Organic, Or Else

DO friends refer to you as a health food junkie8212;to your face? Are you obsessively organic? Or maniacally vegan? Do you shop for your fr...

DO friends refer to you as a health food junkie8212;to your face? Are you obsessively organic? Or maniacally vegan? Do you shop for your fruits and vegetables only at health food stores? And turn down a lovingly prepared meal because you aren8217;t sure where the ingredients came from?

Welcome to the world of orthorexia nervosa. Rapidly gaining the same 8216;danger8217; status as anorexia and bulimia, orthorexia is an obsession with healthy eating.

Define orthorexia.
While everyone wants to eat healthy, the issue can be taken a bit too far. Experts define orthorexia ortho=straight; rexia refers to appetite as a fixation on righteous eating. 8216;8216;It8217;s largely an urban, metropolitan phenomenon,8217;8217; says Dr Jitendra Nagpal, senior consultant at VIMHANS, New Delhi. 8216;8216;While most of us could benefit by paying a little more attention to what we eat, some people have the opposite problem8212;they take the concept of healthy eating to such an extreme, it becomes an obsession.8217;8217;

ARE YOU ORTHOREXIC?

Give yourself a mark for every question you answer in the affirmative
8226; Do you spend more than three hours a day thinking about 8216;correct8217;, healthy food?
8226; Do you plan tomorrow8217;s meals today?
8226; Do you care more about the virtue of your food than the pleasure it gives?
8226; As the quality of your diet increased, has the quality of your life correspondingly diminished?
8226; Do you keep getting stricter with yourself?
8226; Do you sacrifice experiences you enjoyed to eat what you believe is right?
8226; Does your self-esteem and self-worth increase when you eat healthy food? Do you look down on others who don8217;t?
8226; Do you feel guilt when you eat food you like, but that is not 8216;correct8217;?
8226; Does your diet isolate you socially?
8226; When you are eating the way you are 8216;supposed8217; to, do you feel a peaceful, joyful sense of total control?
If your points add up
to more than four, you could be suffering from orthorexia nervosa.

How does it develop?
As with most eating disorders, it starts innocuously8212;with awareness of, and emphasis on, consuming only 8216;proper8217; foods8212;just vegetables or only organically grown products. It could also be triggered by a prescription diet, say, to lose weight or to recover from an illness.

And when does it become a problem?
The obsession with correct eating can progress to the point where it crowds out other activities and interests, impairs relationships and even becomes physically dangerous. When this happens, orthorexia takes on the dimensions of a true eating disorder, like ano-rexia nervosa or bulimia.8216;8216;Orthorexia is not a mental illness, but it can be the symptom of an underlying mental illness,8217;8217; says Nagpal.

Who is vulnerable?
Women more than men. Also, people who are rigid and like sticking to routine. Type A highly ambitious, hard-pressed and anankastic unspontaneous, thorough personalities are likely to develop orthorexia.

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So what are the fallouts of this?
The physical fallouts are nausea, headaches, insomnia, hyperacidity, constipation, irregular bowel syndrome, general lethargy and fatigue. The mental manifestations include depression, mood swings, irritability and anxiety syndromes.

How do I tackle it?
First, identify cognitive and behavioural patterns which make a person rigid. A change of lifestyle is recommended. 8216;8216;Counselling and psychotherapy help. Medicines are only needed in case of physical ailments.8217;8217; says Nagpal.