Eating Healthy Food Can Be Hazardous To Your Health

No doubt you've heard lately about being healthy by eating organic foods. There's been an explosion of organic whole food stores opening up all over the nation. Even at my local grocery store, there is an entire section of organic and whole foods for sale.

Just as anorexia is considered an eating disorder and a disease, there's a new food obsession in town. It's an obsession with only eating high quality/organic foods. It's name: Orthorexia Nervosa. Ortho = proper, orexia = appetite. Although orthorexia is not an official eating disorder yet, it's quickly becomming a problem for many health conscious people out there.

Some of these people do want to lose weight, others need to cure an ailment, and there are those that simply wish to be healthy. Now, nothing's wrong with choosing to eat organic and whole foods. Most of us need to do more of it. Cancer and Type 2 Diabetes are on the rise, and maybe eating better could either prevent or alleviate these diseases. However, it seems even planning healthy meals can become an obsession.

Here are some of the signs that someone could be suffering from orthorexia nervosa (from the Palo Alto Medical Foundation):

*Spending more than three hours a day thinking about healthy food
*Continually limiting the number of foods they eat
*Experiencing a reduced quality of life or social isolation (because their diet makes it difficult for them to eat anywhere but at home)
*Feeling critical of others who do not eat as well they do
*Skipping foods they once enjoyed in order to eat the "right" foods
*Feeling guilt or self-loathing when they stray from their diet
*Feeling in "total" control when they eat the correct diet

Dr. Steven Bratman (pictured right) is the pioneer in this new phenomena, and coined the term "orthorexia nervosa." He knows that this eating disorder, like any other eating disorder, can be dangerous. One woman he was working with died of heart failure from an orthorexia-induced starvation.

So remember...

The new enemy:










The cure:










Eat junk food...because you don't want to die from orthorexia nervosa.

Actually, I think a certain someone could use a little dose of orthorexia: