Eating Disorders: Orthorexia Nervosa

Orthorexia nervosa is not a well-known eating disorder, but it occurs more and more often. People with this eating disorder are obsessed with healthy eating.

Orthorexia

Orthorexia patients are, just as patients with any other eating disorder, occupied with food all day long. They are fixated on healthy eating. These people have a particular image of what healthy eating implies. For example, they will stop eating meat, fish, grains and dairy products entirely. Instead they will eat lots of fruit and vegetables. When vegetables are cooked, they lose many vitamins. Therefore, people with orthorexia eat lots of raw vegetables. The intestines cannot handle this well.

Fat isn't eaten any longer, which also means no more butter. This leads to a deficit in vitamins. People with orthorexia have a limited eating pattern and miss many nutrients. This means their diet is everything but healthy.

Consequences

Patients with orthorexia will quickly emaciate because they do not eat enough. It also has other consequences for the body, such as a vitamin deficit. Patients will be dizzy and hoarse. They can suffer from stomach complaints, hair loss, chronic fatigue and teeth problems. Kidney and liver damage, muscle cramps and cardiac arrhythmia can occur as well. Just as with bulimia and anorexia, women with orthorexia can also get a disrupted menstruation.

People with orthorexia are occupied with it all day long, which causes much stress. Because of this, insecurity and depression also occur often, and there is barely room for social contact. Patients are constantly occupied with observing rules they have imposed on themselves. They will also feel as though they are misunderstood by their environment and will withdraw more and more. Eventually, people with orthorexia become very lonely.

Comparison with other eating disorders

Orthorexia nervosa is similar to bulimia nervosa and anorexia nervosa in many aspects. The difference is in the reason for the eating behaviour. In orthorexia the amount of food or losing weight are not important; the quality of the food is. People with orthorexia do not intentionally lose much weight, but this will happen when they continue their diet for too long. People with orthorexia are also often not ashamed of their eating pattern. Instead they often feel sorry for people who do eat all sorts of 'unhealthy' things.

Yet, orthorexia is a serious eating disorder. When people are occupied with healthy food too extremely, the consequences will be huge. They will becomes obsessed with it and will not get enough nutrients.

Sources: www.todio.nl