when ‘healthy eating’ ends up
Last Updated : GMT 09:07:40
Egypt Today, egypt today
Egypt Today, egypt today
Last Updated : GMT 09:07:40
Egypt Today, egypt today

Making you sick

When ‘healthy eating’ ends up

Egypt Today, egypt today

Egypt Today, egypt today When ‘healthy eating’ ends up

People, it seems, have never been so afraid
Paris - Arab News

People, it seems, have never been so afraid of their food — and, say some experts, an obsession with healthy eating may paradoxically be endangering lives.
Twenty-nine-year-old Frenchwoman Sabrina Debusquat recounts how, over 18 months, she became a vegetarian, then a vegan — eschewing eggs, dairy products and even honey — before becoming a “raw foodist” who avoided all cooked foods, and ultimately decided to eat just fruit.
It was only when her deeply worried boyfriend found clumps of her hair in the bathroom sink and confronted her with the evidence that she realized that she was on a downward path.
“I thought I held the truth to food and health, which would allow me to live as long as possible,” said Debusquat.
“I wanted to get to some kind of pure state. In the end my body overruled my mind.”
For some specialists, the problem is a modern eating disorder called orthorexia nervosa.
Someone suffering from orthorexia is “imprisoned by a range of rules which they impose on themselves,” said Patrick Denoux, a professor in intercultural psychology at the University of Toulouse-Jean Jaures.
These very strict self-enforced laws isolate the individual from social food gatherings and in extreme cases, can also endanger health.
Paris nutritionist Sophie Ortega said she had one patient who was going blind due to deficiency of vitamin B12, which is needed to make red-blood cells.
B12 is not made by the body, and most people get what they need from animal-derived foods such as eggs, dairy products, meat or fish or from supplements.
“A pure, unbending vegan,” her patient even refused to take the supplements, said Ortega. “It was as if she preferred to lose her sight... rather than betray her commitment to animals.”
The term orthorexia nervosa was coined in the 1990s by the then alternative medicine practitioner Steven Bratman, a San Francisco-based physician.
To be clear, orthorexia is not an interest in healthy eating — it’s when enthusiasm becomes a pathological obsession, which leads to social isolation, psychological disturbance and even physical harm. In other words, as Bratman said in a co-authored book in 2000, it’s “a disease disguised as a virtue.”
But as is often the case in disorders that may have complex psychological causes, there is a strong debate as to whether the condition really exists.
The term is trending in western societies, prompting some experts to wonder whether it is being fanned by “cyber-chondria” — self-diagnosis on the Internet.
Orthorexia is not part of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, set down by mental health professionals in the United States that is also widely used as a benchmark elsewhere. The fifth edition of this “bible,” published in 2013, includes anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa, but not orthorexia.
“The term orthorexia was proposed as a commonly used term but it is not medically recognized,” said Pierre Dechelotte, head of nutrition at Rouen University Hospital in northern France and head of a research unit investigating the link between the brain and the intestines in food behavior.
Even so, says Dechelotte, it has a home in the family of “restrictive food-related disorders — but it’s not on the radar screen.”
Alain Perroud, a psychiatrist who has worked in France and Switzerland over the course of a 30-year career, says orthorexia “is much closer to a phobia” than to a food disorder.
As with other phobias, the problem may be tackled by cognitive behavioral therapy — talking about incorrect or excessive beliefs, dealing with anxiety-provoking situations and using relaxation techniques and other methods to tackle anxiety, he suggested.
Denoux contends that between two and three percent of the French population suffer from orthorexia, but stresses that there is a lack of reliable data as the condition has not been officially recognized.
Denoux’s figure seems coherent to Dechelotte, who says that women seem to be more than twice as susceptible to the problem as men.
Outside the world of clinicians, orthorexia seems to be creeping into wider usage.
American blogger Jordan Younger has helped to popularize the term, documenting her own painful downward spiral — since reversed — into unhealthy living.
On her blog, she describes it as “a bubble of restriction,” obsessing over a diet that was “entirely vegan, entirely plant-based, entirely gluten-free, oil-free, refined sugar-free, flour-free, dressing/sauce-free, etc.”
Those who seem to be most worried about healthy food are often concerned about food scandals in the West, Pascale Hebel from the Paris-based CREDOC research center told AFP.
Over nearly three decades, Europe has experienced a string of food safety scandals — beginning with mad-cow disease and continuing recently with insecticide-contaminated eggs — as well as mounting opposition to the use of antibiotics, genetically modified foods and corporate farming practices.
The disorder reflects a craving for control, suggested Denoux: food is seen as a form of medicine to fix a western lifestyle that may be seen as polluting or toxic.
“We are living through a time of change in our food culture, which has led us to fundamentally doubt what we are eating,” said Denoux

