Eating a healthy diet is a vital part of staying well. But, like most things, balance is key – and if it’s taken too far, even healthy eating can became an eating disorder.
Orthorexia is described by the eating disorder charity Beat (beateatingdisorders.org.uk ) as an unhealthy obsession with eating ‘pure’ food. That in itself might not sound too terrible, but the problem is that rather than just trying to eat healthily, people with orthorexia can feel anxious, guilty or even unclean if they eat food they’ve come to regard as ‘unhealthy’, and as a result may end up cutting out essential nutrients or whole food groups, with rigid rules around what they can and can’t eat.
Speaking to mark Eating Disorders Awareness Week (February 28 – March 6), Tom Quinn, Beat’s director of external affairs, says: “Orthorexia describes an unhealthy fixation with eating food that’s considered pure or ‘clean’. Signs may include cutting out food groups, seeming fixated on having a healthy diet, or feeling anxious about mealtimes.
