Are you addicted to healthy eating?

Do you strictly avoid any combination of the above: sugar, salt, dairy, meat, gluten, eggs, grains, fat, soy, caffeine, alcohol or anything processed or non-organic?  Do you spend a lot of time thinking about what you eat and how it affects your body? Do you cook or prepare nearly all of your food or shop only at select stores (farmer's markets, food co-ops and natural health food stores) so that you can be certain you know exactly what you're ingesting? Do you feel guilty or berate yourself if you stray off your diet?

If so, according to psychiatrists, you may have a mild case of orthorexia nervosa, an eating disorder characterized by an obsession with healthy eating.  It is not formally recognized as a mental illness in psychiatric manuals such as DSM-IV, but some psychiatrists say they have seen people who suffer from orthorexia nervosa become malnourished and very ill. 

People in the natural heath community are alternatively scratching their head or becoming very defensive.  Mike Adams, editor of NaturalNews.com blasted the term in his article "Choosing healthy foods is now called a mental disorder", saying "It's an effort to marginalize healthy eaters by declaring them to be mentally unstable and therefore justify carting them off to mental institutions where they will be injected with psychiatric drugs and fed institutional food that's all processed, dead and full of toxic chemicals."  While I do agree that the Standard American Diet is in major need of an overhaul and that we'd all benefit from eating healthier, I'm not sure I agree with Adams' assessement that Big Brother's latest agenda is to round up vegetarians, vegans, raw foodists or Paleo diet followers and send them off to the funny farm to be anesthestized with narcotics and bad hospital food.

I believe that orthorexia nervosa exists.  People can become addicted to anything, even healthy eating. I've seen people become addicted to exercising.  And we are certainly aware of people who suffer from the devastating effects of anorexia nervosa, which is compounded by our society's culturally shared obsession with being thin.  Psychiatrists say there's a link with obsessive-compulsive behavior and orthorexia nervosa. Very rigid lifestyle diets have clear boundaries regarding what is "good" food and what is "bad" food.  They are often accompanied by perceived "punishment" (feelings of failure, possible illness or lack of vitality) if you fall off the wagon.  Obsessive-compulsive behavior dovetails right in with that mindset. 

I follow the Paleo diet, although not strictly.  I appreciated reading Mark Sisson's post, "80/20 Revisited", where he reminds adherents to the Primal lifestyle that "The 80/20 principle is an acknowledgment that we’re adults who take full responsibility for every choice but occasionally find ourselves in circumstances that don’t allow 100% Primal or in situations for which we knowingly accept reasonable, conscious compromises."  With certain exceptions (such as drug and alcohol addiction or celiac disease) having a glass of wine, a piece of bread or cake on a special occasion isn't likely to be harmful to your health.  It doesn't mean you failed or that you're a bad person.  It just means you're human. 

My only concern is the potential for pathologizing people who are truly committed to eating healthy.  After all, how many of you who are vegetarians, vegans, Primal or raw foodists hear from family or friends that you were "crazy" for choosing not to eat certain foods?  The majority of us who care about healthy eating and make conscious choices about how we eat do not have an eating disorder.  However, in most cases the only way a food-based lifestyle decision is respected is only if eating a particular food causes illness, such as celiac disease. 

What's your perspective? Do you think orthorexia nervosa is real or a bunch of bunk?

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