When obsession with healthy eating affects your mental health

Are you a person who is obsessively concerned over the food choices and avoid food without medical advice? Then you might be having an eating disorder called Orthorexia Nervosa. It is the obsession of specifically consuming foods that are deemed ‘pure’ and ‘perfect’. Today, a lot of people are going overboard with natural, all raw or plant-based diets. Unlike anorexia and bulimia, orthorexia is not formally recognised as a mental health disorder yet, but experts say that orthorexia cases seem to be on the constant rise, leading people to distress over food. We explore and break the myths of this phenomenon that has everyone ridden on.

City-based dietician Deepalekha Banerjee says it’s difficult to identify people with orthorexia. “When one spends most of his/her time, talking and/or specifically searching over the internet on the healthy food options available, one can conclude that he/she has orthorexia. While it mostly affects the youth, a few cases have been reported with middle-aged people as well. The major issue with orthorexia is that the affected people do not realise that it is a problem that needs to be addressed. Orthorexia drastically affects a human being’s mental health and the victims tend to believe whatever they learn to be healthy without checking the authenticity of the information or making themselves aware of the side effects of such dietary changes. Nowadays, a lot of crash diets, detox diets, detox drinks and superfoods are making rounds on the internet, but little do people know their appropriate usage without causing adverse effects on one’s health and internal organs. Basically, orthorexia makes people so obsessed that they lose rationalism or the power of reasoning because they thrive on incomplete information on the topic,” explains the dietician.

Another dietitian from Chennai, Meenakshi Bajaj, who has come across patients with eating disorders, says that a healthy eating habit should be a joyful lifestyle choice and not a forced decision.

“If people cut down food from their diet, they will be left with a very narrow range of food items to consume. Though orthorexia starts out with a genuine intention of wanting to be healthier, the obsession is taken to its extremes when they start critically analysing even the ingredients of a recipe they cook. They often tend to skip meals or fast for detox and in severe cases, orthorexia eventually leads to malnourishment when critical nutrients are eliminated from a diet,” she says.

Another fear of orthorexic people is socialising. They avoid socialising in the fear of consuming rich food.

“This serious disoriented eating pattern can have grave mental and physical health consequences, and people suffering from it need professional help from a registered dietician,” shares Meenakshi.

While dealing with a person with orthorexia, it would be best if you have a psychologist and a nutritionist on board, says Dr Dharini Krishnan, a nutritionist from Chennai. “This disorder stems from anxiety and should be dealt very carefully. We need to first counsel them to get rid of their fear. It’s a continuous process. If not treated/addressed  properly, there are chances of this affecting the person's psychological condition,” says Dharini.  Deepalekha agrees with Dharini. “Counselling and passing of authentic information help to a large extent. On explaining them the adverse effects of such crash diets and foods without following a healthy and balanced diet, involving all micro and macronutrients, they generally understand their mistake. Eating everything in moderation with proper nutritional counselling at regular intervals is the right way to go, and it helps them come out of such eating disorders,” concludes Deepalekha.