.e. in ketosis, loses a massive amount of its functionality.

Unfortunately, the 🔗ketogenic diet is very popular. In fact, this is pseudo-science. There are only a few medical reasons for a massive reduction of Carbs.

Mood swings and depressions

Too little intake of carbs has a negative influence on serotonin, a hormone we need for our mood regulation. Depression might be a side effect of not eating enough carbs.

Hypersomnia

The body needs carbohydrates to produce tryptophan. We need this substance for healthy sleep; otherwise, we feel tired during the day, we don´t have any energy and we are in a bad mood. Sleeping saves energy, so our brain sends us into 🔗 hibernation.

Low energy level

We need all the nutrients we can get to keep our body functioning, even when we do nothing at all. The more we move (or think 😉), the more nutrients we need. Protein, carbohydrates, and fats are essential to store and deliver energy if required.

Isolation

Those who are afraid of other peoples food avoid social interactions, because they are often associated with food. Some orthorexic patients only meet with their peers, which reinforces the feeling of doing everything right and fixates the disease. The can feel a massive fear of being excluded from the group.

Bad breath

Bad breath occurs when the liver breaks down fat cells, i.e. when the carbohydrate intake is too low. The breath then smells like acetone.

Digestive problems (diarrhea, constipation or both)

Too much raw food, too many grains, too many seeds (chia and co.) is usually not easy to handle for the gut, and the biome needs carbs.

Irregular or painful menstrual cycle or no cycle at all/ erectile dysfunction in men

A sufficient supply of fat and carbohydrates is necessary to ensure and stabilize hormone pro-duction (sex hormones and others) in both men and women.

Weight loss

This is the highest risk that orthorexia turns into anorexia. At any age and for any sex! Affected people often eat large quantities of food and still stay thin. This is because what they eat usually has a very low energy density, i.e., few calories. In fact, they typically eat far less than they need, or they fast regularly to make up for their "nutritional sins." In case of genetic predisposition, this behavior plus malnutrition could cause anorexia.

Cravings and binge eating as a biological response

Our body is always striving to maintain its balance. We get cravings and eat huge amounts of our forbidden food. If we compensate (fasting with intestinal cleansing, vomiting or excessive exercise), this can lead to bulimia or anorexia of the binge/purge type. This is often the onset of the binge-purge-cycle. The metabolism turns down from restriction, weight gain is the result. This is another reason to fast or restrict.

Reduced bone density, even at a normal weight, even in men.

If carbohydrates are not available, the body extracts calcium from the bones to fight acidosis. Fatigue fractures are often the first signs

Muscle pain and tendon injuries

Muscles need protein and carbohydrates for proper functioning.

They break down when they are deficient in nutrients, injuries no longer heal and tendons can tear especially if doing sports in a malnourished body (=RED-S relative energy deficit in sports.)

(Pseudo)food intolerances

🔗"When food intolerances appear and the patient has an eating disorder, then the primary reason for failing to tolerate these foods will be too little energy within the body available to produce adequate amounts of digestive enzymes.

The more you cut out, the less you can digest properly. The less you can digest properly, the more you cut out. It's a vicious cycle that keeps orthorexia alive. Pseudo intolerances can always heal, but it is a long and painful process that requires consistency.

🔗Carbs, 🔗Protein and 🔗Fat are essential.

I´ve just told you a lot about carbs.

Protein another macronutrient is necessary for the production of enzymes, it s needed for the healing-, growing- and functioning processes of all organs and all body tissues and for the supply of energy when carbohydrates are not available.

Fats provide energy, protects our organs, maintains constant body temperature, helps with hormone production and cell growth. It keeps the insulin metabolism stable and makes some of the vitamins available for the organism.

In addition to macronutrients, micronutrients, i.e. vitamins and trace elements, are also vital for our organism in certain quantities and compositions. We cannot really do without any food component without causing long-term damage to our bodies, as even the most effective compensation possibilities are limited! Depending on the nutritional status and stage, the same problems occur with orthorexia as with all other restrictive eating disorders, sometimes even more so, as they go unnoticed for too long or are classified as a "fluff" by those affected, because: Neither shall it be.

Who is mainly at risk for orthorexia?

Orthorexia has not yet been sufficiently researched. However, it seems that genetics plays a rather subordinate role here. Orthorexia is mainly about false beliefs and compulsive behavior.

Obsessive self-control, self-observation, and self-optimization are the main goal.

The behavior that leads to orthorexia often occurs immediately after a stressful, frightening event that gives the feeling of no longer being able to make decisions. Illnesses, separations, loss of a job, the death or serious illness of a relative are massive triggers. Certain sports, such as bodybuilding, ballet or martial arts, which require special dietary habits, are considered to be the starting point for this disease. Even people who are professionally concerned with health and nutrition and the consequences of a less than optimal lifestyle are in some ways more at risk than the average.

Personality traits, that promote this eating disorder:

Perfectionist people who do not allow themselves to make mistakes are particularly at risk

People with low self-esteem, low self-esteem, and negative self-image

People who are very determined

People who set no limits, not even to themselves

People who tend to exaggerate

People who are prone to compulsive behavior

Anxious personalities

And highly sensitive people who think a lot about life, themselves and their fellow human beings.

Orthorexia, like other eating disorders, is also a bio-psycho-social disease.

Conclusion:

IMPORTANT:

Life circumstances, physical reactions, and personality traits interact in a way that triggers and sustains this disease. Not everyone who maintains healthy nutrition and a mindful lifestyle is at risk. Not all vegans have orthorexia, and even fasting from time to time is not necessarily harmful if the thought behind it, the intention, is not about compensations.

If you find yourself in these descriptions, whether in most of the symptoms or just in tendencies, see the red flag and/or get help if you can't do it alone.

Eating disorders are treatable and they are nothing to be ashamed of. Not even if you are a man, or adult, or working in a profession where such a problem could almost be a violation of honor.

Turn to someone you trust and who is not in these pseudo-healthy patterns. This can be your best friend, or your partner, if not affected him/herself. If you don't want to open up to your loved ones, go to a doctor, or psychologist/psychotherapist specialized in eating disorders. Don't wait until the illness is stronger than you are.

If you know someone who is behaving as if he or she could have orthorexia, talk to them carefully and offer your help. Don't be discouraged if the person denies his problems. The most important thing is that these people know that they are not alone. Keep in mind that orthorexia is often seen in groups and family structures. To break free then takes even more courage and willpower. They will come if they are ready, even if it might take some time!

I put some links to sites of eating disorder coaches below the text. Unfortunately, I don´t have addresses from German ED Coaches but if you know someone, please contact me. Whenever you need my advice or support, feel free to email me😉Life is for living, not for counting nutrients.

🔗Links:Video:

Kayla's Story

Steve Bratman

Orthorexia Self Test. The information on his site has not been updated since 2017.

Elisa, Recovery Coach

She was herself affected by orthorexia and other eating disorders. She does online coaching and puts many videos on YouTube. She is a very nice, affectionate and non-judgmental person you can trust in any case.

Kayla Rose is my favorite for everything about and around eating disorders

At Seven Health you will find excellent advice and podcasts (real health radio) on all topics of eating behavior and nutrition. Coaching is also available.

Becky Freestone, Co-founder of the Triple- R- Recovery- Center, Info, YouTube and Coaching

#orthorexia Orthorexie eating disorder recovery ED Anorexie AN ANA informations about eating disorders what causes eating disorders

3 notes · View notes