Is eating healthy a disorder?

Anything can be a disorder. If you don’t have control over a behavior and it disrupts your every day functioning then I do feel it should be classified and recognized.

I do disagree with it being its own separate entry- I think it should be a subset of eating disorders.

It is when you get down to 68 lbs. It is not what you eat but how you control your eating (and thus your life) that characterizes eating disorders.

@marinelife Yes, 68 pounds worried me too. Thanks.

You can be in control with good food or supplements. I use a blend of the four most antioxidant rich fruits on the planet. IT works.

If it’s a disorder, it’s not healthy. OTOH, I wish eating healthy was a contagious disease – our country needs it more than Swine Flu.

@Simone_De_Beauvoir -exactly:)

I’m pretty sure my roommate has this, or is getting there. Coupled with excessive exercise, it’s getting pretty bad.

Is not smoking bad for you?

I wish the correct modifier were still used – “eating heathily.”

This disorder seems to have less to do with health and more to do with bodily control disorders such as OCD or anorexia. To the extent that it harms a person’s ability to function in the world, distresses them or causes ill health, it does seem like a valid disorder. On the other,hand, are we over-obsessed with classifying everything as a disorder and getting it in to the DSM so that it will be covered by insurance?

Well I have a apartment block “friend” who is a personal trainer. She only eats certain foods every day, and also works out three times a day. The problem I think comes in, when I cannot imagine her having a normal life as in having a family, or just routine normal activities such as going out at night. She is in bed by 7pm rises at 4am and her routine starts. It never changes. When you visit her, she can only tolerate people for short periods, and while taking she “works out”.

I know a lot of people like this. To me, although I am sure she is fit as hell, it’s no life, as it is anti social in the sense it cannot be disrupted at any cost. Plus indicates a incongruent body image. Maybe even dysmorphia? There is also a sense of superiority in this group of people who follow this lifestyle. That they are something “better” than everyone else. Stronger, fitter etc., which might be true. I am not sure how it will all turn out in the end though?

@Just_Justine yeah that doesn’t sound like a fulfilling life, at all

It’s all in the mind (and body), I guess .

@ETpro –
Is eating healthy a disorder?

Eating healthy isn’t a disorder, but its definately abnormal in todays society.

Wow, I’ve never heard of orthorexia. I can see how that level of obsession would interfere with daily life. It’s like Monk, but with food instead of germs.

Most people could stand to improve their diet. I know I sure could. But taking the idea of “healthy eating” to the point where you mainly consume raw broccoli and as an adult weigh 68 pounds is not healthy.

When I worked in a daycare center, I had a little girl in my class whose mother was obsessed with healthy food. We had a cafeteria and served lunch to the children, most of which was pretty well-balanced and healthy. Not perfect, but not bologna and processed cheese either. Anyway, this little girl could only have a few items from the menu. Everything else she ate was brought from home, and it was very hard to get her to eat it. Plain yogurt with wheat germ, raw veggies and fruits, no meats, no carbs. We could only give her one serving of low fat milk per meal, no juice. The little girl was two years old. When another child had a birthday, we had to have a teacher take her out of the room so she wouldn’t get upset at seeing the other kids eat cake. Once a parent baked whole wheat blueberry muffins so this little girl could participate, but her mother wouldn’t let her have one. In the summer, every Friday afternoon we’d take the kids outside for ice cream from the ice cream truck. Of course, this little girl wasn’t allowed to have anything. The mother was extremely thin, and passing her food issues on to her child. I’m all about giving kids healthy food, but this mom would spend ten or fifteen minutes each day talking to us about what her kid ate. “I think she has too many carbs in her diet. She had two pieces of bread yesterday, and I need to cut back on her carbs. Please don’t give her seconds of milk. We’re watching our fat.” I so wanted to sneak that poor kid a chocolate donut with some whole milk.

You can take any healthy activity and, by pushing it to extremes, make it unhealthy.