egypttoday
egypttoday

Name *

E-mail *

Comment Title*

Comment *

: Characters Left

Mandatory *

Terms of use

Publishing Terms: Not to offend the author, or to persons or sanctities or attacking religions or divine self. And stay away from sectarian and racial incitement and insults.

I agree with the Terms of Use

Security Code*

when ‘healthy eating’ ends up when ‘healthy eating’ ends up



GMT 08:47 2017 Sunday ,03 December

Naples pizza twirling seeks nod as

GMT 07:21 2017 Wednesday ,29 November

Japan, China dominate list

GMT 08:49 2017 Thursday ,23 November

Study sees link between pollution

GMT 07:35 2017 Wednesday ,22 November

Tuna quotas 'step backward'

GMT 07:32 2017 Tuesday ,21 November

Amsterdam,Paris to host key

GMT 06:29 2011 Monday ,14 November

Matthew cruises to win at Ochoa Invitational

GMT 03:34 2017 Wednesday ,22 March

Tillerson to skip NATO meeting next month

GMT 13:44 2013 Friday ,15 March

Israel suppress Palestinian demonstrations

GMT 16:15 2017 Monday ,01 May

Moroccan Workers’ Syndicate

GMT 11:56 2016 Wednesday ,12 October

Toyota, Suzuki eye partnership as industry consolidates

GMT 15:42 2011 Thursday ,23 June

Express checks in with foursquare

GMT 10:49 2017 Sunday ,13 August

Car rams into crowd at violent Virginia rally

GMT 17:45 2013 Sunday ,20 October

5 Indian spices that are good for your health

GMT 08:41 2012 Saturday ,15 September

Italian magazine: will print Kate topless snaps

GMT 08:02 2012 Tuesday ,05 June

Zoe Saldana in Prabal Gurung

GMT 06:11 2012 Saturday ,15 September

Tunisia’s Media Conflict: Journalists fight for freedom

GMT 14:35 2015 Friday ,24 July

Awqaf Minister hails New Suez Canal project

GMT 16:34 2017 Thursday ,28 December

Hitler's Nazi-parade Mercedes set

GMT 11:22 2011 Monday ,10 October

Paul McCartney to play in Moscow in December

GMT 05:17 2015 Friday ,25 September

Pope expresses solidarity with Muslims after stampede

GMT 05:44 2012 Saturday ,21 April

ATV engine 95 HP

GMT 03:01 2011 Monday ,19 September

Laughter, tears at US television\'s Emmy awards

GMT 12:04 2012 Wednesday ,07 March

6 Music animation draws on 10 years of eclectic radio

GMT 01:00 2015 Sunday ,05 April

Barzani congratulates Abadi on Tikrit victory

GMT 13:24 2015 Thursday ,15 October

Tesla installs 'autopilot' update

GMT 06:17 2012 Monday ,02 January

Countries across the world celebrate the New Year

GMT 04:07 2016 Tuesday ,07 June

For new era of self-driving cars

GMT 08:21 2017 Saturday ,23 December

Saudi-Sudanese Deal to Ease Transfers

GMT 11:08 2017 Thursday ,21 December

Asian markets mostly down as tax cut euphoria wanes
 
 Egypt Today Facebook,egypt today facebook  Egypt Today Twitter,egypt today twitter Egypt Today Rss,egypt today rss  Egypt Today Youtube,egypt today youtube  Egypt Today Youtube,egypt today youtube

Maintained and developed by Arabs Today Group SAL.
All rights reserved to Arab Today Media Group 2021 ©

Maintained and developed by Arabs Today Group SAL.
All rights reserved to Arab Today Media Group 2021 ©

egypttoday egypttoday egypttoday egypttoday
egypttoday egypttoday egypttoday
egypttoday
بناية النخيل - رأس النبع _ خلف السفارة الفرنسية _بيروت - لبنان
egypttoday, Egypttoday, Egypttoday