The tireless search for a healthy and balanced diet can sometimes become a problem. The World Health Organization (WHO) recognizes that 28% of the western population suffers from orthorexia.
Orthorexia is an unhealthy obsession with eating healthy foods. The goal of having a healthy diet with foods free of harmful substances and excess fat is apparently ideal. Where is the problem? Obsessive thoughts, which control the lives of those who suffer from it, are what put this fashion in the eating disorder range.
Everything taken to extremes usually ends up becoming a problem. Continued attempts to eat as natural as possible leads them to obsessively consume healthy foods. Every day is a food challenge and their social life is often seriously impaired. It is difficult to see them go out to share dinners with friends. They begin to stop seeing other aspects of life to focus on food.
The onset of this disorder is usually silent with small food conquests, until it becomes the center of his world. He is unable to see the obsessive and ruminant thoughts that haunt him regarding food. The moments to eat stop being natural and pleasant and become demanding and with a great capacity for control.
This disorder it mainly affects women and adolescents. May also appear in sportsmen and especially in the group of bodybuilders and other disciplines with great cult of the body.
The main symptom is rigidity with respect to the food to be consumed. A great obsession with following a healthy diet, with feelings of guilt if rules they have set are broken regarding food.
Orthorexia is difficult to diagnose as there is a fine line between food care and food obsession. It is important to be able to identify it and ask for help from specialists in eating disorders. Low self-esteem and high expectations and self-control are often triggers for this recent health problem.