Orthorexia

WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW

• When the concern for healthy eating becomes obsessive, we speak of orthorexia.
• The person with orthorexia sets their own rules for healthy eating, spending a lot of time and money planning and preparing it.
• It can cause problems at a psychological level (feelings of guilt, sadness and loneliness when not complying with the diet), social (isolation) and nutritional (deficiencies at the level of vitamins and minerals).

Information, obsession and confusion

Today there is a wide variety of food products to choose from: from products with a good dose of food technology, in which the list of ingredients looks like a tongue twister that ends with a few E codes, to organic garden products such as potatoes , carrots, lettuces ... Those from organic farming are those in which synthetic chemicals or genetically modified organisms have not been used for their treatment and / or development. Furthermore, we have more and more information about the products we consume, something positive if it weren't for the fact that the information we often receive is not clear or objective. If we add to this the growing concern for health and aesthetics, on the part of certain sectors of the population, in some cases it is easy for it to end up leading to psychological problems associated with eating and the way of eating. The best known eating disorders are anorexia and bulimia, but they are not the only ones.

What is orthorexia?

People with orthorexia worry excessively about the quality of the food they eat and apply their own rules to form their dietary pattern. In this sense, they tend to reject with additives, technologically elaborated products or products with animal fats. But, in advanced stages, worry and planning go much further, and people with this disorder no longer only worry about the food they will eat but also about the way it is prepared, cooked and consumed. In conclusion, the concern to eat healthy is something commendable but when it becomes an obsession it becomes a pathology.

Psychological, sociological and nutritional problem

People with orthorexia are undoubtedly people with a great concern for their physical condition who seek to improve their appearance and "well-being". The result is a pathology that leads to problems at a psychological, social and even nutritional level.

• Psychological: it is an obsessive-compulsive disorder that affects demanding and strict people, people who can show off their great willpower to achieve their goals, although they feel great misery when they succumb to the pleasure of a food forbidden for them, thus transgressing his self-diet.
• Social: the fact of following a strict diet based on certain foods prepared in a special way causes the person to isolate himself from society by trying to avoid eating in restaurants, at the house of friends or family where he cannot perfectly follow his eating plan. In addition, in advanced phases, he bases his day to day on planning, supplying and preparing adequate food, for which it requires a lot of time that is left to social activities. You can travel long distances to get certain foods and / or spend a good part of your income on this type of diet.
• Nutritional: the person with orthorexia may suffer nutritional deficiencies or imbalances at the level of vitamins and minerals because they eliminate from their diet the foods that they do not consider healthy and they do not seek to supplement their diet with others that provide the nutrients provided by those that they have abandoned. You are obsessed with certain types of food, therefore you may suffer from a lack of some vitamin or mineral, as well as an excess of others.

Diagnosis

At the clinical level, there is a questionnaire called ORTO-15, validated in 2005, which determines orthorexia.

• Do you spend more than three hours a day thinking about your diet?
• Are you more concerned with the quality of the food you eat than the pleasure of eating it?
• Do you feel guilty when you violate your dietary convictions?
• Have you stopped going to eat with your friends or family to avoid breaking your diet?
• Has your quality of life decreased as the quality of your food has increased?
• Have you improved your self-esteem by eating healthy?
• Do you give up eating what you like to eat what is healthy?
• Have you become more strict with yourself since trying to eat better?
• Do you feel at peace with yourself and with everything under control when you eat healthy?
• Do you plan your meals several days in advance?

If you answer affirmatively to four or five questions, it means that you need to relax more when it comes to your diet (unless you are on a prescription diet). If you answer affirmatively to all the questions, it means that you have a significant obsession with healthy eating and you should consult it. In advanced stages, orthorexia generates a feeling of social rejection and feelings of guilt, sadness and loneliness when not complying with the diet. In addition, it leads to work problems and makes it difficult to maintain friendship, partner or family relationships. In very extreme cases it can end with self-harm and suicidal ideas. Therefore, the most important thing is to diagnose this disorder as soon as possible because the sooner it is treated, the better the prognosis and the easier it is to face it.

Treatment

Like all eating disorders (EDs), it should be addressed initially with psychological and pharmacological therapy. Once the psychological problem is controlled, it is time to reestablish good eating habits by participating in the treatment of a dietitian-nutritionist. The role of the food specialist is to advise and, together with the psychologist, to get the patient to regain a healthy relationship with food and eating. As in the rest of eating disorders, it is contraindicated for this person to adhere to an established dietary regimen, both on their own and with the participation of a health professional, since re-adhering to a regimen may cause a relapse.