Eating only healthy foods--an eating disorder?

I don't know how I feel about this, but I certainly found it provacative. An article from The Guardian about people whose food regimens are so severe that they have no social life.

When Healthy Eating Turns into a Disease

You know, I'm a bit torn on this. On the one hand, I feel like this isn't a new disease- is the person's health impacted because they're restricting calories too tightly? That's anorexia. Is their social life impacted because they have rigid rules about what they can and can't eat? That's OCD. I'm just not sure this disorder is its own entity. But, I'm no expert, and perhaps there IS something unique about this particular form of the aforementioned disorders. For example, perhaps its roots are different from the biochemical or psychological aspects of anorexia or OCD, and I'm just ill-informed. On the surface, though, it seems like a bit of an attempt to "discover" a new disease.

Sorry, I haven't gone to the link...but, are we talking orthorexia here?

Personally, I find it frigging hilarious that demographically-coddled food police are actually enculcating a social neurosis.

edit---

ok, I scanned it:

yep, orthorexia

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It's nothing new...merely a catch-all that I believe has much wider implications than the personal: "health kultur" as societal proscription and spectacle ala the contemporary trend to AoG-esque/evangelical/mall-church overtly-demonstrative religion: "keeping up with the joneses" instead of forging one's own path.

To be serious: I've known many people whose "healthy" restrictions have made eating out quite difficult for them-- so many people nowadays claim "food allergies" when they're really just trying to be overly controlling about their diet. Not everyone who is "allergic" to nuts, gluten and the like is truly allergic.

To be snarky: My therapist will be happy to know that this is one mental disorder I DON'T have! I'll pat myself on the back tonight when I have a shot of Bailey's on the rocks.

Ann Fisher wrote:I don't know how I feel about this, but I certainly found it provacative. An article from The Guardian about people whose food regimens are so severe that they have no social life.

When Healthy Eating Turns into a Disease

I just saw the same article referenced on Skwigg's site - she's the "exercise enthusiast" mentioned in the post.

How very odd.

bananasandwiches wrote:so many people nowadays claim "food allergies" when they're really just trying to be overly controlling about their diet. Not everyone who is "allergic" to nuts, gluten and the like is truly allergic.

And this makes it difficult for those of us who are truly allergic. Just a week ago, I said "I am allergic to mushrooms, I would like to know if there are any mushrooms in this dish" and the guy went back into the kitchen, asked someone, and reassured me that there were none. I bit in and guess what, loaded with mushrooms. Luckily I didn't ingest enough to cause serious problems (like many allergic people, I can tolerate small amounts of the allergen - though like many allergic people my ability to tolerate it is diminishing and my reaction is getting more severe - feeling your throat closing up is really not fun).

leek wrote:And this makes it difficult for those of us who are truly allergic. Just a week ago, I said "I am allergic to mushrooms, I would like to know if there are any mushrooms in this dish" and the guy went back into the kitchen, asked someone, and reassured me that there were none.

I hate hearing this story. While it's true that there are hypochondriacs, and there are people who use food allergy as a cover for OCD, it's also true that people have food allergies! Therefore, the only proper response when someone tells you he has one is to reflect in your actions that you take him seriously. Rolling your eyes skyward is perfectly fine, as long as this is done mentally; your actions should always be as if the allergy reported is real, whether you believe it or not. (In other words, it doesn't matter what you believe. Keep it the hell to yourself. This is true for friends as well as service people.)

I say this because, for some reason, some "friends" and "loved ones" can have as hard a time taking the food-allergic person seriously as restaurants do. Sad to say, I've known of situations when such a friend will deliberately slip the person something known to contain the allergen, in an effort to "prove" the allergy is a fraud. Or the friend will exult when an allergen consumed in ignorance doesn't provoke an allergic response, when in fact the reason is simply that the amount of allergen in the food wasn't sufficient (thank God) to provoke a response.

Can a person who self-delusionally claims food allergies where none exist be irritating? Yes. Can a person who serves an allergen to a person with food allergies be irritating? Unfortunately, the resulting medical crisis can be more serious than that.

The waitress and kitchen at Scylla on a recent visit were a model of how a restaurant should respond when I informed them of my allergy to walnuts.

Hi,

Over the weekend I was at a picnic featuring hot dogs, hamburgers and four mushroom vegetarian burgers. The vegetarians not wanting a spec of meat touching their food got their vegetable burgers first. There were two vegetarians, another person who's light on meat and the fourth was veg-curious.

When the meal concluded the 'light on meat' person began explaining his eating philosophies. His face screwed up describing the nasty affects of eating pork. "Pork is the worst! It smells awful, it tastes awful and your breath smells bad for hours." I shrugged my shoulders replying, "So what?" His wife began laughing, who probably gets this lecture regularly, "You are not going to convert her today."

Regards,

I went through a reaction kind of that sort when i first had weight loss surgery. For months, i had been peppered by doctors about what I could and couldn't eat post surgery.

The scare tactic works well because, basically, for six omnths or so, you're pretty mucgh afraid to eat any of the good stuff. No sugar, not fat. Only lean protein and ruffage laden veggies.

These days, there are only a few things that are definitely off my list. Steak is one because the meat juist won't go down.

Otherwise, I have found there is culinary life after weight loss surgery. you just have to live with the fact that you can't come close to eating a restaurant size portion of food like you once did.

Just last week, I had limited portions of smothered pork chops, mac and cheese and greens at Priscilla's. I left more than I ate on the plate. But, that's a compromise that I've learned to live with.

Where I used to work there was a strict policy on how to deal with allergies. This policy often had the effect of calling out anyone who wasn't really allergic to the items.

As soon as the server learned of an allergy they had to notify the floor manager. The floor manager would then visit the table to discuss the allergy with the guest. Whenever any item was entered for that table it was marked with a bright red ALLERGY stamp. The kitchen would not even begin to work on the ticket until the floor manager had dicussed the allergy with the kitchen manager.

My personal favorite experience with this occurred when a very good regular brought in his friend. His friend, who didn't LIKE onions, that he was allergic to them. I go to visit the table, and discuss our menu items with the guest. Unfortunately for him, all of our spice blends, and most of my menu items contain onions or onion powder. The gentleman decided on a grilled chicken breast. I let him know that I would make sure that they took an unmarinated chicken breast out of the cooler, and would have to replace the mashed potatoes with white rice.

He ate his meal but the following week when he returned made sure not to mention his "allergy". When I visited the table he told me that if he had known we'd be so strict with our policy he wouldn't have mentioned it because the previous weeks meal was terribly bland.

Unfortunately, there are a lot of people who are truly allergic but don't understand how kitchens work. In a seafood restaurant it is very difficult to serve anyone with a shellfish allergy. Shrimp are grilled, cooked on the flatop, and fried. Heat does not destroy the allergens so menu items are very limited to these individuals. Kitchens do thier best to prevent contamination (try to only cook shrimp in 1 fryer, or on one section of the grill), but there is still risk. For that reason we could never allow a person who claimed a seafood allergy to order any of our fried or blackened items. If a grilled item was requested we could accomodate, but not without a strict warning.