@MissAusten some of those substitutions I’m okay with but not because ‘we’re watching our fat’ but because we are vegans and our kids eat a veggie diet – sometimes they eat meat and chicken at pre-school but I tell the teachers to first give them grains and veggies and then the meat and the chicken – knowing my kid’s ‘issues’ with his 4 pm meal, he doesn’t even get to the foods I consider crap, so that’s good.

Actually IMO , I think that eating healthy is not a problem until it becomes an obsession . Then I’d say that it is an disorder .

Excess weight loss is not a sign of healthy eating. Healthy eating is eating enough of the right kinds of food to allow your body to function without cannibalizing muscle. Eating apples may be a healthy but only eating an apple for a meal (think the 500 cal rule) is not healthy. If your friend is obsessing about food to the extent that it detracts from her life she is OCD even if she is a normal size. Trying to push a new ‘condition’ is a symptom of the need to control and denial of her pathology.

The title of this Time article is a misnomer. The case they are describing is by no means “normal.” She has an obsession with avoiding foods she thinks are unhealthy. But in doing so, she is eating unhealthy because she is avoiding essential foods, amino acids, and vitamins – as evidenced by her diseased state.

@Simone_De_Beauvoir That’s the difference between being reasonable and smart about eating healthy, and being obsessive. I don’t at all think it’s crazy to want your kids to have a healthy diet (my in-laws think I’m insane for not buying canned fruit or vegetables and paying extra for organics), but to take it to the extreme probably won’t have a good long-term effect on the child.

I suppose a disorder would be something that does not work properly, therefore, if it is improper to eat healthy, than it is a disorder.

Logic wins again.

@essieness Jealous? :-) @erichw1504 Yeah, that’s kind of how the article initially hit me. @janbb Agreed. It’s being out of control and making unhealthy decisions that is the disorder, even when the impetus originally was to eat well. @Just_Justine Yes, that comes within my definition of OCD.

@MissAusten Thanks for what is obviously a real-world example of someone who has gone over the line into obsessive compulsive disorder about food. @galileogirl That is SO sane. Well said. @DrC I totally agree.

Yes it can be; some people take anything to the extreme.

@thriftymaid Yes, what I am hearing here is that some people already suffer from or are predisposed to Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) and those that are will likely go off the deep end of anything they get involved in. In this case, too much of a good thing. Those who instead get involved in drugs, alcohol or obsessive sex just seem more obviously dysfunctional as they suffer from too much of a bad thing.

@Just_Justine Wow, you just described my roommate. She exercises excessively, even getting up super early to be at a 5:00 spin class. She is also very anti-social, except with people who are into her lifestyle. She can only tolerate people for short periods of time, dislikes hanging out in groups of people, and really only enjoys the company of people whose lifestyles are just like hers. She is very judgmental of “fat” people to the point of it being disgusting. I had no idea this was a common thing for people like that.

As you mentioned, yes, she has a nice body, but at what cost? No friends. No life. No room for fun. Constantly pressuring herself to lose more weight, achieve a certain “look,” holding herself to ridiculously high standards, controlling every morsel of food that goes into her body. Who is it all for? How does one get to the point that this is what their life has been reduced to?

@ETpro Jealous of what?

@essieness Just teasing you about your roomie. I would guess the excessive exercise and dieting leads to a rather fit body—albeit not much time to enjoy it.

@ETpro Ooohhh. Yeah, you’re exactly right. Jealous of her body? Maybe a little. Jealous of her boring, rigid life? Never.

@essieness I had a giggle, as yes, they sound the same. There are loads of them though, considering they hang out in groups. We should think of a catch phrase you know, like yuppies? remembers those (they faded away in oblivion). Maybe “uppies?”. Maybe you have a better name? But on a more serious note. My friend (the fitness fanatic confided in me that she had never experienced and orgasm, now there is a thought. You would think one that is so in touch with their body would be able to achieve orgasm? maybe she is a once off case. But another friend of mine (male) who is exactly the same, never has intercourse?? Hmm strange.

@Just_Justine Interesting. My roommate has a problem with commitment, therefore gets around a lot. And I mean a lot. I don’t know if she has issues once she’s in the bedroom or not. Maybe sexual issues, one end of the spectrum or the other, are tied in with the body image issues.