In this podcast Tabitha talks about orthorexia and why it is important to be able to eat all kinds of food without stress — including foods that you judge as unhealthy.
I see orthorexia as a restrictive eating disorder. The goalposts may be slightly altered, but it is still restricting certain types of food that the sufferer deems to be “unhealthy.”
If you have orthorexia you may find that you feel stressed about eating things like:
- Fatty foods
- Sugar and sweets
- Salt
- Artificial colors, flavors or preservatives
- Pesticides or genetic modification
- Non-organic foods
- Animal products
- Dairy products
- Anything considered to be unhealthy
People with orthorexia often also get obsessive about foods that they consider to be “healthy”. So supplements may be excessively bought and used. Organic foods, foods that are sold as “health” foods.
Orthorexia is simply another form of fear-based dietary restriction. It is an eating disorder. Control, choice and freedom mean that you can eat whatever you want, whenever you want. No food is off limits. No food causes fear.
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Tabitha, thanks for this podcast. I like how you tied anorexia into it. I have a topic I wanted to suggest for another podcast: the physical damages done to the body by restriction. Especially the wasting away of muscle from the body basically eating itself to survive, and the organ damage/shutting down that can occur. And then how can this be detected. What does it look like on and in the body? What can we, who have anorexia look for (visual signs) and what should our doctors look for visually as well as in tests/lab work done? Are there specific tests, scans, imaging things they can do to show the actual damage that is being done or has already occurred? Sorry to be so lengthy here but this topic I feel is important and given I am struggling in my recovery, I think it could motivate me to know and see proof of the damage being done in and to my body. Thanks!
I found this podcast to be very interesting, especially the part where you talked a bit about how the body decreases its need for nutrient dense foods when in a state of famine. Would this explain why, right now in my first week of TRUE recovery, that my body wants to always include fruits and vegetables in my meals? Or could this be an underlying subconscious Anorexia craving that I just haven’t quite taken into account? I’ve always been a vegetable and fruit eater, but before my eating disorder my mind did not consider them a necessity in my daily food intake. I just ate them when either I wanted them or when my parent’s fixed them as part of a family meal. I’m hoping I can get back to this open and carefree mindset further down the line in my recovery but it was a thought that crossed my mind listening to this.
I think it is good that people open up awareness about this. I am part of a natural family group, and I see it a lot. Been there myself (the “Candida Diet” is terrible—I do not recommend it or any other extreme diet). While I have embraced mindful eating for social, environmental, and health reasons (to the point we generally don’t eat fast foods), I don’t advocate withholding types of foods in extremes. You can really hurt your body that way.
If someone offers me a Girl Scout cookie and I’m not full, I’ll take it. 🙂 While we generally don’t eat fastfood we have done things like get takeout from McDonalds, because a friend’s child was over when they had a family emergency and that was her comfort food. I do not look down my nose at others who choose to let their kids have soda or meat, nor do I tell my child “no” if her great grandmother offers her Sprite. Being healthy is an important choice, but it is not healthy to keep yourself or your family in a bubble from the rest of the world. Most (if not all) societies are connected to food, and it is good to participate in the “when in Rome” thing.
On the flip end? I’ve seen friends who force their children to go to birthday parties where they won’t allow them to eat cake while all the other kids are chowing down (and no one bothers to offer these poor kids an alternative). The most extreme examples are “no sugar” families and “no carb” families.
People like that actually make bad names for people who really can’t have these things for legit medical reasons. The ones I’ve met are often control freaks (to the point of being emotionally abusive), and I worry their kids are going to have serious issues with food (and identity) in adulthood.
Amazing podcast! I was trying to order groceries and realized I was starting to panic that I couldn’t find ‘good healthy food’ options. I thought, hey that’s my orthorexia, wonder if Tabitha has made a post about it? 😀 Yes!
I feel so SEEN and called out- in a good way. I would spend hundreds a month on supplements (fish oil, krill oil, bromelain, spirulina etc) to fix issues that, it turns out, were simply underfeeding issues. Hair loss? Underfeeding. Weak nails? Underfeeding. Low muscle ability? Hey guess what, underfeeding.
I was also using organic as a hedge to make me feel better than other people. I was put down a lot as a child and my coping skill was to try to be The Best At Everything, then they couldn’t attack me anymore. So if you’re going to be the best, that means you have to by definition be better than everyone else around you. So I used organic/healthy/clean as a way to elevate myself and build up a false sense of worth. Thoughts like ‘well *I* would never eat that’ or ‘how can people eat X?’ I was ‘above’ such things. Yikes!
So back to my grocery shopping and I’m going to untick the ‘organic’ box and buy some food. THANK YOU!!! <3