Dangerously Healthy - Do you suffer from Orthorexia Nervosa

If you are popping protein pills, skipping the carbs and staying away from all things luscious- you may well be headed for a dishy disorder of the times.


What happened to Kathy when her whole life revolved around eating healthy food? Is loyalty to any one healthy diet really what her body needed? Is it possible to overdo the ‘evolved diet’? If you have never contemplated any of this, there is good reason to.

Does the sight of even the slightest quantity of oil in your food turn you off? Do you plan tomorrow’s food today? Or does your diet socially isolate you?

If your answers to these questions are yes then you must be suffering from a disorder called orthorexia. The world of food faddist has discovered yet another food disorder, one that easily escapes detection, as it has the pursuit of
health at its very root: Orthorexia Nervosa.

The trouble in our times is the excessive selectiveness in diets. Dr. Steve Bratman, an American doctor who worked as a staff cook in a commune in up state New York, coined this term in an article called ‘Health Food Junkie’ in the Yoga Journal, on 31st October 1997. It plays with ‘ortho’, meaning straight and correct, and ‘orexia’, which is appetite. Orthorexia Nervosa refers to a pathological fixation eating proper food. Like the name suggests, it does have a few similarities with Anorexia Nervosa, the difference being that the latter deals with quantity of food consumed, while Orthorexia Nervosa deals with quality of food.