Tuesday, June 5, 2007

Eating Disorder?

I may have an eating disorder I didn't even know existed. I came across this article today, ironically, at dinner time. After reading it, I thought, "Hmmm, maybe I have orthorexia."

Simply put, orthorexia is an unhealthy obsession with what the sufferer considers to be healthy eating.

A lot of people consider me a health nut. It's true, I don't eat most fast food anymore; I avoid red meat, shellfish, and really spicy food; I do eat more fruits and vegetables than I used to; I shop for organic food when I can; and I cook the vast majority of my meals. Does that make me orthorexic? I don't judge what other people eat. If you want to chow down on a Big Mac for lunch, I'd say I wouldn't eat it, but if you like it, knock yourself out, I'd just eat a Subway sandwich with you. I have no problem spreading butter on my toast; I don't feel self-righteous or evangelize about the supposed "virtues" of my eating habit; I don't get anxiety attacks about how "pure" is the food I eat. I don't eat out much, but it's more for financial reasons than for not wanting to eat "bad" food. Does that still make me orthorexic? OK, like one of the orthorexic subjects in that story, I post pictures of my meals on my blog. Is that so weird?

Coming from the world's fattest country and currently living in the world's second fattest one, I can't help but ask, is it so bad to want to eat more healthfully? As the every-expanding waist line of the population makes being overweight the norm, our fast-food culture makes thoughtlessly shoving junk food down our throats the norm, is it so bad to be outside the norm in these regards? Must we pathologize everything "abnormal?"

Plus, maybe all I have is just the boring MSH - med student hypochondriasis.

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This was what I was eating while reading that article on orthorexia: baked pork sausages with quinoa and assorted vegetables.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

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