Are You Trying to be Too Healthy?

Are You Trying to be Too Healthy?

From avoiding carbs, gluten, wheat, and refined sugars to sticking to a Keto diet or calorie-counting, many of us who do our best to stay healthy by eating right don’t realize that this too can go into extremes and is known as “orthorexia”. It basically means an obsession with healthful eating, and in fact, is a type of an eating disorder.

Too Rigid

Orthorexia is the term for a condition that includes symptoms of obsessive behavior in pursuit of a healthy diet. Many people living with this orthorexia condition report that it started off as a positive way to improve their health, yet they become so rigid in it and it has the opposite effect as they ban entire food groups. Cutting out so many foods can limit their diet so their health suffers immensely.

Signs

People with orthorexia also often display signs and symptoms of anxiety disorders that frequently co-occur with anorexia nervosa or other eating disorders. These people get anxious about eating meals or being around food that they label as “Bad” and just like a person with anorexia and bulimia they have set rules around their eating, becoming so rigid they isolate themselves or when they do eat outside their rules they become overwhelmed with guilt.

Red Flags that you May be Suffering from Orthorexia

Are you compulsively checking ingredient lists and nutritional labels?

Are you increasingly cutting out an increasing number of food groups—all sugar, all carbs, all animal products?

Have you developed an inability to eat anything but a narrow group of foods that are considered healthy?

Do you spend too much on a daily basis pondering about what food might be served at upcoming events?

If this sounds familiar, you may need to seek out professional help to correct this kind of behavior and thinking.